Please bear with me as I provide some necessary background before getting to my point. As a narcolepsy patient advocate, one of the ways I try to help my fellow narcoleptics is by attempting to increase awareness among clinicians of the many subtle yet significant effects of disturbed orexinergic signaling in people with narcolepsy (PWN). Since patient anecdotes are not data and therefore can be conveniently (and often quite reasonably) dismissed, it seems to me that the best way to do that is from within the ‘system’, i.e. by making my case through publishing peer-reviewed commentary. Several years ago I was able to have a piece I wrote published in a mainline, respected journal (see my profile). I’m sure you’ll understand that it is not self aggrandizement to point out that it is no small feat for a self-educated ‘hobby neurologist’ with no degree of any kind to pull that off.
There are many things about narcolepsy, some of which are undocumented or poorly so, that I want to bring to the attention of clinicians, especially primary care practitioners. However, in addition to being a PWN (Person W/ Narcolepsy, the singular form in this case) I am also older now. My best thinking days are behind me, so it is difficult for me to write clearly about these very complex matters that I only have a superficial understanding of. I recently completed an article that I wanted to have published. Admittedly, it isn’t my best work and would have benefited greatly from having a co-author, but the point it makes is an important one and I wanted to get it out there. I tried submitting it here and there, but my options were limited by the very steep APC’s that most journals are charging these days. I simply can’t afford to pay those fees and couldn’t find a journal that would waive them for me. So, I put it aside.
One day I got another one of those e-mails that all of you get, from a publisher soliciting contributions. Yes, even I get them. Usually I ignore those, but this time I wrote back. I said that I understood that they were looking for paying customers. I explained that I am not funded by any organization and can’t personally pay the APC, but if they would waive the fee I would be interested in further discussion. To my surprise they agreed. End of the story: the article appeared today in the online journal (link at the end). Now, if you investigate this publisher you will find them to be known as predatory. However, while they didn’t need to be very nice to me, they were. They agreed to waive their fee and publish my article and I in turn agreed to say (deservedly) nice things about them in my social media. Hence this post.
I’m sure that professional scientists and clinicians have many reasons for holding such publishers in disdain. Perhaps too much so.
The publisher is London Journals Press, and you can find the article here:
https://journalspress.com/LJMHR_Volume23/Narcolepsy-The-Tip-of-an-Iceberg-of-Neurological-Dysfunction.pdf
This newly launched project is a good effort to explore and identify Predatory Authors and Journals . Please visit https://scholarlycritic.com
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