Dear Markus Grams ,

The publisher behind this journal is Peertechz and this publisher is mentioned in the Beall’s list: https://beallslist.net/ This an important red flag. Others are:

-Meaningless indexing (like ScienceOpen, an interesting site but has nothing to do with indexing or archiving)

-DOI looks legit but for some of the papers I checked it is not

-See for more disturbing matters http://flakyj.blogspot.com/search/label/Peertechz indicating a link to OMICS (a notorious predatory publisher)

-I suspect that they made the name misleadingly looks like the well-respected PeerJ publisher (https://peerj.com/ )

-Mentioning of PubMed papers misleadingly suggest PubMed indexing of the/their journal(s) while they are not. It is standard procedure for authors with a NIH grant that their papers are indexed (regardless of the journal)

-Vague contact info for the journal and publisher info starts misleadingly with a virtual office address in the US

-The APC of 1849 USD is ridiculously high for a basically non-indexed journal

So, for sure a journal to avoid. What are they gain with this, well not sure but most likely:

-By performing some kind of peer review process, they try to look legit and genuine

-With or without an agreement they add you to their mailing list (and possibly sell this list to other ‘companies’)

-Who knows what they are thinking…

-People who do fall for this probably think that they add this to their experience with the peer review process and might even think that this is something honourable (which is true for a legit journal by the way) but peer reviewing for predatory journals is not a good idea see also: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Are_you_serving_predatory_journals_as_a_peer-reviewer_or_editor

Anyway, I would simply ignore this and just delete the mail.

Best regards.

Thank you Rob Keller

I just received a similar massage. I have no doubt that this massage came from a a predator publisher:

We hope you are staying healthy and safe through these unusual times!

We are contacting you about review of the following manuscript. Your suggestions will be supportive in increasing the quality of a manuscript and error free information can be provided to the scientific community.

Journal Name: Annals of Mathematics and Physics

Manuscript No: AMP-21-RW-148 Manuscript Type: Review article

Manuscript Title: SOME STABILITY RESULTS FOR CHARACTERISTIC PLANES

Kindly let us know your willingness to review this manuscript immediately.

As this matter is urgent, we would appreciate a reply as soon as possible.

Regards,

Vernica D

Peer Review Department

I think the answers are quite clear already. But just to give you an idea of what might have happened if you had accepted the review for this journal. You might have spent some time on it, recommended major modifications and an additional more expert reviewer, to see the manuscript accepted 3 days later without any single modification. But hey, they can say it was peer reviewed, they don't say they took in consideration the reviewers comments...

Thank you Rob Keller

Same here,

got same message, but I doubted the email, and found the journal not indexed

I received the same [email protected] last week.

Thank you Rob Keller's, for sharing.

I received the same [email protected] today.

Thank you all for noticing this. And thank you Dr Rob.

Thanks for sharing. I received one too.

Dear Markus Grams

Thanks for sharing. I had a similar experience with you recently. But, I checked the journal name and found it is not indexed. Then, I searched "[email protected]" and find your question in Researchgate.

Also, So thanks Rob Keller

Thank you, I didn't know about the fake reviewing requests

Dear Markus Grams , Thank you for sharing. I have also received similar review request and searched for the sender mail id on google and found this question on researchgate.

The received mail:

Dear Singh P,

Wish you to be in safe from COVID-19 and have good health.

I am reaching out you about review of the following manuscript. If possible and you are interested, please let us know your opinion. Your comments will be helpful to increase the quality of the manuscript and we can provide error free information to the scientific community.

Journal Name: International Journal of Agricultural Science and Food Technology

Manuscript No: ----------------------------

Manuscript Title: ----------------------------

Please let us know your willingness to review this manuscript without delay.

Your rapid response and support will be highly solicited.

Tenía esta pregunta en un mail, reviso el documento repite muchas veces lo mismo y cuando voy a la referencia es un trabajo ya publicado. Muy raro!! We need your expertise for reviewing the manuscript: JCMHS0025

[email protected] is another of those fake reviews, do not open!

Just a few weeks ago the same happened for me, I got fake review invitation: [email protected]

Usually we received in spam

This is certainly scam material.

I have received a very similar invitation to review, an initially convincing one as the alleged manuscript had a genuine-sounding title (whose wikipedia entry appears scientifically serious) - except for a gross misspelling.

On accessing the site one stats getting strange popups touting for services totally unrelated to peer review.

To me it clearly shouts out NOT to click on the attached "manuscript". A genuine journal would not - in my experience - send the manuscript but a link for which one would need a separately organised login

ohhhhh... I reviewed and sent back :'( What is the purpose of such scams?

Dear Sumaira , Greetings!! We have received a manuscript for publication. We kindly request you if you’re interested would you please review the attached article and send your comments. Title: Covid-19 an Amplifier of Social Inequalities: Some Students’ Learning has been Compromised and the Pandemic has Unveiled the Ugliness of Structural Violence. Ref. No: Educational Science-2023-MID-8952. Please go through the enclosed original article and review form and sent your review comment before April 10, 2023.

Your consideration is highly appreciated! Thanks & Regards,

Stephen Robb

SciRes Literature

United States

Dear Sumaira K. ,

You are totally right, this is not serious. This Stephen Robb (I suspect a fake name) seems to be present on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-robb-a434351b2 The publisher behind all this is “SciRes Literature LLC” and they are mentioned in the Beall’s list (https://beallslist.net/).

But there are more red flags:

-Contact info mentions at best a virtual office address

-They are not discussed positively here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SciRes_Literature

-Same is true for what they have to say about them here http://flakyj.blogspot.com/2019/03/

I am sure there are more issues (when I would take the time to search further) but personally I would conclude: avoid this one.

Best regards.

Dear Hugo Arias-Flores, Greetings!! We have received a manuscript for publication. We kindly request you if you’re interested would you please review the attached article and send your comments. Title: Covid-19 an Amplifier of Social Inequalities: Some Students’ Learning has been Compromised and the Pandemic has Unveiled the Ugliness of Structural Violence. Ref. No: Educational Science-2023-MID-8952. Please go through the enclosed original article and review form and sent your review comment before April 10, 2023.

Your consideration is highly appreciated! Thanks & Regards,

Stephen Robb

SciRes Literature

United States

I got a similar email from Stephen Robb | Editorial Manager recently (not even addressed to me but to my student):

Dear Jansa P, Greetings!! We have received a manuscript for publication. We kindly request you if you’re interested would you please review the attached article and send your comments. Title: General Review on Opioids. Ref. No: Biochemistry-2023-MID-9014. Please go through the enclosed original article and review form and sent your review comment before June 09, 2023.

Your consideration is highly appreciated!

Note: Reviewer Benefits: We offer review certificates for our reviewers to upload on Publons. Reviewers who publish with us receive the maximum discount now and in the future. Exceptional reviewers may also be considered for editorial roles within our journal. Thanks & Regards,

Stephen Robb

SciRes Literature

United States

Not only that the "SciRes Literature" is mentioned in the Beall’s list (as mentioned here before by Rob Keller) but they just sent the manuscript attached directly to this email without first asking if I accepted to review it. This is uinsanensane. Surely, it must be some fake manuscript but I did not open it.