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New Predatory Publisher Copies Look and Feel of BioMed Central

The impostor (top) and the victim (bottom).

BioMed Research is a brand-new open-access publisher based in India that recently launched with 21 open-access journals. The publisher copies the look, feel — and even the tagline — of the established OA publisher BioMed Central.

This new publisher has a single, six-member editorial board for all 21 of its low-quality journals, and it promises a fast peer review process:

We Review the Manuscript under Fast Track System and time taken from submission to online publication is Less Than 10 Days!

Most of the new publisher’s journals have article content, but it is lifted from other publishers. For example, the article “Bioactive Potential of Seagrass Extracts against Dengue Fever Mosquito” appears in BioMed Research’s journal called BMR Parasitology, but most of the content appears to be lifted from the article “Bioactivity of seagrass against the dengue fever mosquito Aedes aegypti larvae” that originally appeared in the Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, a journal published by Elsevier.

It should say “Author Guidelines.”

The publisher claims to be based in Kanpur Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. The table below, copied from the website, shows the article processing charges for Indians and for “foreigner authors.”

Discrimination?

This is clearly a junk publisher, and I am sure that the vast majority of researchers will have the scholarly publishing literacy skills necessary to be able to recognize and avoid this as a predatory publisher. Let’s hope it quickly withers and dies.

Appendix: List of BioMed Research Journals as of 2014-09-01:
1.BMR Antioxidants & Redox Biology
2.BMR Biochemistry
3.BMR Bioinformatics & Cheminformatics
4.BMR Biology
5.BMR Biotechnology
6.BMR Cancer Research
7.BMR Cellular and Molecular Biology
8.BMR Complementary and Alternative Medicine
9.BMR Food & Nutrition Research
10.BMR Gene and Genome Biology
11.BMR Medicinal Chemistry Research
12.BMR Medicine
13.BMR Microbiology
14.BMR Parasitology
15.BMR Phytomedicine
16.BMR Toxicology
17.International Journal of Engineering & Scientific Research
18.International Journal of Ethnobiology & Ethnomedicine
19.International Journal of Pharmacy & Bio-Sciences
20.Journal of Plant & Agriculture Research
21.Pharmacology & Toxicology Research

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

J.J. says:

September 15, 2014 at 9:05 AM

The geographical difference in APC make the scheme obvious. This ‘company’ (most likely a sole individual) is selling a fake international recognition to Indian scholars.

The APC is ridiculous for international authors, there is no way 50$/article is going to cover the costs of a legitimate OA publishing operation. This is just to attract papers from people outside India to mimic legitimate journals.

It is then hoped by the creator of this operation that unscrupulous Indian scholars will buy themselves publications in such fake journals hoping it will help them to get a cosy government position.

The Indian government/political system is not mine to judge, but the issue here is that readers might be tricked into thinking the content is actual science.

We, as scientists, should be very careful: fake science is hurting the reputation of legitimate scientists.

Reducing Your Energy Bills At Home

Reducing Energy Bills At Home

Reducing your energy bills is a big issue for many these days. This is especially true because Seattle Utilities and Puget Sound Energy just keeps raising their rates on us. What are we going to do except continue to play their game and pay the increases each month and year. As a city, there isn’t much we can do about this. They have a monopoly on the energy so we are stuck. Below you’ll find some of the most recommended tips you can use to help reduce your energy bills.

First, it’s highly recommend to unplug devices if they are not being used. The Department of Energy as stated that 85% of our energy costs are from devices/appliances which are not being used. In short, if it’s plugged into the wall there still is a cost associated with that. Now obviously you don’t want to be unplugging your refrigerator but how about that toaster you never use or that lamp across the room? If you’re not using it or rarely use it, keep it unplugged and you’ll save money on your energy bills.

Second, if an appliance breaks or you’re looking to update your kitchen make sure you’re using Energy Star appliances. These appliances use 10-50% less energy and water compared to their counterparts. You’ll most likely have to pay a little more to get your hands on them but in the long run your monthly bill will be less. We are actually seeing more and more Energy Star appliances on the market and less of the old so just take your time and investigate that purchase. Educating yourself and looking a little bit longer can save your money and energy.

Third, get a good thermostat. You want one that is programmable so you can adjust it to during the day. You can make it more comfortable only when you need it. Some may want it turned down dramatically during the day then up a little more at night for example. The point is that you can control it easier to reduce your heating and cooling energy costs.

Fourth, consider talking to a energy solutions company like Smart Energy Today Inc. They offer a lot of products and solutions they can dramatically help reduce your energy bills. Plus, it helps with our environment. They also have dinner events you can attend (which are free) and they will just educate you about becoming more energy independent. Don’t even need to bring your money to the event. Did I mention it’s free? It’s a win/win.

Fifth, with all this great weather we are having try to use more fans instead of the AC. Fans are way less compared to AC energy costs.

Sixth, an easy fix everyone can do is make sure you home is air sealed. Just go through your home and make sure you don’t have an leaks where air can get in. Check around the edges of your doors and sliders. If there are holes or gaps, you’ll want to get that fixed or at a minimum put insulation in there so all your heat isn’t being wasted.

Seventh, the final tip we can give you is try to conserve water. Water heating is actually the third largest when it comes to your energy bill. Some tips you can implement are taking faster showers and just being alert when using water (dishes, clothing, cars, ect). Another great tip is to reduce your hot water temperature. It will save you a lot and you probably won’t even notice the change throughout the house.

There you have it readers. Take the first steps and start to reduce your energy footprint.

OMICS Publishing Group’s Abuse of Researchers: More Evidence

Hyderabad, India-based OMICS Publishing Group is among the most abusive of the scholarly publishers classified as “predatory publishers.” One of the ways it rips off researchers is by spamming them without mentioning the article processing charges.

Occasionally, researchers respond to the spam emails by submitting a manuscript, which is quickly accepted, with a quick and trivial peer review. Soon afterwards, the authors are surprised by a hefty and unexpected invoice, often for $2,700.

Below are three emails I received recently that document three cases of this abuse. The third example is an email exchange between the duped author and “Joseph Marreddy,” a contrived name used by someone at OMICS Publishing Group, followed by a summary email sent to me.

Example 1

Hi Jeff,

I stumbled onto your blog recently as I was looking at the omics group. I am sad to say that I was one of those researchers duped by the omics group. My boss, a prominent doctor was invited by omics group to submit some articles. We did so, not realizing how bad it was, but after we submitted, they gave us an invoice charging us for it, even thought they invited us to submit articles, with a tight deadline no less! Now we seem to be stuck. We have not approved the final proof, and we specifically told them we want to withdraw the article, but they are not letting us do that, as they had already assigned a DOI for the paper. I have tried to contact them about this, but to no avail, and they always seem to give me the runaround. Is there any recourse for poor victims like me? What would you suggest we do?

