open access spam – Jonathan Eisen's Lab

Thanks, no plans to help you get your impact factor on

Got this in the intertubes this morning. Sorry – not planning to submit there.

Dear Jonathan A Eisen,

Hope you are doing well.

We, Bio Accent open access publishers came newly into publishing sector to provide a platform to the researchers, practitioners, students and professionals from both academia as well as industry to meet and share cutting-edge development in the field of Microbiology.

We have found your profile from your institute; it seems you are a very good expert in Microbiology. We don’t want to miss your appreciable work so, we are inviting you for manuscript submission in BAOJ Microbiology.

We request you to let us know if you have any kind of research work to publish with us and please let me know your tentative date of manuscript submission.

We are expecting huge support from your side, so it will help us to get indexed & impact factor soon.

Awaiting your positive response.

Sincerely
Laura

Beware of mimicry in #OpenAccess journals

Wow – just got this email from a new journal soliciting papers:

Dear colleagues,
we are pleased to announce that the call for papers for the Special Issue “Molecular Phylogenetics 2016” is now open with the BioMed Research International
journal.
The scope of the Special Issue covers:
• Evolutionary genomics
• Molecular phylogenetics and systematics
• Molecular dating, inferring complex scenarios of coevolution, reconstruction of complex ancestral traits and events in genome evolution
• Development and phylogeny (evo-devo)
• Models and algorithms for molecular evolution
• Applied phylogenetics: genotyping and barcoding of biological objects, molecular anthropology, molecular epidemiology, forensic science, etc.
• Molecular ecology, biodiversity, and biogeography
All submissions go through the peer-review process. The journal publishes research and review articles with no page limit. It is an Open Access journal, and
fixed article processing charges apply to accepted manuscripts (www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/apc). The journal is indexed by all major abstracting and
citation systems.
Important deadlines:
Manuscript due: 26 February 2016
First round of reviews: 20 May 2016
Publication date: 15 July 2016
Earlier manuscripts will be processed for review upon submission date. The Editors team is making all effort to provide for a fast and friendly review
process.
Detailed information on the Call-for-Papers is available online at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/si/295862/cfp.
Contents of the Special Issues 2013 and 2014 are available online at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/si/585782 and
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/si/392635.
We welcome all contributors interested in submitting their research.

With best regards,
the Editors team of “Molecular Phylogenetics 2016”

Whatever you think of Hindawi as a publisher (I am skeptical) the name “BioMed Research International journal.” struck me as very strange. It seems like a mimic of Biomed Central. So I googled around and found others who also think it is a mimic (and not in a good way). For example see Jeffrey Beale from Sept 2014: New Predatory Publisher Copies Look and Feel of BioMed Central.

Yuck. The name appears to be a clear attempt to confuse authors that they are affiliated with Biomed Central. And the format and look appears to be doing the same too. So thus Hindawi has moved from my “maybe a spammy predatory publisher” to “definitely a spammy predatory publisher” list.

Today’s Spammy journal Editorial Board Offer #1

Just got this – pretty lame given that, well, I do not do anything related to this journal.

Dear Dr.Jonathan A Eisen,

Hope this mail brings you good health and prosperity

Fisheries and Aquaculture Journal is successfully publishing quality open access journals with the support from scientists like you. We are aware of your reputation for quality of research and trustworthiness in the field of science and thereby we request you to be an Editorial Board Member of our Fisheries and Aqua culture Journal. It would be our immense pleasure to have you as one of our editorial board member.

Please follow the below link for more information http://omicsonline.com/open-access/editorialboard-fisheries-and-aquaculture-journal-open-access.phpIf you are interested, you are requested to send

A recent passport size photo (to display at our website)

C.V

Biography

Research Interests for our records

Kindly submit your details at editor.faj@omicsonline.net, editor.faj@omicsgroup.biz We look forward to a close and long lasting scientific relationship for the benefit of scientific community.Waiting for a positive response.

With Kind Regards,XXXEditorial Assistant

Fisheries and aqua culture Journal7

31 Gull Ave,

Foster City CA 94404, USA

How do journals like this even exist? Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!

