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From: Mathematics Editorial Office
Subject: [Mathematics] Review Request
Date: December 26, 2018 at 7:43:31 AM CST
Dear Professor Calegari,
Happy new year. We have received the following manuscript to be considered for publication in Mathematics (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/mathematics/) and kindly invite you to provide a review to evaluate its suitability for publication:
Type of manuscript: Article
Title: Common fixed point theorems of generalized multivalued \((\psi,\phi)\)-contractions in complete metric spaces with application.
If you accept this invitation we would appreciate receiving your comments within 10 days. Mathematics has one of the most transparent, and reliable assessments of research available. Thank you very much for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
[name]
Assistant Editor
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From: [name]
Subject: [Mathematics] Manuscript ID: Review Request Reminder
Date: December 27, 2018 at 9:48:02 PM CST
Dear Professor Calegari,
On 26 December 2018 we invited you to review the following paper for Mathematics:
Type of manuscript: Article
Title: Common fixed point theorems of generalized multivalued \((\psi,\phi)\)-contractions in complete metric spaces with application.
You can find the abstract at the end of this message. As we have not yet heard from you, we would like to confirm that you received our e-mail.
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From: [name]
Subject: [Mathematics] Manuscript ID: Review Request Reminder
Date: January 3, 2019 at 7:48:15 PM CST
On 28 December 2018 we invited you to review the following paper for Mathematics:
Type of manuscript: Article
Title: Common fixed point theorems of generalized multivalued \((\psi,\phi)\)-contractions in complete metric spaces with application.
You can find the abstract at the end of this message. As we have not yet heard from you, we would like to confirm that you received our e-mail.
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From: Frank Calegari
Subject: Re: [Mathematics] Manuscript ID: mathematics Review Request Reminder
Date: January 3, 2019 at 11:08:03 PM CST
Dear [name],
Thank you for agreeing to enlist my professional reviewing services. My current rate is $1000US an hour. Please send me the contract forms and payment details. I estimate somewhere between 2-5 hours will be required to review this paper.
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From: Frank Calegari
Subject: Re: [Mathematics] Manuscript ID: mathematics Review Request Reminder
Date: January 8, 2019 at 07:50:03 AM CST
Dear [name],
On January 3, I invited you to forward me the contract forms and payment details for my reviewing assignment.
However, if you are unable to provide payment because you are a predatory journal, please let me know quickly to avoid unnecessary reminders.
Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this request.
My previous message is included below:
…
Professor Francesco Calegari
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From: [name]
Subject: Re: [Mathematics] Manuscript ID: mathematics-412859 – Review Request Reminder
Date: January 8, 2019 at 9:25:25 PM CST
Dear Professor Calegari,
… Actually, the article process charge of this manuscript is only 350CHF. We need to invite at least two reviewers for each manuscript. We can’t bear the cost you proposed. So I will cancel the review invitation for you soon.
All the best to your work.
Kind regards,
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Some context on whether this is actually a predatory journal can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDPI
In any rate, you can determine my suitability (or otherwise) as a reviewer for a paper with this title and then make such a determination yourself.
The paper has appeared in the journal, so they found another referee. Or not. It is listed as received on 18 January 2019 (revised Feb. 3 and accepted Feb. 17), so they seem to be fudging the time between submission and publication.
If you lookup the editorial board of the journal (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/mathematics/editors), you find the names of serious academics, including first-class ones. How does that happen? Did they actually give their agreement?
You aimed too high! If you’d asked for $100 per hour you might have got away with it!
I think the error you are making here is that I would have been happy to take $100 per hour to review this particular paper, which I certainly am not.
A belated comment, and probably one just arising from my slowness, but why the Elsevier tag if the post is about MDPI?
Not entirely sure. Free word association with “predatory journals,” perhaps?