I received in today's SPAM (January 2017) an invitation to submit an 'research paper' in one of their journals from the 'Editor-in-Chief' of a
'Publishing House'. Even if it had reached me within normal e-mail, I would have been suspicious. I decided, out of curiosity to check if these
journals actually existed. The painfully brief sections on the web-site tell you ABSOLUTELY nothing about this 'Publishing House! I am left without a clue as
to which country it is based in or its 'staff' work? Who are they? There is a "handling fee" of several hundred dollars to pay "up front of course"......
I STILL cannot tell if the journals ACTUALLY exist and even if one is 'published' in return for the 'fee', it seems likely that 'Editor' is
unlikely to be eager to reject your submission - no matter what the standard. Periodically, I am approached (again, this arrives as spam)
to review various articles in Journals I have never heard of before, covering topics I possess NO relevant knowledge of - no doubt this counts as 'peer-reviewing'...
NICE LITTLE EARNER...
And as for the content of the journals (if they exist) couldn't see that ANY of them applied to my areas of study and expertise. Not that this would prevent (again, on the proviso that they actually exist) ANYTHING I sent from being 'published'.
The internet CAN be a wonderful way of communicating with the world and the PRINCIPAL of "Open Access" is admirable but is being ABUSED here. ALL those reading such articles in such journals should QUESTION the standing of the journal it has been published in - the same applies to the extraordinary number of to me, obscure, printed 'International' Journals, which have sprung up around the world in the past decades.
I never cease to be amazed at the assortment of journals accepting articles covering a wide range of topics related to Himalayan flora. Why e.g. is a SPECIES SUPPOSEDLY 'NEW TO SCIENCE' found in one country, published in a 'Journal of Forestry' in another? Perhaps because, other, more relevant journals declined (quite rightly) to publish such a highly questionable submission?
I note some Universities in 'Developing' countries boast about the 'number' of articles published by each department. SURELY it is the QUALITY, not quantity which matters!?