[INDOLOGY] question about a soliciation from publisher MDPI

[mbroo at abo.fi]

Dear Arlo and others,

I have reviewed an article for Religions and know some colleagues who  
have published in it. While this journal is not to be confused with  
the more well-established Religion, it has come out for almost ten  
years by now and follows standard rules for academic publishing. It  
has a 1 on the Finnish scale of academic publications (0-3) which is  
not great but standard for such a newly established journal. I think  
it ranks similarly in other countries.

Article processing charges (AFC) are getting more and more common, as  
a side-effect of the move towards open access publishing. As  
publishers less and less can live on income from readers, getting the  
money from authors (=their institutions) is a natural alternative.  
This is by no means unproblematic, as it makes it difficult for  
scholars unaffiliated with rich (=Western) institutions to publish,  
etc. Nevertheless, I am editing a (gold standard) open access journal  
myself (Temenos) so I know that even when journals are not geared  
towards profit and editors get no money for their work, it still costs  
to bring out high-quality journals, even when they are online only. In  
our case, we have external funding, but not all journals are so  
fortunate.

Sincerely yours,
Måns

> Dear Arlo,
>
>
> I receive solicitations of this type almost every day and I have   
> found that most emanate ultimately from Chinese sources. Money is   
> not always involved, because the underlying game is to multiply   
> "international refereed" journals in the interest of advancing the   
> standings of one's institution in the Shanghai ratings.
>
>
> I do not know if that is the case with what was sent to you, of   
> course, but I do advise all colleagues to be very cautious about   
> these matters. Phoney academic venues of various kinds - journals,   
> conferences, even fake universities - are springing up like   
> mushrooms. (It is worth noting that China opens about 5 new   
> universities, more or less real ones, each month.)
>
>
> best regards,
>
> Matthew
>
>
> Matthew Kapstein
> Directeur d'études,
> Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
>
> Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
> The University of Chicago
> ________________________________
> From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of   
> Arlo Griffiths via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
> Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2019 12:49:25 AM
> To: indology at list.indology.info
> Subject: [INDOLOGY] question about a soliciation from publisher MDPI
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I had received a few weeks ago an offer (see below) to help a   
> commercial company called MDPI that publishes an Open Access journal  
>  Religions as guest editor for a special issue on an Indological   
> topic. Since I had never heard of publisher nor journal; since I   
> suspected that this is one of those predatory publishers we read   
> about a lot nowadays; and since as a matter of principle I favor   
> publishing in established not-for-profit journals, I decided not to   
> respond. Now the same publisher sends me a gentle reminder,   
> apparently showing that at least it's not a mere machine which has   
> decided to solicit my assistance. This time I did click on one of   
> their links and now see that authors wishing to publish in the   
> journal Religions need to pay an amount of 550 CHF in 'Article   
> Processing Charges' (APC); I don't know whether editors receive any   
> payment for their work, but since no mention of such payment has   
> been made I expect there is none.
>
> I am curious whether others have received such offers, and whether   
> there might be reason not to be as negatively prejudiced as I am.   
> More generally, I wonder how many of you have actually published   
> work and paid APC to get your work published. I have never been   
> asked to do so, and wonder why anyone might feel compelled to do so   
> as long as there are still fine journals which don't ask any such   
> fees and impose very low barriers to access.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Arlo Griffiths
> EFEO, Paris
>
> ---- QUOTE FROM EMAIL RECEIVED
>
> Dear Professor Griffiths,
>
> We invite you to join us as Guest Editor for the open access journal
> Religions (ISSN 2077-1444), to establish a Special Issue. Our
> suggested topic is ?Exploring Hindu and Buddhist religious literature
> in Sanskrit?. You have been invited based on your strong publication
> record in this area, and we hope to work with you to establish a
> collection of papers that will be of interest to scholars in the
> field. Please click on the following link to either accept or decline
> our request:
> https://susy.mdpi.com/guest_editor/invitation/process/282259/6TEH3ZRG
>
> As Guest Editor, we would ask you to define the aim and scope of the
> Special Issue, assist in inviting contributions, be the final
> decision-maker for articles after peer-review, and collaborate with
> our editorial team at MDPI.
>
> The editorial office will take care of setting up the Special Issue
> website, arranging for promotional material, assisting with
> invitations to contribute papers, and administrative tasks associated
> with peer-review, including inviting reviewers, collating reports,
> contacting authors, and professional production before publication.
>
> RELIGIONS is an international, open-access scholarly journal,
> publishing peer reviewed studies of religious thought and practice.
> It is indexed in A&HCI (Web of Science), ATLA Religion Database and
> in SCOPUS, which gave it a Citescore of 0.58 and listed it among the
> top 7% of the 389 religious studies journals SCOPUS surveyed in 2017.
> Our PDF downloads per month = 72,796+/-.
>
> At http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues, you may
> access an inventory of our special topics issues:
>
> Religion and Violence (editor, John Esposito, Georgetown, Washington
> DC) Religion and Refugees (editors, Jin-Heong Jung, Frei Universitat,
> Berlin and Alexander Horstmann, Tallinn University, Estonia)
> Comparative Theology (editors, Francis Clooney, Harvard University
> and John Berthrong, Boston University) Christianity in China in the
> Twenty First Century (editor, Mark Toulouse, University of Toronto)
> Measures of Spirituality (editor, Arndt Bussing, Witten/Herdecke
> University, Germany) Transcendentalism and Religious Experience
> (editors, Kenneth S. Sacks, Brown University and Daniel Koch, Oxford
> University) The Society for Tantric Studies Proceedings (2016)
> (editor, Glen A. Hayes, Bloomfield College and Sthaneshwar Timalsina,
> San Diego State University)
>
> Please feel free to contact us if you are interested and would like
> further details, or have any questions.
>
>



-- 
Dr. Måns Broo
Senior Lecturer of Comparative Religion
Editor of Temenos, Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion
Åbo Akademi University
Fabriksgatan 2
FI-20500 Åbo, Finland
phone: +358-2-2154398
fax: +358-2-2154902
mobile: +358-50-5695754