Flaky Journal Prices

Some flaky journals are so anxious for content that they will lower their advertised fees or publish for free. That is what some authors of spoofs have discovered after submitting absurd papers.

"Neuroskeptic" at Discover Magazine prepared a "spoof manuscript about 'midi-chlorians' – the fictional entities which live inside cells and give Jedi their powers in Star Wars." It was filled with "references to the galaxy far, far away, and submitted ... to nine journals under the names of Dr Lucas McGeorge and Dr Annette Kin." The author found that

The American Journal of Medical and Biological Research (SciEP) accepted the paper, but asked for a $360 fee, which I didn’t pay. Amazingly, three other journals not only accepted but actually published the spoof. [T]he International Journal of Molecular Biology: Open Access (MedCrave), Austin Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (Austin) and American Research Journal of Biosciences (ARJ). I hadn’t expected this, as all those journals charge publication fees, but I never paid them a penny. \1/

A biologist, threatening to withdraw a paper on "What Up with Birds?" and send it to Nature, negotiated a $1,600 charge down to $1,027, to $99, and then, pleading "financial crisis," to $0. The journal manager reported that he had "done session with our Higher Authorities" to obtain this one-time waiver. \2/ The abstract of the article, which appeared this month, reads as follows:

Many people wonder: what’s the deal with birds? This is a common query. Birds are pretty weird. I mean, they have feathers. WTF? Most other animals don’t have feathers. To investigate this issue, I looked at some birds. I looked at a woodpecker, a parrot, and a penguin. They were all pretty weird! In conclusion, we may never know the deal with birds, but further study is warranted.

The paper and Iris's alleged peer review are discussed in other blog postings. \3/

UPDATE 5/9/20: On ResearchGate today, Malek Alghdeir commented that "I was invited to publish a chapter in a book by IntechOpen. Then asked me to pay 1400 £! firstly, the editor of my chapter suggests a great discount, but after that, they accepted to publish my chapter free."

NOTES

1. Neuroskeptic, Predatory Journals Hit By 'Star Wars' Sting, Discover, July 22, 2017 5:57 AM, https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/predatory-journals-hit-by-star-wars-sting
2. https://twitter.com/evornithology/status/1224775369783435264?s=20 (hilarious Twitter thread)
3. Iris Publishers Releases the World's First Quantification of the Deal with Birds, Flaky Academic Journals, Apr. 26, 2020; Ryan F. Mandelbaum, Sketchy Science Journal Publishes Article Titled 'What's the Deal With Birds?', Gizmodo, Apr. 17, 2020 4:40PM, https://gizmodo.com/sketchy-science-journal-publishes-article-titled-whats-1842924936/amp

Iris Publishers Releases the World's First Quantification of the Deal with Birds

"Our curated content is original and rigorously peer-reviewed, so be assured of the premium quality information, checked and approved by highly acclaimed academic editors and subject matter experts." -- Iris Publishers, About Us

the Scientific Journal of Research and Reviews (SJRR) is part of Iris's "great podium." The lead research article in the April 2020 issue is Daniel Baldassarre's "What the Deal with Birds?" The abstract is refreshingly colloquial:

Abstract
Many people wonder: what’s the deal with birds? This is a common query. Birds are pretty weird. I mean, they have feathers. WTF? Most other animals don’t have feathers. To investigate this issue, I looked at some birds. I looked at a woodpecker, a parrot, and a penguin. They were all pretty weird! In conclusion, we may never know the deal with birds, but further study is warranted.

This tantalizing description hardly does justice to the heavily referenced work of scholarship that follows. Here is a sampling:

Introduction
Birds are very strange. Some people are like “whoa they’re flying around and stuff, what’s the deal with that?” This sentiment is shared by people across socioeconomic backgrounds. Figuring out what the deal is with birds is of the utmost scientific importance. It is now widely appreciated that the majority of socially monogamous passerine species are weird [1]. In species with moderately high extra-pair mating and paternal care, we need to understand what is going on with them [2]. In territorial species, what are they even doing [3] and they do all sorts of weird stuff [4] (but see [5]). ...
Material and Methods
Study species and general field methods
I looked at three different birds: a woodpecker, a parrot, and a penguin. I looked really close at them, squinting and everything, to try and figure out what was up with them. ... Detailed population monitoring and paternity assignment methods are described elsewhere [10]. Briefly, I watched them really close for quite a while [13-15]. To eliminate potential confounds, I thus conducted my experiments only on animals that I knew for sure were birds, and no other things like bugs and bats. ...
Discussion
This is the first study I am aware of to attempt to quantify the deal with birds. Unfortunately, the results were ambiguous, although Bayesian approaches may prove useful in the future. This study has implications for climate change research. When presented with weird behavior, birds exhibited a multimodal response including physical aggression and duetting, both of which were repeatable across highly variable contexts. ...

