An email to "Dear !" with a request from "our esteemed journal" that is "so interested to invite you to submit any of your other new works to our journal" which "publishes original papers on researches in all fields of the human and natural sciences" set off the usual alarm bells. Nonetheless, Wikipedia reports that "Scandia is an academic journal for history which has been published since 1928, when it was established by the Swedish historian Lauritz Weibull (1873-1960). The journal, which has a Scandinavian scope, is, and has always been, affiliated with the Department of History at Lund University."
Although this stub could be planted and the expanded scope of the journal is, shall we say, ambitious for a history department, such a journal (with the full name of Scandia Tidskrift for Historisk Fornskning) is published at Lund University. Its inclusion in this blog is not meant to disparage it. I mention it in case any readers have more information to share about it.
UPDATE 3/13/21, 9:28 PM ET: "Smut Clyde" posted a comment pointing to the true URL for the journal, namely, https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia. It remains "a historical journal dedicated to central themes of Nordic historical research." Clyde reports that the spam spoofed the university's email address. The URL for the journal provided in the spam's link (namely, http://scandia.lub.lu-se.org) leads to a fake website with images and design stolen from the university's. The point of this charade eludes me. Some kind of phishing? Maybe if one submits an article, a bill follows? I did not go that far!
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From: Scandia [announcement@scandiaemail-lu-se.org]
Date: Saturday, March 13 at 7:00 AM ET
Subject: Dear !, Please note our new Announcement for the submission of Original Research Articles
Dear !
We have reviewed your other research manuscripts which are accessible on the internet. We are so interested to invite you to submit any of your other new works to our journal.
I would like to let you know that our esteemed journal "SCANDIA" publishes original papers on researches in all fields of the human and natural sciences. The mission of the journal is to promote excellence in leadership practice by providing a venue for academics, students, and practitioners to publish current and significant empirical and conceptual research in all fields of sciences. The journal includes a very wide variety of areas and we welcome submission from researchers from all around the world. In addition to research papers, the journal includes book reviews, conference reports, case studies, research notes and commentaries. The journal currently owns the five-year impact factor of 0.140 (JCR2020).
Journal Information
ISSN: 0036-5483
Impact Factor: 0.167
5-year Impact Factor 0.140 (JCR2020)
Coverage: Web of Science, Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) (ISI Thomson Reuters), Scopus, BIOSIS Previews
Regards
Editor-in-Chief
Prof. Dr. H. C. Sanders
Office: SCANDIA, HISTORISKA INST, BOX 2074, LUND, SWEDEN
If you wish to unsubscribe from our maillist, please click here.
Nothing about the broadened scope in the journal's website:
ReplyDeletehttps://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia
THe actual editor is Prof. Wiebke Kolbe: https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/announcement/view/118
Someone set up a hijacked copy, and spoofed their invitation-spam to make it appear to have come from Lund University.
Actual contact details are here: https://journals.lub.lu.se/scandia/about/contact
ReplyDeleteScandia
Department of History
Lund University
Box 192
221 00 Lund
The URL for the journal provided in the spam's link (namely, http://scandia.lub.lu-se.org) leads to a fake website with images and design stolen from the university's.
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that the IP address serving that website, located in Ukraine, also houses "arcticjournal.org" and "scienceborders.com". The former is a hijacked journal, and its hijacking in 2019 (for fraudulent purposes) was the subject of a news item.
I emailed the real Scandia journal to let them know.
Thank you for bringing this fraud to our attention. We are looking into it. Scandia is indeed a real, academic history journal with a long history.
ReplyDelete/Sara, online editor
There is a "Hijacked Journal" list at the "Beall's-List" website:
ReplyDeletehttps://beallslist.net/hijacked-journals/
Whoever maintains that list has added the fake Scandia to warn people against falling for the fraud, as well as a link to the genuine Scandia.
It turns out that this is actually the second attempt to set up a fake Scandia! The first attempt used a website "http://scandiajournal.com/". It was very unconvincing, without even any pirated Archives. I guess it didn't fool enough people into sending money to the scammer, which is why no-one noticed its activities and why it no longer exists except for copies at the Wayback Machine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20161023060337/http://scandiajournal.com/
It might have been the same gang who are running the present fake-Scandia, or a different group.
Thanks again for pointing this out! The link to the genuine site is unfortunately in the "Hijacker/Predatory Journal" column on Beall's list (which is no longer maintained by Beall). Our old URL is now used by someone who calls themselves "Tidskriftenscandia" and writes popular history and tourist articles. This is unfortunatley under the "authentic journal" column.
ReplyDeleteScandia: Tidskrift för historisk forskning's website is as follows:
http://scandia.lub.lu-se.org/index.html
We have been recently informed that the false email is still circulating.
Yes, received the e-mail today ..
ReplyDeleteActually, plenty of e-mail messages from various "journals" starting with the phrase "We have reviewed ......".
So either this is the same gang, or they copy from each other.
Something similar happened not so long ago to a Horticultural department in The Netherlands.
This still happens; they have cloned Scandia's real websit and send email claiming to come from Prof. Hanne Sanders at Lund as the "Editor in chief", but have failed to list her as such on their fake list of the editorial board. I have alerted the real journal that this scam is still going on ... Best wishes, Kai Brodersen (kai.brodersen@uni-erfurt.de), veteran managing editor of Historia, a legit Ancient History journal for 70+ years now ...
ReplyDelete