The system of payments from authors is spurring the creation of many new companies seeking researchers’ money, especially grant-funded researchers. Many of these new companies are pay-to-publish scholarly publishers, including these two, SciRes Literature and Gavin Publishers.
SciRes Literature
Let’s start with SciRes Literature, which — apparently — is short for Scientific Research Literature. Its tagline is “Profound source of knowledge.” None of its journals has any published articles yet, so at the present time, this publisher is a profound source of nothing.
SciRes Literature launched with 28 journals, all in the biomedical sciences, and all in fields already super-saturated with existing subscription and open-access journals, fields like cardiology and surgery. None of the journals fills any gap.
The “Contact” links on the website don’t work, and I cannot determine where this publisher is based. The domain-name data shows a Salinas, California address, possibly making this Monterey County’s first predatory publisher, but in fact it’s probably not really based there.
I suspect the publisher is really based in South Asia, and the owner likely has dreams of quick and easy riches from the gold OA publishing business. Good luck with that.
Gavin Journals
This publisher uses Open Journal Systems, the open-source journal management software from the British Columbia-based, collectivist organization called Public Knowledge Project. Open Journal Systems is a predatory publisher favorite.
Gavin Journals is a particular shabby and dull implementation of the open-source software. It’s minimalist and uninspired, likely using all the default settings. It has some of the very worst journal cover images I’ve ever seen. Here’s a particularly dumb one:
What emergency medicine researcher would want to submit his or her work to such an amateurish-looking journal? Probably none, and I suspect Gavin Publishers was set up by someone who is following an open-access publisher recipe, quickly setting up a site, eager to start spamming for articles and processing credit card payments.
They don’t explain the “Gavin” in Gavin Publishers. The publisher lists its contact address [exactly] like this:
5911 Oakridge way,
Lisle,
Illinois – 60532
That’s not how we format addresses in the U.S. This location is in a residential neighborhood, making this yet another Illinois-based questionable publisher based on a tree-lined, residential street. Gavin is now spamming for editorial board members, the spam emails signed by “Keisha Snyder.”
In the coming weeks, many thousands of researchers around the world will probably receive spam emails from SciRes Literature and Gavin Publishers. When yours arrive, I recommend you delete them.
Appendix 1: List of SciRes Literature journals as of 2015-10-17
1.SRL Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s Disease
2.SRL Anesthesia
3.SRL Biotechnology & Bioengineering
4.SRL Cancer & Cellular Biology
5.SRL Cardiology (SRL Cardiology Therapeutics)
6.SRL Cardiovascular Diseases & Diagnosis
7.SRL Case Reports & Short Reviews
8.SRL Dermatology: Clinical Research
9.SRL Diabetes & Metabolism
10.SRL Gastroenterology & Hepatology
11.SRL Immunology & Immunotherapy
12.SRL Nephrology and Therapeutics
13.SRL Neurological Disorders
14.SRL Neurology & Neurosurgery
15.SRL Nutrition & Food Science
16.SRL Oncology & Hematology
17.SRL Ophthalmology
18.SRL Pathology
19.SRL Pediatrics & Neonatal Care
20.SRL Pharmacology & Therapeutics
21.SRL Proteomics & Bioinformatics
22.SRL Reproductive Medicine & Gynecology
23.SRL Stem Cell & Research
24.SRL Surgery
25.SRL Urology
26.SRL Vaccines & Vaccinations
27.SRL Vascular Medicine
28.SRL Virology & Infectious Diseases
Appendix 2: List of Gavin Publishers journals as of 2015-10-17
http://gavinpublishers.com/
1.Gavin Journal of Addiction Research and Therapy
2.Gavin Journal of Anesthesiology
3.Gavin Journal of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Diseases
4.Gavin Journal of Case Reports
5.Gavin Journal of Cell Biology & Tissue Biology
6.Gavin Journal of Dental Sciences
7.Gavin Journal of Dermatology Research and Therapy
8.Gavin Journal of Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders
9.Gavin Journal of Emergency Medicine
10.Gavin Journal of Food and Nutritional Science
11.Gavin Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology
12.Gavin Journal of Oncology Research and Therapy
13.Gavin Journal of Ophthalmology
14.Gavin Journal of Orthopedic Research & Therapy
15.Gavin Journal of Pediatrics
16.Gavin Journal of Stem Cell Research and Therapy
By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access
Comments:
Keith Fraser says:
October 22, 2015 at 9:13 AM
“Profound source of knowledge” – LOL. You’d think that people trying to make money by looking like a real scientific journal would put some level of effort into not looking like a crank echo chamber, paper mill or vanity press.
