New OA Publisher Based in Clifton, New Jersey Apartment

Exploit the authors and readers?

We recently added Elyns Publishing Group to our list of questionable journals. This journal has a curious and perhaps revealing slogan.

Its slogan is “Explore and Exploit.” The word “exploit” in English can often mean to take advantage of something in an abusive way. Will Elyns Publishing Group exploit its authors and readers?

The publisher is based in an apartment in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Clifton, New Jersey. It currently has 30 journals, but the number seems to increase every time I examine the site. The journals are chiefly in the area of bio-medical sciences.

The publisher clearly tries to connect itself with the open-access movement, offering itself as the solution to the weaknesses of the subscription model. It states, “The central idea of ELYNS is to make the scholarly literature and scientific wisdom free and open to the scientific as well as the common world.” The site is full of such hackneyed statements. There is no explanation about what “ELYNS” actually means.

I think the central idea of Elyns Publishing Group is to make an easy profit for its owner. This appears to be a one-man operation, and a Google search indicated that the man is Narasimharao Sadam.

Only a few of the journals has any editorial board members, yet all are accepting manuscripts at this time. The site boasts, “ELYNS follows fast track 14 days peer review process.” This fast review comes at a price, a high one. The site lists these article processing charges:

High prices, false information.

These are high prices for an upstart publisher, especially given that its website is full of errors and dead links. Also, the publisher seems to indicate that it has been accepted in PubMed Central, but this isn’t true.

So, don’t let Elyns Publishing Group “exploit” you. Don’t agree to serve on its editorial boards and don’t submit any papers to them. This is a vanity press that is looking to make some easy money.

Appendix: List of Elyns Publishing Group journals as of August 25, 2013

1. Archives of Microbiology and Biotechnology
2. Case Reports in Clinical Medicine
3. Journal of Addiction and Preventive Medicine
4. Journal of AIDS and Immune Research
5. Journal of Alternative Medical Research
6. Journal of Bioinformatics, Computational and Systems Biology
7. Journal of Biomedical Technology and Research
8. Journal of Blood Disorders and Therapy
9. Journal of Diabetes and Related Disorders
10. Journal of Drug Development and Clinical Trails
11. Journal of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care
12. Journal of Enzymology and Metabolism
13. Journal of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine
14. Journal of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics
15. Journal of Forensic Medicine and Legal Affairs
16. Journal of Genomes and Proteomes
17. Journal of Heart and Circulation
18. Journal of Immunology and Vaccination
19. Journal of Molecular Biology and Techniques
20. Journal of Molecular Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine
21. Journal of Neurology and Neurosurgery
22. Journal of Oncology and Biomarker Research
23. Journal of Ophthalmic Diseases
24. Journal of Pediatrics and Mother Care
25. Journal of Plant Health
26. Journal of Psychology and Brain Disorders
27. Journal of Respiratory Disorders
28. Journal of Stem Cell and Transplantation Biology
29. Journal of Syndromes and Gene Repair
30. Womens Health International [sic]