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The 100 million yuan paper business of "copycat journals".

The 100 million yuan paper business of "copycat journals".

On May 21 this year, at the · Daodao District Bureau of the High-tech Zone of the Jingmen City Public Security Bureau in Hubei Province, reporters from China Youth Daily · China Youth Network saw a large box of fake official seals of periodicals and press and publication departments in many provinces and cities, about 100 of which numbered. These fake official seals were seized from the publication company and used to seal the "Offer Letter". China Youth Daily · China Youth Network reporter Lei Yu/photo

The 100 million yuan paper business of "copycat journals".

Bound copies of fake periodicals seized by the police. Photo courtesy of Jingmen Public Security Bureau High-tech Zone · Daodao District Bureau

The 100 million yuan paper business of "copycat journals".

Screenshot of the website of "Haihao Culture Publishing House".

The 100 million yuan paper business of "copycat journals".

Screenshot of "Magazine Information Network".

Journals that have been cancelled are fraudulently used by criminals to solicit papers; Authors can not only receive the paper version of the journal, but also find their own articles on the website of a well-known journal. How is this done?

Recently, the People's Court of Daodao District, Jingmen City, Hubei Province, openly tried a case of illegally operating periodicals. There are 14 defendants in the case, and due to the complexity of the case, the court decided to divide the case. According to the first-instance verdict obtained by the reporter of China Youth Daily · China Youth Network through the case investigation unit - Jingmen City Public Security Bureau High-tech Zone · Daodao District Bureau, 6 defendants appeared in court for trial, and after trial, 6 defendants were sentenced to less than two years in prison or criminal detention for the crime of illegal business operation, and were fined between 50,000 yuan and 970,000 yuan·.

As a case jointly supervised by the Office of the National "Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications" Working Group and the Ministry of Public Security, this case spanned five provinces (municipalities) of Henan, Yunnan, Hebei, Anhui, and Beijing, and involved the whole process of compiling, printing, publishing, and posting papers.

According to the verdict, the six defendants did not have a periodical publishing license or a printing business license, and engaged in work such as soliciting manuscripts, organizing manuscripts, and printing, seriously disrupting the order of publication. In just one or two years, tens of thousands of authors published more than 30,000 articles in more than 30 kinds and more than 3,000 counterfeit journals forged by the defendants, and the amount involved was as high as 150 million yuan.

A clue transfer letter led to the case of the ministry governor

Li Ying is a nurse at a hospital in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. In November 2022, because she needed to publish a paper for the evaluation of her title, she thought of finding an intermediary.

On a search platform, an agent told her that there are two ways to serve: she has her own papers and can be responsible for distributing them; If not, you can arrange for a "writer" to write it on your behalf. Both methods are guaranteed to be published, not only to give away the paper version of the journal, but also to find their own papers on the journal website.

After reading the business license sent by the intermediary and the power of attorney of some periodicals, Li Ying chose to ask the intermediary to write and distribute on his behalf.

Soon, Li received an acceptance notice from a health and medical journal, which stated that her paper would be published in January 2023.

In order to publish this paper, Li Ying paid in three installments, a total of 1,000 yuan.

A reporter from the China Youth Daily · China Youth Network inquired on the official website of the State Press and Publication Administration and learned that this journal is sponsored by the Western Region Book and Newspaper Development Center and published in minority languages. The journals that Li received were in Chinese.

Who is soliciting papers from fake journals? From soliciting papers, issuing "Acceptance Notice" to hanging on the network, how to operate?

It all started with a letter of referral of clues.

On January 28, 2023, the Office of the "Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal" Working Group in the Daodao District of Jingmen City handed over a clue transfer letter to the District Public Security Bureau, which roughly reads: Hubei Haihao Culture Media Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Haihao Company") fraudulently used the name of a popular science journal to collect and publish papers, which is suspected of illegal publication, illegal business, fraud and other illegal and criminal acts, and the public security organs are requested to verify.

Sun Yang, deputy captain of the Economic Crime Investigation Brigade of the · District Public Security Branch of the High-tech Zone, and his party immediately went to verify.

The case-handling personnel saw a lot of WeChat groups and QQ groups on the computers of Haihao employees, and from time to time someone posted information in the group. "We can quickly arrange publication for domestic general journals and core journals, with different prices for different journals" "Our advantage is that we can quickly find the right journal according to the direction of the topic selection, and at the same time, we can quickly pre-review and publish it through the green channel of the journal agency".

Haihao Company was incorporated in July 2020 and its legal representative is Li Jie. In the face of verification, he said that he was the low-level order taker, responsible for passing the collected manuscripts to upstream companies for publication, collecting page fees, and not participating in editing and publishing work. According to the verdict, Li Jie received about 161,000 yuan from the author of the paper.

