On Oct 30th, I got a post from Marina Dusevic, Rijeka, Croatia, the “publishing procedure manager” at InTech Open, “publisher of the world’s largest collection of opened upwards access books” [YouTube video] inviting me to contribute a chapter to Pollination, an opened upwards access volume edited yesteryear Dr Phatlane William Mokwala together with Dr Phetole Mangena. The post – naturally – ended upwards inwards my junk folder.
In contrast to the park shabby mails from self-declared opened upwards access scientific discipline publishers, this i is professionally done together with wants to recruit me for a theme that (in a largest sense) was component division of my publication portfolio. Well, I’m non a palynologist or pollination biologist, but I convey co-authored papers showing pollen similar the one published inwards PeerJ, the newspaper Marina referred to inwards her invitation mail. And non for architecture, medicinal plants, creationism, etc., similar thus many other invitations. InTech Open has likewise a real professional person homepage together with praises itself yesteryear publishing at to the lowest degree i volume per week. And, they convey Nobel laureates inwards their writer lists.
So, it must hold out a proper publisher.
Still, I uncovering the invitation fishy. In the double sense.
Obviously, the publisher tries to fish me to brand a quick bug, which could hold out considered to hold out predatory. Or merely motivated draw organisation policy. Motivated she is, indeed, the Croation manager. Deposing inwards my junk folder – I did non click the link to register as prospective writer or answered the post – were 4 email. I (meaning my junk folder) got a reminder a calendar week later on (Nov 6th), inwards “case I missed” the master invitation; i calendar week passed together with some other “friendly reminder” (Nov 13th; making me wondering, how an unfriendly reminder would aspect like) joined the junk folder, together with – some other calendar week passed – the “Final run a peril to contribute to Pollination” (Nov 20th). Missing out the in conclusion chance, at that topographic point was no farther mail.
Fishy are likewise the circumstances for inviting me.
First, it’s ever proficient to (a) not trust invitations of publishers together with journals y'all never had whatever draw organisation amongst together with (b) anything uninvited enforcing confidentiality: “The information contained inwards either this e-mail and, if applicable, the attachment, are confidential together with are intended solely for the recipient. The contents of either the e-mail or the attachment may non hold out disclosed publicly.” I tin sympathise that this is criterion inwards draw organisation transactions (for proficient together with shady reasons) or emails exchanged yesteryear Jared K. together with the Kremlin, but inwards opened upwards science? When y'all desire to brand a book, the park way is to teach the contributors together, earlier suggesting it to a publisher. InTech's editing volume model (like that of other opened upwards access volume publishers, including indubitably predatory ones) works differently: Pick a theme (anything possible), together with thus transportation to a greater extent than or less emails to randomly selected scientists hoping they postulate something to dump.
Second, together with permit lonely that I convey picayune to create amongst pollination biology, I convey never heard of Phatlane W. Mokwala or Phetole Mangena. So why me? And what qualifies them to edit such a book?
Nothing, it seems. Google Scholar lists five articles authored yesteryear Phatlane, 4 of those were published inwards the in conclusion 10 years, all dealing amongst soybeans (nothing nigh pollination). Phetole, a beau South African scientist at the University of Limpopo, seems every bit productive together with interested inwards soybean, naturally non pollination (Google Scholar lists 4 articles). Two of the papers are articulation publications of the two, prospective pollination-book editors [Fun-fact: soy-beans are a self-pollinating crop. The pollen merely drops on the flower, which thus seeds, but pollination scientific discipline typically deals amongst animal- or wind-pollinated plants, merely to choke far interesting]:
- “In vitro shoot induction inwards soybean”; a brusk communication inwards the International Journal of Agriculture & Biology; a Pakistan-based mag thus professionally done that y'all merely teach this when y'all desire to know who is on the editorial board: “Warning: mysql_select_db() expects parameter 2 to hold out resource, zero given inwards H:\root\home\mrsulman80-001\www\FSPublishers\IJAB-Editorial-Board.php on draw 3” (same work “on draw 5”, maybe y'all tin gear upwards it, honey Friends Science Publishers-Team).
- And, merely this year, “Challenges of In Vitro together with In Vivo Agrobacterium-Mediated Genetic Transformation inwards Soybean” published inwards i of the InTech Open books Soybean – The Basis of Yield, Biomass together with Productivity, edited yesteryear Minobu Kasai.
The books yesteryear InTech are opened upwards access, i.e. freely accessible for readers. But it’s a companionship that needs to earn money, thus soul has to pay. Giving the willingness of Mangena together with Mokwala to deed as editors of a volume on an alien (for them together with me) topic, they in all likelihood volition non pay for it. So, it’s the authors who volition hold out charged. Interestingly, Marina doesn’t bring upwards anything regarding this inwards her friendly invitations together with reminders. The price for a volume chapter is “most competitive” “starting from 690 €”, including
- Peer Review (confidential, naturally) – of import for (re-)imbursement together with credits inwards many countries;
- a generous allowance of 14–20 pages to “allow a to a greater extent than comprehensive analysis compared to mag articles” (for comparison, PeerJ, maybe the best opened upwards access journals correct directly together with the argue Marina emailed me, starts charging for excess length when y'all teach over 40! pages);
- finally, indexing inwards “major scientific databases” – most of which are costless of accuse for the publisher.
Officially, to teach an editor of i of the books inwards InTech’s edited books pipage (in Life Sciences, y'all currently tin choice quite a lot topics from “Adenoviruses” to “Wasps”), y'all fill upwards the application cast together with transportation a scientific CV to editor@intechopen.com “If y'all are an experienced scientist inwards the STM champaign …” (whatever that means, if 2 scientists amongst a handful of papers on soybeans tin deed as editors of a volume dedicated to pollination) together with it comes amongst benefits
- “Greater Visibility” – well, it’s opened upwards access;
- “New Forms of Collaboration” – such as: getting inwards affect amongst authors potentially to a greater extent than experienced inwards the theme of the volume y'all edit that are desperate plenty to pay for an allegedly peer-reviewed volume chapter (the beauty of confidential peer-review is that 3rd parties can’t cheque what the reviewers’ said, or whether at that topographic point was a stringent peer-review at all);
- InTech’s “Full Support” – i.e. a Marina browsing opened upwards access journals together with spamming the harvested emails for a showtime (but probable to a greater extent than back upwards during the procedure than Elsevier together with Springer-Nature provide);
- and “Printed Book” – teach this: 2 printed books for costless (how old-fashioned, in all likelihood for the shelf inwards the office) together with the PDF, naturally, addition – a existent bargain – discounts for “purchasing InTech books”.
Quality publishing inwards the 21st century. Near-impossible to stop, cheers to the Impermeable Fog.
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