Talk:Nova Publishers

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[edit] French Wikipedia editor

This article on Nova Publishers was listed on French wikipedia as needing a translation. Although the French article strikes me as being speculative (particularly the last sentence about links between Nova and think tanks) and not terribly well researched, I decided to translate it anyways so that the anglophone community can comment and edit it.Vrac 20:20, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, Vrac, for a very nice job. There are some English-wiki articles which have impressive-sounding references to Nova Publications books (try "What links here"), which may be confusing to readers who don't realize that the books may be essentially self-published, i.e. unedited and unreviewed. I researched this publisher and found a few things about him myself, but the best information seemed to be already present in the French article, which is why I asked for the translation. Thanks for the nuanced text — I also hope that other editors will add more information, about what seems to be a scandalous situation. Eleuther 20:10, 9 January 2007 (UTC)


I think that the authors and translators of the French Wikipedia article did a great disservice to the scientific community. In the light of all the evidence that you find in the international journals, in the international press, and in the light of all these articles and books written by authors from the world's top universities for Nova, the French language article is nothing more than a very very biased picture, to say the least. I allowed myself, in the name of science and in the name of honesty, to re-write the article in a way so that quantified and quantifiable scientometric evidence has its voice. Unfortunately, my efforts were to no avail. Below I present an article how it should or could look like. resuming a lengthy argument presented in earlier versions of the discussion page, I feel that WIKIPEDIA should improve the quality of its articles on OTHER major publishers as well, like the WIKI articles on Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Yale University Press, and it should also present articles on major publishers up to now NOT covered by WIKI articles. WIKI articles on major publishers should not be the room for publisher-bashing or copy and past procedures from the Website of the publisher. The present form of the WIKI article (September 12, 2007, 11.40 hours Central European Summer time) is as unacceptable as the versions, based on the French entry.

Signed: Arno Tausch, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Innsbruck University, Austria, and regular contributor to over 40 journals and/or publishing institutions, among them Dutch University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, and Saint Martin's Press, N.Y., in 24 countries around the globe.


  • Arno Tausch, thank you for your contributions; however please realize that all articles must be neutral, which means that claims like "top scholarly authors" must be backed up with references. In addition, simple counts in databases, like saying that "Google scholar makes 9610 references" to Nova Science Journals, besides being original research doesn't actually mean anything or prove that it's a prestigious journal. If you can add anything to the information about Nova, such as what they publish, where their journals are indexed, etc., please do so. -- phoebe/(talk) 23:15, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
  • In addition: per your note about submitting a "counter-article" -- we don't have counter-articles on Wikipedia; we all work together on the same version & work out consensus via the discussion page. -- phoebe/(talk) 23:37, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] reversions

I reverted changes made by User:Arno.tausch to an older version as you can see here. Good material from that old revision should be incorporated in the new article; however, let's try and keep it neutral and well-referenced. Original research such as database and catalog searches (especially to support press-release sounding claims) are not helpful. -- phoebe/(talk) 23:11, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Arno Tausch responds

I "neutralized" and updated my article, and submitted now this total revision of the entire material.

Leaving aside the complex legal issues of the negative statements, voiced under the earlier entries by people who wrote negative statements about Nova, it's simply scientometrically refutable what these statements said. Nova is an established science publishing house, and good scientists published for them and will continue to do so.

reply: There are many problems with your version, however.
  1. WE DO NOT INCLUDE ORIGINAL RESEARCH. This means that any searching of any database to get scientometric data, if you do it yourself and it's unpublished elsewhere, is not acceptable for the article. See WP:NOR.
  2. Citations in databases do NOT mean that the publisher is well accepted. Even terrible publishers are indexed! The numbers you cite are actually extremely low for most publishers; and are basically meaningless -- they simply mean that an article or a citation by Nova Science was picked up by a database. Good data for the article could include, for instance, where the Nova journals are indexed; anything else does not help the reader of an encyclopedia article who is trying to find out what Nova is, which is the purpose of this page. This is NOT a platform for discussing whether they are a good or bad publisher. All the scientometric data in the world does not refute concerns about their publishing and submission practices, which was what was in the article.
  3. We do not include contact information for companies in articles, nor instructions for authors, etc. This is not a press page; it's an encyclopedia article.
  4. You cannot simply cut out concerns in the article because you don't like them, as you did here.
  5. this is not YOUR article. See WP:OWN. This is a Wikipedia article, and it must be neutral. Let's work together.
best,
phoebe/(talk) 16:41, 11 September 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Arno Tausch: deficits in other WIKI articles on major other publishers - for your records