Just got this email. I consider this almost unquestionable proof that this is a spam open access journal (e.g., I don’t do any work in this field ..)

Dear Dr. Jonathan A. Eisen,

Greetings from the Journal of Immunology and Immunotherapeutics!!!

At the outset, it’s your eminence & reputation in the quality of research field for which you have been invited to become Editorial Board member for our Journal. We are aware of your reputation for quality of research and trustworthiness in the field of “Immunology and Immunotherapeutics” and that is why you are being requested to be an Editorial Board Member of our journal entitled “Journal of Immunology and Immunotherapeutics”.

Please go through the URL for Journal home page: http://imprintsonline.org/journal-of-immunology-and-immunotherapeutics/

IMPRINTS Online Publishing uses online review and editorial tracking systems of Editorial Manager® / IMPRINTS Group for quality review process. All works published by IMPRINTS Publishing Group are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This permits anyone to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work provided the original work and source is appropriately cited. IMPRINTS Publishing Group supports the Bethesda statement on Open Access publishing.

We may again assure you of international quality and standards of our articles published in our journals, using state-of-the-art prominent reviewers and editorial board. We also assure you of our best co-operation always.

If you are interested, you are requested to send a recent passport size photo (to display at our website) and your C.V, Biography (150 words), Research Interests for our records.

We look forward to a close and lasting scientific relationship for the benefit of scientific community.

With best regards,

Stephen H
Managing Editor

Immunology and Immunotherapeutics

Is this a new form of #OpenAccess Spam – spammy blog comments pointing to Bentham

Well, this is very very weird and not sure what to make of it. In the last week the filter that Google runs for Blogger Comments has picked up a slew of highly spammy comments coming from one account. And all of the comments include a link to Bentham Science publishers – one of the annoying Spammy new publishers. See some of them below (note I have removed the links to Bentham but trust me, this went to a Bentham site). Anyone else getting Spam comments pointing to Bentham?

Jesica Mack has left a new comment on your post “Science SPAMMER of the month: OMICS publishing gro…“:

For me it has been a surge of meeting welcomes, for the most part in China, having nothing to do with my examination: bentham science publishers.
—–
Jesica Mack has left a new comment on your post “I am highly skeptical of the CHORUS system propose…“:

I don’t see anything in this that seems particularly useful.Please click: bentham science publishers
——-
Jesica Mack has left a new comment on your post “Wow – Google Scholar “Updates” a big step forward …“:

Snap. I likewise found this advancement a couple of days prior and discovered one recommended paper of immediate pertinence.Please click:bentham science publishers

——
Jesica Mack has left a new comment on your post “ADVANCE Journal Club: Developing Graduate Students…“:

This is very interesting I appreciate this effort.Please click:bentham science publishers

—–
Jesica Mack has left a new comment on your post “UCDavis IT and GMail think this “Open Journal of G…“:

What’s particularly annoying about all these SPAM journals is that they are training filters to ignore legitimate journal activity.Please Click:bentham science publishers

Spammy journal Editorial Board invitation of the week – Avens Journal of Food Processing and Beverages

I get lots of semi-Spammy email invites to be involved in various new journals. Here is one from this week. I figure – the more I post such things, when people Google for the journal they will sometimes see my posts about how idiotic some of these journals are. No idea how I ended up on their radar here ..

Avens Publishing Group – Journal of Food Processing and Beverages

Dear Dr. Jonathan Eisen,

We are glad to invite you as an eminent editor for the Journal of Food Processing and Beverages (JFPB). Journal of Food Processing and Beverages is an international, non profit, open access, peer reviewed journal that is being recently launched by Avens Publishing Group with a commitment to serve the scientific community.

We are aware of your reputation and distinction in research in some of the fields relating to our journal and that is why you have been chosen as an Editorial Board Member of our Journal of Food Processing and Beverages.

Editorial Board benefits:

1. Articles suggested by Editors will be provided a 50% discount.
2. We will be conducting conferences yearly; relating to happenings, advancements and breakthroughs in our Journal and editors will be playing a key role in suggesting titles, educating the young scientific community and also promoting our Journal.
3. The article’s fate i.e., both the acceptance or rejection of article is purely dependent on the Editor’s decision and the peer reviewing process will be confidential.
4. We will be providing scientific credits to all the Editorial board members based on their active participation towards our journal.

