Gedela Srinubabu is an Indian businessman, scientist and politician. He is the chief executive officer Pulsus Group and founder of its parent company the OMICS Publishing Group, a scientific journal publishing company that publishes science findings online for free for readers.[4][5]
Srinubabu was the co-convenor of the Health, Pharma, and Tech Summit Series, executed across G20 countries to promote AI in healthcare and technology advancements. He is also an executive council member of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Srikakulam.
He has published research articles on how to study biological phenomena using mathematical models and how to detect cancer or diabetes early. He has published about 30 articles in various peer-reviewed journals. According to Google Scholar, Srinubabu's articles have been cited about 580 times, giving him an h-index of 13.[17]
Scientific publishing
Srinubabu founded the notorious open-access publisher, OMICS Publishing Group, widely regarded as predatory. He purchased Pulsus Group in 2016, causing controversy and putting the future of the journals that it published into question.[8] The company has been placed on Jeffrey Beall's list of "Potential, possible, or probable" predatory open-access publishers.[18]
FABA Vice-President
Gedela Srinubabu as FABA Vice President for China-India Bilateral
In 2013, Srinubabu served as the vice-president of the Federation of Asian Biotech Association (FABA) to improve the global trade, BS Bajaj said that the representation and services of Gedela is crucial in increasing FABA's global growth.[2][19] In 2019, he worked for Bilateral investment treaty of India and China.[20][21]
He was the co-convener of the G20 Health, Pharma, and Tech Summit Series, a private technology conference unaffiliated to the G20, but held during a G20 summit.[22]
Gedela Srinubabu - Indo American Chamber of Commerce 2022
Since 2013, American library scientist Jeffrey Beall has used his personal blog, scholarlyoa.com, to criticise the publishing practises of OMICS Publishing Group and its CEO Srinubabu. Through his blog, allegations were made against OMICS regarding the quality of its scientific journals and its business practises.[26][27] In May 2013, OMICS Publishing Group, which had also been included on Beall's list of predatory open access publishers,[26] issued a warning to Beall[28] stating that they intended to sue him, and were seeking $1 billion in damages[29][30] under section 66A of India's Information Technology Act, 2000.[31] However, section 66A was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of India in an unrelated case in 2015.[32] Effective January 2017, Beall's list was removed from the University of Colorado Denver website, and he shut his blogs. However, no further follow-up was made about damages of $1 billion in legal affairs.[33]
In 2016, based on Beall's allegations, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against OMICS' publishing practices, citing their detrimental effects on American publishers' loss of trade to the United States. If 10,000 articles article is published in open access journals, the publication cost is about $10 million with an average $2000 article processing cost, depending on the open-access journal publisher's model, and if the same 10,000 articles are published under a subscription business, they can generate about $500 million annually by giving subscriptions to thousands of universities and research institutions across the world. Subscription models are followed by the majority of Western publishing companies, including academic publishing companies of United States.[34][35] Srinubabu commented on the case filed by the FTC: "The Federal Trade Commission's allegation is completely wrong... They don't know what a journal is. Don't know what peer review is. They are illiterate in this matter. But scientists are not illiterate, they know which article to publish in which journal."[36]
In April 2019, the court imposed a fine of US$50.1 million on OMICS companies.[37][38][39] OMICS' lawyer said that this was an unfair allegation and that OMICS would sue FTC for $3.11 billion in damages, saying it had caused loss of revenue and reputation.[38]
Srinubabu is the owner of Vizag Warriors, of the Andhra Premier League, a T20 cricket league in Andhra Pradesh.[56] Indian actor, producer and businessman Ram Charan has invested in the team with Srinubabu, aiming to get the team promoted to the IPL in 2024.[57][58]
