Comment on Lambert Academic Publishing: A Must to Avoid by Robin Hood

Many MSc and PHD students get sucked into the VDM-LAP scam. They desperately need publications early on in their career. A book sounds like a nice choice, + one free full-colour copy, in hard-copy. Plus the advertising on Amazon with a small cut of the profits (apparently never paid out). Which junior budding scientists would refuse this offer? Publication of MSc and PhD theses in academic journals and then recycled in “academic” books published by VDM-LAP constitutes the biggest fraudulent scam in publishing history, and ironically with the biggest growth and profits. Not to mention it constitutes self-plagiarism in its worst form. The questions we should be asking is, how can this be legal in Germany? Or is the predatory publishing model indicative of something wider taking place in the dark world of science publishing? Remember, Springer also operates from Germany. Is there some sort of a two-tier legal system, or are we all just being duped from the elitist publishers right down to the “troll journals”, as described by a Taylor and Francis representative in another of Bealle’s blog entry? Open yoru eyes folks, things are getting too misty in the room…