Nova Science Publishers#Criticism
{{Short description|American academic publishing company}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Infobox publisher
| image = Logo_of_Nova_Science_Publishers.png
| parent =
| status =
| founded = 1985
| founder = Frank H. Columbus
| successor =
| country = United States
| headquarters = Hauppauge, New York
| distribution = Worldwide
| keypeople = Nadya Gotsiridze-Columbus (President); Donna Dennis (Vice-President)
| publications = Academic journals, books, encyclopedias, handbooks
| topics = Science and technology, medicine and biology, social sciences
| genre = Academic; STM
| imprints = NOVA, NOVA Medicine & Health, SNOVA
| revenue =
| numemployees = 55 in-house employees
| nasdaq =
| url = {{URL|novapublishers.com}}
}}
Nova Science Publishers is an academic publisher of books, encyclopedias, handbooks, e-books and journals, based in Hauppauge, New York. It was founded in 1985.{{cite web |url=http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=108755162 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130118205213/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=108755162 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 18, 2013 |title=Company Overview of Nova Science Publishers, Inc. |work=Business Week |access-date=8 August 2012}} Nova is included in Book Citation Index (part of Web of Science Core Collection) and scopus-indexed. A prolific publisher of books, Nova has received criticism from librarians for not always subjecting its publications to academic peer review and for republishing public domain book chapters and freely-accessible government publications at high prices.
Overview
The company was founded in New York by Frank Columbus, former senior editor of Plenum Publishing.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fjyVDAAAQBAJ&q=frank+columbus+plenum&pg=PR7 |title=The Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky: Problems of General Psychology, Including the Volume Thinking and Speech |last=Vygotsky |first=L. S. |date=April 28, 2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9781461316558}} His wife, Nadya Columbus, took over the firm operations upon his death in 2010.{{Cite web |url=https://cranburyinternational.com/pages/nova-science-publishers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308232534/https://cranburyinternational.com/pages/nova-science-publishers |url-status=usurped |archive-date=March 8, 2018 |title=Nova Science Publishers |website= |access-date=8 March 2018}} While the firm publishes works in several fields of academia, most of its publications cover the fields of science, social science, and medicine.
{{asof|February 2018|post=,}} Nova listed 100 currently published journals.[https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=125&sort=2a&page=1 Journal catalog page]. Retrieved January 9, 2016 Since 2021, their new book publications include Digital Object Identifiers.{{cite news |title=Nova Science Publishers - Official Website |url=https://novapublishers.com/?s=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F&post_type=product}} As of 2022, Nova was approved in the Norwegian register for scientific journals, series and publishers, published by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills .{{Cite web|url=https://kanalregister.hkdir.no/publiseringskanaler/KanalForlagInfo.action?id=12778|title=Forlag info | Kanalregisteret|website=kanalregister.hkdir.no}} and https://kanalregister.hkdir.no/publiseringskanaler/Forside.action?request_locale=en
Rankings
Nova is included in the Book Citation Index.{{cite web |title=Master Book List |url=http://wokinfo.com/mbl/publishers/ |work=Book Citation Index |access-date=18 February 2013}} In terms of number of books published from 2005 to 2012, Nova ranked 4th. They ranked in the top three in 8 of 14 scientific fields including engineering, clinical medicine, human biology, animal and plant biology, geosciences, social science medicine, health, chemistry, physics, and astronomy),
