Swipe left, swipe right, publish

A dating service for academics?

---

Keith S. Taber

---

---

I was today invited to join a new platform that would allow an author "the opportunity to get the best Publishing Offers from different Journals"; and would also allow journal editors to "learn about new scientific results and make Publishing Offers to Authors". Having been an author and an editor my immediate response was, "well how could that work?"

---

---

Publishing offers?

I was a little intrigued by the notion of publishing 'offers'. In my experience what matters are 'publication decisions'.

You see, in the world of academic journals I am familiar with,

• authors choose a journal to submit their manuscript to (they have to choose as journals will only consider work not already published, under consideration or submitted, elsewhere)
• the editor decides if the manuscript seems relevant to the journal and to be, prima facie, a serious piece of scholarship. If not, it is rejected. If so, it is sent to expert reviewers for careful scrutiny and recommendations.
• then it is accepted as is (rare in my field); accepted subject to specified changes; returned for revisions that must then be further evaluated; rejected but with a suggestion that a revised manuscript addressing specified issues might be reconsidered; or rejected.¹
• if the editor is eventually satisfied with the manuscript (perhaps after a number of rounds of revision and peer review) it is accepted for publication – this might be considered a publishing offer, but usually by this point the author is not going to decline!
• if the process does not lead to an accepted manuscript, the author can decide her work is not worth publishing; use the feedback to strengthen the manuscript before submitting elsewhere, or simply move on to another journal and start again with the same manuscript.

Read about the process of submitting work to a research journal

Read about selecting a journal to submit your work to

Read about the peer review process used by serious research journals

Similarly, in the world of academic journals I am familiar with,

• an editor becomes aware of a paper available for publication because the author submits it for consideration;
• editors may sometimes offer informal feedback to authors who are not sure if their work fits the scope of the journal – but the editor certainly does not actively seek to check out manuscripts that are not being considered for that journal.

Though editors may engage in general promotion of their journal, this does not usually amount to trawling the web looking for material to make offers on.

So how does the platform work?

So, I looked at the ine^xsy site to see how the service managed to help authors get published without having to submit their work to journals, and how journals could fill their pages (and, these days, attract those juicy publication fees) even if authors did not fancy submitting their work to their journal.

This is what I learned.

---

---

Make a show of your wares

The process starts with the author uploading their abstract as a kind of intellectual tease. They do not upload the whole paper – indeed at this stage they do not even have to have written it.

"Researchers submit Abstracts of their manuscripts to the INEXSY platform and set their Publishing Statuses:

#1 – "Manuscript in progress" or

#2 – "Manuscript ready, looking for publisher".

https://inexsy.com

(Indeed, it seems an author could think up a number of article ideas; write the abstracts; post them; and wait t0 see which one attracts the most interest. No more of all that laborious writing of papers that no one wants to publish!)

---

---

Wait to be approached

Now the author just has to wait. Journal editors with nothing better to do (i.e., editors of journals that no one seems to be sending any work to) will be going through the abstracts posted to see if they are interested in any of the work.

"All journals from the corresponding science area view the Abstract of the manuscript and determine the relevance of the future article (quick editorial decision)."

https://inexsy.com

The term 'quick editorial decision' is intriguing. This term most commonly refers to a quick decision on whether or not to publish a manuscript, but presumably all it means here is a quick editorial decision on "the relevance of the future article" to the journal.

Editors of traditional journals are used to making quick decisions on whether a manuscript falls within the scope of the journal. I have less confidence in the editors of many of the glut of open-access pay-to-publish journals that have sprung up in recent years. Many of these are predatory journals, mainly concerned with generating income and having little regard for academic standards.

In some cases supposed editors leave the editorial work to administrators who do not have a strong background in the field. Sometimes journals are happy to publish material which clearly has no relevance to the supposed topic of their journal. ²

Read about predatory journals

---

---

Enter into a dialogue with the editor

ine^xst acknowledge that even the journals they attract to their platform might not immediately offer to publish an article on the basis of an author's abstract for a paper they may not have written yet.

So, the platform allows the two potential suitors to enter into a dialogue about developing a possible relationship.

 "If the text of the Abstract and supplementary materials (video, figures) are not enough for journals to make Publishing Offers to authors, then the INEXSY platform provides the [sic] Private Chat to discuss the full text of a future article."

https://inexsy.com

---

---

4. Consider moving the relationship to the next level

If after some back and forth in the virtual world, the editor likes the author's images and videos they may want to take the relationship to a new level,

 "If the potential article is interesting to journals, these journals make Publishing Offers to authors in 1 click."

https://inexsy.com

---

---

5. Decide between suitors

Now the idea of a 'publishing offer' is clarified. Having had an idea for a paper, and written an abstract and perhaps posted some pics and a video talking about what you want to write, and having been approached by a range of editors not too busy to engage in some social intercourse, the author now find herself subject to a range of propositions.

