Omniscriptum Publishing Group, formerly known as VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, is a German

publishing group Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

headquartered in

Riga, Latvia Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Bal ...

. Founded in 2002 in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, its book production is based on

print-to-order Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

technology. The company publishes theses, research notes, and dissertations through its

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

bookstores. Its publishing methods have been questioned for the soliciting of manuscripts from individuals, and for providing authors with the appearance of a peer-reviewed publishing history. OmniScriptum is designated as non-academic by the

Norwegian Scientific Index 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 ...

, and its subsidiary Lambert Academic Publishing has been described as a

predatory Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

vanity press A vanity press or vanity publisher, sometimes also subsidy publisher, is a publishing house where anyone can pay to have a book published.. The term "vanity press" is often used pejoratively, implying that an author who uses such a service is publ ...

which does "not apply the basic standards of academic publishing such as peer-review, editorial or proof-reading processes." The company also offers print-to order publishing for fiction authors. It previously specialized in publishing and selling

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

articles, but has stated that the practice of publishing Wikipedia content ended in 2013.

History

The first

publishing house Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

of the group was founded in

in 2002 by Wolfgang Philipp Müller, and transferred to

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...

in August 2005. The Mauritian office was established in April 2007 and was managed from 2008 up until May 2011 by David Benoit Novel, followed by Reezwan Ghanty. In 2007 the group began distributing its publications through

Lightning Source Lightning Source is a printer and distributor of print-on-demand books. The company is a business unit of Ingram Content Group. Originally incorporated in 1996 as Lightning Print Inc., the company is headquartered in La Vergne, Tennessee. Its UK ...

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

, and the German company Books on Demand.

Products and services

Omniscriptum specializes in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, French, and English dissertations,

theses A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

, and research projects. Its business model involves a team of acquisitions editors, who search the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

for academic authors and invite them by unsolicited

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

for their manuscripts. The editorial team sends emails to people who have written a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation and whose college library has a web-accessible catalog. In April 2010 Omniscriptum founded an imprint devoted to

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

, and

Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologian ...

: ''Fromm Verlag''. In October 2010 ''Dictus Publishing'' was launched to publish political texts related to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

Controversies

Wikipedia content duplication

Various branches of the company, including Alphascript Publishing (created in April 2009), Betascript Publishing (created in January 2010), Fastbook Publishing (created in July 2009), and Doyen Verlag, have published books consisting of compilations of Wikipedia articles. These books are widespread and have been purchased or acquired by various libraries and academic institutions in at least Europe and Asia; many copies can be found at the

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

. The titles were published as edited by Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, and John McBrewster who are also listed as authors. 180,818 titles were listed on the OMS bookshop. Betascript lists , Miriam T. Timpledon, Susan F. Marseken, Mariam T. Tennoe, and Susan F. Henssonow as editors, giving an additional 356,765 titles . Regarding its publishing strategies, Alphascript asserted that: "There is hardly another platform for quick and better processing of information than Wikipedia" for customers "who want to be informed on a specific subject" in book form, though they can "have online everything

free of charge The English language, English adjective ''free'' is commonly used in one of two meanings: "at no monetary cost" (''gratis'') and "with little or no restriction" (''libre''). This ambiguity of ''free'' can cause issues where the distinction i ...

". Omniscriptum has edited 22,000 works. According to the company, the last compilation of Wikipedia articles was published in 2013. The company has stated that it stopped the practice of publishing Wikipedia content in order to focus on "original academic (and) special interest authors."

Business practices

Omniscriptum's business practices have been questioned for profiting by the sale of unacclaimed works and for insufficiently disclosing that content is available elsewhere. In November 2009 an article in the Swiss newspaper ''

Berner Zeitung ''Berner Zeitung'' (literally: "Journal of Bern"), also branded as ''BZ'', is a Swiss German-language daily newspaper, published by Tamedia in Bern. History and profile ''Berner Zeitung'' was first issued on 3 January 1979. Four different paper ...

