Standalone Journal is One of the Worst-Ever Open-Access Journals

Here’s a quick description of the Journal of Biospectracal, a journal I learned about and added to my list last month.

The first thing one notices about this journal is the strange title. What does “biospectracal” mean, if anything? It’s not explained on the journal’s website.

Googling the term, one only finds links to the journal itself, except for this Budapest Open-Access Initiative page, in which someone identified as “editor biospectracal” has signed the now passé petition.

The journal proudly displays its ResearcherID and ORCID numbers, identifiers reserved for individual researchers, not predatory journals.

It promises, “Acceptance of manuscript in 15–20 days,” longer, perhaps, than average for most journals on my lists.

The journal has published five articles so far, all published in either issue five or six of volume 1, with no indication of where the earlier issues are, if they even exist.

The journal appears to be the sole effort of S. Narendhran of Coimbatore, India, and he’s also the editor-in-chief.

Most of the journal’s “Instruction to Authors” is lifted from other websites. It costs USD $100 to publish in the journal, with additional charges for papers having over two authors.

Overall, the quality of journals from India is decreasing greatly, and journal publishing there is mostly carried out as a means of generating quick and easy income for publishers.

Hat tip: Dr. Kathryn H Jacobsen

By: Jeffrey Beall
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Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

Wim Crusio says:

January 5, 2017 at 9:12 AM

Perhaps that’s a typo for “Biospectacle”?

BG says:

January 5, 2017 at 10:09 AM

Or maybe just lifted from “SpectraCal”, an apparently legitimate US based video calibration company?

Lynn Huntsinger says:

January 5, 2017 at 9:25 AM

I went to the website and…it has an Orchid ID!

Lynn Huntsinger says:

January 5, 2017 at 9:28 AM

Sorry, I see you mentioned that in your article–I leapt ahead. I so appreciate your work. There is an art project in all this somewhere.

Hank says:

January 5, 2017 at 10:15 AM

and they have a Facebook page with 25 “likes” — sucker list?

stevelaudig says:

January 5, 2017 at 1:32 PM

I agree it might be “biospectacle” or “biospectacular” and could be related to “bio-exorcism”. It would be a “miscreant” journal….. “Adam and Barbara remain invisible to Charles and Delia, teenage Lydia can see the ghost couple and befriends them. Against Juno’s advice, the Maitlands contact the miscreant Betelgeuse, Juno’s former assistant and now freelance “bio-exorcist” ghost, to scare away the Deetzes.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetlejuice

Cora says:

January 5, 2017 at 1:33 PM

Look to archive (vol. 1 only so far): “Downlad PDF” :::)))

Bonbon says:

January 5, 2017 at 3:07 PM

The horse logo of this journal also brings to mind the Springer logo.

Andy Mabbett says:

January 5, 2017 at 4:14 PM

The ORCID account has already been suspended.

Ahmad Hassanat says:

January 5, 2017 at 5:03 PM

What you have done Jeff?
now you increased the results of the Google search !

matthewjholland says:

January 6, 2017 at 1:12 AM

You can report abuse of ORCID to support@orcid.org

Bill says:

January 7, 2017 at 7:51 AM

I entered “Biospectracal” into “Google Translate” (within “Detect language”). Nothing shows up except “Biospectracal” again. What does the suggested alternative spelling “Biospectacle” add to our understanding? Can anyone find a dictionary definition of this re-spelled term? Explanations, anyone?