Two New Pay-to-Publish Startups: SciRes Literature and Gavin Publishers

The logo and tagline for SciRes Literature (left) and a journal cover image from Gavin Publishers (right).

The system of payments from authors is spurring the creation of many new companies seeking researchers’ money, especially grant-funded researchers. Many of these new companies are pay-to-publish scholarly publishers, including these two, SciRes Literature and Gavin Publishers.

SciRes Literature

Let’s start with SciRes Literature, which — apparently — is short for Scientific Research Literature. Its tagline is “Profound source of knowledge.” None of its journals has any published articles yet, so at the present time, this publisher is a profound source of nothing.

SciRes Literature launched with 28 journals, all in the biomedical sciences, and all in fields already super-saturated with existing subscription and open-access journals, fields like cardiology and surgery. None of the journals fills any gap.

The “Contact” links on the website don’t work, and I cannot determine where this publisher is based. The domain-name data shows a Salinas, California address, possibly making this Monterey County’s first predatory publisher, but in fact it’s probably not really based there.

I suspect the publisher is really based in South Asia, and the owner likely has dreams of quick and easy riches from the gold OA publishing business. Good luck with that.

Gavin Journals

This publisher uses Open Journal Systems, the open-source journal management software from the British Columbia-based, collectivist organization called Public Knowledge Project. Open Journal Systems is a predatory publisher favorite.

Gavin Journals is a particular shabby and dull implementation of the open-source software. It’s minimalist and uninspired, likely using all the default settings. It has some of the very worst journal cover images I’ve ever seen. Here’s a particularly dumb one:

One of the worst journal cover images I’ve ever seen.

What emergency medicine researcher would want to submit his or her work to such an amateurish-looking journal? Probably none, and I suspect Gavin Publishers was set up by someone who is following an open-access publisher recipe, quickly setting up a site, eager to start spamming for articles and processing credit card payments.

They don’t explain the “Gavin” in Gavin Publishers. The publisher lists its contact address [exactly] like this:

5911 Oakridge way,
Lisle,
Illinois – 60532

That’s not how we format addresses in the U.S. This location is in a residential neighborhood, making this yet another Illinois-based questionable publisher based on a tree-lined, residential street. Gavin is now spamming for editorial board members, the spam emails signed by “Keisha Snyder.”

In the coming weeks, many thousands of researchers around the world will probably receive spam emails from SciRes Literature and Gavin Publishers. When yours arrive, I recommend you delete them.

Appendix 1: List of SciRes Literature journals as of 2015-10-17

1. SRL Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s Disease
2. SRL Anesthesia
3. SRL Biotechnology & Bioengineering
4. SRL Cancer & Cellular Biology
5. SRL Cardiology (SRL Cardiology Therapeutics)
6. SRL Cardiovascular Diseases & Diagnosis
7. SRL Case Reports & Short Reviews
8. SRL Dermatology: Clinical Research
9. SRL Diabetes & Metabolism
10. SRL Gastroenterology & Hepatology
11. SRL Immunology & Immunotherapy
12. SRL Nephrology and Therapeutics
13. SRL Neurological Disorders
14. SRL Neurology & Neurosurgery
15. SRL Nutrition & Food Science
16. SRL Oncology & Hematology
17. SRL Ophthalmology
18. SRL Pathology
19. SRL Pediatrics & Neonatal Care
20. SRL Pharmacology & Therapeutics
21. SRL Proteomics & Bioinformatics
22. SRL Reproductive Medicine & Gynecology
23. SRL Stem Cell & Research
24. SRL Surgery
25. SRL Urology
26. SRL Vaccines & Vaccinations
27. SRL Vascular Medicine
28. SRL Virology & Infectious Diseases

Appendix 2: List of Gavin Publishers journals as of 2015-10-17

1. Gavin Journal of Addiction Research and Therapy
2. Gavin Journal of Anesthesiology
3. Gavin Journal of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Diseases
4. Gavin Journal of Case Reports
5. Gavin Journal of Cell Biology & Tissue Biology
6. Gavin Journal of Dental Sciences
7. Gavin Journal of Dermatology Research and Therapy
8. Gavin Journal of Diabetes and Metabolic Disorders
9. Gavin Journal of Emergency Medicine
10. Gavin Journal of Food and Nutritional Science
11. Gavin Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology
12. Gavin Journal of Oncology Research and Therapy
13. Gavin Journal of Ophthalmology
14. Gavin Journal of Orthopedic Research & Therapy
15. Gavin Journal of Pediatrics
16. Gavin Journal of Stem Cell Research and Therapy