Comments for Scholarly Open Access

On the recommendation that people self-publish themselves. Don’t forget that this involves them paying out hundreds of pounds. Self-publishing is not free. This VDM outfit claims that you don’t pay a penny. Of course, since the price of VDM books are high, you will probably sell fewer copies, thus not getting the money you’d have gotten from self-publishing. The other point is that self-publishing can be a hassle. A final point. As someone who actually got a book published by a respectable academic press, the process of finding one is not as easy as some imagine. I had to send off 17 manuscripts in my field before I finally found a publisher. So folks imagining they can easily find an alternative to either VDM or self-publishing are probably in for a rude shock.

Hi, Jeff, I was wondering about this myself. I’ve not signed up yet. But I have asked them if I can reproduce passages from my Ph.D. in the future. Their blurb suggests this will not be a problem. But are there any other pitfalls? Seems a bit too good to be true …

Another point is who owns copyright. Does the university from which I graduated? In which case, it’s not in my power to give my permission, is it? …

The author of a thesis/dissertation owns the copyright, unless the author signs away the copyright.

Thanks. Basically, this service is similar to self-publishing but you don’t normally receive royalties because there will be too few sales. But would national libraries like the British Library not take these VDM titles? They “claim” that their books are advertised as for sale, but where?

“Presumably,” VDM must have some sales of these, otherwise they will be out of business in short order.

Have any of the forum members had experience of where they are actually a presence online?

On reflection, I will probably try to get, at a future date, my thesis published by a mainstream academic publisher. But I assume that I don’t need to get the permission of the university from which I graduated’s permission to do this. Am I right? In other words, I own the copyright on the thesis?

Yes, unless you’ve already signed over the copyright. At least in terms of U.S. law as I understand it.

I imagine, and this is almost 10 years ago, that I may have signed some forms at the time. But none were pointed out as giving them copyright control. I also imagine that if universities routinely controlled the copyright, VDM would have no market, or at least VDM would have to approach the universities and not the authors?

[...] guesses that making this kind of money on vanity/predatory publishing may make Dr. Ketchum forget about marketing the non-existent Sasquatch Wildwear tshirts and other [...]

Gmail is putting most of the predatory emails I get into spam. You can also design a custom filter for any sender.

I am disappointed to learn all this about a jurnal in which I published my paper. What an embarassment.
Godfrey T.

Recently, the Ministry of Education, Government of Malaysia has declared that this journal declared as black listed journal due to much scam and fraud. Now the journal has withdrew the ISI indexing.

It is terrible indeed. I, myself, faced problems with such journals.
I do not want to write further.at this time.

Now I know why the person I spoke with over the phone was so rude. He kept calling me “Doctor” and when I told him I was not a doctor, he said, “is there anything wrong with me calling you doctor?” and he still continued in his heavy (sounded like indian/paki) accent. He was then willing to accept the payment for $300 to “reserve” the seat for a conference. When I said this is for a sister of mine who is in a Pharmacy program, he said “OH GOD!”
very unprofessional and I have no idea how can someone go to their “conferences”
Now that I know they are a scam, I will continue to warn people about them.

Thank you for your meticulous criticism which I find very Superfluous. If anyone cites his/her previous article(s), this would not be called self-plagiarism under any circumstances.

This useful reply could be the start of a much-needed online price-comparison service for all journals, published in all ways.

For price X do we get:

Serious reviewers?
Personal feedback from a qualified journal editor?
Good copyediting?
Effective distribution and active promotion of the journal?
A definite/known/knowable target audience?
Print-on-demand or print issue options?
Clear and attractive publication contracts?
Self-archiving rights?
Indexed journals?
Active link referencing?
Reader feedback management?
Contigency plans for possible closure of the journal?
Supplementary data storage?
Suitably-measured/meaningful impact factors?

etc.

If journals become too mega in their scope, there’s a good chance (statistically speaking) that not many people will be giving specific attention to production values in your area of the journal.

[...] Jefrrey Beall es probablemente uno de los bibliotecarios más conocidos dentro de la industria editorial. Trabaja en la Universidad de Colorado y se ha hecho popular en este mundo porque mantiene una lista de editores depredadores. [...]

Dear Sir, I have recently seen that you put “international journal of applied linguistics and English Literature” on your list. May I know why? You mean it is not a respected and prestigious journal?? Is it a fake one?

Thanks,
Mohammad
Iran