OMICS Publishing Group is an academic publishing company headquartered in Hyderabad, India. Founded in 2007, it operates a large portfolio of online open access journals across science, technology, and medicine, and also organises international academic conferences. The group is widely known in the scholarly publishing community for being classified as a predatory publisher, a characterisation reflected in regulatory action taken against it in the United States.
| Name | OMICS Publishing Group |
|---|---|
| Industry | Academic publishing, conferences |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Founder | Srinubabu Gedela |
| Headquarters | Hyderabad, Telangana, India |
| Business model | Open access journals with author processing charges; paid academic conferences |
| Parent | OMICS International / OMICS Group |
The company was established by Srinubabu Gedela and is registered in India, with operational offices in Hyderabad. It publishes journals under the open access model, in which the cost of publication is borne by authors or their institutions rather than by readers. Over time the group expanded its activities to include the organisation of international scientific conferences, and acquired a number of smaller publishing operations and conference organisers in different countries.
OMICS publishes hundreds of journal titles, generally distributed online and made available without subscription. Revenue is generated primarily through article processing charges levied on authors. The company also runs the Conference Series brand, which hosts academic meetings in numerous countries on a wide range of subjects.
The publisher has been the subject of significant academic and regulatory scrutiny. Concerns raised in scholarly literature and by science journalism include the inclusion of researchers on editorial boards without their consent, aggressive email solicitation of manuscripts, and inadequate peer review. The FTC case in the United States resulted in formal findings adverse to the company. The Wikidata description of the entity classifies it as a "discredited academic publishing company".
OMICS is frequently cited as one of the largest examples of the predatory publishing phenomenon and has played a notable role in international debates on the integrity of open access publishing, the regulation of cross-border online businesses, and the responsibilities of authors and institutions in selecting venues for scholarly communication.