Thank you for your kind attention.

Number 2

Hello

I live in France and I’m sorry if my English is not very clear.

I write to you because OMICS contacted me last year for submitting and publish an article in the Journal of Medical Diagnostic. In their email, they were talking about special issues and did not mention fee publication. However, I submitted an article. After a review, they ask me to modify a little article (not a lot) then send me authorproof this month. And I discovered fee publication, which were not mentionned in their first email. Fee are about 919 dollars. When I told them that I can not pay because I am still a student, they proposed me 500 dollars, and they say that it can not be lower (it’s the minimal) and show me by internet link intructions for authors mentionning fee publication of 900 dollars.

I read an article on web about predatory scholary open-access publishers written by you. I didn’t know that it can exist until now.

OMICS is now asking me to pay. But before they publish it I said when I receive authorproof that I didn’t wish to publish in their journal but even, they publish it. However, they didn’t send any examplary of the review and when I asked for when I can see the article, I wonder if it is a false view of the page or not (http://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/ArchiveJMDM/articleinpress-medical-diagnostic-methods-open-access.php).

Can you help me? I am French so I don’t know the law in USA, I don’t know what to do and i am very afraid that they ask me for more money.

The OMICS contact is:
Mr Joseph G Marreddy
Journal of Medical Diagnostic Methods.
731 Gull Ave, Foster City
CA 94404, USA
Phone: +1- 650-268-9744
Fax: +1-650-618-1414
Toll Free: +1-800-216-6499
Please can you help me? i would be very grateful

Hyderabad, India, the headquarters of OMICS Publishing Group.

Number 3

This is a series of emails between OMICS and an author who submitted a manuscript in response to an OMICS spam email, followed by an email to me:

From: OMICS Group Inc., [authorproof-openaccess@omicsonline.org]
Sent: Friday, 27 June 2014 11:15 PM
To: [Redacted]
Subject: [Redacted]_Author proof & Invoice

Manuscript Details:

Reference number: [Redacted]
Journal Title: Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals
Title: [Redacted]
Corresponding Author: Dr. [Redacted]

Dear Dr. [Redacted],

Herewith we are sending the Author proof & Invoice of [Redacted]. Check the proof carefully and return within 48 hours. Please arrange to make the payment within two weeks. Correct the misprints and send back to the editorial staff by e-mail to authorproof-openaccess@omicsonline.org or FAX to +1-650-618-1414

Only necessary typographical errors should be corrected, no new additions should be made. Extensive changes will request a new approval of the editorial committee. They will be inserted as notes added in the Proof. If you have corrections, please write them in the author’s proof directly with marking and send it.

Or Please fill in a character with an intelligible character or type, scan and send it by e-mail.

Or Type the misprints in separate word file with two columns, one is for misprinted and one is for to be print and send by e-mail.

Author will be charged for any expenses incurred by the publisher for making extensive corrections or additions.

* If you fail to send the corrections within 48 hours, we may assume that you agreed to publish without corrections.

We request you to carefully check the PDF file.

Please inform us if you need any reprints of your article.

The cost of reprints on acid free papers:
1000 reprints: 719$
500 reprints: 519$
100-200 reprints: 419$
Shipping cost: 50$ with in USA
100$ outside USA
Dispatch time: 10-15 working days

OMICS Group successfully running 300 Open Access journals and 100 more scientific conferences (per year) in different disciplines with the support from 30,000 well qualified editorial board members. We are the proud partner in making healthcare and scientific information Open Access.

If you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

On behalf of Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals ,

With best regards for your ongoing research.

Joseph Marreddy
Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals ,
731 Gull Ave, Foster City
CA 94404, USA
Phone: +1- 650-268-9744
Fax: +1-650-618-1414
Toll Free: +1-800-216-6499

________________________________________

—–Original Message—–
From: [Redacted]
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2014 5:17 PM
To: OMICS Group Inc.,
Subject: RE: [Redacted]_Authorproof & Invoice
Dear Mr Mareddy,

Thank you for this however I must admit to being completely taken aback regarding the invoice. This was a solicited review and it was never mentioned that a cost would be incurred to me or my fellow authors for publication. I am not in a position to pay this sum and am considering withdrawing the article from JAA.

Please do NOT assume that I agree to publication without correction as I do not.

I have been in touch with the editorial assistant who originally invited me to write the review, Gracia, but have not yet heard back from her.

If I do not hear within the next 48 hours that the fee will not be charged I shall have to withdraw my submission.

Kind regards,

[Redacted]
From: OMICS Group Inc., [authorproof-openaccess@omicsonline.org]
Sent: Tuesday, 8 July 2014 11:05 PM
To: [Redacted]
Subject: RE: [Redacted]_Regarding manuscript

Dear Dr. [Redacted],

Warm greetings!!

Initially sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Mam, we initially inform you we cannot let you withdraw the manuscript as it published online and more over assigned with DIO number. We would like to inform you that article processing charges are mentioned in the homepage of our website and also in Instructions for authors. kindly follow the link “http://omicsonline.org/index.php”

http://omicsonline.org/instructionsforauthors-antivirals-antiretrovirals-open-access.php”

However considering your mail as special we would like to provide discount on publication fee. we provide you 20% discount on fee. now you are asked to pay 2179$ as fee.

Hope the amendment made will satisfy you and will support us by paying the fee. Mam, as you are aware of the fact that ours is an Open Access and does not receive any kind of financial support. As we solely depend upon gracious contributions made from generous authors like you. we request kindly support us by paying the fee.

We look forward to receive an positive reply .

If you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

On behalf of Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals ,

With best regards for your ongoing research.

Joseph Marreddy
Journal of Antivirals & Antiretrovirals ,
731 Gull Ave, Foster City
CA 94404, USA
Phone: +1- 650-268-9744
Fax: +1-650-618-1414
Toll Free: +1-800-216-6499

From: [Redacted]
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 12:33 AM
To: Beall, Jeffrey
Subject: OMICS group invoice.
FW: [Redacted] Regarding manuscript

Dear Jeffrey,

I am a [Redacted] researcher from [Redacted].

I recently received an invitation to write an article for the “Journal of antivirals and antiretrovirals” from OMICS group. I googled Omics but unfortunately at that time, did not look far enough down the page beyond their website etc to see other negative things that have been written about them.

