New Open-Access Publisher: Stringer Open

We recently learned about a new scholarly open-access publisher whose name sounds very much like that of an established scholarly publisher.

It is Stringer Open, and of course it sounds like Springer Open.

Stringer Open has just launched with ten journals, some with ungrammatical titles, and some with titles that make little sense, such as the International Journal of Addiction Science and Anesthesiology.

The publisher’s ‘contact us’ page does not state any location, but the domain name registration leads to an apartment complex in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. There are many predatory publishers from Andhra Pradesh, and it seems everyone there wants to be a scholarly publisher.

Stringer Open is currently spamming for editorial board members, and I wonder how many will be tricked by the similar name. The boards now contain a few members each. The same person, Carol Calini, is on the editorial boards of three of the ten Stringer Open journals. I contacted her, and she told me she’s a researcher’s secretary and had not heard of this publisher before.

This publisher is an affront to scholarly publishing and to open-access. I strongly recommend against submitting papers to any of its journals and against accepting an invitation to serve on an editorial board.

Hat tip: Tero Kivelä

Appendix: List of Stringer Open journals as of November 23, 2013:
1.International Journal of Addiction Science and Anesthesiology
2.International Journal of Cancer Therapy & Stem Cell Biology
3.International Journal of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
4.International Journal of Clinical and Medical Case Reports
5.International Journal of Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome
6.International Journal of HIV for Clinical and Scientific Research
7.International Journal of Novel Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation
8.International Journal of Ophthalmology and Clinical Research
9.International Journal of Vaccines and Immunology
10.Journal of Genetics and Gene Therapy

By: Jeffrey Beall
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Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

Jeffrey Beall says:

November 26, 2013 at 9:43 AM

There’s no scoring system. As you can see, the criteria are subjective. In most cases, the evaluation is very easy because the publishers engage in salient deception and lack of transparency. My intent is to only include the worst of the worst on the lists. I refrain from adding borderline publishers/journals to the lists.

Maureen O’Malley says:

November 29, 2013 at 6:18 PM

I wouldn’t say this is a ‘subjective’ classification. I think you mean these are qualitative categories to which journals are matched on the basis of available evidence. Too many matches and the journal gets a ‘predatory’ classification. Because anyone in the community can use these qualitative categories for evaluation purposes, they can’t be ‘subjective’ in the sense of only one person being able to justify the ranking. I have read many evaluations, seen how many of the journals fall into various of these categories, and agree wholeheartedly with the classification. Using ‘subjective’ makes it seem like mere impressionistic opinion, which the classification system is not. And in case anyone worries about not enough evidence being used, the appeal process can provide more/different evidence, and the classification potentially adjusted.

Jeffrey Beall says:

November 29, 2013 at 6:19 PM

Thank you!

Samir Hachani says:

November 26, 2013 at 9:49 AM

It is science with a string !!!!!

David Ryan says:

November 26, 2013 at 10:05 AM

This is just what you do, defending well-stablished journals… I guess they pay you well…

Samir Hachani says:

November 26, 2013 at 12:07 PM

@David Ryan ?????????

Divya Nimesh says:

December 7, 2013 at 12:42 PM

air ..also give the information about well established and authenticated journals and open access academic publishing websites regarding law or legal publishing (with free open access publishing)…..hope u ll give that..

Kovo Godfrey says:

December 22, 2013 at 8:56 AM

Please can u send the full list of journals to be avoided to my mail. Also i want to find out if the pacific journal of science and technology is in ur list. Thank you

Jeffrey Beall says:

December 22, 2013 at 9:20 AM

The lists are freely available online. I haven’t heard of the PJST before but will have a look at it.