Why Predatory Pushback?

I get a lot of email.  

Probably 200 a day on weekdays.

At least ten are invitations to some conference that has nothing to do with my research area or interest. 

At least ten are from alleged journals, soliciting contributions. 

I started to look into this a bit more.  Who are they?  Where are they?  Are these legit? 

The answer is typically that these are small businesses that realize they can make money by charging to build a website and invite contributors to put their scientific reports there.   In the days of predatory publishing, tough peer review, and publication requirements for academic tenure and/or promotion, these sites are obviously getting some business.  

The problem is that it subverts the concept of peer review and journal publication.  

1.  Poor quality research is published in a technically peer-reviewed journal that does not likely have editorial or reviewer rigor of legacy journals.  The work should never be granted that gold standard. 

2. Poor-quality work is difficult to differentiate from good quality work from a public perspective, leading to confusion.  The standard of publication used to mean some stringent standards were in place before articles were presented. 

3.  The media, always looking for a sensational story, may report bad work as credible based on its claim of published and peer-reviewed. 

Are any of these journals legitimate?  Beats me. Skimming through them the work usually looks okay but consistent with low-caliber work with inadequate statistical power and overstatement of conclusions from data presented. 

I also feel that if a journal is good, I should be begging them to accept my solicitations, not the other way around. 

In the following posts I'll provide information about some publishers that have solicited my submissions-- their physical location, what is their infrastructure, are they on predatory lists? 

Should be fun.