This is advanced?
IBIMA Publishing has been on my list since August, 2012. The publisher has recently launched a new chemistry journal with a title that is angering some chemists.
IBIMA Publishing’s new chemistry title is JChem Research. This matches the Journal of Chemical Research, published for many years and now on volume 38. The IBIMA impostor is brand new and its cover says “ISSN pending.”
Unoriginal title (left), original (right).
I think IBIMA Publishing is basically a one-man operation. The owner is Khalid S. Soliman. The publisher does not provide a telephone number, and it uses a “virtual office” at 630 Freedom Business Center Drive, 3rd Floor, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, 19406. This is the address of a Regus Business Center, a company that supplies “virtual offices.” I suspect that Soliman really runs the business from his native Jordan and uses the “virtual office” address to make it appear the publisher is U.S.-based.
Remote control.
Did Soliman intentionally select the title of his new journal in an attempt to steal the brand value of the established journal? Or did he just not do his homework and choose the abbreviation of an existing journal as the title? In any case, why title a journal with an abbreviation? Does this make it look more established, since major journals often use abbreviated titles?
Soliman is a businessman, and many of his journals are business journals. Are these the kinds of business practices his journals promote, using virtual offices and unoriginal titles?
Hat tip: Alwyn Davies