I do not know whether the "highly qualified and expert Editorial committee ... indulged in scrutinizing articles with stringent peer review process" were impressed with the acknowledgments at the end of the article:

We thank Big Bird from Sesame Street for comments on the manuscript. Several trained monkeys transcribed videos.

The author asked the editor "if they were a predatory journal and he assured [him] they weren’t. He said [the] paper was reviewed by three experts" and supplied an "Article Review Form" with the following "Specific Review Comments and Suggestions: THE MATERIAL PRESENTED IS VERY INTERESTING, THE ARTICLE ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION."

SOURCES

• Ryan F. Mandelbaum, Sketchy Science Journal Publishes Article Titled 'What's the Deal With Birds?', Apr. 17, 2020 4:40PM, https://gizmodo.com/sketchy-science-journal-publishes-article-titled-whats-1842924936/amp
• https://twitter.com/evornithology/status/1224775369783435264?s=20 (Twitter thread sent to me by Dr. Baldassarre)

FURTHER READING

• Iris Publishers, "your one-stop-place for latest scientific!", Flaky Academic Journals, July 12, 2018 (the first of several postings on Iris Publishers)

SciRes Literature Promises a "High prevalence of Publishing"

"SciRes Literature LLC. brings a genuine research to you all Journals rigorously relevant to the topics of Science." The company's website lists 57 online journals. I looked at one, the American Journal of Rare Disorders: Diagnosis & Therapy (AJRDDT), for a taste of what they are like. Three pages on an "Egyptian Case of Parry-Romberg Syndrome" comprise the entire American journal. No editor-in-chief is named, but with only two editors listed, maybe none is necessary. The two editors are said to be Mohamed Ateia (Clemson University, France), and Ken H. Young (The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA). As far as I know, Clemson University is in the United States, and a Mohamed Ateia there is a postdoc in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Science. Ken H. Young is a professor in the Department of Hematopathology MD Anderson Cancer Center.

ZoomInfo reports company revenue of $8.4 Million and 42 employees. The domain name scireslit.com is registered to  SCIRES Literature, 200 Lincoln Ave, Salinas, California 93901-2639, 800-713-7012. The website gives an address of 1 E. Main St., Ste B, Middletown, Delaware 19709, 302-684-6993. The spam I received came from an ISP in Champapet, India. It offers to "extend [my] potency to all over the world."

UPDATE 1/15/22: Among the best comments received are ones

• quoting an email addressed to "Dear Doctor" beginning with the hope that "everything is groovy at you!" and continuing "This is a righteous reminder to request your quiescent contribution of innovative article towards our American Journal of Rare Disorders"
• soliciting the recipient to be a peer reviewer with a "fairly generous time frame at 4-5 days" for the review
• reporting the publication in the Open Journal of Surgery of the author's spoof on "ostentatious implantation" (surgery performed "in full morning-dress with top-hat and white gloves") of a foot into the mouths of "entirely fabricated patients" to cope with a condition afflicting "the genus politica and associated ruling castes," attributed to the "increasing prevalence of Higg’s bosons in proximity to Large Hadron Colliders" and "funded by a grant from the Universal Sadist Association" (paper at https://www.scireslit.com/Surgery/OJS-ID20.pdf

Email

International Journal of Sports Science & Medicine (IJSSM)

