I contacted the  industrial companies featured by REGinnovation at https://reginnovations.org/directory/ to know whether they are subscribers of Renewable Energy Global Innovation or not. the goal was to verify this sentence "REGI is viewed almost 645,000 times each month by our audience of academic and industrial R&D scientists and it is featured on the intranets of a growing number of the top 50 Energy and industrial companies as well as major academic institutions." that REGI proudly put in every email. I also provided them with the link to this discussion.

I am starting to get replies from the industrial companies, which I want to thank one more time for their attention to this problem. I can post few replies here after permission of the industrial company representative.

BP reply:

" BP is unaware of any previous involvement with this website. The details it lists for BP as a ‘featured company’ are inaccurate (even the company name and contact details are incorrect), and BP’s intranet does not routinely feature third party abstracts."

I have had the same experience, any answer will help

Dear All,

I was contacted two times by Dr Paul Richards on behalf of REGI Innovation with their classical message "We are pleased to let you know that our Target Selection Team at Renewable Energy Global Innovations has identified your recent peer-reviewed paper: ... as a Key Scientific Article contributing to the excellence in Energy research."  Their website seems perfectly normal and presents the list of the industrial companies suscribed to REGI newsletter. However:

- It was impossible for me to find out more about Dr Richards, Additor of Scientific Affairs of REGI: no personal page at LinkedIn, University, Laboratory or other resource describing his professional experience, publications, research areas or other information

- it seems that there is no internet resource, other than research institutions (who paid 35 dollars) and REGI Innovation it self, talking about this organization, 'Key Scientific Article' and Renewable Energy Global Innovations journal.

- I contacted Dr Richards one month ago without success (email here below)

I am really confused, because for me REGI seems fake, but plenty of researchers continue to indicate in their electronic CVs (according to google search) that their articles have been selected by REGI as a Key Scientific Article ...

I just contacted ISSN Register to verify if ISSN 2291-2460 is real.

Email to Dr Richards (REGI)

"Thank you for your interest for my research.

Before to proceed with publication of my research in your newsletter, I would like to know better about REGI organization besides the information I can find in your website. Could you please send me some links (for example, to newspapers articles or scientific forums) talking about REGI, its goals and mission. Moreover, I would be greateful if you can send me also the link to your personal web page where I can find more information about your professional background and scientific publications. "

I contacted the  industrial companies featured by REGinnovation at https://reginnovations.org/directory/ to know whether they are subscribers of Renewable Energy Global Innovation or not. the goal was to verify this sentence "REGI is viewed almost 645,000 times each month by our audience of academic and industrial R&D scientists and it is featured on the intranets of a growing number of the top 50 Energy and industrial companies as well as major academic institutions." that REGI proudly put in every email. I also provided them with the link to this discussion.

I am starting to get replies from the industrial companies, which I want to thank one more time for their attention to this problem. I can post few replies here after permission of the industrial company representative.

BP reply:

" BP is unaware of any previous involvement with this website. The details it lists for BP as a ‘featured company’ are inaccurate (even the company name and contact details are incorrect), and BP’s intranet does not routinely feature third party abstracts."

 ISSN Canada replied that ISSN 2291-2460 has been attributed to REGI

"ISSN Canada a bel et bien attribué le numéro ISSN 2291-2460 au périodique intitulé Renewable energy global innovations. "

 Another company from REGI featured compane list replied (they prefer to stay anonymous)

"Thank you for reaching out. I understand how difficult it is to find quality visibility as there are a lot of companies that report about tehcnology for a fee but your never sure what you get.

I can tell you that I have not seen this website before. I am looking into it now as we are not members nor have we signed up with them. I am not sure why they have our company listed. I will say that upon finding it there is some interesting articles but to answer your question, we are not a subscriber."

Many thanks for information. We were invited too but have now deleted the message.

Thank you for all for sharing the sound skepticism arising from this and similar emails. Very helpful! From me they only need "a small handling charge" of $60. Deleted promptly.

Francesco, Elizaveta, and All,

I got the same email from the same guy just today!! I did some homework.

Their website is real (appears to be real), but I cannot see any tangible benefit of advertising our well-read paper at their website. Web source is from Canada, which has lots of scammers?

Well, if you are a true researcher, you can find those papers, including mine, easily if you have access to these journals or find them on here at Researchgate. The group seems to ‘rip off’ or ‘milk away’ some $$ (even small) from each of us. So, I checked with my colleague and he pointed me to this very question posed by Francesco. So, all your questions and answers gave me enough ammunition to "ignore their offer". So many scams, spams and fake ones everywhere!!

Another unworthy distraction!!

Regards,

Jeremy

Dear researchers.

Thank you for writing this thread. I also got contacted by this "organisation" and thought it was too good to be true. Their page seems to be authentic but after finding this thread I will delete the email. Thank you. Have a nice day.

Exactly the same for me. Thanks for the answers posted here!

Thank you, friends. Your comments have saved my time. I was asked for $60.

Thank you much for the info on this Hoax.

I've got the same email. Sent a reply to Dr. Richards, forwarding him to this thread and asking his opinion. I'll let you know the outcome.

Just got the email today from the same person. After reading this thread, will delete it. The publication fee was $55 in my case.

Thanks for the question and answers here, I just received the similar email from REGI, asking for $65. I wish all of you fine.

Yes, just received the identical email from Dr. Paul Richards - with a $75 charge now. Thanks for the above warnings! I'll c/p the email below so it can be searched easily. I think it's safe to assume it's a scam.

"Renewable Energy Global Innovations selection committee has identified your paper: (Temporally-explicit and spatially-resolved global onshore wind energy potentials) as a Key Scientific Article contributing to the excellence in renewable and clean energy research. We would therefore like to write a feature about your work and highlight it in our next edition of Renewable Energy Global Innovations series.

REGI highlights papers of exceptional scientific importance to a broad scientific audience (for latest edition: https://reginnovations.org ). The feature is intended to publicize research excellence across academia and in the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of research and its improvement.

REGI is viewed almost 550,000 times each month by professors and scientists and it is linked to the top 40 energy companies as well as major research institutions. Papers featured by REGI gain extensive exposure and increased citations.

If you accept our invitation, our REGI science and technology technical writers will prepare a high quality feature draft about your research paper and then share it with you for final approval. You will also have the option of adding further information related to your research, authors’ short bio and photos, and a relevant figure (not-violating copyright).

There is a small processing fee for featuring publications on REGI ($75). We can send you an official invoice and we will feature your paper within 14 days. (https://reginnovations.org/product/key-scientific-articles/ ) 

At REGI, we highlight the researchers work at the cutting edge of science, those who are developing the innovations that will lead to a brighter tomorrow. Please do take the time to explore top papers highlighted at REGI based on quality of research and potential scientific impact: https://reginnovations.org. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need any further information.

Respectfully,

Paul

Paul Richards, PhD MBA VP Scientific affairs, Renewable Energy Global Innovations,

Ottawa, K4M0B9, Ontario, CANADA Tel  (+1) 613-878-3745 Email: [email protected]

Web:  https://reginnovations.org"

My advice for the invited authors is that you should go for high quality platform to publish your job. High quality would not invite you cheaply. To me, their invitation is cheap which would not lead to a good output. I wonder if their claim of popularity among the research community is genuine and correct if nobody in this platform has an idea about their operation and products.