Other world publishers also seem to get their "share" in terms of unacceptable polemics or extremely short coverage at WIKI

Palgrave Macmillan (article speaking about Mr. Maxwell as a "controversial tycoon")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palgrave_Macmillan

Oxford UP (article considered to be in need of improvement by Wikis themselves, stated on the front of the article)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_University_Press


Cambridge UP (article dedicating almost 20 % of the article to only one single controversial book - "Alms for Jihad")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_University_Press

Harvard University Press (article extremely short)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University_Press


Random House (article marked as: To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, one should be written.Please discuss this issue on the talk page and read the lead section guide to make sure the introduction summarizes the article)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_House

Greenwood Publishers

No article at all

Yale UP very short article, practically only quoting from the website:

Article states:

According to their official website,

By publishing serious works that contribute to a global understanding of human affairs, Yale University Press aids in the discovery and dissemination of light and truth, lux et veritas, which is a central purpose of Yale University. The publications of the Press are books and other materials that further scholarly investigation, advance interdisciplinary inquiry, stimulate public debate, educate both within and outside the classroom, and enhance cultural life. Through the distribution of works that combine excellence in scholarship with skillful editing, design, production, and marketing, the Press demonstrates its commitment to increasing the range and vigor of intellectual pursuits within the university and elsewhere. With an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, Yale University Press continually extends its horizons to embody university press publishing at its best!

My consequence: WIKI NEEDS EDITORS!

What a real NOVA SCIENCE PUBLISHERS article should look like (Arno Tausch)

Although Nova started in the field of science, the company expanded into other disciplines as well and has become one of the major scientific book publishing companies in the US. When the company started its publishing activities by 1987, such titles as „Issues in intense-field quantum electrodynamics“; „The theory of target compression by longwave laser emission“; „Laser applications in precision measurement“; „The Physical effects in the gravitational field of black holes“; „The nonlinear optics of semiconductor lasers“; „The Quantum electrodynamics of a high-intensity field“; „Industrial measurement of electrical and electronic components and equipment“ predominated. Today, the catalogue still lists 502 titles, containing the word "physics", and 585 titles containing the word "medicine", but already 255 titles with the term "economics", 281 titles with the word "psychology", 77 titles with the word "political science", 50 titles with the word "sociology", 52 titles with the term "religion", etc.


The current editor-in-chief is Mr. Frank Columbus.

[edit] General remarks: Nova in international science - data from international press archives and scientometric evidence

International news and reference archives yield the following evidence:


  • "Lexis Nexis University "International Press"", run by a Consortium of Swiss Universities, which combines in its archives such sources as La Stampa , The New York Times, The Age (Melbourne, Australia), The Japan Times, Milano Finanza, South China Morning Post, and Times Educational Supplement already mentions 308 articles to date, explicitly dealing with materials, published by "Nova Science Publishers"


  • "Dialog Select Open Access", which combines complete texts of hundreds of magazines and journals from leading publishers, documented in sources such as Business Dateline, Business & Industry®, CMP Computer Fulltext, Computer News Fulltext, General Science Abstracts/Fulltext, Harvard Business Review, Gale Group Computer Database, Gale Group Health & Wellness, Gale Group Magazine Database, Gale Group Trade & Industry Database, The McGraw-Hill Companies Publications Online, and Periodical Abstracts PlusText™, carries to date already 146 articles referring explicitly to "Nova Science Publishers"



International bibliographical content and reference services refer to scientific works published by Nova Science Publishers in the following fashion:


  • "EBSCO Scientific abstracts", combining the most important scholarly journals in the social sciences, documented in Academic Search Premier, Academic Search Elite, Business Source Elite, EconLit, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, Regional Business News, SocINDEX, already makes 1024 explicit references to titles published by "Nova Science Publishers"


