Abstract:
This study aims to (1) examine the circumstances of problems, patterns, and approaches of hijacking academic journal websites, (2) to identify the impacts or effects of the hijacking on world scholars and the academic cycle, and (3) to propose preventive measures for those websites from being victimized by the hijacking. This qualitative research explored Thai and international texts, books, journals, articles and other related documents included in the areas of hijacked academic journal websites. The methodology included an in-depth interview with 14 key informants. This study revealed that hijacked academic journal websites were complicated but systematically planned by cybercriminals who deceived authors into submitting their manuscripts to counterfeit websites of academic journals and asked authors to pay submission fees and promised them the publication of their academic journals. It was also found out that there were around 162 hijacked journals, and 43 websites were still active. Forms and methods of committing crime included the selection of prospective academic journals, use of website counterfeits, the delivery of spam mails to prospective victims, deceiving prospective victims into paying publishing fees through the created channel, and an integration of website counterfeiting into other forms of fraud such as employment of a predatory editorial board, an invitation to an uncertified seminar, and use of fake journal quality indicators and fake companies for calculating indicators. The data of victims who were researchers, lecturers, and postgraduate students were also presented. The result showed that those cybercriminals had understanding of academic publication and the academic circles. Recommendations on preventive measures for victims of hijacked academic journals websites and related agencies were to educate and inform prospective victims and operational officers to be aware of this crime because the investigation of is more difficult to decrease the impact of this crime, policy organizations allocate budget on training of operational officers in juridical organizations in new threats of cybercrime and the enforcement of the new Thailands Computer-related Crime Act and on hi-tech systems, such as an integrated criminal investigation information system. In addition, related laws should be amended to cover more offenses and authorize operational officers to track evidence.