It is increasingly apparent to me that the Dark Side of Open Access Journals is the existence of what I now call Vanity Science, where myself and colleagues are solicited to join the editorial boards of newly-fledged OA journals, and (or) attend boutique “science meetings” with high registration fees, where the hotel meeting rooms are filled with 30+ meeting with 20 attendees each. [I was in town for a major legitimate meeting, this one occurred over the same days, and the organizers instantly discounted registration if only I would speak].
I have received multiple invitations from International Reviews in saccharinly flattering letters, which set off all the alarm bells, and which I was pleased to see exposed on this blog last year.
Given all this, it should be noted that different disciplines do things differently. I have lately begun publishing work in computational biology, with respected members of our CompSci department as co-authors, and I have been repeatedly assured that standard practice in that discipline is rapid publication of communications in conference proceedings. I was reassured when our MS was picked up by Elsevier for extended treatment and book-chapter publication.
