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| PEANUTS © 2010 PEANUTS Worldwide LLC |
I am grateful not to be subject to this form of institutional pressure. As Aristotle said, “Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.” I am a lawyer, not an academic. While I have been privileged to have some of my articles published in respected law journals and law association newsletters, I do not suffer from the deceit, or conceit, that I am a legal academic. Nevertheless, peer review is peer review. Whether I am writing a case comment or traditional legal journal article, I am mindful that the purpose of legal writing is more than mere pedagogy. There is a method to one’s madness in devoting valuable time and concentrated effort into legal writing; applying intellectual rigour to a legal problem and trying to provide a new or different way towards a solution. It sharpens the mind and reinvigorates the psyche.
It is for these reasons that I urge fellow legal writers of all persuasions to think twice before accepting an invitation to publish with the Journal of US-China Law Review, one of a number of academic journals published by David Publishing Company a Chinese-based online publisher with offices in Libertyville, Illinois and Queen’s, New York.
“David Publishing strives to provide the best platform for researchers and scholars worldwide to exchange their latest findings and results. We admire your achievements, and we understand how important your research impact to other peers in the same interest field and other disciplines, and how delighted you would be when communicating with global professional peers. Your contribution to our journals would be very much welcome!
Requirements
1. Paper must be empirical or theoretical contributions without being published previously;
2. All other scholars’ words or remarks as well as their origins must be indicated if quoted
3. Abstract and key words should be prerequisite;
4. Paper would contain at least 3000 words (including abstract, keywords and footnotes.
5. The sample of the journal is in attachment, you can consult it.”
After a purported “double-blind” peer review process, my article was approved for publication, subject to some very minor edits:
“Dear Antonin I. Pribetic,
We are pleased to inform you that your paper… submitted for consideration for US-China Law Review, has been processed utilizing a two person referee process and upon their recommendation your paper has been accepted for publication.But there are some modification you should do.We have indicated in text,you can find it in attachment.And please send back the revision in one week.
Best regards
Journal of US-China Law Review
David publishing Company”
After some to-ing and fro-ing during the editorial process, I received a confirmatory email which began innocuously enough:
“Dear Antonin I. Pribetic,
We have received your revision. Please tell us your research field.” [emphasis added]
Well, someone must not have read the paper after all. Note to Journal Editors: read the abstract and keywords and you’ll probably surmise what the research field is.
The Journal editor’s email then continues with terms and conditions for publication:
According to the policy of the journal, if you agree to publish your paper, you need to confirm several things below and offer us definite answers:
1. All articles must normally be empirical or theoretical contributions not previously published; all other scholars’ words or remarks and their origins must be indicated if quoted;2. Confirm to authorize us to publish your paper in US journal;3. Confirm to authorize us to add your paper to Hein Online, EBSCO,CEPS, VIP, etc, after it is published;4. Confirm to authorize us to add your paper to CSA Social Science Collection of databases，PAISl database…”
So far, so good.
Until…this curve ball is served up:
“5. When your paper is accepted for publishing, you need to pay a service charge on reviewing, editing and printing your paper. The flat price is $50 per page. Your paper has 14 pages, and the total service fee is $720 (including $20 postage for hard copies of the journal after your paper is published).
Attached pls find out the payment methods.After we receive your confirmation on payment arrange, we will typeset and print your paper and inform you our process details later.
When your paper is published, the journal within your paper and invoice will be mailed to you.
Should you have any questions, feel free to contact us!Best Regards,
SincerelyJournal of US-China Law ReviewISSN1548-6605，USA” [emphasis added]
Um. Yeah, I’ve got a question. Here’s my reply email:
“Are you seriously asking me to pay a service charge to your journal to have my paper published? I thought the Journal of US-China Law Review was a legitimate academic journal. The answer is a flat NO. Please do not waste my time.”
October 13, 2010 at 7:41 am |
Thanks for your report. I received an e-mail from David Publishing as well, asking me to publish in the Jounral of Life Sciences. First, I am not in life sciences. Second, the text did refer to a specific presentation of mine at a conference last year, but did not cite a bit of the content. Third, the e-mail was not signed by any person with a name (only the name of the journal). After a brief search I found their homepage, which looked legitimate at first sight, and your blog with this entry. Deleted the e-mail, knowing I did not turn down an opportunity. Thanks again! – JPL
October 13, 2010 at 1:24 pm |
I"m glad this post saved you from wasting your time.
January 31, 2011 at 4:58 am |
Thanks a lot for this information. I received an invitation as well, asking me to publish in the Journal “China-USA Business Review”. The conference presentation they are interested in has nothing to do with the field of international economics at all. But nevertheless, it looked reliable. Then I found this story.
Thanks a lot saving my time!
March 12, 2011 at 11:20 am |
Oh that was a close one. It seems they’re targeting the history crowd now with a new journal. Do you mind that I put up the journal title and ISSN so that others can find their way to your story through a google search?
The tried to get me hooked onto their journal titled “History Research”, ISSN 2159-550X. They had the nice tag line “from knowledge to wisdom.”
March 12, 2011 at 12:09 pm |
You are welcome to link my post as a matter of responsible journalism in the public interest.
