Omniscriptum Publishing

Available in	English, German, Spanish, Russian, French
Founded	2002
Headquarters	Riga
Area served	Worldwide
Founder(s)	Wolfgang Philipp Müller
Key people	Wolfgang Philipp Müller(CEO)
Industry	Publishing
Employees	200 (2018)
Subsidiaries	Publishing houses: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller,LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, Palmarium Academic Publishing, Südwestdeutscher Verlag für Hochschulschriften, Verlag Classic Edition, EUE Editions Universitaires Européennes, Doyen Verlag, Fromm Verlag, Saarbrücker Verlag für RechtswissenschaftenService industries: International Book Market Service Ltd.
URL	www.omniscriptum.com

Omniscriptum Publishing Group, formerly known asVDM Verlag Dr. Müller, is a Germanpublishing group headquartered inRiga, Latvia.^[1] Founded in 2002 inDüsseldorf,^[2] its book production is based onprint-to-order technology.

The company publishes theses, research notes, and dissertations through itse-commerce bookstores.^[1] 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 theNorwegian Scientific Index,^[3] and its subsidiary Lambert Academic Publishing has been described as apredatoryvanity press which does "not apply the basic standards of academic publishing such as peer-review, editorial or proof-reading processes."^[4]

The company also offers print-to order publishing for fiction authors. It previously specialized in publishing and sellingWikipedia articles, but has stated that the practice of publishing Wikipedia content ended in 2013.^[5]

The firstpublishing house of the group was founded inDüsseldorf in 2002 by Wolfgang Philipp Müller, and transferred toSaarbrücken in August 2005.^[2] The Mauritian office was established in April 2007 and was managed from 2008 up until May 2011 by David Benoit Novel,^[6][7] followed by Reezwan Ghanty.^[8]

In 2007 the group began distributing its publications throughLightning Source,^[9]Amazon,^[10] and the German company Books on Demand.^[11][12]

Omniscriptum specializes inGerman,Russian,Spanish,^[13]French, and Englishdissertations,theses, and research projects.^[14][15] Its business model involves a team ofacquisitions editors, who search the Internet for academic authors and invite them by unsolicited e-mail for their manuscripts.^[16][17][18] 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.^[19]

In April 2010 Omniscriptum founded an imprint devoted toreligion,spirituality, andChristian theology:Fromm Verlag.^[20] In October 2010Dictus Publishing was launched to publish political texts related to theEuropean Union.^[21]

Various branches of the company, includingAlphascript Publishing (created in April 2009),^[22]Betascript Publishing (created in January 2010),Fastbook Publishing (created in July 2009),^[23] andDoyen Verlag, have published books consisting of compilations of Wikipedia articles.^[24] These books are widespread and have been purchased or acquired by various libraries and academic institutions in Europe^[25][26] and Asia; many copies can be found at theNational Taiwan University.

The titles were published as edited by Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, and John McBrewster who are also listed as authors. As of 21 December 2011^[update], 180,818 titles were listed on the OMS bookshop.^[27] Betascript listsLambert M. Surhone [de], Miriam T. Timpledon, Susan F. Marseken, Mariam T. Tennoe, and Susan F. Henssonow as editors, giving an additional 356,765 titles as of 21 December 2011^[update].^[28]

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 everythingfree of charge".^[29][30][31]

Omniscriptum has edited 22,000 works.^[32]

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."^[5]

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 newspaperBerner Zeitung 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.^[33] American writerVictoria Strauss characterized OMS as "an academicauthor mill",^[34][35][36] whilePagan Kennedy notes that OMS's practices are comparable to a form ofkudzu weed proliferation in book publishing.^[37]

In January 2011 German professor Debora Weber-Wulff, inCopy, 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.^[38]

Omniscriptum Publishing Group has 27 subsidiaries (the date of creation and headquarters are in brackets):^[1][118]

• VDM Verlag Dr. Müller GmbH & Co. KG (2002, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[119][120]
• AV Akademikerverlag GmbH & Co. KG (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[121]
• Scholars' Press Publishing is a trademark of: AV Akademikerverlag GmbH& Co. KG Heinrich-Böcking-Str. 6–8, 66121, Saarbrücken^[122]
• LAP Lambert Academic Publishing GmbH & Co. KG (Saarbrücken, Germany)^[123][124]
• Südwestdeutscher Verlag für Hochschulschriften GmbH & Co. KG (Saarbrücken, Germany)
• EUE Editions Universitaires Européennes (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[125][126]
• Verlag Classic Edition (2009, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[127]
• Saarbrücker Verlag für Rechtswissenschaften (2009, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[128]
• Lehrbuchverlag (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[129]
• EAE Editorial Académica Española (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[130]
• PUA Publicaciones Universitarias Argentinas (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[13][131]
• Fromm Verlag (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[132]
• Dictus Publishing (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[21]
• BB Bloggingsbooks (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[133]
• Trainerverlag (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[134]
• JustFiction! Edition (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[135][136]
• Doyen Verlag (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[137]
• Palmarium Academic Publishing (2013, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[138]
• GlobeEdit (Saarbrücken, Germany)
• FastBook Publishing (2009,Beau-Bassin,Mauritius)^[23]
• Alphascript Publishing (2009, Beau-Bassin, Mauritius)
• Betascript Publishing (2010, Beau-Bassin, Mauritius)

• VDM Publishing House Ltd renamed International Book Market Service Ltd (2008, Beau-Bassin, Mauritius) in 2011^[139][140]
• VDM Verlagsservicegesellschaft mbH (2008, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[141]
• VDM IT-Dienstleistungen GmbH & Co. KG (2008, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[142]
• MoreBooks! Publishing GmbH (2009,Chişinău,Moldova)^[143]
• Morebooks! The online bookshop (2010, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[144]
• BetterBooks! Publishing GmbH (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[145]
• NicerBooks! Publishing GmbH (2011, Saarbrücken, Germany)^[146]
• VDM Verwaltung Aktiengesellschaft (Saarbrücken, Germany)

• Official website

• 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

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