In the original invitation from an “editorial assistant” there was no mention of a fee but there was a link to the website which they said would provide more details. I did not at the time follow it. Looking at it now on the website there is one tab with one heading (author instructions) in which the fees are mentioned.

The editorial assistant said I could just email her the article which I did. I did not go through an online submission process or sign a copyright agreement.

The article was accepted within about 5 weeks with a 4 line peer review which was largely just technical.

A few days later the proofs were sent me along with the invoice for $2700!

I sent them an email saying I was not in a position to pay the sum and that it had been an invited review, the fees never mentioned etc and that if I did not hear from them in 48 hours I would be withdrawing my article. There was no response in 48 hours so I sent an email saying I withdrew my article and I planned to submit it elsewhere, that I had never signed a copyright and they did not have any authority over the manuscript, I will forward that email separately. I received a response 1 week later, below, although it replied to the second last email I had sent.

I have checked the Journal of Antivirals and antiretrovirals website and the article is not published online including under “articles in press”.

I do not want to pay the money and ideally I would like to submit my article to another, reputable journal.

I realize I have been terribly naive and that you may not be in a position to offer any advice, but if you have any experience, in particular with what has ensued in such cases I would be grateful for it.

Best Wishes,

[Redacted]

One of the significant things about this last exchange is that publishers claims that the paper cannot be withdrawn because it already has a DOI (digital object identifier, which it calls DIO). This is completely bogus, as the assignment of a DOI does not mean that an article cannot be withdrawn. In fact, articles with DOIs are withdrawn and retracted regularly. This is just a trick to manipulate the researchers and pressure them to pay.

In the strongest possible terms, I advise all researchers to avoid submitting any manuscripts to all of OMICS Publishing Group’s journals and cut off any contact you have with this publisher. As the evidence here shows, this is an abusive publisher that exploits honest researchers.

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

Farid says:

August 7, 2014 at 9:37 AM

My Friend from Iran who often travels between Iran and US was another victim of this predatory journal. His student received an acceptance letter and bill on a joint paper and OMICS group managed to find his mobile number asking for the bill payment. They were also ready for discount and any price negotiation, my friend said. Eventually, my friend simply ignored their calls and messages and they were left with no payment. I think if anyone treats them like this, they may stop doing business like this and tarnishing growing OA business.

ED says:

August 7, 2014 at 10:34 AM

Appropriately, according to his likely fake LinkedIn profile, Joseph G. is the ?”Fianace Executive at OMICS Group Incorporation”.

Ole, Ole! says:

August 7, 2014 at 11:51 AM

Is it not possible to try and get this Joseph Marreddy arrested? There seems to be enough evidence on this page alone showing that he is scamming scientists. His address lists in California, but is he really in Hyderabad? The other thing I noticed among this truly scandalous greedy, non-academic “publisher”, was the clear omission of a very important adjective (in square parentheses): “with the support from 30,000 well qualified [unpaid] editorial board members”. ONe way to sink this boat would be to get the 30,000 editors to resign.

Dan Riley says:

August 7, 2014 at 1:38 PM

Undisclosed fees are generally unenforceable (in common law terms, there’s no contract), though of course the details will vary by jurisdiction. If you are a victim of a predatory publisher and are associated with an institution with legal staff, talk to them.

The OMICS group business model is similar to patent trolls and ambulance chasers, in that they depend on people being willing to settle.

Yehuda says:

August 7, 2014 at 8:06 PM

I receive unsolicited e-mails from open-access journal publishers on a regular basis. I routinely delete all messages listed on this site. This has saved me from the annoyances discussed in this thread.

Life Science Journal Delisted from Scopus

Scopus says good-bye.

Life Science Journal has been prospectively delisted from Scopus.

I received a confirmation that Life Science Journal — published jointly by Marsland Press and Zhengzhou University — has been prospectively delisted from the Scopus database. The reasons for the delisting were not stated in the confirmation, but it’s easy to find problems with this journal.

On its website, the journal claims to have an impact factor of 0.165, and this claim is confirmed; the journal’s 2012 impact factor is indeed 0.165. What will its 2013 impact factor be, when the new impact factor data is released soon? [Update, 2014-07-30: This journal has lost its impact factor. ]

The impact factor might explain this journal’s large number of issues and articles. Formerly a quarterly, the journal now publishes monthly, and it publishes many articles per issue.

Twelve fat issues per year…

The journal is currently publishing volume 11 (2014) [see above]. Volume 11 number 1 has 60 articles in it!

… plus twelve “special” issues per year.

Additionally, the journal is publishing 12 special issues in 2014, in addition to the 12 regular issues.

We’ve seen this before — a journal gets an impact factor and then goes crazy, accepting as many articles as possible to earn more money.

The article processing charge is $640.

The article processing charge per article is US $640. Somebody is making a lot of easy money here. Also, judging from the articles, no copyediting is being done, as it appears the articles are being published as they are received.

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access

RMS says:

July 22, 2014 at 10:28 AM

Browsing through an issue I notice a major problem: the journal accepts articles of any topic, everything ranging from environmental science, to civil engineering, to military history… Do these titles sound like “life science”?

1-) “General V. Anders’ Polish Army in Central Asia”
2-) “Strengthing [sic] Steel Frames by Using Post Tensioned Cable”
3-) “Mechanics of Bond Behaviour at the Joint of Normal Strength Concrete Intersecting Beam”
4-) “Uranium content measurement in drinking water for Some region in Sudan using Laser Flourometry Technique”

Jeffrey Beall says:

July 22, 2014 at 10:35 AM

Excellent observation! Thank you. No, these do not sound like life sciences articles to me.

Bull’s eye says:

July 22, 2014 at 11:02 AM

Notice how papers just “disappear”. For example, paper No. 15, in volume 11, No. 10 (2014):
http://www.lifesciencesite.com/lsj/life1110/
A paper is supposed to be there with pages 89-97, which suggests that this could have been a duplicate paper, or maybe some other issue. However, the lack of any trace of what was published goes against the scholarly principles of retractions as advocated by COPE. Marsland Press is one of the worst plagues in OA publishing, in my opinion, and one of the most concerning aspects in many of its journals are these “disappearing acts” of papers: one day there, the next gone.

Damien says:

July 22, 2014 at 10:40 AM

See the special issue http://www.lifesciencesite.com/lsj/life1106s. there is a paper on “Budgeting of police in the context of “crime cost”, a paper on “Corporate culture and socio-psychological climate of the organization”, a paper on “Trade legislation problems of the Moscow city”; and so on.
LSJ become ” the world journal of everything”!!!