April 25, 2011 at 9:31 am |
Great post. I also am a historian who was targeted by the “History Research” journal, ISSN 2159-550X. Nice scheme. It would have pulled precious time away from my dissertation work.
April 25, 2011 at 9:38 am |
Thanks. I’m glad that it saved you from wasting time. Please feel free to forward the post to your colleagues.
May 10, 2011 at 4:54 am |
Thanks so much for this one. I did get an unsolicited email from a David Publishing Company journal called ‘From Knowledge to Wisdom’ just today. Though flattered by the prospect of having my article published in a international journal, I googled the journal and found your blog, and shall naturally refuse. Great and very useful post!
May 10, 2011 at 4:53 pm |
You’re very welcome. This blawg strives to make a modest contribution in the quest ‘From Knowledge to Wisdom’…
June 2, 2011 at 12:58 pm |
Hi, I am also grateful for your blog on David Publishing. I’m up for tenure soon and this type of solicitation for papers looks pretty inviting. Thank goodness I din’t waste my time, but instead decided to google DP with the words “scam” and “fraud”. Odd that there aren’t more blogs and/or fraud alerts about them. Thanks again….
July 1, 2011 at 1:32 pm |
Another vote of thanks. I gave a paper at a conference just last weekend and already got their e-mail — these guys move fast! I’m passing the word on to both my panel mates and the organization that put on the conference, so a word to all who read this: Spread the Word!
July 1, 2011 at 1:38 pm |
Evangelizing the Gospel of Truth About David Publishing Company: The Bird is the Word.
July 11, 2011 at 2:03 pm |
Having so many confirmations helps to protect the innocent. I was flattered when asked to submit my paper. I did not present my paper at a conference this year because of personal challenges; however, my publication was still solicited by David Publishing. This would have been an unwise move.
July 13, 2011 at 1:38 pm |
Thanks for putting this up. They’ve changed their wording but not their methods; I received a request for my paper to be published in the Journal of Energy and Power Engineering.
July 13, 2011 at 2:05 pm |
You’re welcome, Steve. I’m pleased that my post saved you both time and money. I note it has been reposted on Facebook and online academic bulletin boards, as well.
July 21, 2011 at 9:41 am |
I got the “History Research” email the other day inviting me to submit a paper, but it included this as well:
“Currently, we are trying to invite some scholars who are willing to join our editorial board or be our reviewers. If you are interested in our journal, please send your CV to us. Hope to keep in touch via email and can publish some papers or books from you and your friends. As an American academic publishing group, we wish to become your friends if we may.”
Perhaps I’d get to keep some of those hundreds of dollars per article if I’m an editor? Or perhaps I have to pay to be an editor?
The last line is priceless. Sound just like the emails I get from lovely ladies in far-off lands who see my profile online, and want to “become my friend.”
July 24, 2011 at 5:06 am |
David’s Publishing Company is also using conference email lists to forward their scam. The Popular Culture Association’s National Conference program is being used to selectively solicit presenters. I was almost taken in by this scam. The email seemed genuine and referenced my abstract specifically (which I later learned had been published on the conference website).The journal was called The Journal of Literature and Arts Studies. Since I am a PhD student about to enter the job market, I take offers to publish my work seriously. The email made no mention of payment or suspicious publishing methods, but I had never heard of the journal or the publisher.
I immediately started checking into the journal. I checked the MLA Bibliography of Periodicals database and found nothing; however, the journal editor claimed they were very new and specifically mentioned that publication did not cost a dime in their journal. I even found David’s Publishing listed under EBSCO and Ulrich Periodicals Directory. This nearly sold me on submitting my article; however, I decided to conduct a Google search before submitting and found this online article. It seems EBSCO and Ulrich Periodicals, which are legitimate scholarly databases, have shamelessly allowed this publisher to be listed in their system, probably because the scam does actually extend to the use of peer reviewers. Colleagues of mine from the conference were sent emails asking them to be peer reviewers for the journal.
This shady publishing company is truly producing a topnotch scam. They solicit legitimate scholars for publication and the peer review process at the same time. I would have been completely fooled. I have no doubt the peer reviewer responding to my submission would have legitimate comments and would believe that they were working for a legitimate journal, probably even placing their work for the journal on their CVs. As a scholarly community, I think we should push for the Chronicle of Higher Education to produce a list of such publishers for new and old scholars. We should also encourage EBSCO and Ulrich Periodicals to take such publishers out of their databases.
August 17, 2011 at 11:40 pm |
Hi All,
I am a history doctoral candidate and they tracked me through a recent conference presentation… thank you for all of the warnings–I figured I would add one.
Best,
Beware
July 26, 2011 at 10:01 am |
Thanks for posting these experiences. I just got an email today, but was thrown off by the fact that there was no editor formally inviting me. As a former editorial coordinator of an academic journal, I urge everyone to be weary of appeals that are not sent from an individual affiliated with the journal.
And, I agree that the Chronicle should report on these types of “phishing” emails. This is important for advanced grad students and tenure track faculty especially as we look for opportunities to publish in peer-reviewed journals.
July 26, 2011 at 1:30 pm |
You’re welcome. Please feel free to forward this post to any of your peers and colleagues who are considering submitting their research for publication with David Publishing Company.