If you are interested, you can send your details such as: short biography (100 words), C.V, recent passport size photo (to display at our website), and complete working address (Department, University / institute) for our records.

With regards,
Managing Editor
Journal of Food Processing and Beverages
Avens Publishing Group
877 W 23^rd st.,
Los Angeles, CA 90007,
USA.

Disclaimer: All works published by Avens Publishing Group are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License and supports the Bethesda statement on Open Access publishing.

Note: This is not a spam message, and has been sent to you because of your eminence in the field. If, however, you do not want to receive any email in future from Avens Publishing Group, then please reply with your request.

Spammy journal of the day: Journal of Proteomics and Genomics …

Just got this email posted below. Certain aspects of it make me a little skeptical of the editorial quality of the journals from this publisher … (highlighting a few parts done by me).

——————————–
Dear Dr.jonathan a. eisen,

Call for papers – to be published in the month of September and there on

Journal of Proteomics and Genomics

The scientific research is on its wheels now a day more than it has ever been. All the research and results are being accumulated enormously and in this race, you can come into lime light, only if you are noticeable enough. Are you sure the resource you have chosen provides you with such a benefit?
If you are not sure go through this list and make sure if you are at the right place, learn few facts to choose wisely when publishing your valuable research work:

Is it an open access online journal: Being online enhances the reachability of the journal worldwide and being open access means removing barriers for all the researchers, without any discrimination of dissipating the knowledge. (Subscription based is available only for who can afford.)
Does it provide xml files: Xml files are important for deposition into the repositories. Generally high prices are obtained for providing these files by publishing companies. (We provide free of cost.)
Proper communication and support during publication: The most important and the actual tyranny lies in publishing the research paper which is the sweat and time of your hardship. But it would be more hardship if you have to publish with a poorly communicating and non-supportive journal. (Our advanced online system enhances communication effectively.)
Through peer review of original and revised manuscripts: Value of your research paper is enhanced only if it is peer reviewed. (Peer review is one of the main quality element provided by us.)
Revision made easy: And the revision part out there is so terrific. (But with us it is easy due to the detailed comments of our reviewers.)
High profile experts with lot of experience: Editors with specialized expertize are an asset when dealing with scientific manuscripts. They can provide very accurate suggestions with experience and help improving the quality of the paper in-depth. (We are rich with them.)
Support for enhanced citations even after publishing : Paper has been published, everything is done, now what? Have you ever wondered what is happening with your paper? Is it reaching the required? Not only social media but there are hundred other ways to get you to the right place. (The secret is only with us.)
Appropriate Fee : Open Access journals now a days cost nothing less than $1000. (We charge only $ 540)

Now if you wish to submit your manuscript and publish with us, please follow the below link, the call for papers is open and up

—————————–

Note – I have not included the link so as to not in any way contribute to their Google Ranking. But wow – journal spam is pooping up so often it is hard to keep up with it.

Scary and funny: fake researcher Peter Uhnemann on OMICS group Editorial Board #JournalSPAM

OMG. This is both hilarious and terrifying.

Many out there know there are journals out there that border on SPAM. I have written about this often before (e.g., see For $&%# sake, Bentham Open Journals, leave me alone and Yet another SPAMMY Science publisher: Scientific and Academic Publishing and The Tree of Life: Really sick of Bentham Open Spam) as have many others (e.g., Open and Shut?: The Open Access Interviews: Matthew Honan and Academic spam and open access publishing – Per Ola Kristensson). UPDATE: forgot to include this link: Science SPAMMER of the month: OMICS publishing group

But this one takes the cake. There is a journal called “Molecular Biology” from the OMICS Publishing Group (for more on this publisher see Open and Shut?: The Open Access Interviews: OMICS Publishing …). It seems new – as I cannot find any publications – but you never know – maybe they have been around a while and just have not gotten any submissions.

