rants
Academic SPAM or vanity publishing?
I received an email from an associate from LAP Lambert Academic Publishing some time back, stating that they found my thesis entitled “Application of GIS in the study of land cover distribution, geomorphometry, terrain and water quality in Asi Khola Subwatershed” in the library at Kathmandu University and wanted to publish it in the form of a book. Furthermore, they would do all this for free!
I do have a few friends and colleagues who were quite elated to have been approached by an genuine European publisher. One of my friend’s book is now available on Amazon for a whopping $70. Back then, I said good for you and shelved the idea. However, this time around when I was approached with a similar proposition, I did find it rather odd. I immediately Googled the publisher in question, and came up with quite a number of chilling references in different forums and blogs that indicated that this was a very sophisticated scam. After I updated my close knit circle of friends of the same, one even made a joke that this was probably done by a Nigerian stationed in Germany. (more…)