A RAFT in a Sea of Predators

Today I was invited to publish in the International Journal of Plant Sciences and Horticulture.  I never heard of this one but it sounds right up my alley. 

However, the only alley is the alley between the publisher's Phoenix apartment and the Deer Valley Mall.  The publisher is RAFT Publishing, which stands for Reciprocal Approach for Transformation which sounds more like a gender-bending parts swap than a place to publish scholarly work. 

 The distinguished editorial staff is only a short walk to Panda Express and Chipotle. 

Plant Science and Horticulture?  That's like saying the band plays both kinds of music, Country and Western.  I was curious what the scope of the journal was, so I followed the links.

The International Journal of Plant Science and Horticulture is keen to publish your work on Fisheries or Rural Development. Or is it the Clinical Journal of Nephrology? 

I was curious about the editorial team, so I checked their associated website.  Turns out it is a little vacant, and also maybe the Clinical Journal of Nephrology.  Maybe they work on kidney beans? 

Like grandpa used to say, if you are going to be a predator at least be a good predator, and don't ever be a lazy predator.  He didn't really say that. 

But the point is a good one.  How can I trust a journal that comes from some guy's living room, has a screwed up website, and no editorial board? 

Sadly, they will publish papers, and those papers will be used to advance careers and inform others about science.  This is why the public is unsure of what to believe and what sources can really be trusted.  

Open Air Publisher Offices

Today I was invited to contribute my research or review paper to the Journal of Genomics and Data Mining.  They gave me a deadline of August 10, 2018.  That is seven days away, so there's time.

The journal is published by Gavin Publishers. The owners of their numerous domains are not able to be seen, as they paid the extra scratch to keep that anonymous at GoDaddy. 

Their contact phone number started with (630). Wait, that's where I grew up.  

A quick visit to Google Earth (2018 image) reveals that this journal's international headquarters is on a dirt lot in what might someday be a Chicago suburban subdivision.  

5911 Oak Ridge Way is a dirt lot as of April 2018. 

Maybe the publisher owns the lot and if they get enough publication fees they can buy the skyscraper.  Check with zoning first, because that looks like a place for single-family residences.

As always, it looks like they are another pay-to-publish journal without the highest standards.  Maybe there is sufficient rigor.  

But authors should be soliciting journals for opportunities. If they are begging me for submissions in a week, it probably is not a place I would want to publish.