July 26, 2011 at 10:21 am |
[...] #1: Aspiring young scholars should know what they’re getting in to. Be wary of publishing scams from China and Libertyville, Illinois. Try to get published through conference connections and [...]
July 26, 2011 at 1:28 pm |
Thanks for your comment. I’m glad that my post has helped you and many of your academic colleagues avoid wasting time and expense.
July 27, 2011 at 8:31 pm |
Hi Antonin,
Thank you for your information. I experienced the same situation. They invited me to submit one of my papers on the “Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering”. What made me suspicious was the fact that their peer-reviewers didn’t make any comments or suggestions about my paper. I believe they don’t read the papers and just want your money.
July 27, 2011 at 8:49 pm |
Glad to help. Pay it forward to your colleagues.
July 30, 2011 at 9:57 am |
This has also moved into the discipline of philosophy with the purported new journal “Philosophy Study.” I have only gotten to Stage 2 in the submission process, but now know what to expect. The clue was receiving emails from colleagues that the journal had provided my email address to as a fellow invited writer. The colleagues asked if a fee for publication was a “usual process.” As you all know, reputable journals NEVER charge for publication.
August 3, 2011 at 4:46 am |
Thanks so much for this!! I also got the same message from Ree Rocgle, asking me for to submit a paper I presented at a Conference and to be publish at the History Research. They asked me to submit the manuscript to history_research@yahoo.com., and to join their editorial board. When I did submit the article then they asked for 360 dollars in order to published the article!!
Here more info:
History Research (ISSN 2159-550X)
David Publishing Company
Tel: 1-847-281-9826；Fax: 1-847-281-9855
August 3, 2011 at 9:48 am |
You’re welcome. I’m still amazed that David Publishing Company continues to solicit articles from academics, including invitations to join editorial boards, without disclosing the author publishing fee upfront. Aside from the ethical issues, this just makes no sense from a business standpoint whatsoever.
August 3, 2011 at 11:35 pm |
Thanks for your blog mate.. This saved me time and energy more than just money..
August 4, 2011 at 1:56 pm |
Either David Publishing Company has switched names to avoid the notoriety, or an even less creative company stole their email format and scam. I just got an email today from the Academic Star Publishing Company. Same deal, same grammar and spelling mistakes. I’m not sure why they think that academics are a good population for a scam… professional scrutinizers seem like the last people you want looking at your poorly worded emails.
Here’s their info:
Journal of Modern Education Review
Academic Star Publishing Company
betty@academicstar.us，education@academicstar.us
70 West 86th Street, #CN0267, New York, NY 10024, USA
TEL: 347-230-6798 FAX: 347-426-1986
I was tipped off by some strange formatting that I’d only seen during correspondence with Chinese conference coordinators. That seemed odd because the letter I received repeatedly stressed how American the company was; certainly, a case of the lady protesting too much.
August 4, 2011 at 2:03 pm |
Sounds like Academic Star Publishing Company, USA has tried this before.
March 20, 2012 at 11:27 am |
Glad to come across this this morning. I had had several email communications regarding publishing a paper. The one I received this morning said “Glad to tell you that your paper has been accepted by our journal and will be published this month….Accoring to the policy of our journal, all the accepted papers should pay some submission fee to us. So you should pay US$330 (including $30 for postage) to us. ” After reading this I promptly responded that there had been no discussion of any kinds of payments and I would not be paying anything. Going back through our correspondences, all of hers appeared to be canned. Didn’t recognize them at the time. Again, Thank you!!
March 20, 2012 at 12:12 pm
You’re quite welcome. Please feel free to forward a copy of my post to your colleagues.
August 4, 2011 at 9:27 pm |
Thanks for the headsup. The first conference I ever attended, 4 months into my PhD and I nearly jumped at this. Brilliantly, they were soliciting for a paper I gave at a literature conference and their startling lack of command of the English language gave the game away. Bastards.
August 4, 2011 at 9:50 pm |
“Noli arrogantium iniurias pati.
August 8, 2011 at 10:08 pm |
I’m from the Philippines and have presented a paper in an international conference. I also received an e-mail from this David Publishing Co. History Reserach Journal requesting for my article.
Glad that I have search your blogsite for useful warning and information about this publisher.
Thanks.
August 9, 2011 at 11:02 am |
Saved me time too, Antonin! Thanks so much. I just hope that others find this post as well.
Joe
August 9, 2011 at 11:19 am |
You’re welcome, Joe. Help out your colleagues by emailing or re-posting a link to my post. Antonin
August 11, 2011 at 12:21 am |
They are phishing Jewish studies scholars, too. They are using the conference program of the Association for Jewish Studies.
August 11, 2011 at 5:20 am |
Oy vey!
August 11, 2011 at 5:56 am |
I just received an email by “niki” from David publishing asking me to publish an article I presented at an UK conference. What made me suspicious was that my article was on German domestic law, so no connection to US, China or international law. Also they asked for any unpublished papers I may have at hand.