• But which suitor does she really have a connection with?
• Which one is the best prospect for a happy future?

But this is not about good looks, tinderness, pension prospects, or reliably remembering birthdays, but which journal is more prestigious (good luck with expecting prestigious journals to register on such sites), and how quickly the competing journals promise to publish the paper, and, of course, how much will they charge you for this publication escort service.

"Authors choose the optimal offer (best publication time, IF [impact factor], OA [open access] price) and submit their manuscripts to the website of the selected journal."

https://inexsy.com

Do dating services check the details provided by member? Impact factors are useful (if not perfect) indicators of a journal's prestige. But some predatory journals shamelessly advertise inaccurate impact factors. (See, for example, 'The best way to generate an impressive impact factor is – to invent it'). Does ine^xsy do due diligence on behalf of authors here, or is a matter of caveat emptor?

---

---

Live happily ever after with a well-matched journal

So, there it is, the journal dating nightmare solved. Do not worry about reading and evaluating a range of journals to decide where to submit, just put up your work's profile and wait for those journal editors who like what they see to court you.

You do not have to be exclusive. Put the goods on public show. Play the field. See which suitors you like, and what they will offer you for exclusive rights to what you want to put out there. Only when you feel you are ready to settle down do you need to make a choice.

Publish your work where you know it will really be appreciated, based on having entered into a meaningful relationship with the editor and found your article and the journal have much in common. Demonstrate your mutual commitment by publicly exchanging vows (i.e., signing a publishing agreement or license) that means your article will find an exclusive home in that place for ever after.

(Well, actually, if you publish open access, it might seem more like an open marriage as legally you are free to republish as often as your like. However, you will likely find other potential partners will consider an already published work as 'damaged goods' and shun any approaches.)

So, now it is just the little matter of getting down to grindring out the paper.

---

---

Meanwhile, back in the real world

This seems too good to be true. It surely is.

No editor of a responsible journal is going to offer publication until the full manuscript has been (written! and) submitted, and has been positively evaluated by peer review. Even dodgy predatory journals usually claim to do rigorous peer review (so authors can in turn claim {and perhaps sometimes believe} that their publications are in peer reviewed journals).

This leads me to moot a typology of three types of journal editor in relation to a platform such as ine^xsy:

1. Absent partners	Editors of well-established and well-regarded journals. These are busy with the surfeit of submissions they already receive, and are not interested in these kinds of platforms.
2. Desperate romantics	Principled editors of journals struggling to attract sufficient decent papers to publish, but who are committed to maintain academic standards. They may well be interested in using this platform in order to attract submissions – but the offers they will make will be limited to 'yes, this topic interests us, and, if you submit this manuscript, we will send the submission to peer review'. They will happily wait till after a proper legal ceremony before consummating the relationship.
3. Promiscuous predators	Editors of predatory journals that are only interested in maximising the number of published papers and so the income generated. They will make offers to publish before seeing the paper, because, to be honest there is not much (if anything) they would reject anyway as long as the author could pay the publication fees. Once they have your money they are off on the prowl again.

So, this may well bring some authors together with some editors who can offer advice on whether a proposed paper would be seriously considered by their journals (category 2) – but this achieves little more than would emailing the editor and asking if the proposed paper is within the scope of that journal.

If any authors find they are inundated by genuine offers to publish in any journals that are worth publishing in, I will be amazed.

Watch this space (well, the space below)

Still, as a scientist, I have to be open to changing my mind. So,

• if you are a representative of ine^xsy
• if you are an author or editor who has had positive experiences using the service

please feel free to share your experiences (and perhaps tell me I am wrong) in the comments below.

I wait with interest for the flood of responses putting me right.

---

Notes

---

¹ The precise number of categories of decision, and how they are worded, vary a little between journals.

---

² Consider some examples of what gets published where in the world of the dubious research journal:

"the editors of 'Journal of Gastrointestinal Disorders and Liver function' had no reservations about publishing a paper supposedly about 'over sexuality' which was actually an extended argument about the terrible threat to our freedoms of…IQ scores, and which seems to have been plagiarised from a source already in the public domain…. That this make no sense at all, is just as obvious as that it has absolutely nothing to do with gastrointestinal disorders and liver function!"

Can academic misconduct be justified for the greater good?

---