Unveiling the Hidden Menace: A Topic Modeling Analysis of Hijacked Medical Journals

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Scholarly Publishing
• Cybersecurity in Academia

Background:

• Hijacked journals, fraudulent clones of legitimate academic publications, pose a significant threat to scholarly communication.
• These imposter journals, managed by cybercriminals, exploit the trust placed in established scientific outlets.
• The proliferation of hijacked journals, particularly in the medical domain, has been an under-researched area.

Discussion:

• This study employed topic modeling to analyze 3384 papers from 21 hijacked medical journals.
• The analysis aimed to understand the scope and characteristics of hijacked medical journal content.
• The findings indicate that hijacked medical journals often maintain the subject focus of their legitimate counterparts.

Key Insights:

• Hijacked medical journals are prevalent across diverse medical specialties.
• Content analysis shows these fraudulent journals typically align with the original journal's domain.
• The sophistication of third-generation hijacked journals necessitates advanced detection methods.

Outlook:

• The increasing complexity of hijacked journals demands innovative solutions for detection and mitigation.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) presents a promising avenue for identifying and combating journal hijacking.
• Future research should focus on developing AI-driven tools to safeguard the integrity of scholarly publishing.