As krastanov pointed out in the comment above you, "Scientific Reports" is not the same as publishing in "Nature" itself. But about your cousin's method: If y

As krastanov pointed out in the comment above you, "Scientific Reports" is not the same as publishing in "Nature" itself. But about your cousin's method: If you have never heard of "Nature" even though it is one of the biggest names out there, then you have no reason to trust it, of course. On the other hand, if you have already read hundreds of papers published by them in your field, and those were above average in quality, trusting that name does make a lot of sense imho.