The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera: A Story of Pirate Publishers, ISSN Hijacking and Fraudulent DOI Assignment

In 2017, The Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera published its final issue. The journal’s website was turned off and all 49 volumes were made freely available on BHL. Five yars later, a “bad actor” had resurrected the Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera website and had been using the journal’s title and ISSN to publish 260 fraudulent new articles. In January 2022, in consultation with ISSN USA, the ISSN Portal record for this ceased journal was updated to describe this situation. In an ideal world, publishers would inform their ISSN Centre or a depository library if they are ceasing publication to prevent ISSN hijacking. The ISSN Portal subscribers will see a note explaining if there has been an misappropriation. Read the full story of this case study.