Stevan- Saying that people should shun gold OA because there are spammers pushing journals is like saying people should never take prescription drugs because there are spammers trying to sell cheap prescription drugs, or that nobody should ever do business with Nigeria.
But if you're going to use the standard of email inboxes being filled with nonstop entreaties to pursue a path to open access, surely it is green OA that would suffer the most :-). -Mike On Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 9:03 AM, Stevan Harnad <amscifo...@gmail.com> wrote: Dear colleagues, They just keep coming, almost daily, pre-emptively spamming all the people we had been hoping to win over to Open Access. Not only is it regrettable that OA is so unthinkingly identified in most people's minds exclusively with gold OA publishing, but this growing spate of relentless fool's-gold junk-OA spamming is now coalescing with that misconception -- and at the same time more and more universities and funders are reaching into their scarce funds to pay for this kind of thing, thinking this is the way to provide OA. (Meanwhile, green OA mandates, the real solution, are still hovering at about 200 out of about 10,000 (2%!) -- and mostly needlessly watered-down mandates. I wish I could figure out a way to turn this liability -- fool's-gold spam and scam -- into an asset for spreading green mandates, but I'm afraid that even Richard Poynder's critical articles are being perceived mostly as critical of OA itself rather than just of fool's-gold OA.) The real culprits are not the ones trying to make a buck out of this current spike in pay-to-publish-or-perish/gold-fever co-morbidity, but the researchers themselves, who can't put 2+2 together and provide green OA on their own, cost-free; and their institutions and funders, who can't put 2+2 together and mandate that they do it. Instead of thinking, it's easier to shell out for fool's gold... Richard's exposés are helpful, but I think they are not enough to open people's eyes. So all we can do is hope that the spamming itself will become so blatant and intrusive that it will wake people up to the fact that this is not the way to provide OA... Stevan PS Not only do I not work on anything faintly resembling "proteomics/bioinformatics" but I have no "relationship with OMICS Group" (except possibly prior complaints about spam)! These spam disclaimers are a lark. They seem to be using professional spam services that try to appear respectable. From: "JPB"<editor....@omicsgroup.co> Date: October 28, 2011 4:29:28 AM EDT To: "Stevan Harnad" Subject: Invitation for Special Issue: Journal of Proteomics & Bioinformatics Reply-To: editor....@omicsgroup.co You are receiving this email because of your relationship with OMICS Group. Please reconfirm your interest in receiving email from us. If you do not wish to receive any more emails, you can unsubscribe here Journal of Proteomics & Bioinformatics - Open Access Dear Dr. Stevan Harnad, We are glad to announce the success of Journal of Proteomics & Bioinformatics  (JPB) an Open Access platform for proteomics, bioinformatics research and updates. To provide a rapid turn-around time regarding reviewing, publishing and to disseminate the articles freely for research, teaching and reference purposes we are releasing following special issues. Upcoming Special Issues Handling Editor(s) Domain-Domain Interactions Dr. Chittibabu (Babu) Guda, University of Nebraska Medical Center, USA Microarray Proteomics Dr. Qiangwei Xia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Canonical approach: Moleculomics Dr. Lifeng Peng, Victoria University, China Shifts and deepens : Biomarkers Dr. Kazuyuki Nakamura, Yamaguchi University, Japan Membrane Protein Transporters Dr. Mobeen Raja, University of Alberta, Canada Structural and Functional Biology Dr. Viola Calabró, University of Naples "Federico II", ITALY HLA-based vaccines Dr. Mario Hugo Genero, Universidad Austral, Republica Argentina Insulin Signaling & Insulin Resistance Dr. Zhengping Yi, Arizona State University, USA Proteomics for Cancer chemoprevention Dr. Imtiaz Siddiqui, University of Wisconsin, USA Membrane Proteomics Dr. Yurong Lai, Groton Laboratory, Pfizer, Inc, UK We would like to request a contribution from you for any of these special issues or regular issues of the Journal to improve the Open Access motto in this field. For more details PS : http://www.omicsonline.com/SpecialissueJPB.php Why to submit and benefits : http://www.omicsonline.org/special-features.php Submit your article online at : http://www.editorialmanager.com/proteomics/       (Or) As e-mail attachment to the Editorial Office :editor....@omicsgroup.co We shall look forward to hear from you. Sincerely, Editors, Journal of Proteomics & Bioinformatics Dr. Chittibabu (Babu) Guda, University of Nebraska Medical Center, USA Dr. Qiangwei Xia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Dr. Lifeng Peng, Victoria University, China Dr. Kazuyuki Nakamura, Yamaguchi University, Japan Dr. Mobeen Raja, University of Alberta, Canada Dr. Viola Calabró, University of Naples "Federico II", ITALY Dr. Mario Hugo Genero, Universidad Austral, Republica Argentina Dr. Zhengping Yi, Arizona State University, USA Dr. Imtiaz Siddiqui, University of Wisconsin, USA Dr. Yurong Lai, Groton Laboratory, Pfizer, Inc, UK Editorial office OMICS Publishing Group 5716 Corsa Ave., Suite 110 Westlake, Los Angeles CA 91362-7354, USA E-mail:editor....@omicsgroup.co Ph: +1-650-268-9744 Fax: +1-650-618-1414 Toll free: +1-800-216-6499 Unique features: ⢠User friendly/feasible website-translation of your paper to 50 worldâs leading languages ⢠Audio version of published paper ⢠Digital articles to share and explore ⢠200 Open Access Journals ⢠10,000 Editorial team ⢠21 days rapid review process ⢠Indexing at PubMed (partial), Scopus, Chemical Abstracts, Scholar, DOAJ, EBSCO, Index Copernicus and Google Scholar etc ⢠Sharing Option: Social Networking Enabled ⢠Authors, Reviewers and Editors rewarded with online Scientific Credits This message was sent... by editor....@omicsgroup.co Unsubscribe from all mailings Manage Subscription | Forward Email | Report Abuse -- Michael Eisen, Ph.D. Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology University of California, Berkeley