They claim to have the “US-China Law Review” listed in a number of databases:
“US-China Law Review is collected and indexed by the Library of U.S Congress and also retrieved by some renowned databases:
★ Database of EBSCO, Massachusetts, USA
★ Hein Online Database, W.S.HEIN, USA
★ Chinese Database of CEPS, American Federal Computer Library center (OCLC), USA
★ Chinese Scientific Journals Database, VIP Corporation, Chongqing, P. R. China
★ Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory
★ ProQuest/CSA Social Science Collection, Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS), USA
David Publishing strives to provide the best platform for researchers and scholars worldwide to exchange their latest findings and results. We admire your achievements, and we understand how important your research impact to other peers in the same interest field and other disciplines, and how delighted you would be when communicating with global professional peers. Your contribution to our journals would be very much welcome!
Submitting of Manuscripts
All manuscripts submitted will be considered for publication. Please visit our website at http://www.davidpublishing.com for our automatic paper submission systems or as an email attachment to: jurist@davidpublishing.com, lawyer1658@hotmail.com, law.review1658@yahoo.com.cn“
August 15, 2011 at 3:03 pm |
[...] lawyer and legal scholar, writes of his experiences with David Publishing, comparing it as a good “bait-and-switch:” we’ll publish your paper, it’s so great there’s no need for peer reviews…oh [...]
August 26, 2011 at 4:27 am |
And now they are targeting the Computer Science crowd:
“From Knowledge to Wisdom
Computer Technology and Application
International Standard Serial Numbers: ISSN 1934-7332″
Now they are also recorded by the Library of Congress:
http://lccn.loc.gov/2006216166
The first thing that put me off was the fact that they require submissions in M$ Word (TeX is de-facto standard in Computer Science), after which a quick Google search has brought me to your post.
Thanks a lot for illuminating their real nature!
August 30, 2011 at 8:53 am |
I received an invitation in May 2011 from David Publishing Company to submit my paper, which I read at a conference 3 years ago, to its new humanities journal “Journal of Literature and Arts.” The letter was from its editor “Suky.” It had a strange attachment in Chinese at the bottom of the page for an American scholastic journal.
发件人： ***
发送时间： ***
收件人： literature.art
抄送：***
Nevertheless, I innocently took the invitation for submission at face value, reedited my manuscript, and sent it to David Publishing Company online. Soon I received its acceptance but was surprised to read I have to pay $50 a page for formatting and editing. The time one of the messages sent to me was odd: 2 am in Chicago? The company may not be located in Chicago. My suspicion grew stronger, and had web search to find this page. It appears this is a new publisher trying to fish those who want to have their articles published.
August 31, 2011 at 8:44 am |
They seem to be working only outside office hours in Chicago…Surprisingly at the time the emails are sent it’s business hours in China…
I received their email at 10 pm Chicago time
September 6, 2011 at 9:32 am |
Hello
I also received an email with the invitation of publishing an article. I thought that it was a spam and I didn’t take it seriously. I don’t know if the company is serious one, but I didn’t receive any other information since they sent to me that email.
I don’t know what is happening but I’m a Ph.D. professor and I think that receiving such false… information may put some people on a false road.
I had some expectations and they were false.
[Comment moderated and edited to conform with blog comment policy]
September 14, 2011 at 5:19 am |
Just a comment, from someone who hasn’t had direct contact with this publishing company – though I have had solicitations from other journals and conferences, in China and elsewhere…
Several people in this discussion have stated that reputable publishers never ask for charges. This is not true! In fact, many journals owned by charitable societies ask for page charges (e.g. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and American Naturalist), while start-up journals from profit-making publishers usually don’t. But journals have to make money somehow, and those that don’t charge authors sometimes charge exorbitant rates to readers – the scandal of subscription prices (see http://octavia.zoology.washington.edu/publishing/). This is bad for accessibility in the developing world, and the Open Access movement is seeking to reduce costs for everyone.
Part of the problem is that authors and university libraries that actually subscribe don’t talk to each other enough. So incredibly bad-value journals can survive in the market alongside good-value ones. There’s an excellent database of journals across all disciplines at http://www.journalprices.com/.
September 16, 2011 at 3:16 am |
I recently received the same unsolicited email from David Publishing, they asked to publish a paper I had presented in a conference in England. Since I had not polished it to submit it to another Journal, I send it to them. They replied me after two weeks that it has been peer reviewed and accepted for publishing. Shameless guys wanted me to pay 50 dollars per page for 20 pages. I wrote to them and told them, forget about stealling 1000 dollars from me. Go to Hell.
September 26, 2011 at 12:12 pm |
Well, I will have to expound the obvious. I got one too; and then I found this blog. Did you guys consider the possibility of the publisher publishing your papers eventually without telling you? I got a sample of US-China Law Review which is blue booked with some poor chaps on the content list. Since I have published before, my temptation was lesser than usual. I got this mail twice in 1 year, they picked from my conference presentation in Beijing. Smart scam, I must say. I am going to send the link to Nikki
Thanks Antonin, Can someone tell me if New York law school is also a scam? Not the NYU Law school, US china law review has some prof. from there fooled by them, or may be its a very smart scam.
Prabhakar
September 26, 2011 at 12:21 pm |
Prabhakar, thanks for your comment. I don’t know whether the New York law school you mention is also a scam, but you can easily check whether it is an ABA-accredited law school on the ABA Approved Law Schools website.