In the solicitation of papers, Haihao Company mainly publishes information through its two websites, "Magazine Information Network" (https://www.lw53.com) and "Haihao Culture Publishing House" (https://www.lunwen881.com). Because of marketing promotion, when customers search for keywords such as "paper publication" and "paper dropshipping" on the search platform, these two websites will be displayed on the Home. After the user enters, the customer service will introduce the journal category, the type of manuscript received, the publication time, the charging standard, etc. in detail. As of press release by China Youth Daily · China Youth Network, these two websites can still be logged in normally.

After the customer chooses the journal, he needs to send the paper to the customer service, pay the deposit, and pay the balance after the article is sent. If the client does not have a paper, the company will contact the "writer" to write it on his behalf. In addition, the company also provides an electronic version of the "Acceptance Notice", paper journals, and links to the Internet.

Li Jie said that the journals recommended by the company's customer service to the authors were learned through various QQ groups and WeChat groups, and many people from the periodicals were in the group, and as for whether the other party was the editor of the journal or an intermediary, Li Jie "couldn't tell the difference".

Li Jie told the case-handling staff about a matter encountered by the company, they had a batch of papers sent to Gao Ya and Chen Jun in Zhoukou, Henan, these two people claimed to be "journal editors", who could publish papers in two scientific and technological journals, but the company paid the page fee, but the papers were not sent for a long time, and the other party could not be contacted.

As the investigation deepened, the investigators inquired on the official website of the National Press and Publication Administration and learned that one of the scientific and technological journals provided by Li Jie had been cancelled in April 2013, and no other scientific and technological journal was found.

Sun Yang, who has been a police officer for 12 years, realized that the case "may be hiding a huge chain of interests".

On May 18, 2023, the police filed a case for investigation against Gao Ya, Chen Jun and others on suspicion of illegally operating publications. Considering the complexity of the case, the Propaganda Department of the Jingmen Municipal Party Committee and the Office of the "Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal" Working Group also participated.

More than 30 kinds of fake periodicals have collected more than 20 million yuan in page fees a year

With the assistance of the Zhoukou police, the Jingmen police arrested Gao Ya, Chen Jun and others.

Gao Ya said that she and Chen Jun were in the same job search QQ group before, and someone in the group claimed to be able to help publish papers. "We wanted to do this after we came into contact with it, and we started doing it part-time. In July 2021, we had some resources in our hands and opened the studio. ”

In addition to Gao Ya and Chen Jun, there are also several salesmen hired by them. These people call themselves "journal editors" and are responsible for soliciting papers and collecting page fees. According to the indictment of the People's Procuratorate of Daodao District, Jingmen City, in just over one year from November 2021 to April 2023, Gao Ya and Chen Jun collected as much as 17.16 million yuan in page fees.

Investigators seized more than 10 kinds of periodicals in this studio, and the papers published in these journals cost 230 yuan to 260 yuan each, and the staff of the Press and Publication (Copyright) Section of the Propaganda Department of the Jingmen Municipal Party Committee identified them as fake journals on the spot.

What the case-handling staff did not expect was that the transfer records and chat records of Gao Ya, Chen Jun and others showed that this was just a link in the entire criminal chain. These fake periodicals came from Yunnan Publication Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Publication Company").

In July 2020, Zhan Jian registered and established a publication company and served as the legal representative. Subsequently, he obtained more than 30 cancelled or non-Chinese editions from the official website of the National Press and Publication Administration, as well as the issue numbers and sponsors of uncommon journals, and began to produce fake journals.

According to public information, these journals mainly publish articles in the fields of education, medical care, and engineering, and are sponsored by enterprises and social organizations.

When soliciting papers, the three editorial team employees of the journal company took the initiative to contact the person who had the need to publish the paper or the solicitation agent in the name of the "journal editorial department" to recommend the fake journal produced by themselves and charge the page fee.

According to the indictment, from April 2022 to May 2023, Zhan Jian and others collected 24.566 million yuan in layout fees for more than a year.

In order to deceive the trust of the publisher, the publication company will produce an "Acceptance Notice" stamped with the official seal of the journal company.

These official seals are all fake. On May 21 this year, at the Public Security Bureau of the · Daodao District of the High-tech Zone, a reporter from China Youth Daily · China Youth Network saw a large box of fake official seals of periodicals and press and publication departments in many provinces and cities, about 100 of which were seized from the publication company and used to seal the "Acceptance Notice".

When the number of papers in one issue is full, Zhan Jian packages the papers and sends them to the typesetter Bai Qiang, and provides the journal number, journal title, sponsor and other information, and Bai Qiang typesets the articles and makes them into an electronic version of the journal.

Zhan Jian would then send the electronic version of the journal to a printing house, where it would be film-making, printing, binding, and mailing.