But I recommend everyone check out their Editorial Board. In addition to listing Peter Deusberg (the controversial HIV denialist) there is an amazing person on their Board – Peter Uhnemann. He is listed as being from the “Department of Oximology at Daniel-Duesentrieb Institute, Germany”. Sounds a bit strange right? Well check out his Bio

And check out his research interests

It is pretty wacky right? Well it turns out, as some might have guessed – it is made up. The reason I know this is – is that Burkhard Morgenstern from the University of Goettingen let me know (in fact he is the one who alerted me to the whole story).

He sent me something he wrote on Facebook which I am posting here:

Hi,

I’m delighted to inform you that Peter Uhnemann from the  Daniel-Duesentrieb Institute in Germany was just appointed  editor of the OMICS journal “Molecular Biology”:  
http://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/editorialboardMBL.php 

For those of you who don’t know Peter Uhnemann: he is a fake  person invented by the German satirical magazine Titanic.  They created an FB account for him to make fun of social  networks (he soon befriended on FB with various German  politicians).  

For those of you who don’t know Daniel Duesentrieb: this is  the German name of the Walt Disney comic figure Gyro Gearloose.  

For those of you who don’t know the OMICS journals: these  are junk journals spamming around invitations to join their  editorial boards.

On their web page they say that   “election of the “right” editor for a journal is one of the  most important decisions made by OMICS Publishing Group …  Editors, Executive Editors & Editor-in- Chief of journals  must be senior researchers, e.g. chaired professors.”   As it looks, Peter Uhnemann from the Daniel-Duesentrieb  Institute meets these criteria.

It is both hilarious and a bit terrifying. Now – mind you – it is possible that this journal could end up with some papers worth looking at. But clearly, the Editorial process at this journal is probably going to be a bit, well, circumspect.

UPDATE: finally – as of 2/16/12 he is no longer listed on the editorial board …

Draft post cleanup #9: Open Access spam from Bentham

Yet another post in my “draft blog post cleanup” series. Here is #9; from June 2008. It can in a way be viewed as an extension of my post from a few days ago about Bentham. Here is what I wrote in 2008:

OK, I know I am supposed to be supportive of Open Access journals, just because a journal is OA does not mean it is OK. Take “The Open Evolution Journal.” being published by Bentham.

On paper, this could be a useful contribution to the list of OA journals. They have some good people on their Editorial Board and I am glad to see such a big list of people in Evolution seemingly supporting OA publishing.

And Bentham is certainly doing the OA talk and pushing OA as a major option for their publications. In fact, they might be pushing OA a bit too much. For example, in their letter to me they say

All published open access articles will receive massive international exposure and as is usually the case for open access publications, articles will also receive high citations.

Hmm. A bit over the top no? I love OA mind you. But OA in and of itself does not guarantee citations and exposure.

But this is a minor quibble. My real issue with them is the SPAM. I keep getting frigging emails from Bentham for all sorts of journals. And some of the emails I get are for accounts that I cannot easily send email from to use their lame unsubscribe option. I assume others out there get these emails from Bentham too, as I have gotten them from like 20 of their journals so far. And many are in areas that I have no expertise in (I just got one for a Geology journal).

Just goes to show – OA sometimes means “Objectively Annoying.”

For $&%# sake, Bentham Open Journals, leave me alone

For crying out loud, I am still getting crappy spammy mail from various “Bentham Open” journals. The most annoying part to me of Bentham Open is that they try to make it seem that anything published in an Open Access journal is better than anything published in a non Open Access journal. While I personally believe publishing in an OA manner is great, lying about the benefits of OA is not a good thing.

For example they ask and answer the following question “WHY PUBLISH IN OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS? ” Their answers include:

Your article will obtain more citations.
Your article will be peer-reviewed and published very fast.
Your article can be read by potentially millions of readers, which is incomparable to publishing in a traditional subscription journal.
All published open access articles will receive massive international exposure and as is usually the case for open access publications, articles will also receive high citations.

Yes, that is right, the crappiest, most boring, most idiotic article in an OA journal will receive “massive international exposure” and “high citations.”

I know, criticism of Bentham Open may seem biased coming from me, a PLoS insider. So, just in case you were not aware that just about everyone else out there cannot stand them, here are some reading assignments:

And so on.