P Canning says:

July 23, 2014 at 6:03 AM

open access publishing is NOT beneficial for anyone especially authors. it is just a money making scheme for some individuals and groups…just like Nigerian scams. good luck to people who publish in open access journals, as for me i will stick with the tried and tested publishers like Elsevier, Springer, Taylor and Francis etc. I applaud Mr. Reall for doing such a commendable work.

Farid says:

July 23, 2014 at 8:21 AM

P Canning

I think scientific community must represent their concern about so called predatory journals whether they are OA or not and help people in Scopus and ISI get rid of them. This way we have better chance to select good quality journals no matter they are OA or not. These days, it is easy to find predatory journals from OA and not OA whether they are published by a well known publisher or by a newly greedy guy.

AReader says:

July 27, 2014 at 5:06 AM

I would argue that Nature is a predatory journal trading on its high impact factor to publish large amounts of nonsense. And if you don’t believe me, try reading Nature from even five years ago and see how many articles were later shown to be false or at least unlikely to be true.

The problem is not open-source. The problem is the academic star system that forces people to produce articles, any articles, in order to keep their funding and jobs. Thus the incentives to publish outweigh caution over

This state of affairs has broken the peer review system, buried perfectly good science and unjustifiably promoted bad. And the stench is starting to be noticed by the taxpayers, the people ultimately funding this vicious circle.

At the end of this is the predatory journal, making money from publishing without sufficient damnation.

Obinna says:

August 2, 2014 at 8:14 AM

Dear Scholars,
Would this journal as well as publisher be classified to be of Asian origin and predatory? If yes, what were the criteria used to index it scopus in the first place? And why? Why is there no clear reason stated for delisting the journal? I encountered a similar scenario with web of science concerning two nigeria-based medical journals that were delisted without any clear reason given. I then asked thomson reuters for the reason behind their exclusion from their database and they responded by saying that it was as a result of low citation rate and some other reasons. Please, some other what exactly??? The current trend raises the question of bias towards third world publishing efforts by first world establishments. In the traditional publishing era, authors from developing regions were passive contributors and active consumers of scientific literature. But in the OA publishing era, they have become active participants and contributors to the global scientific literature. All of a sudden, the scientific publishing atmosphere is now polluted, why is this so????

Mobilea says:

August 2, 2014 at 12:06 PM

Dear Obinna: I totally agree with you. Delisting from Scopus mush have a strong reasons, not only someone’s desire to dampen the journal.
Mobilea

Is Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP) Publishing Pseudo-Science?

This publisher will publish almost anything.

Scientific Research Publishing has published many articles by controversial researcher Mohamed El Naschie and his band of followers.

Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP) says it has offices in China and Southern California, and like many questionable open-access publishers, it is registered in Delaware (and I wonder if the firm reports its income to the IRS).

This publisher has been on my list for a long time, and I recently described a case in which a controversial article about the Fukushima nuclear fallout was published in one of its many journals.

M. El Naschie is listed as the sole author on at least twenty articles in SCIRP journals. In my opinion, they are all nonsense and pseudo-science. El Naschie has reportedly been blacklisted from arXive, prohibited from posting preprints there.

Claimed Discovery of the Nature of Dark Energy

Lots of dark energy, all right.

There are also many articles in SCIRP journals written by followers of El Naschie. These articles, like the one pictured here, typically report again on El Naschie’s findings. The one shown in the screenshot above reports on the “discovery” of the nature of dark energy. If such a discovery had truly been made, it would have been one of the major scientific discoveries of all time.

The nature of this published content is particularly surprising, given that H. Barry Zhou, the founder of Scientific Research Publishing, holds a Ph.D. in Space Plasma Physics from the University of Maryland at College Park. Why would someone with such credentials allow the publication of so many questionable articles claiming to have discovered the nature of dark energy and other such discoveries not accepted by the overwhelming majority of mainstream scientists?

Dr. Zhou, are you proud of publishing scholarly articles that fall way outside mainstream science? Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP) has become a scholarly vanity press, in my opinion.

I am aware that El Naschie was the editor-in-chief of an Elsevier journal in the past. However, scientists protested, and his editorship was ended. I think additional, similar action is needed in this case.

In conclusion, if you want your work to appear in journals from a scientific press that has published many of the questionable scientific works of Mohamed El Naschie and his followers, then Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP) is the publisher to select.

Appendix: I’ve included a list of some of Mohamed El Naschie’s articles published in SCIRP journals below.
http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=32969

o A Fractal Menger Sponge Space-Time Proposal to Reconcile Measurements and Theoretical Predictions of Cosmic Dark Energy
o A Resolution of Cosmic Dark Energy via a Quantum Entanglement Relativity Theory
o A Rindler-KAM Spacetime Geometry and Scaling the Planck Scale Solves Quantum Relativity and Explains Dark Energy
o A Unified Newtonian-Relativistic Quantum Resolution of the Supposedly Missing Dark Energy of the Cosmos and the Constancy of the Speed of Light
o Calculating the Exact Experimental Density of the Dark Energy in the Cosmos Assuming a Fractal Speed of Light
o Capillary Surface Energy Elucidation of the Cosmic Dark Energy—Ordinary Energy Duality
o Cosmic Dark Energy from ‘t Hooft’s Dimensional Regularization and Witten’s Topological Quantum Field Pure Gravity
o Dark Energy from Kaluza-Klein Spacetime and Noether’s Theorem via Lagrangian Multiplier Method
o Einstein’s General Relativity and Pure Gravity in a Cosserat and De Sitter-Witten Spacetime Setting as the Explanation of Dark Energy and Cosmic Accelerated Expansion
o Entanglement of E8E8 Exceptional Lie Symmetry Group Dark Energy, Einstein’s Maximal Total Energy and the Hartle-Hawking No Boundary Proposal as the Explanation for Dark Energy
o From Chern-Simon, Holography and Scale Relativity to Dark Energy
o From Yang-Mills Photon in Curved Spacetime to Dark Energy Density
o Nash Embedding of Witten’s M-Theory and the Hawking-Hartle Quantum Wave of Dark Energy
o Pinched Material Einstein Space-Time Produces Accelerated Cosmic Expansion
o Quantum Entanglement as a Consequence of a Cantorian Micro Spacetime Geometry
o Quantum Entanglement: Where Dark Energy and Negative Gravity plus Accelerated Expansion of the Universe Comes from
o The Hydrogen Atom Fractal Spectra, the Missing Dark Energy of the Cosmos and Their Hardy Quantum Entanglement
o The hyperbolic Extension of Sigalotti-Hendi-Sharifzadeh’s Golden Triangle of Special Theory of Relativity and the Nature of Dark Energy
o The Meta Energy of Dark Energy
o The Missing Dark Energy of the Cosmos from Light Cone Topological Velocity and Scaling of the Planck Scale
o Topological-Geometrical and Physical Interpretation of the Dark Energy of the Cosmos as a “Halo” Energy of the Schrödinger Quantum Wave
o What Is the Missing Dark Energy in a Nutshell and the Hawking-Hartle Quantum Wave Collapse
o Why E Is Not Equal to mc2

