The nature of Shanu*

• 23.09.2022 10:06 UTC+02:00
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Shanu's reached out to me on behalf of Journal of Biomedical Science and Research. They've come across an abstract of mine from six years ago and would be glad to publish the full manuscript. This is very kind of them, but it was published at the same time as the abstract, which is kind of the point of an abstract really. I can only assume that Shanu's scraping through citation indices without follow-up, which would waste their time; it's better to waste other people's.

In the event that my work's already been published, JBSR will publish my review or commentary on it. Of a minor work published six years ago; who'd give a shit? I certainly wouldn't, and I authored the bloody thing in the first place!

I realise that this is simply an opportunity for a low-grade publisher to grift a little moolah, and for academics with loose ethics to pad out their publication portfolio. But it's all garbage that despoils the scientific record. The consequence is that over time either junk becomes truth, or future academics have to do so much more to separate the wheat from increasing levels of chaff.

It should come as absolutely no surprise that this message hails from a time zone that's associated with one of the world's powerhouses of predatory pseudo-academic publishing: India (UTC+0530). The use of language and the message code are also telltale signs. As an example, I've included the code for the last line of the message below it. Having said that, at least Shanu hasn't claimed to be based in California, so that's something I guess.

One final observation: a GMail account screams professionalism…not! Why not simply use your own webcomic's email address, Shanu?

Return-Receipt-To: "Journal Of Biomedical Science And Research" <jbsr@pubtexto.tech>
From: "Journal Of Biomedical Science And Research" <jbsr@pubtexto.tech>
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2022 12:40:42 +0530

Journal of Biomedical Science and Research (ISSN 2582-077X) Impact Factor: 3.1* | Cite Factor: 2.6 Warm greetings from Journal of Biomedical Science and Research I wish this mail finds you in good health We came across your Abstract titled: “[full article published six years ago]”. We would be glad to publish the full length manuscript, in the upcoming issue (Volume 4, Issue 3) of our Journal “Journal of Biomedical Science and Research”. If the article is already published, you can submit a Review/Commentary for the given article/unpublished data, if you have any. For More Details Visit: https://www.pubtexto.com/journals/journal-of-biomedical-science-and-research All the articles accepted with us, will be assigned with unique DOI. You may submit the manuscript as an attachment to shanu.editor123@gmail.com or https://www.pubtexto.com/journals/journal-of-biomedical-science-and-research/submit-manuscript Do not hesitate to contact us for any further queries. Looking forward for your reply. Best Regards Shanu DM Senior Managing Editor Journal of Biomedical Science and Research Pubtexto

About the publisher

Pubtexto Publishers is an International online publishing organization that publishes Open Access Journals on Clinical, Medical, Environmental, Pharmaceutical, Neurosciences, Materials Sciences & Engineering and Nanotechnology and Business Management. Pubtexto is a self-supporting, independent association and it doesn't get funds/resources from any university/institute/society. Pubtexto takes a strict strategy against Plagiarism or any kind of informal Copying. Literary plagiarism in any frame would not be acknowledged by the association that improves nature and quality of publication. Pubtexto acts as an interfacing link between researchers and readers across the scientific community.

Pubtexto, About Us

Sounds marvellous. As long as you don't think about it too much.

Shanu may not claim to be US-based, but Pubtexto does. Bentonville AK, to be precise. To be even more precise: Bentonville, 2011SE saintAndrews Blvd, Arkansas, 72712, USA,. Does that even make sense in terms of address format? I don't think it does. (thinking)

The phone/fax area code given—501—is for Little Rock, which is at least the correct state. Although Bentonville itself is area code 479. (confused)

The company's mission is to turn old rope into money use as little punctuation as possible. Their mission statement may only be one sentence, but it's not short and pithy.

Pubtexto Publishers mission is to raise the permeability, availability, accessibility, usage and impact of qualitative communications with peer-reviewed auditing process following editorial manager framework, open access scholarly research journals internationally, regardless discipline geography or language.

Pubtexto, About Us

So, yeah, Pubtexto: another skeevy predatory publisher.