Science Publishing Group: A Complete Scam by Jeffrey Beall

I think Science Publishing Group (SciencePG) is a totally bogus publisher. Here I would like to repeat my warning to all researchers that they not send any papers to this dangerous, pretend publisher.

I have written about this publisher here twice before, once in December, 2012, right after it launched, and once in June, 2014, when it became evident that the publisher would accept and publish absolutely anything, no matter how outlandish or unscientific it was.

I use screenshots from articles published in Science Publishing Group journals to illustrate the concept of “obvious pseudo-science.” Here’s one of the examples I use:

It’s an article entitled “Mathematical proof of the Law of Karma.”

The publisher claims it’s based in New York, but this claim is as false as the science it publishes. I’ve been told they’re really based in Pakistan, but calling their telephone number right now (+1 (347) 688-8931), after many rings, a young woman answers, speaking with what sounds like a Chinese accent.

“Where are you located?” I ask.

“Do you have inquiry about your paper?” she responds.

“What city are you in?”

“We in New York City.”

One of the reasons I am writing a third blog post about Science Publishing Group is that I regularly receive inquiries from people who have published in one of their many journals, researchers who soon realize they’ve made a mistake.

They write asking how to get out of the mess they are in.

Science Publishing Group preys on young researchers. It harvests data from local and regional conferences and, using smarmy language, invites each presenter to convert his or her presentation into an article for one of SciencePG’s journals.

I learned recently of an undergraduate research symposium in Ohio, in which this publisher sent spam emails praising the students’ presentations and inviting an article. In one case, the students thought the invitation was authentic and became excited, but a knowledgeable advisor was able to stop them before any harm was done.

Science Publishing Group now publishes 250 journals, and the titles of many of them begin with “American Journal.”

If you get a spam email from this company, I recommend you delete it immediately. Further, do not submit any papers to any of their journals. Science Publishing Group is a threat to researchers, a threat to science communication, and a threat to science.

By: Jeffrey Beall
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Source: Scholarly Open Access