Nova Science Publishers is an academic publisher of books, encyclopedias,

handbook A handbook is a type of reference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to provide ready reference. The term originally applied to a small or portable book containing information useful for its owner, but the ''Oxford Engl ...

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

s and journals, based in

Hauppauge, New York Hauppauge ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the towns of Islip and Smithtown in Suffolk County, New York on Long Island. The population was 20,882 at the time of the 2010 census. Geography Hauppauge is located at (40.818205, ...

. It was founded in 1985. 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 The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

book chapters and freely-accessible government publications at high prices.

Overview

The company was founded in New York by Frank Columbus, former

senior editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edito ...

of Plenum Publishing. His wife, Nadya Columbus, took over the firm operations upon his death in 2010. While the firm publishes works in several fields of

academia An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

, most of its publications cover the fields of

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...

, and

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

. As of February 2018, Nova listed 100 currently published journals.Journal catalog page
Retrieved January 9, 2016 Since 2021, their new book publications include

Digital Object Identifiers A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; they ...

. 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 .

Rankings

Nova is included in the Book Citation Index. 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 Human biology is an interdisciplinary area of academic study that examines humans through the influences and interplay of many diverse fields such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, populat ...

, animal and plant biology,

geosciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four sphere ...

, social science medicine, health, chemistry, physics, and astronomy), 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. However, it had the lowest

citation impact Citation impact is a measure of how many times an academic journal article or book or author is cited by other articles, books or authors. Citation counts are interpreted as measures of the impact or influence of academic work and have given ris ...

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. In 2018, it was ranked #13 on the global main publishers list of political sciences during the last 5 years. 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. A 2017 survey of national and international databases of scholarly book publishers, including the Book Citation Index,

Scopus Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. Scopus covers nearly 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from approximately 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-l ...

CRIStin CRIStin (Current Research Information System in Norway) is the national research information system of Norway, and is owned by the Royal Ministry of Education and Research. CRIStin documents all scholarly publications by Norwegian researchers, an ...

, 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.

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.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.novapublishers.com/ Academic publishing companies Publishing companies of the United States 1985 establishments in New York (state) Publishing companies established in 1985 Companies based in New York City