September 30, 2011 at 5:15 am |
I also received an email from this Øpublisher regarding the “Philosophy Study” journal (ISSN 2159-5313). Avoid, everybody!
October 6, 2011 at 2:32 pm |
Dear friends,
Thank you very much for all information. I also received an e-mail after the conference in Columbus. And more over I received the invitation to be a member of their team of editors and invited to send my CV. I am just wondering how they estimate the editor’s participation in their project if for one page we have to pay $50? And actually it is very interesting that email does not signed by the anybody from the editorial staff of the journal.
October 6, 2011 at 3:03 pm |
You’re welcome. Please feel free to forward this post to your colleagues to spread the word. Regards, Antonin I. Pribetic
October 12, 2011 at 1:52 pm |
Hi!
Just to let you know that they are getting more sophisticated. I have received a message from them today (the second within one year) and they have put a name at the end. It says:
Best Regards,
Gloria
Editor Office
Maybe they are aware of this blog:) Of course that it is still suspicious because in a message that looks formal only the name is appearing and not the surname.
By the way, since this is a blawg, are their actions against the law? If so what can be done more?
All the best!
October 12, 2011 at 2:28 pm |
Thanks for your comment. While it appears that their server is located in China, since David Publishing states that their head office is in Chicago, Illinois, USA, then it is likely they are subject to American law. I am not licensed to practice in the United States, so all I can say is generally, any potential false advertising or marketing practices are subject to the Federal Trade Commission: See, http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/index.shtml
October 28, 2011 at 10:41 am |
Well, they reeled me in, that is, until I was turned on to this blog. I received an unsolicited email with reference to an abstract from a conference I presented at last year.I received this email in late August and their editor had a first and last name “Karen Garcia”. The name of the “journal” was “Philosophy Study”. I ran it by my grad director and it seems shady–but legit. I sent my paper in and got a revise resubmit with EXCELLENT comments from a blind reviewer.–really good comments actually.
I then received an email from “Karen” to be a blind reviewer for a paper outside of the listed interests on my CV (but related). The red flag came up. I never sent in my revise resubmit but wondered if I should have. I then told someone of my story and they turned me on to this blog–I feel MUCH BETTER about my decision.
Thanks!!
October 28, 2011 at 10:55 am |
You’re very welcome. I am pleased that you avoided this trap for the unwary. Please pay it forward to your colleagues.
April 20, 2012 at 5:07 pm |
I got the same e-mail today. Will try to raise awareness among colleagues. Thank you Antonin I. Pribetic.
April 20, 2012 at 5:09 pm
You’re welcome, Amir.
November 3, 2011 at 4:27 pm |
Hi Antonin
Sorry to repeat what many colleagues have already told you, but… Thanks for your post. This page seems to be so popular that it could be useful me to alert that this DP Company is trying to waste the time of sociological community too: I’ve just received a proposal to submit a paper to be published on the journal ‘From Knowledge to Wisdom
Sociology Study’. Same contents and same style of the mail you mention.
November 3, 2011 at 4:39 pm |
Thanks, Marco, for your comment averting to another David Publishing Company pubscam offer. Best, Antonin
November 4, 2011 at 7:28 am |
[...] links: ISA e The Trial Warrior Blog. Share this:CondivisioneEmailStampaFacebookTwitterDiggStumbleUponLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]
November 8, 2011 at 1:06 pm |
Now they seem to be phishing among communications scholars as I have received an email from their brand new journal Journalism and Mass Communication. I did not submit a paper, I got an invitation for their editorial board and serve as reviewer. First, I seemed to be flattered. I have checked their website – looked legit at first sight (not with thorough search though), some of their publications are listed within EBSCO and are in the Library of US Congress, the clip-art styled books of David Publishing are even sold via Amazon and Kindle service. I got an invitation and welcome letter frpm them, with letter-head and illinois corporate stamp. But the Chinese connections (maybe I should submit a paper on censorship on China) raised red flags, more research showed that they are not listed in most indexes they claim. I immediately asked to remove me and do not use my credentials in any form or venue, that I do not co-operate with them on anything. Hope they got the message. Some of their Boards include very decent scholars. They are victims as well. Antonin, thanks for this must-read blogpost.
November 8, 2011 at 1:13 pm |
You’re welcome, Branislav. I’m glad you found this post helpful. Antonin
November 10, 2011 at 11:49 am |
Thanks for the post. FYI, they are now targeting science educators.
November 10, 2011 at 3:11 pm |
You’re very welcome. Please feel free to share with your academic colleagues.
November 11, 2011 at 8:29 am |
I got the invitation of “Journal of Literature and Art Studies” yesterday to publish my paper that was introduced in a conference two years ago. I had never seen such a magazine before, so I googled them and found their home page which was ok, but as the letter was signed by “Gloria” with no last name, I wanted to know about their background. There was nothing there under the link “About us”. The only link that worked was the link for submitting the magazine. Because I first wanted to see the magazine I contacted a librarian who had seen the warning. Many thanks!
