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Nature Publishing Group - who are they?
Does anyone know anything about Nature Publishing Group? Is it simply a scam for vanity publishing? (I get this sort of e-mail all the time, but this one looks more legitimate).

Dear Dr. Frost,

In my role as Editorial Project Manager at Frontiers, an open-access publishing partner of Nature Publishing Group, I am seeking proposals for Frontiers Research Topics, in particular for our section on Evolutionary Psychology and Neuroscience in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Frontiers Research Topics are collections of articles that bring researchers together around a common theme. They highlight recent developments and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and debate. Here is an example of a Research Topic in e-book format.

Research Topics on evolutionary psychology and neuroscience are approved by our Specialty Chief Editor, Prof Karol Osipowicz. Frontiers in Psychology will be receiving an impact factor in the summer of 2014.

There are several ways to get involved, most simply by proposing themes for a Research Topic. We also welcome suggestions of people who might serve as Guest Editors – people ready to take the lead on an international editorial project. I’d be happy to provide you with further information and discuss your possible involvement via email or phone, at your earliest convenience.

Frontiers Research Topics are cost-effective, high-impact vehicles for the dissemination of research results and have been embraced by the world of research, with dozens of new themes being launched every month. Please follow these links for more information about our publishing principles, our acclaimed collaborative review process, and about our Research Topics.

Frontiers is an open-access publisher, a service that unlocks an article’s full potential by making it freely available upon publication. So please keep in mind that authors will be asked to pay a publishing fee – standard for open-access journals – that will be specially discounted for authors participating in a Frontiers Research Topic.
Admin
The Frontiers journals are a set of journals that make a lot of money off authors. You can see the prices here: http://www.frontiersin.org/about/publishingfees As you can see, the standard price is 1600€, an insane amount. And then +50€ "For each page exceeding the limit". I'm not sure what the page limit is. This is clearly a way to make money off authors who have to publish due to publish or perish.

While they offer Open Acccess, I don't see them as especially much better than traditional journals. We considered the Frontier journals before we started OpenPsych.

As for NPG, they are the publishers of the very prestigious Nature journals. They have recently (early 2013) acquired the Frontiers journals too.

As for your email, when there is money to earn, there will be marketing.

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Edit: Perhaps they are looking for replacements because of this incident: http://desmogblog.com/2014/04/09/professors-resign-journal-over-retraction-paper-upset-climate-science-deniers

I have thought about what should happen in case we get legal threats here. I will move the server to one that cannot be closed down if that will be the case. For now, it will stay with the current server.
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