Journal of Biogeneric Science and Research "welcomes prominent personalities"

The Open Access Journal of Biogeneric Science and Research spammed me as a "Respected Doctor," which I am not, on the subject of "Replace this Subject with your own! :) :) :) :)." It appears that Biogeneric Publishers publishes no other journals, but one may be more than enough to cover any subject. The most recent issue includes a "Mini Review" entitled "The Slideshow as a 'Rusty Movie' - A Unique Mass Media." The journal is not indexed in MEDLINE or PubMed.

The first issue (or rather the articles designated as comprising the first issue) are dated April 2020. In the five months since then, there have been 18 more "issues" comprising 4 "volumes." To maintain this frenetic pace,

We always rely on the support from the members of our team that is relevantly our Authors, Editorial Committee members, advisory board, Reviewers Board and all the technical support teams all over the globe. We accept all the submissions of significant articles like Research, reviews, Case Studies, Short Communications, Mini reviews, Short Communications, Conceptual Papers, Editorials, Perspectives etc. which covers advanced research output aiding in forwarding the Science are utmost welcome.

That's a mouthful.

Where does all this activity take place? The domain name biogenericpublishers.com was registered with most information "redacted for privacy." The address on ICANN Lookup is limited to "Andhra Pradesh, India." The putative address on the publisher's website and email is "2010 El Camino Real, #2039, Santa Clara, California-95050, USA." That is also the address of Postal Annex, which offers "mailbox rental in Santa Clara" under the slogan "Your Home Office." A call to the telephone number (408-899-5232) produced a busy signal on the first try and later a message in a language that I do not speak followed by an accented notice that the person I called was speaking to someone else.

There are two editorial board members from the United States. A Dr. James Stoxen of "Team Doctors Chicago" (his specialty is sports medicine) writes on Facebook that his involvement is "A new career achievement!" He is "proud to add the prestigious Open Access Journal of Bioeneric [sic] Science and Research as the 20th medical journal editorial board appointment." The other "Honorable Editor" from the US is "Christopher R Bryant Department of Geography University of Maine." The university's staff and faculty directory has no such name in it, but a Christopher Robin Bryant is a retired geography professor (now an adjunct professor) from the Université de Montréal. A Google search links him to organizations such as Omics, Allied Academies, Lupine Publishers, and Medcrave that also grace the pages of this blog.

Email

• From: Joe Sara [joesara@biogenericscires.info]
  Sent: Friday, September 25, 2020 3:38 AM
  Subject: Replace this Subject with your own! :) :) :) :)
  Respected Doctor,
  Greetings!
  Open Access Journal of Biogeneric Science and Research (ISSN 2692-1081) is an international peer reviewed open access Journal covering all the areas of Clinical and Medical Sciences.
  We are inviting world class Scientists, Researchers, Academicians and Doctors to participate by contributing their unpublished work. Journal accepts Case Reports, Reviews/Mini Reviews, Short Commentaries, Editorials, Perspectives etc.,
  All the submissions are assigned to the editor and undergo double blind review method and provided DOI number to attain Global Recognition.
  Publication charges will be waived off, if you submit your Manuscript on or before October 10, 2020. (DOI Processing charges are applicable)
  Kindly submit your manuscript to this mail and support us.
  Regards
  Joe Sara
  Editorial Manager
  Biogeneric Science and Research LLC,
  2010 El Camino Real, #2039 Santa Clara California-95050, USA
• From: Joe Sara [joesara@biogenericscires.info]
  Sent: Monday, November 16, 2020 9:34 AM
  Subject: Complete Waiver on Publication Charges (ISSN: 2692-1081)
  Dear Doctor,
  Greetings! I found your profile had a dynamic potential which fascinates me to email you.
  We are in shortfall of a single article for the successful release of Volume 5, Issue 5. Is it possible for you to support us with your Opinion or Mini Review or any article for this issue of October?
  Publication charges will be waived off, if you submit your Manuscript on or before November 30th, 2020. (DOI Processing charges are applicable). Visit at ... .
  We really desire to receive your research work towards the publication, and I think it will be a best fit for both of us to achieve great results. If you have any queries, please email us.
  Await your swift submission.
  Regards
  Joe Sara
  Mail merge inside Gmail

"Vanishing" Open Access Journals

A news headline in Science reports that "Dozens of Scientific Journals Have Vanished from the Internet, and No One Preserved Them" (doi:10.1126/science.abe6998). If the reporter is talking about many of the journals described on this blog, a first thought is "Good riddance!".

But from the description of the unpublished study reported on, it impossible to know how many of the evaporating journals contained anything of importance. The undifferentiated finding is that 84 "online-only, open-access (OA) journals in the sciences, and nearly 100 more in the social sciences and humanities, have disappeared from the internet over the past 2 decades as publishers stopped maintaining them." But "[a]bout half of the journals were published by research institutions or scholarly societies," which distinguishes them from the dubious journals discussed here. None of the "vanished" journals were from commercial publishers.

"The authors—Laakso, Lisa Matthias of the Free University of Berlin, and Najko Jahn of the University of Göttingen—defined a vanished journal as one that published at least one complete volume as immediate OA, and less than 50% of its content is now available for free online." As such, the 200 or so journals have not all simply disappeared, and "[s]ome of the content may be accessible as printed copies or in paywalled commercial services."

How significant is it that "[t]he journals had been based in 50 different countries, most of them high-income ones" and that "[m]ost of the lost journals published articles only in English"? If being "based" in a high-income country means advertising an office in the US, Canada, or Europe, well, using a fake address and publishing only in English seems to occur with some frequency.