I also was invited to work for free as a reviewer:
“Every year, editor(s)/reviewer(s) should review about 10-12 papers of the journal and fill out the reviewing form, and return the form to us in 1-2 weeks through email or fax. … Some authors or readers may contact the editor(s)/reviewer(s), then the editor(s)/reviewer(s) should answer their questions. … The editor(s)/reviewer(s) should help promote the journal at conferences and meetings that they attend… We cannot offer compensation or remuneration to the editor(s)/reviewer(s) for their work”.
I was very suspicious because they do not even know me -are all the other reviewers as “respectable”?
November 21, 2011 at 2:49 pm |
Right. Moving on to business. My colleague received an email from them to submit an article that we wrote together. I even checked EBSCO and some of the articles there and all seemed ok. But this journal didn’t appear in any journal ranking lists or anything, so became suspicious and further googling didn’t give any results so moved over to David Publishing and found this blog. Saved us a lot of time, since the plan was to revise the conference paper as soon as possible!
The email started “This is China-USA Business Review (ISSN1537-1514, USA) and Chinese Business Review (ISSN1537-1506, USA). We are ‘glad to know you have submitted a paper named “xxx” in xxx conference, date, place. We are very interested in your research, if the paper mentioned has not been published in other journals or you have other unpublished papers in hand and have the idea of making our journal a vehicle for your research interests, please feel free to send electronic version to us.”
Now this conference was in Denmark, we are from Finland and the topic has absolutely nothing to do with US-China relations, even though it is in the business field. So following others’ comments : thank you for this blog!
November 21, 2011 at 2:51 pm |
I’m glad you didn’t waste your time or money.
November 22, 2011 at 6:47 am |
[...] If you receive any emails from Verlag De Muller (VDM) Publishing or any journals from David Publishing, don’t reply. VDM publishes absolutely everything they receive without fact-checking and doesn’t print any copies and charges a fortune to get any made up. (See this blog post for details.) David Publishing solicits on behalf several different journals (mine was “Journalism and Mass Communication”), and accepts everything without review before then asking you to pay $50 per page to have it printed. (Thanks to The Trial Warrior for this post.) [...]
November 23, 2011 at 9:08 am |
Thank you very much. They now seem to be targeting presenters at the recent annual meeting of College Music Society. I was suspicious, due to grammatical errors in the message but looked at their web site anyway. Then I Googled them and found your article. I am going to forward a link to your article to the staff of the Society in case they want to alert other presenters from the recent conference.
November 23, 2011 at 10:56 am |
You’re very welcome. Thanks for forwarding the post to the College Music Society.
November 26, 2011 at 3:18 am |
You article is very interesting, I see you are a great story teller.
But just to be fair…
First, you got “someone must not have read the paper after all” from they asking for your research field? Then how come they sent you the opinion of revisions if no one read your paper?
Second, you think summarizing someone’s research field merely from the abstract and keywords of his one article is professional? Or asking the author himself?
Third, a LOT of journals charge publication fees…
November 26, 2011 at 8:27 am |
Oh dear, it appears you missed the point. Please read my post again.
November 28, 2011 at 11:12 am |
May I join the club? David Publishing are phishing in Austria now, too. Thank you very much for your blog post, it saved me lots of work! I took the liberty to link to your post on twitter in German language:
November 28, 2011 at 11:14 am |
You are quite welcome to join the club, Sebastian. Thank you for the cross-post on Twitter and spreading the word to your Austrian and German colleagues. Regards, Antonin
November 30, 2011 at 1:54 am |
This is probably the speculation. I think the author wants to be famous.
November 30, 2011 at 5:35 am |
Yes, of course. I wrote this post to garner internet fame.
Here’s some further speculation; albeit more of an educated guess. Based upon your email address which you’ve used at least once before, you are from mainland China and likely work for David Publishing Company.
December 6, 2011 at 8:22 pm |
My experience is the same as Linda Fergusun’s above, except that they were targeting the New England Historical Association. Good thing I googled first and found this site.
Thank you Antonin for doing us all an invaluable service.
December 6, 2011 at 8:28 pm |
You’re quite welcome, Lisbeth. Feel free to nominate me for an honorary academic blogging award, if you feel so inclined, or at least a ClawBies 2011 award
December 7, 2011 at 11:21 am |
Thank you very much, Antonin!
I appreciate a lot your effort since it saved me both time and nerves. I wonder whether this shameless freeriding on our aspirations and desire to publish could be legally prosecuted.
All the best,
Anna
December 7, 2011 at 3:44 pm |
You’re very welcome, Anna. I recommend you consult the Europa Commission- Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and related directives on Misleading and Comparative Advertising.
December 8, 2011 at 6:28 am |
I also received an email from these guys and, had I not read this post, would’ve done the same thing.
Thanks for pointing this out and saving a lot of people the time and effort.
December 8, 2011 at 7:32 am |
Don’t thank me, Thank the awesome power of the internet.
December 9, 2011 at 7:44 am |
Dear Antonin,
I serve as the Chair of the Promotion Committee of my department and have recently reviewed the publication list of one of our faculty members. He got a promise from my predecessor that if he published one more paper in a respectable journal, he would be promoted. He is now claiming to have done so. The new paper’s reference is the Journal of Computer Technology and Application, published by David Publishing Company. The reference on his publication list specifies a volume number, page numbers and the year 2011. Apparently, the guy has paid the money. I wonder if you have any idea if this reference has any practical manifestation. In other words, does DP Company actually publish a journal as such, as well as all the other journals, or is it fictional? In the former case, is it published in hard copy or electronically, and how can others view it? In the latter case, does the author get a fictitious “reprint” of his paper or nothing at all?
