SCOPUS, the publication database maintained by Elsevier, has discontinued nearly 300 journals since 2013, including multiple journals published by OMICS Publishing Group.
Although the reasons the widely used database gives for discontinuing journals often vary, in all cases OMICS journals were removed over “Publication Concerns.”
Here’s what SCOPUS said recently about how it vets journals:
…several initiatives have been adopted over the past two years helping to reinforce that content indexed in Scopus represents “good quality research,” and that underperforming titles (as determined by the CSAB re-evaluation process), or titles for which concerns have been raised, are identified and their ongoing content coverage discontinued.
When a title no longer meets the quality standards of Scopus it is added to the ‘Discontinued Sources list,’ maintained on the Scopus info site. Publishing this list, along with both the source title and book title lists, provides transparency into what is, or will no longer be, covered in Scopus; important information to have at hand when you are looking for which titles you want to publish in.
You can find a list of all the discontinued journals on SCOPUS’s website.
OMICS is currently being sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which alleges the publisher has deceived readers about reviewing practices, publication fees, and the nature of its editorial boards. It was also included on librarian Jeffrey Beall’s now-defunct list of possible predatory publishers.
Hat tip: Khalid El Bairi
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Anyone know the status of that FTC lawsuit?
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/17934424/Federal_Trade_Commission_v_OMICS_Group_Inc_et_al
Thanks! I’m not going to spend any money on getting access, but it is good to see there’s stuff going on.
The one thing I noted is that a proposed Omics legal representative was denied. With his name, I found this article that may be of interest to retractionwatch to include in their weekend reads (if not already done previously)
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/investigation/the-dubious-science-of-predatory-journals
Omics and iMed publishers can be found in the black list, restricted to biomedical science, from Ministry of Science & Research of Iran.
The Journals Black List: http://blacklist.research.ac.ir/
I miss Dr. Beall blog. Since he was forced to shut it down, I am getting one or two solicitation to publish in or to join an editorial board of a predatory journal. I hope it will be relaunched in another guise and under different name. Sadly, in the current climate, we need such a thing.
Delisting of journals or publication group from a back date causes loss to the authors as their already published work gets derecognised.