"The Hindu" is a respected Indian newspaper.  When it reveals on its front page what amounts to a big scam, it must attract the attention of many readers.  The report is shocking to say the least. Scholars are being tricked into publishing their research work as papers in dubious "International@ journals, who would print anything for a fee. And many genuine work has appeared in such journals, which make a mockery of the peer reviewed system being followed by genuine scientific journals published by genuine universities, institutions, scientific societies all over the world. Earlier I had published a blog on how PhD scholars in India indulge in outright robbery, stealing parts of  published work and pasting them into their own papers. Even a respected scientist of repute was in the dock when his name was associated with a paper published  by a scholar he was guiding, who took the  illegal shortcut of snitching large portions from published work. To get a number of papers in their name, unscrupulous researchers now pay to get their papers published by unknown publishers of journals that have come up like mushrooms after a monsoon. They publish everything, from science to economics in one journal  without editing or peer review. They falsely associate reputed scientists and other scholars as being on their editorial board or as "honorary" reviewers.  They even mange to get DOI for the papers and a surfer hits these papers thinking they are genuine publications. Perhaps organized criminal gangs operating out of Easter Europe or South America or Somalia may be behind this scam.  However, real papers are appearing in these false journals which have zero impact factors, uploaded by foolish scholars attracted by the offer of seeing their precious papers published abroad. The only way scholars in India can save themselves is to publish their work only in Indian journals of repute, published by institutions or organizations like NISCAIR or Universities and  long established Societies etc. It is very difficult to get papers published in reputed journals in USA or Europe as peer reviewers thoroughly scan the work and reject them if they do not come up to the exacting standards set by the journals or the institution which publishes them. Millions of dollars are being spent by scholars which could have been used  for better purposes.  It is about time, all Universities, Institutions and Societies with the UGC and the HRD Ministry  put a stop to Indian scientists paying for publishing their work in  journals which are big frauds. And scholars should not quote references in their papers to such inferior papers published in unknown journals who claim to be "international".