By: Jeffrey Beall
Follow on Twitter
Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

AlexH says:

July 31, 2014 at 9:33 AM

Mohamed El Naschie also have some solid work, not just self- and pay-to-published articles. He published with Pergamon Press, in Springer, de Gruyter and other Elsevier journals beside C, S. & F so he is not a complete fraud, just someone who blew an academic bubble around himself which is constantly being poked from the outside.

Ole, Ole! says:

July 31, 2014 at 11:33 AM

What academic credentials are needed to judge papers on the cosmos, space plasma physics, Einstein’s E = mc2, and dark energy? What exactly is pseudo-science?

Jeanne A. Pawitan says:

July 31, 2014 at 11:24 AM

I am not an expert in physics, so I can not judge his articles. However, in my opinion, there is a possibility that Mohamed El Naschie has a thought beyond the thought of an ordinary scientist.

We have learnt about Galileo Galilei, who was labelled as heresy, because his peers can not understand and can not follow his thought, but now his theory is widely accepted.

So, who knows, the same will happen with Mohamed El Naschie, as his hypothesis may be proven to be true in the future, but before it happens, he will be bullied by everyone.

Quark says:

August 4, 2014 at 3:16 AM

Please not Galileo again ! It was inquisition which has “judged” him because of his work not lined up with religious beliefs, nothing to do with his “peer”. This is a plain sophistical comparison.

Dan Riley says:

August 7, 2014 at 1:53 PM

Galileo wasn’t persecuted because his peers didn’t understand him–he was persecuted because the Catholic Church found his conclusions uncomfortable, and he made some powerful political and theological (but not scientific!) enemies.

Galileos are very rare–for every actual Galileo, there are thousands and thousands of inappropriate Galileo comparisons. This is one of them.

For El Naschie to be shown to be correct, he would need to have a coherent theory capable of being tested. I am a physicist, and I have read several of his papers on relativity and dark matter. My professional judgement is that the papers I read fall in to the infamous “not even wrong” category–they are confused nonsense, not testable physical theories.

Haji Noorzai Biography

Haji Noorzai
Haji Noorzai

Haji Noorzai is a United States convicted and former Afghanistan drug lord. Many years earlier he was an early supporter of the Taliban and their movement in Afghanistan. It is well known that Haji Noorzai worked as an agent (undercover) to help assist the United States in activities. At one point he was on America’s most wanted for his drug trafficking. With that being said, he agreed to come to the USA with the condition of helping with intelligence and promised that he would not be arrested during this time. After 10 days of discussions, he was arrested and later convicted by the United States. In 2009, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

During the period of 1979 to 1989 he actively fought the Soviets working to occupy Afghanistan.

After Mullah Omar went into hiding from the United States, Haji Noorzai was the leader in charge of the Kandahar region. It is believed Mr. Noorzai provided explosives and a variety of weapons to the Taliban fighters.

Profile Photo of Haji Noorzai
Profile Photo of Haji Noorzai
Haji Noorzai on Times Magazine Cover
Haji Noorzai on Times Magazine Cover

Haji Bashir Noorzai Photo Gallery:

Fallout from Questionable Article in OA Pediatrics Journal

Questionable science.

This article, “Changes in confirmed plus borderline cases of congenital hypothyroidism in California as a function of environmental fallout from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown” was published in the Open Journal of Pediatrics, a journal published by Scientific Research Publishing (SCIRP), a publisher included on my list of questionable publishers.

The article reports that fallout from the Fukushima nuclear accident increased the number of confirmed congenital hypothyroidism cases in the population studied.

The article’s findings were reported in the media, including a report on ABC 10 in San Diego and Yahoo! News, among others.

However, some independent researchers are questioning the study’s validity. According to Dr. Yuri Hiranuma:

“The actual count of confirmed cases of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) from the California Public Health Department does not match the authors’ count because they disregarded the actual count given to them. Instead, the authors (1) invented their own definition of confirmed cases of CH, (2) misrepresented the real definition of CH, and (3) invented a fictitious diagnostic category of CH which they call “borderline cases. Unfortunately, the study is widely disseminated as the “proof” of the effect of Fukushima fallout on the west coast.”

Dr. Hiranuma wrote up her objections to the study and submitted them as a letter to the journal. However, the journal refused to publish her letter. The letter has since been published on this blog. They sent her this response:

Publish anything in SCIRP journals, and they will stand behind you.

Next, Dr. Hiranuma sent an email asking why the letter would not be published, and she got this reply:

SCIRP refuses to correct the record.

I think one reason they won’t publish the letter is they only want to publish revenue articles — they don’t want to publish a letter for free. The following email confirms this:

Predatory publishing is all about the money.

Analysis: This is a case of several researchers who are concerned about health effects of radiation exposure using a predatory journal to publish questionable science that bolsters their position on the adverse health effects of low level radiation exposure. Upon publication of the article, they were successful in getting some media outlets to report their findings, and the findings were seen as legitimate because they were published in a scholarly journal. The journal’s publisher remains faithful to its customers (the paper’s authors, who paid to have their article published) and refuses to retract the article or publish a standard response to it. The academic record remains uncorrected.

I recommend viewing the following video, which provides a pitch-perfect explanation of the situation:

By: Jeffrey Beall
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Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

Susan Ariew says:

April 29, 2014 at 9:16 AM

Amazing. This story should go to those news outlets who published the results of the study initially, though I wonder, too, if they will care.

Bill Williams says:

April 29, 2014 at 12:55 PM

This is certainly a scary example of the dangers of predatory publishing.

Bill Williams says:

April 29, 2014 at 3:49 PM

Yes, this is a scary example of the dangers of predatory journals.

bill says:

April 30, 2014 at 3:07 AM

Duplicate posts: I have wondered why we have seen various near-duplicate posts here. Now it’s happened to me, I see why – its an occasional hiccough with Wordpad: sometimes the platform doesn’t appear to have received our post (as happened to me yesterday) so after some time with nothing appearing, one tries a second time to post the same contribution. Then some time later both appear.

