A chapter of my very own...

October 12, 2010 2:49 PM

I'm an environmental scientist. I just received an email from a group called "Intech Open Access Publisher", referencing one of my papers, and asking me if I'd like to submit a chapter for a book. My first thoughts were "Oh man, I didn't think that paper was that great...". My second thoughts were "Hmm...I bet this is a form email sent out to thousands of researchers based on a keyword search, and it may well be a waste of time to submit an abstract." Has anyone else had experience in this sort of thing? Is it legit?
posted by Jimbob to Science & Nature (8 answers total)

Best answer: It appears to be a scam or near scam. The fact that they want almost 600 Euros (about $835) is the clue here. Legitimate academic/scientific publishing does not work this way.
posted by cushie at 3:09 PM on October 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I get lots of letters congratulating me on being a well renowned person in my field and being selected for a Who's Who publication. And all I have to pay is a few hundred bucks for the cost of printing!

This is scam city.
posted by bearwife at 3:14 PM on October 12, 2010

Response by poster: Heh. Email didn't mention the costs. I was afraid to look ;)
posted by Jimbob at 3:23 PM on October 12, 2010

Best answer: More details (sciyo = in-tech, it seems). There's clearly no peer review in the process, and I'm guessing you don't know the editor and have never previously encountered a paper in your field in one of this press' collections, so even if the company were mildly legit, it doesn't seem worth it.
posted by advil at 3:54 PM on October 12, 2010

Based on what I can see, they actually do what they claim, namely publish open access scientific books. However, the books are clearly of very low quality. I can tell by looking at a couple of them that they have no thematic consistency; the various chapters come from very diverse subfields that have little in common, and there is no reason for them to be published in the same volume. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a scam, because they actually will publish your paper. It's basically for CV padding.
posted by PercussivePaul at 4:11 PM on October 12, 2010

Response by poster: Yeah, that article reveals pretty much what I expected, advil.
posted by Jimbob at 4:22 PM on October 12, 2010

Maybe not quite a scam, but close enough - I've seen several of these outfits. Seems like the equivalent to many of the on-line degree mills trolling cyberspace. Same issue, too: even if it's "publication," there's little/no credibility/prestige to it. Plus, I'd be wary regarding maintaining intellectual property rights, etc.
posted by 5Q7 at 8:55 PM on October 12, 2010

Yeah, probably not-quite-scam, but definitely not a good use of your time or money. I think that those of us who publish academically might just have to get used to this kind of thing... I've definitely noticed an uptick in the number of emails inviting me to edit an issue of a never-heard-of-it journal that has nothing to do with my field.
posted by primer_dimer at 2:37 AM on October 13, 2010