Many thanks,
Gideon
December 9, 2011 at 9:49 am |
Dear Gideon, if you Google the journal name: “Journal of Computer Technology and Application” and “David Publishing” you’ll find the following at the top page rank:
http://journalseeker.researchbib.com/?issn=19347332
http://shivksahu.webs.com/curriculumvitae.htm (listed as a reviewer).
The website address: http://www.davidpublishing.com is generic and appears up for sale.
I suggest you make your own further inquiries, including any of the academic online forums in your area of interest.
Regards,
Antonin
December 13, 2011 at 11:14 am |
I’ve also been approached by them for the so-called Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering. This reminds me of some sketchy invitations to present at conferences that I’ve gotten over the years. Often when you google these publications and conferences, they come up looking reasonably good – they’re on people’s CVs at all sorts of institutions and universities.
The real surprise is that there is no push back from the publicly funded research and educational institutions that pay these fees.
December 22, 2011 at 6:53 am |
And thank you again. I write this comment in the hope that Google will grace us with bringing up this post
January 4, 2012 at 4:50 pm |
Six months ago I attended an international conference in Poland and when I got their e-mail, I felt really flattered. But when I browsed their website, I found out that you cannot read anything about their terms and conditions and there is no information about reviewers. Thanks a lot for this blog! Now I know what to do.
January 6, 2012 at 2:05 am |
Thanks a lot for this blog! Just receive the same invitation to publish to day on Journal of sociology, while my paper is purely marketing.
January 7, 2012 at 7:05 am |
Thanks for this valuable blog. I, too, was sent an invitation yesterday to publish in their Journal of Literature and Art Studies after presenting at a conference a few weeks ago. It looked good at first but the website did set me wondering. It had all the usual subheadings – About Us, Terms and Conditions, list of reviewers and editors, but when you opened them nothing was there. The grammar and spelling was also outrageous for such a journal. When you look at the list of journals with their covers there are some mismatches between the covers and their titles. A very sloppy website in all.
There was a hint that the author was to pay for the service in one of the FAQ’s. It stated:
“Nornally there is no discount for each paper. Only if your achievement too excellence, you could get some discount.”
Apart from the ridiculous expression I wondered how they could determine excellence, if there was no indication of who the reviewers and editors were and also because the field is so broad – ‘art and literature’.
My impulse is to reply to them citing this blog.
January 7, 2012 at 7:45 am |
I now want to get the hackneyed phrase: “Only if your achievement too excellence, you could get some discount” imprinted on a t-shirt.
January 13, 2012 at 10:13 am |
[...] diversas críticas e relatos de más experiências com a revista ou com a editora (aqui, aqui ou aqui). Descobre-se, ainda, que há já quem discuta o assunto (nomeadamente aqui e aqui) e há [...]
January 16, 2012 at 6:44 am |
Same for me, this morning. I found their strange email and at first i thought “cool, i am famous!”, then i checked the web and found your blog and many others. Thank you so much! I will forward to my colleagues their email and a link to this blog. Anyway their mail was quite well done, including the name of my paper sent for the convention in Kyoto and the name of the association that held it on Nov. I was only surprised about the “become friends” sentence, but i thought it was a way to show themselves nice.
February 15, 2012 at 12:36 am |
Just got a solicitation today from “US-China Education Review” from David Publishing House. Immediately suspicious, I googled it up and found your blog (and others). Suspicions confirmed, Thank you for posting this.
February 18, 2012 at 5:17 pm |
Dear Antonin,
Thank you for sharing your experience. I received mails from this fake publisher twice, once in 2010 and another just now. But then I came across googling and found your posting. This is a very useful link. I ask your permission to share this link.
Rifqi
February 18, 2012 at 5:22 pm |
Dear Rifqi,
I’m glad you found the post useful and saved yourself both time and money. No permission required to share the link, but thanks for asking. Antonin
March 5, 2012 at 11:24 am |
Some very prestigous journals require fees from submitters, in the range of 400-500 US$, so the mere fact that fees are charged does not make it a bait-and-switch journal. The rest of the story raises many red flags, however, and I am glad you did not fall for it.
March 5, 2012 at 11:57 pm |
Thanks for confirming what my gut told me was a scam (my over-inflated ego tried to differ, however). I was targeted twice, once with Sociology Study and the other with Psychology Research.
My field is literature, but I could see probability in either case. Ultimately, warning bells went off in a few areas: (A) grammatical and spelling errors in the ‘solicitation’ body, (B) no peer-reviewed journal in their right mind would solicit academics; we’re falling all over ourselves to get published so a reputable company can afford to be choosy, and (C) they publish monthly. Even the best academic journals can’t afford monthly publication.
March 6, 2012 at 7:24 am |
This journal has been soliciting papers which have already been published in journals and books.They monitor conferences and contact the authors giving the impression that they are affiliated to the conferences . I and the Publication Director of Elsevier sent them a warning of possible copyright violation. It turned out that this is a journal which is actually based in China .