  • "Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA)" makes 181 references to Nova Science Publishers titles in the field of social sciences; in addition it lists 295 world class scholars in the system, who already published with that publisher


  • "Bibliography of Asian Studies" makes reference to 247 Nova titles


In addition, other free internet bibliographies mention Nova titles as well. Only some are listed here:


"LEXIS/NEXIS literature search", freely available via the German University internet site "Lalisio", mentions the following specific references in the international, peer-reviewed journals to Nova publications:


28 search results from Marketing & Advertising Reference (LNE)


129 search results from ABI/Inform Select (LNE)


367 search results from Law Reviews, Combined (LNE)


"Questia", a free international internet bibliography, with relevance to the social sciences, covering bibliographical references from books and journals in the English speaking world, reports the following results for the search for: "Nova science publishers": Found 155 results: Books: 90, Journal Articles: 62, Magazine Articles: 3


* "Infoconnex Political Science", a freely available political science data search engine, organized by the German Science Ministry and other scientific organizations in Germany, yielded 113 references for Nova Science Publishers titles (Infoconnex Political Science is partly based on Cambridge Scientific Abstracts PAIS)


"Blackwell Synergy", combining full-text access to the scholarly journals of that publishing company, carries 81 references to articles, mentioning "Nova Science Publishers";


"Inforetrieve article finder", a free on-line scientific bibliography, mentions 47 articles, which directly refer to "Nova" titles


"Elsevier Science Direct", a website, which claims to present access to 1/4 of the world's medical, technical and science information, refers to 27 titles, which are explicitly referring to "Nova Science Publishers;


"JSTOR Arts and Sciences II", a collection of the leading 125 journals in the fields of arts and humanities, mentions 22 articles with references or reviews of Nova titles;


"Central and Eastern European Library Online", a new full-text bibliographical service, covering over 190 journals published in the new Eastern Europe, mentions 14 Nova titles etc. etc.


"Project Muse", a free international internet bibliography, refers to 31 Nova Science publications


* "Virtuelle Fachbibliothek Politikwissenschaft", a freely available German on-line reference service for world-wide political science, initiated at Hamburg University, mentions the following references to Nova Science Publishing titles:

"WWW-Suchraum Politikwissenschaft" • 134

"WWW-Suche [Seekport]" • 94

"SSG-OPAC Politikwissenschaft. Friedensforschung" • 25

"World Affairs Online [FIV IBLK]" • 30

"Internationale Bibliographie der Sozialwissenschaften [IBSS]" • 197

"GBV - Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund" • 634

"KOBV Digitale Bibliothek Berlin-Brandenburg" • 9

"hbz-Verbundkatalog [NRW]" • 1

"HeBIS - Hessisches BibliotheksInformationsSystem" • 8

"SWB - Südwestdeutscher Bibliotheksverbund" • 168


The current catalogue contains the following references to authors from the following major Universities around the world:

[edit] Nova Science Publisher titles and contributions from the world’s top 20 Universities

Sources:

http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2007/ARWU2007.xls


https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/advanced_search.php



1 Harvard Univ 62

2 Stanford Univ 28

3 Univ California - Berkeley 27

4 Univ Cambridge 47

5 Massachusetts Inst Tech (MIT) 20

6 California Inst Tech 38

7 Columbia Univ 94

8 Princeton Univ 13

9 Univ Chicago 33

10 Univ Oxford 28

11 Yale Univ 33

12 Cornell Univ 35

13 Univ California - Los Angeles 21

14 Univ California - San Diego 19

15 Univ Pennsylvania 50

16 Univ Washington - Seattle 7

17 Univ Wisconsin - Madison 10

18 Univ California - San Francisco 13

19 Johns Hopkins Univ 24

20 Tokyo Univ 90




Also, researchers from some of America's leading government research institutions published with Nova:


US Military Academy 11

US Air Force Academy 7

Defense Intelligence College 6 titles

Rand Corporation 5 titles

Hudson Institute 3 titles

US Naval War College 1

US Army War College 1



Over recent years, Nova increasingly also published authors from Asian Universities


