Style request: International Journal of Energy and Power Engineering

david.denkenberger
The reference formatting is the same for the entire Science Publishing Group, which has dozens of journals. But I tried about a dozen of them and did not find any them in the Zotero repository. So does anyone know if one of the journals in the Science Publishing Group is in the Zotero repository? Thanks.
  • DWL-SDCA
    The SPG is one of those publishers that are quick to solicit manuscripts but that do not provide much information about the requirements for manuscript preparation. Nor does SPG provide the details of the peer review process. I could not find an instructions for authors page on the website. Such a page might be available to those who provide personal information to register and log-in.

    The reference format style (very similar to Vancouver) is not particularly enforced. Within issues of the same journal issue -- even within the same article -- the citation style for the same item type (journal article, technical report) is not consistent !! Clearly, there are few standards or requirements to adhere to an exact citation style; when after "review" and copyediting there are still style inconsistencies in the reference lists of article after article.
  • david.denkenberger
    Thanks a lot for your quick response. That is good to know they are not too picky. However, Vancouver uses parentheses for the citation. Do you think you could find another similar style that actually uses brackets? Thanks.
  • adamsmith
    As DWL alludes to, "Science Publishing Group" is a predatory publisher. They're on Beall's list:
    scholarlyoa.com/2014/06/17/science-publishing-group-publishes-junk-science
    It's up to you, but I would recommend against publishing with them.

    We don't have an official policy against adding questionable journals per se if styles are submitted to us (though we're reluctant, given that it's another way they may try to gain legitimacy), but we'll definitely not put any work in providing styles for any of the publishers on Beall's list (the full list of publishers is here: http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/ )
  • RintzeRintze
    We don't have an official policy against adding questionable journals per se if styles are submitted to us
    Maybe it's time to have an official policy, then. We simply shouldn't be enabling predatory publishers. If there are strong indications that a publisher is predatory (and Beall's reputable list is an excellent indicator of this), we should work to keep the style repository clear of styles for their journals.
  • adamsmith
    agree, I've sent an e-mail to xbiblio to see if there are any objections.
  • DWL-SDCA
    david.denkenberger

    There are several "flavors" of Vancouver style -- straight brackets, curved brackets, superscript, etc. Nonetheless, you should recognize the cautions about submitting your manuscript to this and similar publishers. An article in a questionable journal is unlikely to help advance your academic progress. Indeed, quite the opposite.

    Sebastian, Rintze
    As the curator of a multidisciplinary bibliographic database, the problem of junk journals presents real problems. One of the ways we select items to index is finding news items that refer to an article. The predatory journals seem to be quite good at having their press releases picked up by newspapers, but especially by politically-biased sites. Readers of these news items tend to contact local and state government agencies and university staff asking -- demanding -- for them to respond. It is insufficient to simply say that the paper was published in a junk journal. One must comment on why the article is junk. That means reputable professionals must be able to identify and read the source of the public alarm. Therefore, SafetyLit includes these items in the database. This sometimes nearly causes me physical pain. (I find it even more discomforting when a truly well-written, important paper is published in a junk journal.)

    I support almost anything that could discourage authors from submitting their manuscripts to these journals. Everybody is harmed when a manuscript misses out on the screening in proper peer review. The author is harmed when s/he misses the opportunity for improvement that peer review and editing should bring.
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