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, ^[update] 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