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Acta Scientific is a predatory publisher that produces a constant stream of crap presented as "scientific papers" after "peer review".
Do not publish with them.
Let's go over what a predatory publisher is, and look at examples of the pieces they sell as "science".
(a thread).
Do not publish with them.
Let's go over what a predatory publisher is, and look at examples of the pieces they sell as "science".
(a thread).
Here is the AS publisher website: https://actascientific.com/index.php
The site has several blinking and scrolling texts - one of the signs of a predatory publisher.
And it produces a long list of journals covering a wide range of topics - another red flag.
The site has several blinking and scrolling texts - one of the signs of a predatory publisher.
And it produces a long list of journals covering a wide range of topics - another red flag.
One paper published in Acta Scientific Pharmaceutical Sciences was pointed out by @Thatsregrettab1 and I tweeted about that last night:
https://actascientific.com/ASPS/pdf/diagnosis-and-treatment-of-sin.pdf
(also, apologies, my home internet is very slow)
https://actascientific.com/ASPS/pdf/diagnosis-and-treatment-of-sin.pdf
(also, apologies, my home internet is very slow)
It is called "Diagnosis and Treatment of Sin" and it is written by authors previously flagged by @Thatsregrettab1 for questionable content or affiliations.
See comments here on @PubPeer:
https://pubpeer.com/publications/0B6665F377C8D4F8C4BD3444B23D4E#
See comments here on @PubPeer:
https://pubpeer.com/publications/0B6665F377C8D4F8C4BD3444B23D4E#
Then, the other paper that exemplifies the low quality of Acta Scientific publications is one that was brought to my attention by @Lucho_Guevara.
It has a very long title, but look at the author and affiliation.
It has a very long title, but look at the author and affiliation.
The affiliation is "California South University" in Irvine. That might sound familiar because there is a (real) University of California, Irvine.
But I doubt that this University is real.
But I doubt that this University is real.
There are actually several blog posts about this author and his affiliation. Spoiler alert: the university is not real.
Also, all his papers list only his own papers as citations.
https://flakyj.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ubiquitous-alireza-heidari-from.html https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2018/02/21/down-the-rabbit-hole-with-alireza-heidari
Also, all his papers list only his own papers as citations.
https://flakyj.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-ubiquitous-alireza-heidari-from.html https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2018/02/21/down-the-rabbit-hole-with-alireza-heidari
This guy might deserve his own thread, because he has apparently set up a whole fake university website just to list his "more than one thousand reputed international awards, prizes, scholarships and honors". http://calsu.us/index.php/member/prof-dr-alireza-heidari/
I am going to stop here, because my internet is too slow to look up links or show other examples from Acta Scientific papers.
