Comment on Open-Access Publisher Launches with 355 New Journals by Jeffrey Beall

I never used the term “fake publisher.” I have listed this publisher on my list of predatory publishers, so it’s fair to say I’ve called it predatory. It clear that the mission of this publisher is to make money off of scientists, and that’s why they started with so many journals. The people handling the operation apparently have no experience in scholarly publishing. There is also some confusion over branding, as there are at least two distinct brands represented in the website, but without explanation. If the publisher is waiting for the ISSNs to be approved, then they should have waited before publishing all the empty templates. I know that they are spamming scientists with invitations to join their editorial boards, the same method used by other predatory publishers. The name of the publisher, “Academic and Scientific Publishing” is very close to the name of another publisher, “Scientific and Academic Publishing” and may be an attempt to confuse scientists. Anyone who knows anything about scholarly publishing knows that starting with 354 journals is a very poor business decision. I’ve seen enough scam operations to know that this one is just another attempt to exploit the gold open-access model. I recommend against having any contact with this publisher.