Apparently, dubious journals are not above faking/plagiarizing articles for content and then putting an academic's name on them. From Retraction Watch:
A professor found her name on an article she didn’t write. Then it got worse
Anca Turcu was going over her publication stats a few weeks ago, as she does every year to apply for research awards and update her CV, when she found an “unpleasant surprise.” Turcu, a senior lecturer in the University of Central Florida’s School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs, was listed as the sole author of an article entitled “Impact of government intervention measures on recycling of waste equipment in China,” which had been published in the African Journal of Political Science in February 2022. She hadn’t written the paper, which had nothing to do with her research on diasporas and voting. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
As Retraction Watch looked into the case, we found something “very upsetting,” in Turcu’s words. The article with her name on it appeared to paraphrase, sentence by sentence, a paper that had been published in another journal a few months prior. “Not only are they faking a publication in my name, but they are adding my name to something they have plagiarized?” Turcu asked. “This is absolutely terrible! What is it with these people?”
The earlier article’s title was nearly identical, and it had appeared online in the Elsevier journal Energy Policy in November 2021. It has been cited ten times since, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science. The one with Turcu’s name on it was received at the journal in January 2022.
We emailed the authors of the Energy Policy paper, who are affiliated with Tongji University in Shanghai, to ask if they were aware of the plagiarism, but they didn’t reply. We also emailed Stephen D. Thomas, senior and coordinating editor of the journal and a professor at the University of Greenwich in London, and got an out of office response.
The African Journal of Political Science is published by International Scholars Journals (ISJ).The journal’s website states this policy on plagiarism:
The editors of ISJ take a very serious stance against any evidence of plagiarism including self-plagiarism in manuscripts submitted to them. Every reasonable effort will be made to investigate any allegations of plagiarism brought to their attention, as well as instances that come up during the peer review process.
We notified Jephias Mapuva, the editor in chief of the journal and a professor at the Bindura University of Science Education in Zimbabwe, of the plagiarism, and the fact that Turcu was not involved with the paper that had her name on it. He has not responded to our email.
Our email to the address listed on the paper as Turcu’s, which does not belong to her, bounced back.
ISJ states on its website that it “is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and abides by its Code of Conduct and aims to adhere to its Best Practice Guidelines.” We could not find the publisher in COPE’s member directory.
The experience has prompted Turcu to wonder:
Why the heck me??? I have nothing to do with that subject matter, never saw that article before, what on earth made them do this? I do not think I’ve ever interacted with anyone from this fake journal, or anyone who wrote the legitimate article, so… I am really at a loss.
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