Nature:
Hundreds of researchers who thought they were submitting
articles to two European science journals have been cheated out
of their author fees by criminals who have created counterfeit
websites. Neither of the authentic
journalsâmdash;the
Archives des Sciences, published by the Society of
Physics and Natural History of Geneva, and
Wulfenia, published by the Regional Museum of
Carinthia in Klagenfurt, Austriaâmdash;has its
own website. The counterfeiters are expert at deception: They
have on their websites the journals' impact factors, postal
addresses, international standard serial numbers, and even
editorial board listings that include real scientists. Daniel
Gamelin, a chemist and materials scientist at the University of
Washington in Seattle, and Gerald Cleaver, a high-energy
physicist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, were surprised
to learn that they were listed on one of the bogus websites as
being on the editorial board of
Archives des Sciences. Although the journals are
trying to fight the scammers, efforts to shut them down have so
far proved ineffective.
