Beware Predatory Publishing Practices!
Is this the latest predatory practice invented by the enterprising neoliberal market for academic publishing? Within a space of 5 days, I have received four emails from different organizations inviting me to publicize chosen articles to the wider scholarly community. They say that their team will write the article (perhaps because I am a nonnative speaker? but also useful for a lazy native speaker?), and all I need to do is approve the final product. Buried in the invitation letter is the note that I have to pay for this service. Their organization’s web page talks about noble motivations such as making academic articles open access, democratizing scholarly communication, and reaching scholars and public who don’t have access to expensive journals. They are not sensitive to the irony that my articles that they chose to publicize have keywords like “decolonizing” or “neoliberal” in the title. Anyway, this shows that progressive discourses on decolonial and anti-racist scholarship are also open to being turned into a marketable label for profit-making.
Below is an email from UK. I have received others from organizations located in Hong Kong, India, and China.
——————————————————-
Dear Dr. Canagarajah,
I hope my email finds you well during these challenging global times.
Please excuse the direct nature of this contact, however I would like to speak with you regarding your work on Trajectories in Decolonizing Language.
[xxx] work in collaboration with research teams assisting with their Public Outreach activity, through means of a professionally produced series of publications and articles aimed at a broader audience.
I understand Public Outreach is a very important issue within the research community – where it is often difficult to obtain large numbers of views and interactions.
We are currently working on our December 2021 edition. This publication will feature a wide variety of science disciplines, including approximately 28 research articles. We would like you to be one of those featured.
My suggestion is that we might create a new article, possibly covering some basic details of the published paper I have seen online, or indeed, covering new ground or the wider scope of your work. This would be an entirely new article written and developed by [xxx], in close collaboration with you.
[xxx] distributes all content, publications and your individual article, across major Social Media platforms, as well as our own website. Your work will be seen by a large and quantifiable global audience.
We work with all academics on a non-profit making level, all content we produce is free to share and can be downloaded by any reader. Our website is entirely transparent and answers any questions you may have.
I have briefly looked over the details of your work and believe [xxx] to be an effective platform to communicate your outreach requirements.
We publish under the Creative Commons Licence and you will own the copyright to your published material, and we can send you a separate PDF download, to be used on your web-page, at events, conferences, or as outreach material for students etc.
Please have a look at our website for examples of the publications we produce and further detail on our objectives and services: [xxx]
I can assure you the entire process requires very little work on your part, less than 1 hour of your time to approve the content we create over a 10-week editorial process.
Some of the services we provide are paid for, this means there is a cost to you if you decide to take part. I would be delighted to explain this and our editorial process. I understand your time is limited.
Rather than writing any further detail, could we please find 5 minutes to discuss?
During our call, I can answer any questions you may have and explain in detail the requirements and cost for taking part and of course the benefits of doing so.
Thank you in advance,
Kind regards,
[xxx]
Operations Director