It has been brought to my attention that the Journal of Daoist Studies seems to have been hijacked. The journal published legitimate Daoism research up to and including the beginning of this year, but since then it has published hundreds of articles unrelated to Daoism. The journal homepage still claims that it is published out of University of Hawaii Press and links to the volumes that contain legitimate articles. But visiting the archive reveals the irrelevant articles:
https://journalofdaoiststudies.org/index.php/journal/issue/archive
If anyone has insight into this situation, please share!
This is crazy! How did you discover it? I just e-mailed the journals division of the University of Hawaii Press, in case they don’t know.
This page suggests that it’s now all about collecting US$1800 a pop for “open-access” articles, with deposits payable to this account:
https://journalofdaoiststudies.org/index.php/journal/about/contact
Account Holder: Visionary Research Solutions LLP
Account Number: 925020038988822
IFSC Code: UTIB0004621
Swift Code: AXISINBB715
That account has to be traceable, but I’m not a law-enforcement officer.
At any rate, this was the editorial board as of 2025:
https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/54114/information/editorial.pdf
I wonder whether any of them are aware!
I’d got an email from the journal inviting submission. I was checking out the homepage, which I’d been to several times before, and didn’t notice anything strange until I happened to click into the archive.
It was unusual for me as an early career scholar to receive an invitation from an established journal to submit to their regular issues, especially as most journals seem to be suffering from too many submissions these days. I guess a lot of other people received this invitation too.
As a follow-up to the above post, I corresponded with a now-former editor (though his name is still listed on that webpage from 2025). Apparently after trying but not succeeding to pass the journal on to someone in the field, Livia Kohn ended up selling it to an Indian company.
They sold off a journal to what looks like a hijacking operation. That is pretty shady.
Did they sell all of “Three Pines”?
I have to wonder how hard Livia Kohn tried to find a responsible successor. Can’t believe there was nobody willing to take it on.