Strange New OA Publisher Launches with 42 Journals

Strange name for a scholarly publisher.

A new open-access publisher with the strange name of Public Science Framework has launched with 42 new journals, most of which are broad and cover fields already saturated with open-access journals.

I think the name Public Science Framework is a poorly-chosen name for a scholarly publisher. It tries to sound lofty and important but actually seems contrived and meaningless. All the good names are taken.

The firm purports to be owned by the “American Institute of Science,” but there’s no website for this so-called institute and I think this name is also contrived. [Update: The website for the so-called American Institute of Science is here.]

I cannot figure out who owns this publisher or where they are really based. The site is completely non-transparent about ownership and location. Some of the journals use the term “American” in their titles, but there’s no real evidence that the “Framework” is based in America. The domain name registration data is blinded, of course.

They are accepting papers in all their journals despite not having any editorial board members yet, at least none that I saw.

The publisher also runs a related gimmick called Public Projects that appears to be a social media platform of some type, for researchers. Like the journals, it’s empty.

One of their journals, with a possibly pirated picture.

Some of the journals have duplicative or otherwise unimaginative titles:

• Chemistry Journal
• Physics Journal
• Public Health Journal

All of the journal home pages are alike, so it’s clear they were created quickly using a template.

Oops.

The site is generally well edited, but there are a few mistakes where they give themselves away.

This new open-access publisher does not fill any need or gap and probably exists only as an easy way to make money for the owners, whoever they are.

Hat tip: Paul Hockett

Appendix: List of Public Science Framework journals as of 2015-01-08

1. Advances in Applied Psychology
2. Agricultural and Biological Sciences Journal
3. American Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science
4. American Journal of Circuits, Systems and Signal Processing
5. American Journal of Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery
6. American Journal of Economics, Finance and Management
7. American Journal of Educational Research
8. American Journal of Geophysics, Geochemistry and Geosystems
9. American Journal of Information Science and Computer Engineering
10. American Journal of Marketing Research
11. American Journal of Mobile Systems, Applications and Services
12. American Journal of Nutrition and Food Science
13. American Journal of Psychology and Cognitive Science
14. American Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy
15. American Journal of Social Science Research
16. Bioscience and Bioengineering
17. Chemistry Journal
18. Clinical Medicine Journal
19. International Journal of Advanced Materials Research
20. International Journal of Animal Biology
21. International Journal of Automation, Control and Intelligent Systems
22. International Journal of Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering
23. International Journal of Chemical and Biomolecular Science
24. International Journal of Economics and Business Administration
25. International Journal of Education and Information Technology
26. International Journal of Energy Science and Engineering
27. International Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
28. International Journal of Life Science and Engineering
29. International Journal of Materials Chemistry and Physics
30. International Journal of Mathematics and Computational Science
31. International Journal of Modern Physics and Applications
32. International Journal of Plant Research
33. International Journal of Preventive Medicine Research
34. Journal of Agricultural Science and Engineering
35. Journal of Environment Protection and Sustainable Development
36. Journal of Language, Linguistics and Literature
37. Journal of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering
38. Journal of Physical Education
39. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities
40. Physics Journal
41. Public Health Journal
42. Sports Science Research