Case Study: What Happens to a Journal after it Accepts a Spoof Paper?

One way of exposing predatory journals is to submit a spoof article to see if it gets accepted. We investigate one journal, looking at how it has performed since a spoof paper it accepted came to light. We find that it has published almost 20% more papers following the acceptance of the spoof paper. The journal has a new web site, which appears to show that it did not publish its first paper until 2018. However, there is an old web site that lists 321 papers dating back to 2012. The editors said that this is due to a new workflow system, which meant that previously published papers could not be listed on the new web site. Moreover, the number of papers could be not accommodated, as a high configuration server would be required to provide a responsive web site. We found some plagiarism, which looks quite serious. We conclude that the spoof paper had little effect on the journal, which continues to operate, seven years after the spoof paper was accepted.