Intech Publishing

Hi. I got a request from Intech to write a book chapter and now they're nagging at me. Anyone know anything about these guys? Worthwhile endeavor? Doesn't look like a form letter but it's possible.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Well I'd be very cautious because they would already have their own staff that should be doing anything for them if they wanted something done. I've never heard of a company wanting an outsider to write something other than a publishing company that deals with authors allot. Do you have an agent? If not perhaps you should retain one for their advice. Since I'm not aware of what you actually do for work or hobbies that you have, I'm at a loss as to why they even bothered sending you anything unless you have been in contact with them in the past.:shrug:

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

http://www.intechweb.org/

Can't see anything about you getting paid though...
Or whether or not YOU have to pay.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Hi Geoff, hi everyone.

Glad you raised these questions.

InTech is an Open Access publisher of scientific books and journals. You might not have heard about Open Access yet, but it's becoming increasingly adopted by the academic publishing community as a means of publishing a body of research accessible to the global community of scientists, as well as the general public.

Basically, this is a continuation of the switch to digital publishing and freely-available content we're seeing in worldwide media.

Geoff, we have invited you to publish a paper with us because your academic and publishing background seem a good fit with a book we are planning. Sorry if our reminders come across to you as nagging, but we know how busy people can be and we all need prompting from time to time.

Why don't you take a look at our collection on our site? There are already over 300 books there, and our collection is due to expand rapidly this year. You'll see we also provide tools enabling people to index, cite and share the material they find. We actively promote our authors' work on a variety of digital forums.

Regarding payment, if you click on the link provided in the invitation, you'll see that, in common with many Open Access publishers, we rely on the "author pays" model. This cost is usually covered by the author's institution. It covers all costs involved in the production and promotion of the work.

Please be aware that in academic publishing, very few authors get paid to publish their research. What's more, in classical scientific publishing, once they have, neither they nor their institutions (who funded it!) have the right to access or use it. Open Access is changing that. Of course, if you are going to write your own textbook, that is quite a different matter.

I hope this clears up some of your questions!

Hope all of you might find some books of interest on our site.

Regards,

Nataly

 

Holy moly.

 

The one thing about the internet is that technically anything can be published by anyone outside of needing a publicist. This is proven with the use of the various Blog's that people have, forums such as these and such methods like RSS feeds. (Really Simple Syndication)

I can understand some particular groups or companies asking for authors to potentially submit texts voluntarily, especially if certain authors happen to be interested or affiliated with what they do. (like for instance the Transhumanist movement)

If a publicist is asking authors to pay money then their company is obviously not operating the best business model. Usually publicists are funded by Shareholders or venture Capitalists, they don't rely upon the authors to pay them for the privilege of writing, they will likely either pay a set fee to an author or give a percentage based upon the earnings from the publication.

As for Scientific Papers. You can not really put a price on Science, doing so undermines the Scientific Community because instead of papers being reviewed by a majority of people and allowing full disclosure, you'll find science is warped via Capitalism to only back certain angles. So Scientific papers can't really be used by publicists directly to make money, the only way they can make money from it is by employing popularist author's to "water down" what's in the papers and generate a pop science paperback.

At the end of the day though GeoffP it's your call, You could go along with them, or you could write some material and try some other publicists to see what they will pay you for the material etc.

(incidentally a good question is obviously the legal right to material, after all by having something published by a publisher your rights are waivered towards where they publish it and royalities. If they sold the material to a third-party publisher that publisher made millions, who would get paid, the author or this middle man publicist?)

 

They are WATCHING you!

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

Very interesting though. I'd discuss payment before it goes any further.

 

Ah, I see. More or less vanity publishing. In legitimate science journals there is peer review. I didn't see that mentioned. Looks scammy to me.

Why would you pay to publish there as opposed to a legitimate science journal. :shrug:

 

Hi everyone,

We received notice of this thread via the magic of Google Alerts ;-)

Open Access publishing is still developing field. There are currently a lot of unanswered questions about the future and sustainability of both this form and traditional forms of publishing, and, understandably, controversy is raging between various interest groups.

For an overview of the issues, you could do worse than to read the Wikipedia article on Open Access publishing, which is fairly balanced.

Some of the most rigorous commentary on the future of academic publishing can be found on the website of Peter Suber, one of the leading Open Access advocates. Just Google "Peter Suber open access overview".

If these do not answer your questions, please do feel free to ask.

Best,

Nataly

 

Again. Science works due to peer review and the scientific process not paying for publication. This apparently is what is happening with Intech and if so it is a disservice to science. There are many ways to get publicity. Just ask Fox News.

Here's the Intech site btw: http://www.intechweb.org/ appears to be located in croatia (at least that's where the job openings are listed at)

 

Kennyc:

You are quite right, we are based in Croatia.

Peer review and Open Access are by no means mutually exclusive, as the resources I mentioned above make clear.

The contribution that Open Access can make to science is the creation of a vast, freely-accessible body of knowledge, which will expedite the rate at which discoveries are made. Clearly, this does represent multiple challenges for the scientific community, and technologies and protocols are being created to help researchers negotiate this data resource.

It's an exciting place to be - at the forefront of learning and discovery.

At the end of the day, the testimonies of the scientists that have published with us and our many thousands of users all over the world tell us we are on the right track.

Regards,

Nataly

 

There is also much potential danger to the approach.

Good Luck.

 

Dear Nataly

Please note that you have the testimonies of those who have participated, a small proportion of those who have been invited to. So it is bias. It is quite clear that a novice researcher that cannot distinguish a book chapter written by pioneers in a field and reviewed in very detail by other experts and published by a focused publication from a book chapter written by a "charged" junior researcher without peer review or with minimal hasty reviews by other novice researchers would appreciate putting their names on these so-called book chapters. So their testimonies do not appear so valid to me.

I am afraid the place you are standing at is not at all the forefront of learning and discovery. These book chapters appear to me as some slick blogs in PDF format, with a difference that a blogger and his readers do not assume the blog a scientific work, but inexperienced authors and readers will consider these PDF files some scientific work. I think in long term it would cause serious harms to the science, as inexperienced junior researchers get the opportunity to be charged and broadcast non-reviewed incorrect or incomplete materials, and there are lots of other inexperienced academic staff who might believe in or use those contents in their teachings or in their further research.

I am not against Open Access approach as it is already utilized by many accredited journals. However, such journals are extremely selective in inviting the best experts only. Also they only accept high-quality original or review studies after making sure every bit of them is correct. The body of knowledge should be created or summarized very carefully by accredited experts who try to collect meticulously all the relevant information while avoiding including misguiding or false ingredients, all under the supervision of other knowledgeable specialists.

Best

 

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

so did you go for it or did they read your posting history and change their minds?

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!