In related news, I found someone spamming links to a “press release” on a couple of LinkedIn groups. Close examination revealed the announcing institution (that’s supposedly discovered a miracle cure for all disabilities including “Down Syndrome, mental retardation, inability to learn, dyslexia, dystrophy, slow development, poor growth, hormonal imbalance, Autism, ADHD, genetic problems and many others”) to be almost certainly non-existent. Its website is an information-lite shambles with no list of staff or publications, an address that shows no signs of any institution of the sort, sections inexplicably written in Latin, and a picture of their building (supposedly in Kerala, India) that turns out to in fact be of a newspaper office in Manchester, England.
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/56601-6062148054964789248?trk=groups-post-b-title
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/2938223-6062145680623816708?trk=groups-post-b-all-cmnts
L_C says:
October 22, 2015 at 12:39 PM
Currently, SciRes Literature has also been diligently spamming for editorial board members. I believe that the founder for a site titled ‘Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence’ (LPBI) copied the contents of such an email at the bottom of a post/site tab titled: ‘Praising LPBI’ (I suppose they saw this invitation as a positive?) This was the email’s signature:
SASHA Sims
Editorial Office, SciRes Literature
SRL Immunology & Immunotherapy
1692 Coastal Highway
Delaware 19958, USA
Email: immunology@scireslit.com
Also, I like that the full Salinas address of SciRes Lit, 200 Lincoln Ave, is actually the site of the Salinas town hall.
The DE address listed above, 1692 Coastal highway, is probably just nonexistent (plugging it into a GPS will land you in the middle of the road.) Several companies have claimed this dot of highway though, including Medicomat, a company that markets alternative health care devices (e.g., they offer stone therapy, phytotherapy, meta therapy, etc.), ships from China, and has a director (Nikola Anastasov) based in Novi Sad. It is possible that the SciRes Literature spammer confused this address with the more prestigious sounding Harvard Business Services address (which is 16192 Coastal Highway). I’m not sure if there is any connection to the publisher, but it does lead me to believe that someone overseas would be the most likely perp or person to make such an error.
Rocket Scientist, ScientificSpam DNSBL says:
October 22, 2015 at 1:47 PM
W.r.t. Scireslit’s whereabouts: the spams all came from a domestic Internet connection in Hyderabad, and the dude named his computer “PrasanthiPC”. We listed the IP and the domains.
Fake journals: ‘Make in India’ gone wrong
The Hindu – October 25, 2015
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/fake-journals-make-in-india-gone-wrong/article7800231.ece
“A scam of the most scholarly kind on the Internet — publishing “scientific papers” in fake open access journals (also called as predatory journals) — has become more insidious and grown tremendously in size. And tragically, India has singularly contributed to the cancerous growth of pseudo-science.”
“Even if science done in India has not grown much in the last few years, India has successfully played a vital role in polluting the scientific literature with trash.”
“The number of fake journal publishers based in the country has grown several-fold in the last 4-5 years. Today, as much as 27 per cent of fake journal publishers are based in India! And India has the dubious distinction of being home to 42 per cent of fake single-journal publishers.”
“Indian researchers publishing in predatory journals could be willing or ignorant participants. Either way, fake journals provide the best medium to publish sub-standard and even highly unethical work — plagiarised content with falsified and/or fabricated data and manipulated images.”
NB: The Hindu is the second most circulated English-language newspaper in India (Wikipedia).
mkoulikov says:
October 25, 2015 at 10:36 PM
Open Journal Systems is a predatory publisher favorite.
For what it’s worth, OJS is also used by plenty of non-predatory publishers, across many different areas/fields, so in of itself, use of this software does not mean anything and should not be a cause for any concern. Hell, I’d rather see a new journal use OJS than try to build a custom website from scratch!
billwilliams says:
October 26, 2015 at 6:01 AM
Good point, mkoulikov – OJS has been abused by predators but has also been a valuable platform for small but important specialist journals starting out in various fields I am aware of.
