MORE: Dilemma: the rise of the predatory journal

Below is another horror story that Professor Eaton wishes to share with everyone. Because I receive 20-30 of these bogus emails each day, I could offer perhaps some insight to one or several “key words” that I see in virtually every one of these invitational emails from online open-access predatory journals.

First, the email ALMOST ALWAYS begins with “Greetings!!!” or “Warm greetings from XXXXX!!!” (Always with one or many exclamation points). Second, they usually include “I hope you are having a very productive day” or “We hope you are in high spirits and good health”. Third, they offer excessive compliments such as “it’s your eminence & reputation in the quality of this research field”. Fourth, the signee rarely writes his/her full name: “Emmanuelle T” below is a perfect example. First names or fake names make you feel more comfortable that the email is not coming from India or China. Lastly, note the time the email was received (“November 8, 2017 at 10:47 PM”); for Dr. Eaton in Seattle, this coming from England (8 hours ahead) but 6:47 am would be highly unusual. Thus, more likely, India is 13-14 hours ahead (email would’ve been sent at 11 am or noon Nov 9th), and China 16 hours ahead; thus, a 10:47 am email rec’d in Seattle would have been sent around 2:47 pm Nov 9th.

N.B. When I clicked on their URL, “editor@pharmacologyinsights.org”, it said “Application not found.”

From: Dr DE
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 12:07 PM
To: Nebert
Subject: FW: Call for Editorial Board

Dan- Thanks for sending the article about predatory journals and the dog editor— priceless- and disconcerting. Please read the short email string below as an example of how they misuse the names of legitimate journals to ‘establish themselves as legitimate’.

Dave

From: Lawrence Lash
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 10:56 AM
To: “David L. Eaton”
Subject: Re: Call for Editorial Board

Hi David:

This is the first I have seen of this, but I will forward to our publisher and see if she is aware of this. Thank you for sharing this.

Best wishes,

Larry

From:
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2017 at 13:45
To:
Subject: FW: Call for Editorial Board

Sir

See below. Is Elsevier doing anything about this? I just published a paper in Journal of Clinical Investigation Insights, which is NOT one of these predatory ‘open access’ journals, but rather a very legitimate ‘sister’ journal to JCI, with extraordinarily high criteria. It might be worth a quick read on how well this expansion of JCI has been: https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/92800. I would think that Elsevier would have an excellent “copyright infringement” case against this journal.

Initially I had thought that this might be a legitimate Elsevier effort to expand Toxicol Appl Pharmacol, but I see now that this predatory journal is basically just stealing the title of a legitimate journal.

It is becoming almost impossible to distinguish the proliferation of predatory ‘open access’ journals fr
From: Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology Insights
Date: Wednesday, November 8, 2017 at 10:47 PM
To: “Dr
Subject: Call for Editorial Board

Dear Dr.

Warm greetings from Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology Insights!!!

At the outset, it’s your eminence & reputation in the quality of research field for which you have been invited to become Editorial Board Member for our Journal. We are aware of your reputation for quality of research and trust worthiness in the field of “Toxicology and Pharmacology”, that is why you are being requested to be an Editorial Board Member of our journal entitled “Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology Insights”.

Please go through the URL for Journal home page: Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology Insights.

If you are interested, you are requested to send your C.V, Biography (150 words), Research Interests for our records.

We look forward to a close and lasting scientific relationship for the benefit of scientific community.

With Kind Regards,

Emmanuelle T

Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology Insights

editor@pharmacologyinsights.org

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