Wacky Open-Access Publisher Launches with 61 New Journals

Another pay-to-publish, open-access publisher has appeared: Lawarence Press. Based in Delhi, India, the press is named after the street its headquarters is located on, a rare, variant spelling of the name Lawrence. It appears the owners are web developers with little or no knowledge of scholarship, research, or scholarly publishing, but they are rushing in any way.

Only one of the firm’s 61 journals has really launched, and it is called Journal of Nursing. The journal’s editor-in-chief is Dr. Travis K. Svensson, a smiley psychiatrist who claims an affiliation with the University of San Francisco.

The journal has only published one issue so far (Volume 1, issue 1), and lo and behold, the editor, Travis K. Svensson, is a co-author on all five of the articles in the issue. No wonder he’s excited to be the editor — he finally found a journal that would accept and publish his work.

The journals don’t have separate editorial boards. Instead, there is a page that lists and illustrates with photos all the editors-in-chief for all the firm’s journals, along with a bunch of “assistant editors,” who function as collective editorial board members for all 61 journals.

The picture of the EiC of the publisher’s Journal of Heart Care is my favorite:

This is Dr. Sandeep Kumar Kar. As you can see, the publisher is challenged by punctuation.

Some of the pictures appear to have problems with aspect ratio, a common problem with predatory editorial boards:

I am surprised that this amateurish and unprofessional publisher has managed to attract editorial board members and editors-in-chief.

Regarding author fees, the spam email says,

Journal of nursing(J Nurs) charges on-line maintenance and processing fee. A processing charge will vary from case to case and subject to an editorial decision.

In other words, you will have to haggle over the fee as if you were buying vegetables in an open-air market.

I hope you never pay a fee to this publisher. I recommend avoiding it and ignoring the spam you are certain to receive from Lawarence Press.

Hat tip: Dr. Barbara Martin

Appendix

Journals published by Lawarence Press as of 2016-01-18

1. Acta Ingeniería Civil
2. Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interactive design
3. Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
4. Clinical Biochemistry Insights
5. Dermatologia Insight
6. Diabetes Therapeutics
7. Drug and Healthcare
8. European Journal of Economic and Business
9. Extreme Electric Power Letters
10. Frontiers of Accounting and Finance
11. Frontiers of Ecological Engineering and Enviromental [sic] Science
12. Frontiers of Marketing Research
13. Frontiers of Polymer Science and Research
14. Frontiers of Thermal and Fluid Science
15. Gastroenterology Research and Reviews
16. Gynecologic and Obstetric Insights
17. Insight Minerals Engineering
18. International Journal of Hydrodynamics
19. Journal of Advancements in Plasticity Engineering
20. Journal of Advances in Cardiology Research
21. Journal of Angle Othodontotist [sic]
22. Journal of Art and Social Sciences
23. Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science
24. Journal of Carniofacial [sic] Research
25. Journal of Clinical Oral Investigation
26. Journal of Clinical Otorhinolaryngology
27. Journal of Clinical Periodontology and Implant Dentistry
28. Journal of Construction and Building Materials
29. Journal of Heart Care
30. Journal of Hospitality Management
31. Journal of Investigational Dentistry
32. Journal of Nursing
33. Journal of Oral Diseases and Medicine
34. Journal of Paediatrics Care
35. Journal of Research in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
36. Medicine Insight
37. Microbiology Insights
38. Ophthalmology Insights
39. Pathology Insights
40. Insight Microelectronics
41. Journal of Computers & Chemical Engineering
42. Acta Mechanica
43. Bioengineering and Biosciences
44. Insight Mechanical Engineering
45. Journal of Periodontal Practice
46. Journal of Oral Health and Hygiene
47. Research and Review in Prosthorestorative Dentistry
48. Orthopedic Research and Reviews
49. Pharmacology Insights
50. Surgery Insights
51. Frontiers of Design Research
52. Frontiers of Aerosol Science
53. Frontiers of Machine Tools and Manufacture
54. Journal of Applied Mathematical Modelling and Computing
55. Journal of Neural Networks
56. Natural Science
57. Computational Biology and Chemistry
58. Food and Nutrition
59. Journal of Agriculture Biotechnology
60. Journal of Food Microbiology
61. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Science

 This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 26th, 2016 at 9:00 AM and is filed under Scholarly Open-Access Publishers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.