The Ubiquitous Alireza Heidari at the Fake California South University

Alireza Heidari of California South University is a very busy academic -- so accomplished in such a short time that one might question whether he is a real person. The university website describes "Prof. Dr. Alireza Heidari, Ph.D., D.Sc." as

a Full Distinguished Professor and Academic Tenure of Chemistry at California South University (CSU), Irvine, California, USA. He has got his Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees from California South University (CSU), Irvine, California, USA.

This biographical note strains credulity (and continues to butcher English), bragging that

Syne, he has been awarded more than one thousand reputed international awards, prizes, scholarships and honors. Heretofore, he has multiple editorial duties in many reputed international and peer–reviewed journals, books and publishers. Hitherward, he is a member of more than four hundreds reputed international academic–scientific–research institutes around the world."

"Reputed peer-reviewed journals" is an apt phrase. This eminent Cal South graduate is on the editorial boards of journals from such flaky, deceptive, or predatory publishers as OMICS (which downgrades him to "a Postdoctoral Research Fellow," albeit with "double postdocs"), Allied Academies, ReDelve, Scitechnol, and Peertechz (where he is an editor-in-chief).

I had never heard of the university before, but it has an amazing website. There, we learn that "[t]he university ranks among the top five universities in the United States and among the top public research universities worldwide." The Reputation page concludes with the forthright admission that "The university has been the subject of several recent scandals. In 2011, the school’s dean of medicine resigned after plagiarizing much of his graduation address. In 2012, the University’s Psychiatry department chair was placed on leave before officially beginning his duties after allegations emerged of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a patient."

Although these unfortunate events might place CSU among the top five universities -- for recent scandals -- the school does not even exist. It is a website that sells diplomas (with higher prices for higher GPAs).

ReDelve International Publications Is Divulging to a Multitude of Audience

ReDelve International Publications International is "divulging to a multitude of audience from across the world." Along with this revelation, the About Us page emphasizes that "all our articles go through a diligent and thorough editorial and peer-review process in order to maintain the quality of content."

Forty-nine journals are listed. I picked one to inspect. The Annals of International Case Reports' diligent and thorough process apparently does not bother with an editor-in-chief to make decisions. The first board member is the ubiquitous Alireza Heidari of the fake California Southern University.

The publisher's supposed address is "20 S. Third St., Ste. 210, Ohio, 43215, United States." You can rent a "virtual office" there from Regus for $1.60 - $7.20.

Although this LLC was incorporated in Ohio on May 18, 2018, by Keerthana Nallapuram, its true headquarters might be in Hyderabad. The D+B Hoovers database lists Redelve International Publications Private Limited, located at Plot No 94/a, First Floor Addagutta Society,hmt Colony, Kukatpally Rangareddi, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500072 India. Another database gives the date of incorporation with the Registrar of Companies, Hyderabad, as December 26, 2018.

The directors of the Indian corporation are Bala Bhargavi Marella and Raj Krishna Parvataneni. The registered email address is rajp@redelve.com. Redelve registered the domain name redelve.com on May 28, 2018.

Although the corporation has yet to file a financial report, Zoominfo states that the Ohio LLC has 18 employees and revenues of 3.8 million dollars -- an impressive feat for a company in its first year, with journals that have no editorial board.and no articles to show.

Email

ReDelve has yet to email me as an esteemed researcher who could contribute to its divulgements. Instead, it came to my attention by trying to sneak an advertisement into this blog in the guise of a comment to a posting on Gavin Publishers. This practice on the part of unscrupulous advertisers is no longer unusual, as the posting entitled "Parasites" indicates.