Since 2019, around 150 fake research papers have been published by more than 400 Pakistani scholars and academics belonging to various public and private sector universities in a clone journal named ‘International Journal of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity’ (IJDRBC).
The term clone journal refers to a substandard journal that copies the name of a reputable journal.
In the case of the IJDRBC, some authors apparently knowingly submitted their papers to the clone journal, which is evident from the fact that a single issue of the journal has carried from four to five papers produced by the same authors, which is something that a reputable journal would never allow.
Some other academics might have been deceived by the clone journal. However, if they were deceived, the onus to some extent also lies on them as they should have verified the authenticity of the journal on the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan’s (HEC) Journal Recognition System (HJRS).
On the HJRS website, researchers can easily verify the authenticity of any journal by entering its name or the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN). If there is an entry of the journal in the HJRS, the website shows details of the journal such as its name, category, name of the publisher, and whether it has been indexed by two reputable global agencies, Scopus and Web of Science.
In the case of the clone IJDRBC, the name of the publisher mentioned on the HJRS website is different than the publisher mentioned on the website of the clone journal.