• From: International Journal of Sports Science & Medicine (IJSSM) [sportsmedicine@scireslitonline.com]
  Date: Mar 21 at 6:30 AM
  Subject: Manuscript Submission Request-IJSSM
  Dear Dr. AndrewBradburyA,
  Greetings from SciRes Literature!
  Sports Science & Medicine (IJSSM) welcomes you to share your information and resources towards the scientific community. Our journal is very humble to all our researchers who can associate with us to make them more fruitful and successfully extend your potency to all over the world. We are communicating you to know if you can associate with us by submitting your unpublished paper to our Upcoming Issue.
  Submission deadline: April 20, 2019
  Note: We will extend the submission date as per author convenience.
  Looking forward to receive your valuable and prompt response! Thank you for your time and patience.
  Best Regards
  Elisa Peretti
  International Journal of Sports Science & Medicine (IJSSM)
• From: International Journal of Sports Science & Medicine [sportsmedicine@scireslitoa.com]
  Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 7:30:33 PM EDT
  Subject: Friendly follow up for article submission-IJSSM
  Dear Doctor,
  Please consider it’s a friendly reminder!!! We have contacted you earlier through email. Since we have not received any response from you regarding your decision in submitting the manuscript, we are taking the liberty of resending the mail as we are aware that you may be engaged in other activities or my message may not have successfully reached you.
  If you have any manuscript ready as of now in the field of Sports Science & Medicine. Kindly visit our website ... submit your manuscript through online ... and make our journal success.
  Hope this time will get positive response from your end. Please let me know your opinion in this regard. Looking forward to hear your response.
  Thanks & Regards
  Elisa Peretti
  Editorial Office, SciRes Literature LLC.
  International Journal of Sports Science & Medicine (IJSSM)
  1 E. Main St., Ste B
  You are receiving this email because of your relationship with the sender. [That would be the spammer to spammee relationship.]
• From: AssistantEditor-Int J Sports Sci Med [ijssm@jeditor.info]
  Date: Nov 19 at 7:05 AM
  Subject: \ Time it right to submit your research-IJSSM \
  Dear Researcher,
  Starting with this Volume 3 Issue2, International Journal of Sports Science & Medicine is happy to announce that this month we are providing discounts on your scientific paper. It will be a great honour for us and an excellent opportunity for you to share your New scientific work on the field of Sports Science & Medicine (IJSSM) [← Even though you have never published a word on the subject before.]
  We are looking forward to receive your papers. For any information needed, feel free to contact us. ...
  Note: We are offering the processing fee for your article is $ 899 USD.
  We will wait for your reply!! [← That could take a while
  Regards,
  Elisa Peretti
  Editorial Office, SciRes Literature LLC.
  International Journal of Sports Science & Medicine (IJSSM)
  E-mail: elisa.p@scireslit.us/ sportsmedicine@scireslit.com
  You are receiving this email because of your relationship [spammee] with the sender [spammer]. ...

International Journal of Clinical Cardiology & Research (IJCCR)

• From: International Journal of Clinical Cardiology & Research - SciRes Literature LLC [review@sendmanuscript.com]
  Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2020, 8:42:26 PM EST
  Subject: Join as Editorial Board Member - Cardiology & Research (IJCCR)
  ISSN: 2639-3786
  Hello Doctor, [← I'm no doctor.]
  Greetings for the day!
  Hope you are staying safe from current Pandemic.
  We are pleased to invite you to join the editorial board of our International Journal of Clinical Cardiology & Research (IJCCR). [← and I'm certainly not a cardiologist.]
  Work Responsibilities of Editorial Board Member:
  The role of the editorial board is to advice and support & some responsibilities are as follows:
        -Reviewing the paper as a blind peer reviewer and suggest regarding the selection of paper in the journal.
        -Approaching potential authors to submit their original papers.
        -Endorse the organization to authors, readers and subscribers and encourage colleagues to submit their best research work.
  We very much hope you will accept this invitation to become a member of our editorial board. If so, we request you to send your CV and a recent photograph with mail to our Email as soon as possible.
  We sincerely hope you will accept our invitation to join the editorial board of our journal. Kindly respond to us by submitting the below details and attach your CV.
  With kind regards,
  Yours sincerely,
  Lillie Taylor, Journal Coordinator
  E-mail: lillie.tjournalcoordinator@gmail.com
  SciRes Literature LLC
  1 E. Main St., Ste B, DE
  Middletown 19709
  United States
• From: Cardiology| Journal Coordinator [cardiology@sendmanuscript.com]
  Sent: Friday, January 8, 2021, 3:08:30 PM EST
  Subject: We Humbly Invite You to Submit Your Interesting Article: Cardiology
  Hello Doctor, [← I'm no doctor.]
  International Journal of Clinical Cardiology & Research ISSN: 2639-3786 has been maintaining its reputation in the scientific publication world for its unparalleled focus on covering Cardiology research across the globe.
  Special Issue: IJCCR has taken an initiative step by introducing “Special Issue on Cardiology”. All articles are rigorously reviewed. And also, we are most delighted to inform you that our journal has successfully completed Volume 4 issue 1.
  With the same spirit we are planning to enter into Volume 4 Issue 2 and invite all authors to submit their original research articles, review articles, clinical studies and mini-reviews on topics of wide interest, make submission towards Cardiology and its related fields till January 31st, 2021. Manuscript Submission:
  Online Submission / If you find any difficulty in online submission of your manuscript, please contact us through our Email to the Editorial Office.
  We do hope you will be able to respond positively to this invitation, can we??
  Look forward to a successful working relationship.
  With kind regards,
  Lillie Taylor,
  Journal Coordinator
  SciRes Literature LLC!!
  Email: lillie.tjournalcoordinator@gmail.com