Jeff Shrager says:

April 29, 2014 at 9:55 AM

So, youtube is now a scholarly publisher? I guess at least it’s open access and doesn’t charge for publication. I’m guessing that it’s peer review process leaves something to be desired.

Why don’t they just publish the rebuttal in another journal?

roryrobertsonformerfattie says:

April 29, 2014 at 1:56 PM

MDPI’s Nutrients journal wouldn’t publish my letter either, but underperforming Editor-in-Chief Professor Peter Howe in Australia was happy to publish an “Editorial” slamming me for pointing out that his journal’s quality control was incompetent if not non-existent: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/4/4/258

In part because of this nonsense, Jeffrey Beale has added MDPI to his widely appreciated List of Questionable Publishers: https://scholarlyoa.com/2014/02/18/chinese-publishner-mdpi-added-to-list-of-questionable-publishers/

It will be interesting to see what comes from the University of Sydney’s formal research-misconduct inquiry into its low-GI advocates’ extraordinarily faulty – and self-published – Australian Paradox research: http://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/LettersProfTrewhella.pdf

Here’s Australian national radio’s February 2014 investigation of the matter: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/2014-02-09/5239418

And here’s my submission to the University of Sydney’s formal research-misconduct inquiry: http://www.australianparadox.com/pdf/RRsubmission2inquiry.pdf

Marco says:

April 30, 2014 at 8:36 AM

Mangano & Sherman have form, and it is not just OA Publishers they use. Take this paper:
http://www.radiation.org/reading/pubs/HS42_1F.pdf
Which is published by Baywood. Its analysis has been heavily criticized for similar reasons as this current paper.

Alex SL says:

April 30, 2014 at 4:17 PM

Wow, that is an interesting aspect of not only predatory but open access publishing in general that I had completely overlooked so far. If you run your journal by collecting fees for publication, publishing rebuttals, corrections or letters for free is rather… inconsistent. Where does one draw the line? One could even say that accepting such a letter for free sets a bad precedent in that economic model. And of course retracting something would have to involve reimbursing the publication fee…

The incentives for publishers in an open access system are really problematic. If only we had the political will to create a non-profit publishing system with decent quality control and the right incentives in place instead of trying to “solve” the profiteering problem by shifting the profiteering from reading fees to publishing fees!

Frederick Guy says:

May 8, 2014 at 3:22 AM

This would be a nice point if it were true that subscription-funded publishers did routinely publish letters. Some will publish responses which are essentially mini-papers – others will not even do that, and very, very few will publish letters which, e.g., call out simple logical fallacies or sloppy work. I think it’s mostly because editors would rather not have their own bad judgements publicized. That, in any case, is how it stands in economics and some other social science fields with which I am familiar – unless it’s so different in your field, don’t blame open access.

Susan Ariew says:

June 18, 2014 at 7:27 AM

I warned one of my faculty off of publishing with SCIRP this morning. This blog post helped to explain why journals from SCIRP are not considered reputable OA journals.

Jeffrey Beall says:

June 18, 2014 at 7:28 AM

Thanks, Susan!

Roger says:

October 28, 2014 at 3:37 AM

anti-nuclear activists thrive on these predatory journals. The three authors of this article all have been long known to be phony scientists. All are colleagues of Leuren K Moret who has filled YouTube, as has Christopher Charles Busby with false claims about Fukushima. Moret really is on the edge, she claims that the earthquake that triggered the tsunami was caused by US tectonic warfare using the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility at the University of Alaska. Author Busby shares the stage in one video with Moret. Janette Sherman claims that she measured high radiation near the Pentagon on 9/11, proof that the attack was actually by a depleted uranium tipped missile. She also edited NY Academy of Sciences controversial book by Russian pseudoscientists about Chernobyl that claim millions of resultant cancers. Busby claims uranium and depleted uranium are incredibly diabolic and claims to have done epidemiology studies to prove that along with another colleague Mozghan Savabiesafahani who falsely claimed to be a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan doing work for the World Health Organization. These liars and the journals that they choose to post their lies need to be fully exposed and the news media convinced that they are lying for their supper.

Martha McCaughey says:

July 19, 2016 at 11:50 AM

The scary thing is the journalists often simply Google to find experts on the topic they are covering, and these online OA journals pop up in those searches. Journalists as well as current college students and instructors need to know how to tell the difference between questionable, predatory academic journals and real, credible ones.

How to Fly Around the World Absolutely Free

After all the recent news about the airlines, don’t you wish you didn’t have to fly at all? Or at least you didn’t have to actually pay to be treated like cattle? Me too.

I recently signed up to be an affiliate on for Chris Guillebeau’s website, the Art of Non-Conformity. I was digging around his ebooks and came across his newest one: Frequent Flyer Master. What piqued my interest (despite the name sounding a bit like something you’d see on a 2 AM infomerical) was that Chris was promising that anyone could gain enough frequent flyer miles to earn a free ticket (25,000 miles) by reading this ebook.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I had been thinking about my own frequent flyer status and how I should really get serious about my miles. The last time I even thought about my accounts was when, in a fit of frustration, I gave away all of my American Airlines miles to one lucky reader. But if it’s that easy to earn flights, maybe it’s time to dip my toe back in.

So I got a review copy. My first reaction: woah. Apparently, I have been doing it all wrong.

Without giving away too much, if you’re an active traveler and you pay for your flights– you’re doing it wrong too.

I started doing the math. If you made a few changes, took advantage of annual incentives by certain airlines and gained status with an airline or two (thereby increasing your per mile flown to per mile earned ratio), then I could see someone– especially a long term traveler or someone on a year abroad– racking in enough miles to fly dozens of times a year, absolutely free.

So why doesn’t Chris advertise this with his ebook? In part, I think he’s trying to undersell his product. But I also think he’s writing for a largely self-improvement, entrepreneurial, life-style redesign folks. He travels a lot, but his audience might not. For many of his readers, the idea of being able to bounce from LA to New Zealand to Thailand to Malaysia and back home again over a month is like, “so what?” If you’re not freed up to travel, the flight isn’t what’s holding you back. It’s vacation time or pets or family or a thousand other things.

But for travelers? It should be required reading. Not only do we fly enough to make getting free flights worth it, but we fly internationally. What fun is it to gain 300K miles if you don’t use it for a first class flight to Sydney? Or instead of buying that $5,000-$10,000 RTW ticket, you earn enough miles to get it for free?

The big catch? The ebook isn’t free.

