Another Questionable Publisher from West Africa: Unified Journals

Unified with low quality.

There is someone in West Africa who creates a new scholarly open-access publisher every one or two weeks. Here is the latest one, Unified Journals.

Unified Journals launched recently with 24 journals, a fleet startup. I don’t know who is behind the operation. There are many other publishers that have the same look and feel, use much of the same website text, and — apparently — originate in West Africa. Here are some examples:

Access Journals
Advanced Journals
Ambit Journals
Donnish Journals
Horizon Journals
Oceanic Journals
Platinum Global Journals
Scribesguild Journals
Spring Journals
Swift Journals

This is only a partial list. What is the business strategy here? Will saturating the market with template-produced publishers — each with five to two dozen journals — eventually lead to profitability?

The publishers all use the same publishing model, gold open-access. In other words, authors are charged a fee upon acceptance of their articles for publication.

With these publishing operations, the journals typically have the name of the publisher incorporated into their title, such as the Unified Journal of Cancer Research. Most of the journal scopes are broad and duplicate the coverage of dozens or hundreds of existing open-access journals.

How many cancer journals does the world need?

Hat tip: Dr. Jaime Teixeira da Silva

Appendix: List of Unified Journals titles as of 2015-07-24:

1. Unified Journal of African Studies and Development (UJASD)
2. Unified Journal of Agriculture and Food Science (UJAFS)
3. Unified Journal of Business Administration and Management (UJBAM)
4. Unified Journal of Cancer Research (UJCR)
5. Unified Journal of Computer Science Research (UJCSR)
6. Unified Journal of Economics and International Finance (UJEIF)
7. Unified Journal of Educational Research and General Studies (UJERGS)
8. Unified Journal of Engineering and Manufacturing Technology (UJEMT)
9. Unified Journal of Environmental Science and Toxicology (UJEST)
10. Unified Journal of Geography and Regional Planning (UJGRP)
11. Unified Journal of Global Security Studies (UJGSS)
12. Unified Journal of History and Culture (UJHC)
13. Unified Journal of Law and Conflict Resolution (UJLCR)
14. Unified Journal of Library and Information Science (UJLIS)
15. Unified Journal of Media and Communication Studies (UJMCS)
16. Unified Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences (UJMMS)
17. Unified Journal of Microbiology (UJM)
18. Unified Journal of Music and Dance (UJMD)
19. Unified Journal of Nursing and Midwifery (UJNM)
20. Unified Journal of Political Science and International Relations (UJPSIR)
21. Unified Journal of Psychology and Counselling (UJPC)
22. Unified Journal of Religious Studies (UJRS)
23. Unified Journal of Sport and Health Science (UJSHS)
24. Unified Journal of Zoology (UJZ)