Unauthorised contact and harvesting by questionable publishers/harvesters/journals

[Ina Smith]

Dear Journal Editors/Managers,

I've been made aware of selected (maybe all) Khulisa Journals being increasingly contacted by questionable publishers/journals/harvesters. Their modus operandi is to email the editor/journal manager, requesting to 'acquire' a journal, and also asking to submit articles on authors' behalf. Impact factors are used to create the impression that the journal/publisher is reputable. Please be careful, and always thoroughly investigate. You are most welcome to get in touch when in doubt.

Some tips:

1. Always track your journal's digital footprint. Also create a Google Alert using your journal's Gmail account.
2. Acknowledge eligible and trusted indexes/harvesters under the About and/or Policies sections of your journal. Deny any affiliation/association with any others not listed on your website.
3. Report any questionable activities to DOAJ or Retraction Watch.
   DOAJ: help...@doaj.org
   Retraction Watch: te...@retractionwatch.com
4. Consult with a legal person.
5. Store all evidence and communication with this dubious publisher/journal/index on your journal website as private, and for your own record: Dashboard >>  Workflow  >>  Workflow Settings  >>  Publisher Library (make private). Or save it in the GDrive for your journal.
6. Write a cease and desist letter, and save the evidence:
   
   Subject: Cease and desist: Unauthorised contact and harvesting
   To whom it may concern,
   We do not authorise any acquisition, hosting, aggregation, or redistribution arrangements for our journal, the [journal title] at [web address] with eISSN [eISSN number]. Your unsolicited proposal is declined.
   Effective immediately, you are instructed to:

• Cease all contact with the journal mentioned above, its editors, staff, and journal addresses.
• Cease any harvesting/scraping of our journal website (including automated crawling) beyond what is necessary for ordinary end-user access.
• Refrain from redistributing or republishing our journal content in any format, except where clearly permitted by the specific licence displayed on each article and subject to strict compliance with attribution and integrity requirements. Bulk or systematic reuse is not permitted.
• Not claim endorsement, sponsorship, or affiliation with this journal, Khulisa Journals, ASSAf, or any journal we host.

7. Please confirm within 7 days that our contacts have been removed from your marketing systems and that you have ceased any harvesting activities. Continued unsolicited marketing or unauthorised reuse may be referred to the relevant parties for further action.
   Regards,
   Editor details

Many thanks colleagues, and kind regards,
Ina

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[Jacomien van Niekerk]

This is excellent, Ina - thank you very much!

J

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Prof Jacomien van Niekerk

Associate Professor and Head of Department (acting)

Department of Afrikaans

Faculty of Humanities
______________________________________________________________

Room 12, Level 15, Humanities Building, University of Pretoria

Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa
t: +27 (0)12 420 5904
f: +27 (0)12 420 2349
e: jacomien....@up.ac.za

www.up.ac.za/afrikaans-english

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6465-6584

Editor: Tydskrif vir Letterkunde

www.letterkunde.africa

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