Of course, most of the methods in his ebook are, and he’s bundled it with all of his other travel hack/airline type ebooks, so you get:

The Frequent Flyer Master: which tells you how FF programs work and how to hack them

The Travel Ninja: All about RTW tickets and long term travel
Surviving Travel in North America: Getting free access to lounge access, tricks to booking cheap flights etc

Using Priceline: Tips on how to get deals

2 audio tracks with questions and answers And a nifty excel spreadsheet all set up to track mileage, rewards, future trips, travel goals etc.

So there’s an incredible amount of value for $79. Which I know sounds like a lot. But, you have to do the math for yourself. Would getting a few free flights a year be worth it? Are you traveling now or planning to travel soon? Even if you only get one free ticket (which Chris has his famous money-back guarantee) then a ticket for $79 is a pretty good deal.

How will I use this new knowledge? First class tickets! I won’t be making as many short flights with the dogs, baby and husband in tow, but it would be very nice to have two 1st class tickets for our transatlantic flight this summer. That’s my goal over the next few months, and for $79, to me, that’s totally worth it.

If you’re planning a RTW trip, seriously, take a look at this ebook. If you have a little time, a little patience and know what you’re doing, I think, you could literally fly for free that whole year. If I was planning a similar trip, that’s exactly what I would do. Pool your money with other travelers and share this ebook, I won’t tell (just don’t tell Chris you heard it from me).

If you had 100,000 frequent flyer miles, where would you fly?

Security for Dummies: Why the New Airline Rules Won’t Work Either

If you travel frequently, you already know that the US airline security screening doesn’t work. As someone (I assume) who is not trying to blow up aircraft, hijack planes or otherwise really screw up your travel itinerary (it’s hard enough to make your connecting flight without a band of hostages slowing you down), you’d think it would be more difficult to smuggle contraband through security screening. After all, you’re not trying to be tricky. You’re not spending months planning the perfect 007-style concealment. But it happens all the time. At least to me. I’m always forgetting an errant water bottle in my carry-on or some non-regulation sized toiletry and back when I smoked, I could always get at least one lighter through the X-ray machine.

So when I returned to Seattle from Hawaii to hear someone tried to blow up a plane with a bomb in his underpants, I groaned at the thought as to what this would mean for screening going forward. In fact, ACLU already beat me to the punch, writing a rather funny (perhaps dark) response to the idea of cavity searches for airline passengers. Of course no one has proposed this… yet. (Oops, unless you count this guy on Fox News).

The irony for me was that the same week as the Christmas bomber, I got on a United flight with a leatherman knife*. I had it loose in my bag, in a side pocket and it wasn’t concealed. It’s a nice knife, great for camping, and as it occurred to me later, perfectly capable of killing in the right hands. I went through screening and the knife was X-rayed but never discovered.

The screening process doesn’t work. Period.

(*This is the knife:)

To be fair, I’m not a terrorist. So I didn’t do anything with the knife (in fact I didn’t know about it until after we landed). But if we’re trading our privacy for increased security, shouldn’t it at least work?

There’s a saying at the TSA, “If it doesn’t work, keep adding more increasingly arbitrary restrictions…“ At least that appears to be the modus operandi as they recently announced a plan to pat down and search everyone traveling from a list of 14 countries. Did they release the full list? Nope. So basically, even as an American, you can be pulled aside for additional screening because you traveled somewhere that has terrorists. Let’s put this into perspective. Nigeria is on the list and has a population of 154 million. How many of these people are terrorists? 100? 1,000? And we’re going to screen everyone with a Nigerian passport (plus 13 other countries) and everyone who travels to that country?

It seems absurd because it is. It’s a knee-jerk reaction intended to reassure the masses and buy a little political time. No one can accuse the President of doing nothing.

On closer inspection though, this is a failed and failing strategy. First, it openly admits that our current screening processes doesn’t work. If it did, they wouldn’t have to add an additional level of security. Secondly, it does nothing to address the huge gaping holes in our current system. If the original screening doesn’t work, drop it or improve it. Thirdly, it will never end. When I fly somewhere in my flip flops and have to remove them (or else be automatically pulled aside for more screening as I was advised by one TSA agent), it’s easy to understand these are not the thinking man’s rules. Clearly there are no bombs in my little shoes. But what’s worse is that these temporary stop gaps become permanent and with each new attempt, a new silly rule created.

Shoes. Water Bottles. Toiletries. Countries on some semi-secret list.

Someone will swallow a bomb. Someone will stick a fuse up their butt. And General Electric will figure out a way to give thousands of passengers a swift rectal exam with their new CavitySearch Technology ™ and that will be it.

It’s not about safety anyway, it’s about the illusion of safety. The only way to become truly 100% safe is to stop flying. The only way to completely protect the US to is close our borders, build a huge fence and spy on our citizens. Open societies are not safe. And yet no one has blown up the New York subway or taken down a building using a private plane or driven a car bomb into some monument. There is a hysteria about flying that doesn’t match the reality. It’s the same irrational fear that makes people clench their armrests during take off, even though they were statistically more likely to die in the drive to the airport.

It’s fear-based governing. We’re better than this. TSA cost tax payers about $7.8 billion dollars per year. How many terrorists has the TSA detained…. Zero. Be smart people.

Long Term Travel: Get a Little Dirty While Working

When I left the USA (Seattle, Washington) bound for the Southern Hemisphere in late 2014, my goal was to develop a greater understanding of where things come from; especially food.  Most of my life had been spent in the suburbs of Seattle either working in an office or building houses/home remodels.  It troubled me that I had spent my life eating food (grains, meats and veggies/fruits) that had come from a place that I knew nothing about.  I feel deeply insecure about being so reliant on something that I have no control over. If I’m honest, I had next to no understanding of the processes needed to produce food!  I needed to learn more about the world in order to understand my role, I needed to get dirty.

So I flew to Australia and got a harvest job out in the orchards around Stanthorpe, Australia.  My first gig was cutting broccoli from the ground and placing it on a tractor that carried a conveyor belt which hung out over the enormous veggie patches.  I would awake at 5:30 with the rising sun and work until late in the evening, bending over and cutting broccoli all… day… long…  It was backbreaking work.  We worked barefoot because it was simply the best way.  After about 2 weeks I was exhausted, my feet were rotting from from the moisture and the repetitive work.

Picking Fruit In Australia

Luckily, for the first time in my life, I was fired. Apparently, I wasn’t harvesting fast enough. Honestly, I think it’s because my heart wasn’t in it. Vegetable harvesting is brutal.