{{Cite journal |last1=Torres-Salinas |first1=Daniel |s2cid=3794376 |year=2013 |title=Coverage, field specialization and impact of scientific publishers indexed in the 'Book Citation Index' |journal=Online Information Review |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=1–16 |doi=10.1108/OIR-10-2012-0169 |arxiv=1312.2791}} and ranked as the 5th most prolific book publisher from 2009-2013, ranking 3rd in Engineering and Technology and 2nd in Science by numbers of books published.{{cite journal |last1=Torres Salinas |first1=Daniel |first2=Nicolás |last2=Robinson-Garcia |first3=Evaristo |last3=Jiménez-Contreras |first4=Enrique |last4=Fuente-Gutiérrez |s2cid=20450048 |year=2015 |title=The BiPublishers ranking: Main results and methodological problems when constructing rankings of academic publishers |journal=Revista Española de Documentación Científica |doi=10.3989/redc.2015.4.1287b |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=e111 |url=http://redc.revistas.csic.es/index.php/redc/article/download/914/1311 |arxiv=1505.01074 }}
However, it had the lowest citation impact among the five most prolific publishers in both fields. In a 2017 ranking study of book publishers, Nova was ranked high on number of books published, but low on number of citations per book.{{cite book |title=Die Buchpublikationen der Nobelpreis-Ökonomen und die führenden Buchverlage der Disziplin. Eine bibliometrische Analyse |last1=Tausch |first1=Arno |date=October 15, 2015 |language=de |trans-title=The Book Publications of the Nobel-Prize Economists and the Leading Book Publishers of the Discipline. A Bibliometric Analysis |ssrn=2674502}} In 2018, it was ranked #13 on the global main publishers list of political sciences during the last 5 years.{{Cite web| title=The Market Power of Global Scientific Publishing Companies in the Age of Globalization. An Analysis Based on the OCLC Worldcat | url=https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/87442/1/MPRA_paper_87442.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810073222/https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/87442/1/MPRA_paper_87442.pdf | archive-date=2018-08-10}}
In a 2011 report of twenty-one international social-science book publishers that determined penetration on international markets and mention of books in international science index systems, Nova was ranked #17.{{Cite journal |last1=Tausch |first1=Arno |year=2011 |title=On the Global Impact of Selected Social-Policy Publishers in More Than 100 Countries |journal=Journal of Scholarly Publishing |volume=42 |issue=4 |page=476 |doi=10.3138/jsp.42.4.476}} A 2017 survey of national and international databases of scholarly book publishers, including the Book Citation Index, Scopus, CRIStin, JUFO, VIRTA, and SPI, identified Nova as one of a "core of publishers that are indexed in all five" of the information systems surveyed. This "core" contained 46 out of the 3,765 publishers identified.{{cite journal |title=Scholarly book publishing: Its information sources for evaluation in the social sciences and humanities |journal=Research Evaluation |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=91–101 |year=2017 |doi=10.1093/reseval/rvx007 |doi-access=free |last1=Giménez-Toledo |first1=Elea |last2=Mañana-Rodríguez |first2=Jorge |last3=Sivertsen |first3=Gunnar }}
Criticism
Nova has been criticized by librarians for not always evaluating authors through the academic peer review process and for republishing old public domain book chapters and freely-accessible government reports at high prices.{{cite web |last=Phillips |first=Lara |date=September 17, 2013 |title=A list of Print-on-demand publishers and self-publishing "Vanity presses" for librarians and faculty |url=http://usp.ac.fj.libguides.com/pod |publisher=University of the South Pacific |access-date=17 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111044104/http://usp.ac.fj.libguides.com/pod |archive-date=2013-11-11}}{{cite web |last=Bade |first=David W. |author-link=David W. Bade |date=September 24, 2007 |title=The Content of Journals Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. |url=http://eprints.rclis.org/10299/ |publisher=Stanford University Libraries |access-date=17 November 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://scholarlyoa.com/2015/05/26/watch-out-for-publishers-with-nova-in-their-name/ |title=Watch Out for Publishers with "Nova" in Their Name |date=May 26, 2015 |author=Beall, Jeffrey |publisher=Scholarly Open Access |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108155756/https://scholarlyoa.com/2015/05/26/watch-out-for-publishers-with-nova-in-their-name/ |archive-date=November 8, 2016 |url-status=dead}} The publisher was classified as a vanity press on Beall's List.{{cite web |title=Vanity Press – Beall's List |url=https://beallslist.net/vanity-press/ |access-date=18 October 2023}}
References
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