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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.html).
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@o2.co.uk.

Thank you.

Richard Poynder
www.richardpoynder.co.uk