'' described Omniscriptum's practices as questionable. The paper faulted Omniscriptum for not disclosing that the books it was publishing were academic dissertations, for publishing works that received a passing grade, and for charging high prices. American writer

Victoria Strauss Victoria Strauss (born 1955 in Exeter, New Hampshire) is the author of nine fantasy novels for adults and young adults, including the ''Stone'' series (''The Arm of the Stone'' and ''The Garden of the Stone'') and the ''Way of Arata'' series ( ...

characterized OMS as "an academic

author mill An author mill is a publisher that relies on producing large numbers of small-run books by different authors, as opposed to a smaller number of works published in larger numbers. The term was coined by Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, as a parall ...

", while

Pagan Kennedy Pagan Kennedy (born c. 1963) is an American citizen, American columnist and author, and pioneer of the 1990s zine movement. She has written ten books in a variety of genres, was a regular contributor to the ''Boston Globe'', and has published ar ...

notes that OMS's practices are comparable to a form of

kudzu Kudzu (; also called Japanese arrowroot or Chinese arrowroot) is a group of climbing, coiling, and trailing deciduous perennial vines native to much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and some Pacific islands, but invasive species, invasive in many ...

weed proliferation in book publishing. In January 2011 German professor Debora Weber-Wulff, in ''Copy, Shake, and Paste'' (a blog about plagiarism and scientific misconduct), referred to OMS as a spam publisher, which has been further confirmed in a blog post at Guide2Research.

Multiplication of imprint names

Omniscriptum Group subsidiaries

Omniscriptum Publishing Group has 27 subsidiaries (the date of creation and headquarters are in brackets):

Publishing houses

* VDM Verlag Dr. Müller GmbH & Co. KG (2002, Saarbrücken, Germany) * AV Akademikerverlag GmbH & Co. KG (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany) * Scholars' Press Publishing is a trademark of: AV Akademikerverlag GmbH& Co. KG Heinrich-Böcking-Str. 6-8, 66121, Saarbrücken * LAP Lambert Academic Publishing GmbH & Co. KG (Saarbrücken, Germany) * Südwestdeutscher Verlag für Hochschulschriften GmbH & Co. KG (

, Germany) * EUE Editions Universitaires Européennes (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany) * Verlag Classic Edition (2009, Saarbrücken, Germany) * Saarbrücker Verlag für Rechtswissenschaften (2009, Saarbrücken, Germany) * Lehrbuchverlag (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany) * EAE Editorial Académica Española (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany) * PUA Publicaciones Universitarias Argentinas (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany) * Fromm Verlag (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany) * Dictus Publishing (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany) * BB Bloggingsbooks (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany) * Trainerverlag (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany) * JustFiction! Edition (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany) * Doyen Verlag (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany) * Palmarium Academic Publishing (2013, Saarbrücken, Germany) * GlobeEdit (Saarbrücken, Germany) * FastBook Publishing (2009,

Beau-Bassin Beau Bassin-Rose Hill (or Beau-Bassin Rose-Hill; french: Villes sœurs; ) is a town in Mauritius, located in the Plaines Wilhems District. It is administered by the Municipal Council of Beau Bassin-Rose Hill and has a population of 147,066 habit ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

) * Alphascript Publishing (2009, Beau-Bassin, Mauritius) * Betascript Publishing (2010, Beau-Bassin, Mauritius)

Service industries

* VDM Publishing House Ltd renamed International Book Market Service Ltd (2008, Beau-Bassin, Mauritius) in 2011 * VDM Verlagsservicegesellschaft mbH (2008, Saarbrücken, Germany) * VDM IT-Dienstleistungen GmbH & Co. KG (2008, Saarbrücken, Germany) * MoreBooks! Publishing GmbH (2009, Chişinău,

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

) * Morebooks! The online bookshop (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany) * BetterBooks! Publishing GmbH (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany) * NicerBooks! Publishing GmbH (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany) * VDM Verwaltung Aktiengesellschaft (Saarbrücken, Germany)

References

External links

Omniscriptum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Omniscriptum Book publishing companies of Germany Book publishing companies of Latvia Book selling websites Wikipedia-derived encyclopedias Publishing companies established in 2002 Mass media in Saarbrücken Self-publishing companies 2002 establishments in Germany