# Improper legitimization of hijacked journals through citations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.04703 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.04703/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 10 Sep 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Standardization of Post-Publication Code Verification by Journals is Possible with the Support of the Community](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07189/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The goal is to study the prevalence of citajacked papers: papers in authentic scientific journals citing hijacked journals, in academic literature. A Citejacked detector was designed as a part of the Problematic Paper Screener (https://www.irit.fr/~Guillaume.Cabanac/problematic-paper-screener/citejacked) to trace if the references to articles originating from hijacked journals infiltrate scientific communication. A full-text search was performed between November 2021 and January 2022 in the Dimensions database using the name of 1 of the 12 hijacked journals. The analysis of the bibliography in these articles revealed that 828 of them cite unreliable articles from hijacked journals. During 01.Jan.2021-31.Jan.2022, an average of 2 citejacked articles has been published daily in established journals. Given the limited number of titles included in this study, the phenomenon might be wider and is not yet systematically studied.