Science Alert: Beware of a Selective Publisher

There are times when you just like to be at home, it is the comfort zone feeling!

That's when my Science Alert (scialert.net) story started, so here it goes …

Well, I decided to give our friends to the north, in Pakistan, a visit and register on their Science Alert on the hope someday publish some of my research work in one of their journals, being Asian journals and if the research subject matter is of Asian interest.

So I went ahead and spent a few minutes filling up all the lengthy details in the registration form. In this day and age, we do this for all journal publishers, from Elsevier (www.elsevier.com/) to Academic Journals (academicjournals.org/). I was actually surprised that I did not get the usual email confirmation message (the norm when you register for anything online), rather, I got thanked and they will email me if my registration got accepted. They did … here is what they emailed me:

Dear Rashid Al-Yahyai

We are very sorry to inform you that your request to create account at Science Alert (http://scialert.com) has been declined because CSR could not reach you at your provided contact information.

To create account at Science Alert you must provide valid telephone and mobile number with other information, so that customers support representative may contact you before account activation.
Regards
The Team at Science Alert
http://www.scialert.com / http://www.scialert.net
We simplifies the publishing of scientific literature

I did supply all contact numbers with country codes, so I thought they may have tried my email and did not work for them. So I tried Gmail as an alternative email and re-registered again!!Got the same message a second time!!I emailed to ask why my registration is not accepted, despite being my name published in quite few journals already, if you google me, you will certainly confirm my presence!! I am on most social networks for God sake!! Here is what i said, I was obviously furious!

Your query was:
I would [like] a clear answer as of why you rejected my registration twice before I go online denounce this action by you. I registered twice and in both cases declined despite full information provided. I am awaiting your answer

Answer of your query is:
On the given information we are unable to contact you, why?

Science Alert Online Helpdesk
308-Lasani Town, Sargodha Road
Faisalabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-41-8787087
Fax: +92-41-8815544
Fax: +1-888-777-8532 (For North America)
Fax: +44-208-196-2333 (For Europe)
www.scialert.com

Business hours:
Monday to Saturday
8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.

Important Link:
A - Z List of Journals (http://www.scialert.net/atozpublication.php)
Price List (http://www.scialert.net/instprice.php)

Their idiotic answer "On the given information we are unable to contact you, why?" got me eventually ticked! I knew I had all contacts right, twice. I also read their address at the bottom of the reply and realized that I was probably in the wrong place, I had to be from Pakistan to join!So I emailed them one more time and they responded:

Your query was:
I have to make sure that next time someone waste their time on your site, they do not get stupidly rejected because they're not pakistanis.

Answer of your query is:
It is your own perception, there is nothing like that on your standard time concern department tired to contact you, well you can submit your registration form again.

Science Alert Online Helpdesk
308-Lasani Town, Sargodha Road
Faisalabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-41-8787087
Fax: +92-41-8815544
Fax: +1-888-777-8532 (For North America)
Fax: +44-208-196-2333 (For Europe)
www.scialert.net

Business hours:
Monday to Saturday
8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.

Important Link:
A - Z List of Journals (http://www.scialert.net/atozpublication.php)
Price List (http://www.scialert.net/instprice.php)

So now I would like to say to the suggestion "well you can submit your registration form again",No thanks, I have tons of other choices and I am not ready to waste one more minute registering on your prestigious journals.

I am as a 3rd world class and not from Pakistan, have no place in your esteemed publishing house.

I will leave Nobel Laureate sign up for your journals.Certainly missed opportunity though!

I blog this story so whoever try to register and gets no where, knows they are not alone. Also hopefully we save someone's time by keeping off Science Alert altogether. There are tons of other open-access publishers with more credit and certainly better impact factor.