[edit] Nova Science Publishers titles and contributions from the 10 leading Asian Universities

1 Tokyo Univ 20

2 Kyoto Univ 22

3 Australian National University 57

4 Hebrew Univ Jerusalem 64

5 Osaka Univ 67

6 Tohoku Univ 18

7 Univ Melbourne 35

8 Nagoya Univ 25

9 Tokyo Inst Tech 53

10 Hokkaido Univ 18


In addition, Nova also publishes a great number works by European researchers:

[edit] Nova Science Publishers titles and contributions from the 10 leading European Universities

1 Univ Cambridge 47

2 Univ Oxford 28

3 Imperial Coll London 19

4 Univ Coll London 64

5 Swiss Fed Inst Tech - Zurich 9

6 Univ Paris 06 12

7 Univ Utrecht 27

8 Univ Copenhagen 16

9 Univ Manchester 23

10 Univ Paris 11 56


[edit] Estimated geographical distribution of titles and contributions outside the US

(Method: catalogue catchwords [product description] "University" + "country name". The following table contains just a sample of countries)


307 Australia

302 Germany

280 China

261 Russia

223 India

205 Canada

140 Poland

129 Turkey

109 Israel

107 Brazil

102 Sweden

79 Finland

76 South Africa

65 New Zealand

63 Argentina

54 Iran

47 Norway

34 Ireland

17 Pakistan

14 Saudi Arabia



[edit] Some characteristics of the global publishing program (Library of Congress: 2536 titles)

The Library of Congress currently lists 2536 Nova Science Publishers titles (search August 11, 2007).


[edit] Top 10 titles

Their 10 most widely read titles - in terms of academic library presence around the globe OCLC World Catalogue) - are:


1. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge / Author: Cogwell, Mathew T. Publication: New York : Nova Science Publishers, 2002


2. Smoking : the story behind the haze / Author: Koven, Edward L. Publication: New York : Nova Science Publishers, 1996


3. Affirmative action : catalyst or albatross? / Author: Colamery, S. N. Publication: Commack, N.Y. : Nova Science Publishers, 1998


4. The history of weather / Author: Williams, James Thaxter. Publication: Commack, N.Y. : Nova Science Publishers, 1999


5. The Black male in white America / Author: Gordon, Jacob U. Publication: Hauppauge, N.Y. : Nova Science Publishers, 2002


6. Lethal mists : an introduction to the natural and military sciences of chemical, biological warfare, and terrorism / Author: Taylor, Eric R. Publication: Commack, N.Y. : Nova Science Publishers, 1998


7. Can't live without it : the story of hemoglobin in sickness and in health / Author: Hazelwood, Loren F. Publication: Huntington, NY : Nova Science Publishers, 2001

8. Adult guide to children's team sports / Author: Humphrey, James Harry, 1911-; Yow, Deborah A. Publication: New York : Nova Science Publishers, 2002


9. Agriculture and the environment / Author: Uri, Noel D. Publication: Commack, N.Y. : Nova Science Publishers, 1999


10. Global climate change / Author: Karling, Horace M. Publication: Huntington, N.Y. : Nova Science Publishers, 2001

[edit] Social Sciences

In the social sciences, Nova published articles and books by authors in the field of world system research.

[edit] World systems research authors and international political economists, publishing with Nova

Scholars with a high ISI Web of Science impact factor, such as Samir Amin, Patrick Bond, Christopher Chase Dunn, Andre Gunder Frank, Johan Galtung, Almas Heshmati, Kimmo Kiljunen, Syed Mansoob Murshed, Gordon Laxer, Kunibert Raffer, Robert J. S. Ross, Bruce Russett, David Skidmore, Frank Stilwell, Immanuel Wallerstein, Ted Wheelwright, and many others published with Nova.

[edit] Referenced Scholarly Journals

Nova's top 5 scholarly journals in terms of library presence around the globe are:


1. Advances in psychology research.

2. Progress in education.

3. Studies of high temperature superconductors : advances in research and applications.

4. European economic and political issues.

5. Current politics and economics of Russia.