The Miller-Urey experiments

I received an email from IJMS in October last year asking to publish in this journal for the Origins of Life issue. My colleague and I decided against it as it came with a publication charge of about $800, which is usually a sign of H-factor-boosting and little else. As far as I can tell, it's legit, but not necessarily respectable. Peer review seemed minimal.If you want better origins of life studies, try different journals:The top origins of life journals currently include, naturally, "Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres"
http://www.springerlink.com/content/102974/
which was the major journal that has and continues to follow up on Miller and Urey's 1953 experiment. It was started sometime in the 1960s, and has gone by a few names. I've published there, but then again, so have OE creationists (Fazale Rana, specifically). The journal is not too heavy on peer review (my paper had only 1 reviewer, though the editor was very familiar with our work), so some crazier stuff occasionally gets through.Astrobiology (http://www.liebertpub.com/products/product.aspx?pid=99) is probably the top in the origins of life field currently as papers submitted there go through the most peer review (my paper had 3 reviewers) and often become heavily cited. Very little crazy stuff gets through the peer review for this journal. The journal has only been around for 7-8 years.International Journal of Astrobiology is the final origins-focused journal, and is young like Astrobiology, but lacks the heavy peer review. Our article there had only one reviewer (Electrochemical studies of iron meteorites: phosphorus redox chemistry on the early Earth | International Journal of Astrobiology | Cambridge Core), but the review was still pretty rigorous. Some crazy stuff gets published there.Unfortunately the origins of life as a field attracts some pretty crazy stuff.

Hi Mr Jack,I've got a couple (actually 9 in print, and one in press). My most cited is in Astrobiology and attempts to address the origin of phosphorylated biomolecules (things like ATP, DNA, RNA, and others). Here's the abstract: Aqueous corrosion of phosphide minerals from iron meteorites: a highly reactive source of prebiotic phosphorus on the surface of the early Earth - PubMedMy Origins of Life paper dealt with the historic fluxes of extraterrestrial material as sources of prebiotic material (http://www.springerlink.com/content/d0013w72562v0214/).I had good luck with proceedings of the national academy of science, and paid extra to make it publically available:
Just a moment...
check it out if you'd like!Let me know if you'd like a pdf copy of any of these.More on topic- I was pleased to actually meet Stanley Miller before he passed away. Although critique of his 1953 paper is a common creationist tactic, he seemed always pleased to have young scientists follow and expand on his ideas. Though we don't have the origins of life solved yet, we're closeer than we were back when he helped invent the field.