According to the verdict, Bai Qiang received about 419,000 yuan from Zhan Jian for typesetting fees, Zhang Kai received about 1.2 million yuan from Zhan Jian, and Hu Kai received 740,000 yuan from Zhang Kai for printing fees.

In the · Daodao District Public Security Bureau of the High-tech Zone, reporters from China Youth Daily · China Youth Network also saw about 3,000 periodicals stacked with a height of one person.

A reporter from China Youth Daily randomly selected a copy from · China Youth Network. Although the paper and printing are almost the same as those of regular periodicals, there is no relevant information such as the domestic unified serial number and advertising license number.

The "Regulations on the Administration of Periodical Publishing" stipulates that a journal must publish the following contents on the back cover or copyright page: the name of the journal, the competent unit, the sponsor, the publisher, the printing unit, the distribution unit, the publication date, the name of the editor-in-chief (editor-in-chief), the scope of distribution, the pricing, the domestic unified serial number, the advertising business license number, etc.

An article included in a well-known journal network has become a "brand endorsement"

Starting from a few hundred yuan and receiving a large number of manuscripts, the fake journals produced by the publication company are very popular in the receiving group.

In addition to these advantages, the publication company also has a "brand endorsement" - a well-known journal network can include these articles. This is what many authors are concerned about, because this link is needed for job titles or job promotions.

Log in to this journal network, and its self-introduction is: China's leading digital distribution platform for humanities and popular journals, with more than 4,200 comprehensive humanities and popular journals online in full text, covering current affairs, party building, management, finance, literature and other fields.

An in-service editor of a university journal in Hubei told China Youth Daily · a reporter from China Youth Network that this journal network has a great influence in the industry and is known as one of the "four well-known journal networks in China", and belongs to the same echelon as China National Knowledge Network and Wanfang Data.

The huge volume of manuscripts published by counterfeit journals has huge potential benefits, which makes Pan Sheng, an internal employee of this well-known journal network, very optimistic about this "online business".

Pan Sheng said that he often received calls from people claiming to be editors of a periodical, including "Editor Zhan" (Zhan Jian). With a few simple words of communication, he can determine whether the other party is a regular journal editor. "For example, when the other party wants to cooperate with us to include journals, and the requirements for which section the article is included in and how long it will be included, I understand that the journal that the other party wants to cooperate with may be illegal."

In order to avoid risks, Pan Sheng and another colleague, Tang Hua, came up with a solution: set up a "new media section" on their website to include the articles. This section does not display information such as journal name, journal number, etc. If the law enforcement agency checks, it can be said that this is an article uploaded in the name of an individual and does not belong to the journal.

Pan Sheng said that in reality, many people evaluate job titles, search for published papers on the Internet, and if the author's paper is very good, it can be published in a regular and well-known journal, and finally it can be included in the journal network. However, some papers are of poor quality and can only be published in unknown or illegal journals, and if they are included in the same way as regular journals, there will definitely be problems, and the impersonated journals will report and complain. Therefore, articles can only be included in the "new media area", and they can also be searched and displayed on the Internet, and many people think that this is also included.

Xiong Daxu, captain of the Economic Crime Investigation Brigade of the · District Public Security Branch of the High-tech Zone, said that this method of inclusion took advantage of the popularity and influence of this well-known journal network and "played a sideball" in law.

With the increase in the number of inclusions, there have been regular periodicals that have reported this journal network.

"We replied that this was the problem of the partner, that the other party had provided false procedures, and that the manuscript was also received by the other party, and that it had nothing to do with us." Pan Sheng said that he has been trying to find ways to avoid risks and try to "legitimize" on the bright side.

Such an "ingenious design" is obviously aimed at making a huge amount of improper profits, and Pan Sheng cooperates with fake journal production companies to collect "data processing fees" from his personal bank account. According to the verdict, from December 2021 to April 2023, Pan Sheng collected a total of about 1.931 million yuan in "data processing fees" paid by Zhan Jian. According to the case-handling personnel, Pan Sheng and Zhan Jian used multiple bank cards, including other people's bank cards, to conduct transactions for the sake of safety. The unit price is different each time, and it is currently impossible to count how many articles have been published on this journal network.

The 1.931 million yuan "data processing fee" is only part of the amount involved in the case handled by the Jingmen police, and Xiong Daxu said that whether there are other people in other places who have also paid the "data processing fee" still needs to be further investigated by the relevant departments.

(Li Ying, Li Jie, Gao Ya, Chen Jun, Zhan Jian, Bai Qiang, Zhang Kai, Hu Kai, Pan Sheng, and Tang Hua are all pseudonyms in the article. · to China Youth Daily, trainee reporter of China Youth Network, Yang Lei, reporter Lei Yu)

Source: China Youth Daily Editor: Ding Fenglin

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