James says:
January 28, 2016 at 8:25 AM
Thanks for doing this diligent work to point out predatory OA publishers. I just received an email requesting that I consider joining the Gavin Journal of Food and Nutritional Science as an editorial board member. The journal still has not published a single article, and while address line is fixed to look more appropriate given its supposed origin, it’s still a residential street in suburban Chicago, albeit right next door to Benedictine University. The email is signed by “Chelsea Stone”. So they have tried to upgrade their look but it remains an outfit I wouldn’t want my name associated with.
b00kreader says:
July 6, 2016 at 7:51 AM
Thank you! Yes the Gavin journal covers are terrible and still no articles published both dead giveaways, however I did not think to look at the address (good call). I just got the “be an editor” email through my institution. DELETE
Myron Pulier, MD says:
August 7, 2016 at 6:32 AM
Gavin Publishers has cleaned up… not its act, but its address. Now the formatting is closer to US Postal Service standards, and they have a new representative (Emily Cooper). Apparently Keisha Snyder has moved on, or up, or whatever.
Nkosana Motsitsi says:
August 15, 2016 at 1:55 AM
It is shocking! I was asked to publish my case with them and I did. I refused to pay the U$500.00 THEY requested. My argument was that any fee payable for publication is stated upfront. I outsmarted them on that aspect.
thank you for the advice.
CrankyProf says:
October 27, 2016 at 7:37 AM
Yesterday I was solicited to join the editorial board of Gavin’s “Educational Research Applications,” http://gavinpublishers.com/journal-of-educational-research-applications/. The link to the editorial board returns a 404 error and most other pages say they “will be updated soon.” Then I came here and found your entry. Thanks.
Jonathan Perreault says:
November 28, 2016 at 8:44 AM
Dear Jeffrey, you can add:
Journal of Microbiology and Genetics
to the list of Journals from Gavin Publisher.
Here is the email I got:
Dear Doctor,
Christmas Greetings from Journal of Microbiology and Genetics
On behalf of our Editorial office we take privilege to inform you that we are in the process of releasing a Christmas Issue by the month of December, as we are releasing an Issue for special occasion we would like to invite you to contribute your valuable articles towards our journal.
Reviews/Research/ Review/ Case Reports/ Short Communication/ Rapid Communications/ Commentaries/ Editorials/ Image Article etc., are welcome for possible publication in this issue.
Related Topics: Microbial Genetics, Genetic Engineering, DNA Sequencing and Genomics, Virology, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Nano Microbiology. Food microbiology, Eugenics, Microbiology, Molecular Factories, Pathogenesis.
If you are interested to join in our Editorial Board, kindly let us know your thoughts.
We look forward to your quick response for the good scientific approach and study.
With Kind Regards,
Faith Stephen,
Editorial Assistant
Journal of Microbiology and Genetics.
Fiona McQuarrie says:
December 1, 2016 at 7:05 PM
I got an email from Gavin Publishers today. I haven’t had any prior contact with them. The email came with an article manuscript that had been embellished with the heading “Gavin Publishers – Journal of Education and Research”. The manuscript was an unlocked Word document that still included the author’s identifying information in the properties.
Here’s the text of the email:
“We are glad to invite you to review the article entitled [name]. We found you are the appropriate person to review the attached manuscript.
Kindly review the manuscript and give your comments accordingly whether to revise with major comments and minor comments or accepted the manuscript without changes.
We request you to give your comments on the manuscript within 3days from the acceptance.
Until and unless we get your comments we are not supposed to go with the further process of the manuscript, as your comments are very crucial for the processing of the manuscript.
Note: If you are interested to join in our Reviewer Board, kindly let us know your thoughts.
Hope to have a positive response.
Please do not hesitate to ask any further queries.
Looking forward for long lasting Scientific Relationship.
Best Regards,
Florance”
CT says:
December 10, 2016 at 4:28 AM
Same here, just got an invitation to review a paper for the “Journal of Nursing and Women’s Healthcare”, published by Gavin Publishers (although no published articles are found on their website)