We have put the warning about this journal in all our conference websites.
March 6, 2012 at 7:33 am |
Thanks for bringing this to your readers’ attention.
March 12, 2012 at 11:45 am |
Thanks for the heads up! As many of the other posters on here, I too was contacted by them after giving a paper presentation on a conference. Since I was short on time to polish my paper up anyway, I didn’t immediately jump to the opportunity. Luckily thanks to the warning bells, I didn’t waste my time on it. The funny thing is that I asked one of my professors whether he had heard of the journal (i.e. Sociology Study) to see whether it was reputable and he said that it was a well-known journal in the field of sociology. I guess he meant to say ‘infamous’ instead of ‘famous’.
April 7, 2012 at 6:05 am |
Thanks guys for all this warning. Unfortunately it has been too late in my case. I got thesame email after a conference and since i did not have any publications, i made some search about them and it looked authentic so i proceeded. Submitted a paper and got the review comments back then i signed the copyright agreement and sent back and was told it has been accepted to be published. Only at this point they now mentioned that I have to pay a service fee of $1090 so that it be published. What do you advise? can i resubmit my paper elsewhere? considering that i already signed the copyright agreement form and sent to them? thanks all
April 7, 2012 at 7:57 am |
Did the copyright agreement indicate the pay-to-play service fee of $1090? If not, then it appears there was no consensus ad idem on a fundamental term of the contract. I recommend you consult with a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction to determine your legal options.
April 7, 2012 at 8:56 am |
No the copyright form did not mention anything whatsoever about payment of service fees. it only talked about transfer of copyright to the journal to enable them publish the paper. It was stated on the agreement form that it must be signed before a paper is accepted for publishing. The fees was later mentioned three weeks after in an email letter notifying me that they have accepted my paper. thanks
April 7, 2012 at 9:01 am |
No legitimate publishing company requires an author to sign a copyright agreement before the paper is accepted for publication.
April 7, 2012 at 9:11 am
Alright, i did not know that. i I feel that since it was not indicated in the form, then I have a basis to refuse it. I signed to transfer copyright based on what was on the form given to me. So the issue of payment which came later was not part of that agreement and should not be binding i guess.
April 11, 2012 at 1:37 pm |
Got my e-mail skimmed off of a recent conference program. I was invited to submit for US-China Education Review A & US-China Education Review B.The mere fact that they indicated no affiliation with any scientific or research association was a red flag for me.
Thanks for watching in the rye.
April 18, 2012 at 8:51 am |
Today I recived a version of this email.
Just goes to show that they are still at it.
**Dear Dr. **** **********,
This is Journal of Physical Science and Application (ISSN 2159-5348). We have learned your paper entitled “********* **********” from SIDeR’12.
We are very interested in your research, if the paper mentioned has not been published in other journals or you have other unpublished papers or books in hand and have the idea of making our journal a vehicle for your research interests, please feel free to send the electronic version to us. **
April 27, 2012 at 11:19 am |
I also received an e-mail from this crew today inviting me to publish my recent conference paper in their journal _History Research_. My suspicions were immediately aroused by the incorrect use of the English articles: “please send [the or an] electronic version of your papers or the [omit] manuscripts of books to us as [an] email attachment. . .” (additions in brackets supplied by _moi_). Foreigners, obviously, thought I, although that isn’t an instant red flag. But why, if this company is based in the US, has it no native English speaker as copy editor/proofreader? Then I find all of about 65 journals (!) listed on their website along with the China connection. My first idea was that this is some propaganda arm of the deep-pockets Chinese government–the last thing I think any of us want to get involved with! I’m still not sure that isn’t the case. . . Anyway, ’nuff said! Kudos to you, Warrior, for unmasking these miscreants.
April 27, 2012 at 4:02 pm |
Thanks for sharing your story. I like your Chinese propaganda angle.
May 5, 2012 at 11:47 pm |
I also received an invitation to publish a paper I presented with their “Journal of Sociological Studies” – sadly I was happy to hear about their interest for a fairly minor paper I was not planning on publishing and so actually started making extensive revisions before I came across this thread while searching for guidelines for authors. ISA also has a warning out about them. Some of my research students have also received invitations to publish in journals which then ask to be paid – we must try to stamp this out. I for one will never hand over money for a publication, and have advised my students that I will not be supporting any publications for which they have had to pay.
May 7, 2012 at 9:17 am |
Thanks Brendan. Open access and academic freedom should not come with a price tag. Antonin
May 7, 2012 at 6:48 am |
The purported “History Research” Journal is now targeting Renaissance Society of America conference participants. I received their solicitation and was surprised by its shoddiness. Your blog helped confirm my suspicions. Many thanks.
May 7, 2012 at 9:18 am |
You’re quite welcome, Shifra. Feel free to repost or send a link to your colleagues. Antonin
May 12, 2012 at 3:22 am |
I received a similar version of your email, except David Publishing misidentified me as the author of a paper which I did not write. I looked on-line, and sure enough, there is another person of that name who did write it. Thank you for confirming my suspicions about the originator of the spam, davidpublishing.com