The recently-launched OMICS Group journal.
OMICS Group recently launched a new open-access journal called Diagnostic Pathology: Open Access. The title closely matches that of the BioMed Central (BMC) journal Diagnostic Pathology. It also matches the scope of The Diagnostic Pathology Journal, a new open-access journal launched by the former editor-in-chief of the BMC journal.
OMICS Group has a track record of launching journals whose titles match or closely match those of established and respected journals. OMICS then proceeds to trade on the ambiguity, tricking some paying authors into thinking its journal is the real one. It does the same thing for many of the hundreds of academic conferences it organizes.
OMICS Group is now spamming authors, seeking papers for the new copycat journal’s “inaugural issue.” The spam email misrepresents the true headquarters location of OMICS Group, declaring a Foster City, California address, instead of its true location, Hyderabad, India.
The BioMed Central journal, with its strong impact factor.
The former editor-in-chief of BMC’s Diagnostic Pathology recently launched his own journal, The Diagnostic Pathology Journal. Apparently fed up with the status quo of scholarly publishing, Dr. Klaus Kayser of Humboldt University, Berlin, took matters into his own hands.
Another new journal.
Dr. Kayser apparently became upset that gold open-access journals with higher prestige are able to charge authors more to publish in them. In his opening editorial in the new journal, Dr. Kayser asks,
Some of the publishers adjust their publication fee to the citation index (CI) of the corresponding journal. Why?
[Kayser refers to the impact factor as the “citation index.”]
—Dr. Klaus Kayser
Dr. Kayser’s new journal is not a predatory journal and is not on my list.
According to the BMC journal’s website, the current author fee is “£1370/$2145/€1745,” a high price indeed. BioMed Central journals are very expensive to publish in. Many are unable to afford to publish in BMC journals.
Clearly, OMICS Group sees the money to be made by publishing articles in the field of diagnostic pathology and seeks to profit as well.
The system of payments from authors has greatly damaged scholarly communication. To level the playing field, scholarly publishing needs a system that publishes research based on its quality, novelty, scientific soundness, and importance, and not merely on the author’s ability to purchase the publishing in a pay-to-play journal.
