Academic misconduct, fake authorship letters, cyber fraud: Evidence from the International Political Science Review

Abstract

Key points This article highlights two types of publishing fraud: fake acceptance letter and financial fraud. Prepared by a third party, fake acceptance letters affirm that a paper, which we had never received before, has been accepted by IPSR. In the financial fraud case, a third party pretends to be an editor of IPSR, sends out authentic looking fake acceptance letters and then solicits authors to pay an article processing fee (APC).