My next job was harvesting apples.  This was far less harrowing than the broccoli but it was none-the-less very demanding physically and even more taxing mentally.  The repetitious nature of picking thousands of apples a day, day after day, 5-6 days a week was very challenging.  The skin on my fingers split, I got blisters on my feet, my sweat drenched shirts would fall to pieces visibly every day.  I couldn’t buy sacrificial shirts fast enough to keep up with the degradation.

I learned a good amount about vegetables and fruit, I took a vacation and went about understanding where meat comes from.  My friend and I found station hand jobs at a super isolated cattle station in the middle of Outback Australia.  Just like the fruit picking and the vegetable harvesting, we’d awake with the rising sun and work until the sunset.  There was lots of filthy diesel engine work, welding, fence repair and horse work involved.  I learned so much, and each day I’d come back to the ranch house a filthy mess.  Showers never felt so good.

The value of all this experience is incalculable.  Not only did I learn about how food is produced, I gained a fundamental respect for farmers.  I learned to weld, build fences, harvest vast areas and I got the fundamentals for what it takes to provide enough food for hundreds of people.  The world would be a better place if everyone had a more fundamental understanding of what it takes to provide for their subsistence.  I recommend you do something to produce your own food.  Everyone should get a little dirty.

9 Steps to getting your financial working life in order while in Australia:

Touch down in Australia with a decent sum of money.

  • I landed in Australia with about $6,000 AUD. This small sum dried up really quickly. Everything costs an arm and a leg. From the taxis, to the phone calls, to the cheapest kebab places; everything hemorrhages your money in Australia. Though I could have gotten by with $4,000 AUD, it would have been a challenge and I recommend $5,000 AUD or more.

Buy a Camper-van or a Station-wagon you can sleep comfortably in.

  • This might sound like homeless living to anyone who hasn’t lived in Australia, but living on the road is part of the Australian way. There are plenty of free spots to park and sleep along the road. Some provide showers, fresh water and often a push button electric BBQ.  You will be at home in your camper van with other travelers doing the same as you, as well as wit the “grey nomads.”  These are the retired Australians traveling around the country in their camper-vans.
  • Take good care of your vehicle and sell it at the end of your trip for the same you bought it for.  Spending more on your home on wheels isn’t a bad idea.

Get an Australian Bank Account

  • Many jobs will want to direct deposit money for you. This is ideal for you anyways because it allows you to stay mobile.
  • Westpac is the biggest bank in Australia. You can start a no fee checking account:
    • Bring your passport and 2 other forms of ID
    • Bring proof of address – Either that or just get a receipt from a hostel with your name, the hostels address and the date (make sure it is the date you are in the bank getting the account).  You can make a fake proof of address easily, just type something up with that information.
    • Westpac you can pull your money out for free if you bank with Westpac partners.

Get your Australian Tax File Number (TFN)

  • Do this as soon as possible so you can get your taxes figured out – https://www.ato.gov.au/
  • YOU ARE AN AUSTRALIAN RESIDENT FOR TAX PURPOSES – Remember this when filling out paperwork for employers.

Set up a Superannuation Fund

  • A Superannuation Fund is the government mandated savings system for Australians. Your employer is responsible for paying you wages plus 9% to your superannuation fund. The benefit is that you get this money back when you leave Australia. I got $1,000 back 3 months after I landed in Hawaii. That cash was really helpful for the transition to my new home!

Get a phone. I recommend prepaid cell phone sim card and a functional cell phone

  • Being able to make calls and send texts will be important while you move around Australia. Remember: “your network is your net worth”. Be good to everyone you meet, Australia is a huge country yet a small community. Lots of people know each other. While looking for cattle station work, we met some Irish friends in Mt. Isa, QLD. We separated ways for 8 months and met again in Perth, WA. This Irish friend helped my friend get a job as a diesel mechanic making $36 an hour (and my friend had no experience as a diesel mechanic).  Knowing people will get you a job far faster than any other attribute.
  • I prefer prepaid cards because I hardly used my phone for a month when I got heavy into the fruit picking. Often times the orchards are far from town and your phone doesn’t work anyways.
  • As a rule: Vodafone is crap.  Optus for life on the coast.  Telstra for the outback.

Avoid drinking and smoking until you get a job and good income.

  • It’s all too common that backpackers arrive in Australia and spend all their money immediately on booze and smoke. Then the fools have to struggle to get back on their feet. Australian booze is super expensive. Expect to pay $14 for a 6 pack of beer or $46 dollars for a bottle of whiskey. Pouches of tobacco cost nearly $20. Wine is less expensive but is still a waste of resources.
  • Heed this advice: Australia is a great place to quit drinking and smoking

While looking for work, do something that is free and exciting.

  • Surfing, kayaking, fishing, horse riding, free diving, hiking are all options that will save your ass. Plus you might get lucky and meet someone that can help you get a good gig.

Set a goal and stick to it

  • When I landed in Australia in February I set the goal to save $8,000 before I departed for South Africa in May. Even though I didn’t quite get there (spent a bit to much time surfing), the goal really helped me through some of the more miserable days of fruit picking.

Get these chores behind you and you will be ready to be employed in Australia.  I struggled with working and doing all these things for months. Hopefully these tips are useful to you!  Yehaw!

Australian Working Holiday Visa Overview – Only For Australian Residents

A working holiday visa (WHV) is a great way to see the world while saving money to see more of the world.  The strength of the Australian dollar and high wages make it possible to travel long after your year is complete.  With Asia right next door, you can travel for two to three times the amount of time you spend working.  If you plan to see the world, it is a great idea to work/travel Australia, save money and continue traveling afterwards.

It’s also a great way to learn skills that you never even anticipated learning. While in OZ I learned to weld, surf, ride horses, build fences, muster cattle, live at sea, service diesel engines, fix all sorts of things and work farms.  I took the outback approach but you can do anything you wish.  For example: A friend of mine lived in Sydney.  We visited the Sydney Ballet and he was deeply inspired by the performance.  He earned a rigging certificate (rope work for theaters), became deeply involved in the theater scene and now he is a ballroom dancing coach.  He also learned excellent Batista skills (Australia has excellent coffee shops).

Other friends of mine learned to be bartenders, fishermen, bakers, chefs among others!  This is a great opportunity to find yourself.

While picking apples I was able to make $900 + a week.  They were long hard hours (7:00 – 17:00).  For one weeks wages I was able to live in Bali w/ my girlfriend for an entire month.  In Bali we had a rented scooter, a room overlooking an excellent surf spot (Padang Padang in Bali), surfboard rental, ate out 2-4 times a day and generally did whatever we wanted.

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