We have received in the past several bribe attempts from authors from an Asian country trying to publish articles in our journal, which have always arrived by email. However, the editor-in-chief of our journal recently received a WhatsApp message on his personal phone number from an author of that same Asian country. The same message was also sent by email to the official email address of the journal and to the personal e-mail address of the editor-in-chief. What we find disturbing is how an author managed to find the personal phone number of the editor-in-chief.
Update: the editor-in-chief discovered that their personal phone number had been included on a conference program which was on the internet. The conference organiser has now removed the content.
Question for the Forum:
- What can we do about this?
This is an increasingly common scenario, with programmes now available to find personal details, and many opportunities to mine information from social media. It is good practice to perform periodic internet searches to see where your own information may appear, and take action to remove it where possible. Professional editors can be careful only to give out generic journal email addresses and publisher switchboard numbers; this is more difficult for academic editors who have a more public-facing profile.
It is advisable to keep summaries of all conversations with organisations who have published personal information, and follow these up in writing so that there is a record of actions taken. This can also help to mitigate any flaws which have been exposed in processes either at the journal or by the other organisation.
The editor could also consider following up with the author’s institution so that they can take any further appropriate action.