1436 Off-Scope Articles Were Published on "International Journal for Housing Science and Its Applications"
Concerns were raised by anonymous source that massive off-scope articles were published on the "International Journal for Housing Science and Its Applications", a EI and Scopus indexed journal.
The journal's website states that "[T]he International Journal for Housing Science and Its Applications, with its interdisciplinary approach, is dedicated to advancing the goal of improving living environments by disseminating scientific and technological knowledge". However, among the 1436 articles published on the Volume 46 Issue 4, and Issue 3, respectively, most (if not all) of them are off the scope of the journal.
The papers cover a wide range of fields, including education, computer science, e-commerce, agriculture, culture, arts and many others. Here are some examples of the article titles (please find the details in Supporting Information):
"The Current Status and Challenges of Chinese Folk Music Preservation and Transmission"
"The Impact of the “One Belt, One Road” Initiative on China’s Agricultural Product Industry: Challenges and Strategic Transformations in the Supply Chain"
"Study on the effects of atmospheric pollutants on allergic skin diseases in Nanchong City based on the combination of principal component analysis and regression modeling"
The publications of those 1436 off-scope articles were concentrated in the Volume 46 Issue 4, and Issue 3, respectively, 718 articles in each issue. And they were exclusively published by Chinese authors. On the contrary, in the past, no more than 10 papers were published in each issue.
These suggest that the journal is being targeted by Chinese paper mill(s). However, the anonymous source stated that the publisher and the indexing agencies have not respond to the his enquiry.
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