Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Umesh Prasad's UK Education Consultancy Services


UK Consultancy Services publishes several journals of broad scope and runs conferences in Switzerland through a "division" named "World Conferences." The journals include
⊘ European Journal of Law and Management (EJLM)
⊘ European Journal of Medicine and Dentistry (EJMD)
⊘ European Journal of Sciences (EJS)
⊘ European Journal of Social Sciences (EJSS)
⊘ Scientific European (SCIEU)
  • The EJLM website states (5/15/18) that its "editorial board comprises of people from varied scholarly areas of law and management who are renowned in their own field and come from diverse geographies and backgrounds." No names are provided, but the editor-in-chief is Umesh Prasad. As befits a journal with no editors, there are no articles listed on the website for this "monthly" journal.
  • Likewise, EJMD's "editorial board comprises of people from varied scientific areas of medicine and dentistry who are renowned in their own field and come from diverse geographies and backgrounds." None are identified. The editor-in-chief is the peripatetic Umesh Prasad. Even though the journal has no content, you can subscribe to it. 
  • EJS also "comprises of people from varied academic areas of sciences who are renowned in their own fields and come from diverse geographies and backgrounds" -- not one of whom is identified. A Prof. (Dr.) Ravi Prakash is editor-in-chief. The one issue to date of this "European Journal" has five articles -- all from India. Neither the website nor the issue provides an affiliation for Prof. (Dr.) Prakash, but the Ravi Prakash who is a co-author of an article in it is with India's Amity University in Uttar Pradesh. The issue states that the journal's founder is Umesh Prasad.
  • The European Journal of Social Sciences (EJSS) should not be confused with the more firmly established European Journal of Social Sciences (Revue Europeennes des Sciences Sociales). The latter has managed to generate 58 volumes since its inception 13 years ago. Founder Umesh Prasad's upstart has no named editorial board (but never fear, it "comprises of people from varied academic areas of social sciences who are renowned in their own fields and come from diverse geographies and backgrounds"). It has another Amity University editor-in-chief, Prof (Dr) Nirupama Prakash (Amity International Business School, Amity, University, Noida, India). It has one issue to date with two authors outside of India and Sri Lanka: Maria Anita Stefanelli, Università Roma Tre, and Barbara Wejnert, SUNY (Buffalo).
  • SCIEU is "happy and proud to embark on the eternal journey to bring scientific advances to the living rooms of the people across the world!"The name of the article on the cover of the first issue (I declined to pay for access to the article itself) was "Editing Gene to Prevent Inheritable Disease."
Although press releases about UK Consultancy's journals describe them as open access, the FAQs on their websites indicate otherwise. They state that readers must register and that only "[a]s promotional offer, currently articles and the issues are available free of cost to all subscribers. ... However, this promotional offer can be withdrawn by the management at any time without prior notice."

The founder of these journals "hails from Ghorasahan village (East Champaran, Bihar (India)." A British national, he is the sole registered officer and the only person "of significant control" of UK Consultancy Services. It is hard to know what doctoral degree he holds. The company registration gives his occupation as "Director" and date of birth as May 1965.

All the organizations have the same address: 55 Smithy Lane, Lower Kingswood, Tadworth, England, KT20 6UA. It is the site of a three-bedroom, semi-detached residence. And a busy place it must be. In addition to UK Consultancy Services and its many divisions, the Centre for Advanced Dental Care Limited is there. Its director (who resigned last month) was Neelam Umesh Prasad, a dentist born March 1976. The other shareholder and director is, you guessed it, Umesh Prasad.

In addition, the residence houses UK-India Centre Ltd, yet another company incorporated (on 17 April 2018) and run by one director -- Umesh Prasad. The company's classifications are "publishing of newspapers," "activities of conference organisers," and "publishing of learned journals."

UPDATE (5/16/18): Umesh Prasad kindly provided a comment expressing disappointment in the "tone and presentation" of the information given above. He wrote that he comes "from clinical and academic background"; that he "recently quit the academia and took a plunge in journal sector to make a change"; and that the "business is a start-up, it’s a very new and things are still in flux taking shape – for example, boards are being reconstituted, websites being updated etc." Potential contributors to his journals are advised to read Mr. (or perhaps it it is Dr.) Prasad's full comment and to keep an eye out for improvements.
Email
Sent: Tue 5/15/2018 3:07 AM
From: EJS Editors (editors@ejsci.com)
Subject: European Journal of Sciences (EJS)
Dear Prof Kaye
Based on your academic and professional standing and your contributions to science, we invite you to contribute articles for publication and become a peer reviewer for European Journal of Sciences (EJS)®, a monthly academic journal of science (www.ejsci.com). We are a member of Crossref. Our DOI prefix is 10.29198. Upon publication, each article is assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) by us and metadata is submitted to Crossref. The articles are indexed based on their unique DOI in various databases including Google Scholar. ... For becoming a peer reviewer, please provide biographical details .... Please feel free to contact us should there be any query or clarification.
Thank you
Editorial Team
PS: Currently, Article Processing Charge (APC) is nil (subject to revision by the management).
(European Journal of Sciences (EJS)® is a division of UK EDUCATION CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD, Company Number 10459935. Registered in England)
55 Smithy Lane, Lower Kingswood, Tadworth, Surrey KT20 6UA (United Kingdom), +44 (0) 1737 903 794, editors@ejsci.com
Disclaimer: This email and any attachments to it may be confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of UK Education Consultancy Services Ltd. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you must neither take any action based upon its contents, nor copy or show it to anyone. Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in error.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Prof DH Kaye

    Thank you very much for identifying areas of improvements. I shall certainly factor in your feedback in next few months however I am extremely disappointed by your tone and presentation because it prima facie damages my reputation and my business that may potentially lead to financial losses to my company. At the same time, I am convinced that you probably had no mala fide intention against me or my company.

    Our lives and activities including research and business activities are regulated and governed by the statutes. This year I have so far launched one science magazine (Scientific European) and two journals namely European Journal of Sciences (EJS) & European Journal of Social Sciences (EJSS). I can confirm that all regulatory requirements have been complied – we own the IPRs over the titles, our serials have been assigned ISSN by the ISSN UK Centre, etc. We have planned evaluation/indexing by relevant databases in near future.

    And YES, our ‘’European Journal of Social Sciences EJSS’’ should not be confused with the other. We are the registered owner of the Intellectual Property Right over the title, ours has been assigned ISSN and that can be verified with ISSN UK Centre.

    I come from clinical and academic background. I recently quit the academia and took a plunge in journal sector to make a change. My business is a start-up, it’s a very new and things are still in flux taking shape – for example, boards are being reconstituted, websites being updated etc.

    May I request you to clarify before jumping to any conclusion please?

    Thank you very much for your understanding

    Warm regards

    Umesh Prasad

    ReplyDelete
  2. European Journal of Social Sciences (Revue Européenne des Sciences Sociales) as per their website www.europeanjournalofsocialsciences.com is published from Seychelles, Africa. This appears in the List of Predatory Journals https://predatoryjournals.com/journals/ The ISSN 1450-2267 mentioned on the website cannot be verified on the ISSN website https://portal.issn.org hence fake.

    Umesh Prasad’s European Journal of Social Sciences (EJSS) www.europeanjournalofsocialsciences.co.uk/ is a new journal started in 2018. The ISSN 2516-8525 is confirmed on the ISSN portal. This is published from the UK with .co.uk domain. This journals’ credentials mentioned on the website are verifiable hence this is the genuine one.

    ReplyDelete