Fwd: Bentham Science Publishers

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2008 15:29:06 -0400

Begin forwarded message:
      From: Ted Bergstrom tedb -- econ.ucsb.edu
Date: April 7, 2008 1:03:21 PM EDT (CA)
To: liblicense-l -- lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Bentham Science Publishers

Richard,

I enjoyed hearing about your efforts to contact Bentham
Publishers. I, too, have been curious about them. I looked at
www.journalprices.com to check on whether Bentham has
ISI-listed journals and how they are priced. Journalprices.com
lists 14 Bentham journals, 12 are classified as "bad values" in
terms of price per article and price per citation, and 2 as
"medium values". It appears to me that they are an established
publisher that has fallen into "bad hands".

Not only does Bentham spam for authors. They are also spamming
for editors.

I have received unsolicited messages from Bentham inviting me
to be an editor of the Open Journal of Education as well as the
Open Journal of Economics. They also sent me an email inviting
me to contribute an article to the Open Journal of Sleep.

I was particularly pleased with the following:

      Based on your record of contributions in the field
      of Education, I would like to invite you to submit
      to me your CV with current list of publications so
      that we may consider you as a possible *Editorial
      Board Member* for the journal.


Since I my record in the field of Education is nil, I feel
particularly well-qualified. I have never written a thing in an
Education journal. I don't know whether or not to be honored to
be invited to contribute to the Open Journal of Sleep.

If you look at the web page of the "Open Journal Advisory
Board" http://www.bentham.org/open/toeconsj/EBM.htm you will
find something remarkable. There is a list of about 40
economists who are "members of the advisory board," all but one
of whose last names start with the letters A-C and only one of
whom I have ever heard of. I suppose these are the top of the
list of people who responded to the spam letters. What an
embarrassing list to have one's name on.

The spam letters say

      Bentham Science Publishers have gained a
      longstanding international reputation for their
      excellent standards and top quality science
      publications. Many journals published by Bentham
      Science Publishers have received high impact
      factors in their respective fields.  For the
      current list of publications, please visit
      <http://www.bentham.org/> . Seven Nobel Laureates
      have endorsed a number of Bentham Science's
      journals; please read their quotes at
      <http://www.bentham.org/Nobel.htm>


The quotes from Nobelists endorse a couple of journals in
medicine and chemistry published by Bentham.

There is a particularly delightful touch at the bottom of the
Open Economics Journal web page: "Indexed by Google, Google
Scholar." Just who would be gullible enough not to notice that
this means "indexed by nobody other than search engines"? Well,
I can show you a list of 40 economists whose names start with
the letters A-C.

Cheers, Ted


      Dear All,


      I would be grateful if anyone could help me. I am
      interested in

      an Open Access publisher called Bentham Science
      Publishers

      (http://www.bentham.org/). I have been contacted by
      a number of

      researchers who say that the company is bombarding
      them with

      invitations to contribute papers to its journals.
      Apparently

      requests by the recipients to remove them from
      Bentham's mailing

      list have little or no effect.


      I have tried to make contact with a number of
      people in the

      company including Richard Scott, who is most often
      the person

      whose name appears at the bottom of the invitation
      letters, and

      was until recently listed as the editorial director
      of the

      company on its web site
      (http://www.bentham.org/Contact.php). I

      also copied into my emails Bentham's US contact
      Richard

      Morrissey, and Matthew Honan, who earlier this year
      was also

      described as the company's editorial director

(http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/01/bentham-oa-publishing-program.ht
      ml).

      Likewise I copied in Professor Thomas Salt, since
      he too has

      signed some of the offending emails in his capacity
      as

      Editor-in-Chief of a Bentham journal called Current

      Neuropharmacology. Tom Salt appears to be based in
      the Department

      of Visual Science at the Institute of Ophthalmology
      in London.


      Despite all my attempts to make email contact with
      the company

      and its representatives, however, the only response
      I have

      received has come from someone called Mahmood Alam
      who seems to

      be based in Pakistan. He informed me that Richard
      Scott was too

      busy to speak with me, but invited me to email my
      questions to

      him. After I sent some questions through to Mahmood
      Alam,

      however, he failed to answer them.


      I have also tried calling the telephone numbers
      listed on the

      Bentham web site, but have only been able to get
      through to voice

      mail messages. The number listed for Richard
      Morrissey simply

      invites callers to email him (the address given is
      the one that I

      have failed to get any response from).


      I would be most grateful if anyone who has any
      knowledge of

      Bentham, or any experience of publishing with the
      company, or

      editing any of its journals, or anyone who
      regularly reads any of

      the Bentham journals, could contact me on:

      richardpoynder1_at_o2.co.uk.


      Thank you.


      Richard Poynder

      www.richardpoynder.co.uk
Received on Mon Apr 07 2008 - 20:31:36 BST

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