Cambridge Scholars Publishing

The company states that it "is committed to providing a forward-thinking publishing service that champions original thinking, whilst ensuring they put their authors at the heart of everything they do".[1]

The company states that it publishes based purely on the academic merit of the research, and does not require any fees be paid for publication or other purposes. It offers complimentary copies, a substantial author discount, and a generous royalty scheme.[1][2][3]

The company publishes in health science, life science, physical science and social science.[1] In 2018 it published 729 books.[4]

The company has been both praised and criticised. On the one hand, it has been criticised "as being overly reliant on contributors to perform even basic copy editing of the texts" and a reviewer said of a book that "it gets stuck in a quagmire of editorial and copy-editing issues that simply shouldn't have been allowed to occur if proper quality control was exercised by Cambridge Scholars Publishing".[5] On the other hand, it has been said that "they publish your book in a timely manner, charge you nothing and offer royalties from copy one onwards".[6] The company has published works by scholars from universities including the University of Michigan, University of South Florida, University of Pennsylvania, University of Central Lancashire, University of Athens, The American College of Greece, University of Cyprus. The company has also been praised for "taking the refreshing approach of doing simple things, well" at No Shelf Required.[7]

The company previously published academic journals[8] including the discontinued titles Zambia Social Sciences Journal[9] and Review Journal of Political Philosophy.[10] However, as of 2020, Cambridge Scholars did not publish any journals/periodicals.

The company has received a mixed reception. Though it was not included on the original Beall's List of predatory publishers, it was included on an updated list on beallslist.net,[11] managed by an unidentified source and not by Beall himself. David H. Kaye's Flaky Academic Journals notes that "the journals do not look stellar; no editorial boards are listed."[12] However, this statement can be refuted because editorial boards have always been clearly listed. [13]

Cambridge Scholars made an official statement on the site in December 2018 entitled 'In Defense of Cambridge Scholars'[14] in which an adviser commented on the statements made on the site stating "There are no charges to publish. There is no requirement on authors for a buy-back in return for publication. Royalties are accrued to the author from the first sale of a title. Decisions to publish are not taken on likely sales or profitability (which is unusual in a commercial publisher). The commercial risk to publish rests entirely with CSP."[14] Other individuals commented similarly in defence of the company.

Since 2019, when the publisher ceased publishing Journals, the publisher's journal rating in the Norwegian Scientific Index.[15] became "Scientific level 0" (i.e. non-academic), though the company is listed in the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Master Book List.[16]

The company was founded in 2001 by Cambridge University academics.[1] It relocated to Newcastle when its founders moved to Durham University,[4] and was subsequently sold to a group of Newcastle-based business-people when the original owner left the UK in 2010.[7] The company is now co-owned and managed by Graeme Nicol[17] who bought the company from the original owner in 2011.[18]

The Lady Stephenson Library, then known as Walker Library, in 2006

The firm is based in the Lady Stephenson Library, a building that was commissioned in 1908 to house one of Newcastle's early public libraries, given to the city by William Haswell Stephenson and named for his wife Eliza Mary née Bond, who had died aged 67 in 1901.[19] The building is now the location of four registered companies.[20]

• Official website