Science Publishing Group (SPG) is an open-access publisher of academic journals and books established in 2012.[1] It has an address in New York City[2] and many of its journals are named American Journal of..., but the company is actually based in Pakistan.[3] The company has been criticized for predatory publishing practices.[4][5][6] As of 2019, it publishes 430 journals in various fields.[7]

SPG uses a Gold open-access model of publishing which charges the authors. The company claims that articles are peer reviewed by scientific experts before publication.[8] In October 2022, most to all of its journals did not have a scientific editor-in-chief.

Criticism of publishing practices

The company has been criticized for predatory open-access publishing.[4][5][6]

In an experiment, university business professor Fiona McQuarrie submitted an article to International Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science from Science Publishing Group, using pseudonyms "Maggie Simpson" and "Edna Krabappel" (characters from the cartoon series The Simpsons). Although the article had been generated by the SCIgen computer program and was nonsense, it was accepted for publication.[9] Librarian Jeffrey Beall, creator of a list of predatory open-access publishers, cites a nonsensical article in American Journal of Applied Mathematics, containing an alleged proof of Buddhist karma.[1]

Science Publishing Group has also been cited more directly as a predatory journal and a scam, using more than 200 pseudo-publications like American Journal of Applied Mathematics or International Journal of Transportation Engineering and Technology.[1][10] The publisher uses techniques related to scams like aggressive emailing (spamming campaigns) with replaced characters (α for a, for example) or invitations to publish in exchange for a payment in order to fool unsuspecting scholars.[11][12]

List of journals

SPG publishes hundreds of journals.[13] Many are named American Journal of... or European Journal of... despite SPG being based in Pakistan.

References

  1. ^ a b c Beall, Jeffrey (June 1, 2018). "Predatory journals exploit structural weaknesses in scholarly publishing". 4Open. 1 (1). doi:10.1051/fopen/2018001. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  2. ^ "Contact Us". SciencePublishingGroup.com. 2019. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
  3. ^ Beall, Jeffrey (2018). "Scientific soundness and the problem of predatory journals". In Kaufman, A. B.; Kaufman, J. C. (eds.). Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science. MIT Press. pp. 183–300. ISBN 9780262037426.
  4. ^ a b "Science Publishing Group (SciencePG)". Flaky Academic Journals. January 28, 2017. Retrieved August 31, 2018 – via BlogSpot.
  5. ^ a b Beall, Jeffrey (May 24, 2016). "Science Publishing Group: A Complete Scam". Emerald City Journal.
  6. ^ a b Woit, Peter (March 7, 2013). "American Journal of Modern Physics". Not Even Wrong. Department of Mathematics, Columbia University. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  7. ^ "List of Journals". SciencePublishingGroup.com. 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  8. ^ "Open Access is the Future of Academic Publishing". Science Publishing Group. March 30, 2017. Retrieved August 31, 2018 – via Finanzen.at. Press release.
  9. ^ "Predatory Journals: An Experiment". All About Work. January 26, 2015. Retrieved August 31, 2018.
  10. ^ "Science Publishing Group: A Complete Scam". July 17, 2019. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  11. ^ "Nice Try, Science Publishing Group". December 13, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  12. ^ "Science Publishing Group (SciencePG)". January 28, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2021.
  13. ^ "Science Publishing Group Journals: List of Scientific and Academics Journals". Science Publishing Group. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
Categories