A New Clone of OMICS Publishing Group: MedCrave

It’s not research that you will be stepping in.

A highly questionable publisher with the silly name “MedCrave” launched in April, 2014. I have added it to my list of questionable journals and recommend against joining their editorial boards and against submitting papers. This publisher appears to be a new brand created by OMICS Publishing Group of Hyderabad, India. 

There is nothing on the website itself that directly connects MedCrave to OMICS, but I see these telltale signs that this is an OMICS operation:

• The look and feel of the MedCrave website matches that of OMICS
• Most of MedCrave’s 20 journals have little content except editorials, opinion pieces, and “short articles.” The publisher expertly recruits these easy articles from ranking academics and then uses the editorials and names and pictures of the academics to attract more articles.
• MedCrave calls itself “MedCrave Group” just like OMICS calls itself “OMICS Group”
• Like OMICS, MedCrave uses LinkedIn to connect with researchers and solicit papers and their accompanying fees.

One of the identities that MedCrave has created on LinkedIn is “Mary Thompson,” and in its spam it has used “Helen White.” The headquarters location of MedCrave is listed as this:

This address makes it appear to be U.S.-based.

If you look at this address in Google Maps, you’ll see that it is a residence. There’s no street view in this neighborhood, but the aerial view shows houses. Thus a medical publisher with twenty journals is being run out of a house.

The scholarly publishing quarter of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

(I actually think the address is not the true headquarters; I think this operation is being run out of Hyderabad, India.)

Finally, I found the publisher’s FAQ to be strange and poorly written:

Certain awards?  Journals I submit?

In the first question, it is clear they are trying to entice potential editorial board members by promising “certain awards,” and in the second, they are confusing the word journals with articles.

This operation is non-transparent and deceptive. I recommend that scholars not conduct any business with MedCrave.

Appendix: List of MedCrave journals as of 2014-06-01:

1. Advances in Obesity, Weight Management & Control
2. Advances in Plants & Agriculture Research
3. Gastroenterology & Hepatology: Open Access
4. Journal of Anesthesia & Critical Care: Open Access
5. Journal of Cancer Prevention & Current Research
6. Journal of Cardiology & Current Research
7. Journal of Dairy, Veterinary & Animal Research
8. Journal of Dental Health, Oral Disorders & Therapy
9. Journal of Diabetes, Metabolic Disorders & Control
10. Journal of Human Virology & Retrovirology
11. Journal of Investigative Genomics
12. Journal of Microbiology & Experimentation
13. Journal of Neurology & Stroke
14. Journal of Nutritional Health & Food Engineering
15. Journal of Pediatrics & Neonatal Care
16. Journal of Psychology & Clinical Psychiatry
17. MOJ Cell Science and Report
18. MOJ Immunology
19. MOJ Orthopedics & Rheumatology
20. MOJ Proteomics & Bioinformatics