Hi, I have not published with them but I think their Journals may be good.

These journals are the classic definition of a predatory publisher. You should stay away from them. Please check the following list:

http://openscience.ens.fr/ABOUT_OPEN_ACCESS/BLOGS/2017_01_23_Jeffrey_Beall_last_list_of_predatory_journals.pdf

It is a newly initiated endeavor from SM Group. I think the journals are not so well known at present. I haven't published with them.

I have been asked as reviewer, but will reject since they are on the list of predatory publishers. Or was I wrong?

I believe that we have both side of the coins.

Some are predatory and other are improving. I think that some (that are improving) are working to open a space in this kind of business.

Here in Brasil, many journals are open access and are doing a good job.

I hope so, but who knows who is improving?

I hope both the journal and we, if the impact factor or other citation methodology, like Google Scholar or RGate, is used to evaluate this process.

Dear Smita Goorah ,

The publisher SM Group (or SM Online journals) is mentioned in the Beall’s list:

https://beallslist.weebly.com/

On their home page they start with a number of articles that somehow (probably because one of the authors had a NIH grant) ended up in Pubmed: suggesting that all their papers are indexed in Pubmed but they are not (so a clear red flag to me).

A staggering 152 journals they claim to host. I check a couple of them: they are virtually empty, some start in 2015/2016 and after that basically nothing… (so another red flag to me).

The complete absence of the corresponding APC’s for the various journals is another red flag. You are completely kept in the dark on how much it will cost you once you decide to publish your paper.

PS. There seems to be some indications that the people behind this publisher are the same as from Austin Publishing Group (also listed as a predatory publisher).

Best regards.

Indeed, that was my source of information