The Journal of Buffalo Science

We recently discovered a new Pakistan-based, hybrid, open-access publisher called LifeScience Global. The site lists 15 journal titles, including the Journal of Buffalo Science.

The site tries to give the impression that the publisher is based in Ontario, but we had a look at their “office” there, and it’s really a tall apartment building, so it’s probably just someone letting them use the address.

This publisher is more sophisticated than most. To attract author fees these days, you have to be more and more convincing, and you have to look like a genuine publisher. This publisher is a member of CrossRef, it assigns DOIs to its articles, and its web design is much better than average.

The site incorporates social media applications, but it also has advertising.

Strangely, the funding model the site appears to be launching with is a hybrid model. It has both open- and toll-access articles, and it offers subscriptions. Many of its journals have yet to publish any articles.

The Journal of Buffalo Science’s first issue (vol. 1, no. 1, 2012) has about 22 articles, but only three of them are open-access. We’re surprised there is so much research interest in buffalo science; we thought it was a dying field.

The publisher offers an economics journal, the Journal of Reviews on Global Economics, despite its name, LifeScience Global. Why worry about a specialization when there’s money to be made? The site’s main page has at least three typos, and strangely, despite its North American office, almost all the authors are from outside North America.

Finally, we’re confused about the cover image of the Journal of Buffalo Science. The image doesn’t look like any buffalo we’ve ever seen. In fact, it looks like some type of bull.

By: Jeffrey Beall
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Source: Scholarly Open Access

Comments:

sri says:

September 27, 2012 at 12:51 AM

famous Indian breed “MURRAH” has curly horn and picture is definitely of buffalo

Jeffrey Beall says:

September 27, 2012 at 10:24 AM

Thank you for this helpful comment!

Hachani Samir says:

August 2, 2012 at 12:14 PM

The image does not look like any known buffalo because “it’s bull “!!!!

Dana Roth says:

August 2, 2012 at 9:43 PM

Having lived in India and making yoghurt from water buffalo milk (since most of the cows have TB), there should be lots of interest in these ‘buffalos’, although there must be a surplus of journals already in existence on this subject.

Jay says:

August 4, 2012 at 8:02 PM

Both junk science and the new crop of open access publishers who follow unethical practices to make a quick buck should be monitored closely. Scientific publishing has become a business enterprise. More and more new online publications pop up everywhere not only from Asia but also from the US, Europe, and Africa. Solicitations from most new open access journals are sent from Canada, US, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Another growing trend is conducting scientific conferences almost every week in certain US cities as well as in few Asian cities, organized by industry people who apparently are not the experts of the themes of the conferences. Again, this money making enterprise is jointly operated by representatives from the US, Europe and Asia. So, everyone contributes to this new trend.

It is interesting that papers are retracted in high impact, “peer reviewed” journals by scientists of all nationalities. The disappointing thing is that these scientists go on with their daily business unaffected, including getting the NIH grants. The high impact journals do not acknowledge their role in retractions. It appears that the established journals also should be monitored closely to minimize junk science.

By the way, I am not aware that most cows in India have TB. Buffalo milk is cheaper than cow’s milk and probably contains more fat and so yields more yogurt. Also, yogurt (curd) from buffalo milk tastes better! It is a personal preference, nonetheless.

Jacob says:

August 5, 2012 at 2:33 AM

the image seems to be of an asian water buffalo with rounded horns.. nevertheless.. more important is the content being published.. new entrants in open access publishing are coming thick and fast .. we have to weed out the ones doing unethical practices .. on the other hand, the publishing giants (the Elseviers, the Springers etc) want scholarly publishing to be their property and never would like smaller publishers to grow.. with low production & labor costs and highly skilled workforce in Asia its natural that many big names in publishing moving their offices to India etc.. as a result smaller publishing companies are coming out from the region..

Info says:

August 30, 2012 at 1:19 PM

The second issue of Journal of Buffalo Science is now online. The September 2012 issue contains a Theme Section entitled “Use of Reproductive Techniques in Buffalo” edited by Dr. Vittoria L. Barile (Italy). The section contains six papers on various aspects of this topic. The issue also includes a general articles section containing five papers covering various areas of interest on buffalo related research. Lifescience Global also announced that all articles of the first issue (Volume 1 Number 1) are now available in OPEN ACCESS and can be downloaded with full text in PDF.

Matt Hodgkinson says:

November 19, 2013 at 4:08 AM

One person involved is Atif Hussain, who previously did marketing for Bentham Science. He is apparently studying digital marketing at the University of Toronto, so there might be a real connection to Canada: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=14149853

Jeffrey Beall says:

November 19, 2013 at 4:10 AM

Thanks, Matt.