Bentham Science Publishers

Bentham Science Publishers straddles the fine line between "open access journal publisher" and "vanity press scam."
Bentham was founded in 1994 by Atta-ur-Rahman & Matthew Honan and enjoyed a reputation as a small but reputable and scholarly publisher. In April 2007, it announced that it would open more than 300 open access journals by the end of the year, though it later cut this to 200.
The journals work on the model where the journal is available free, and authors pay to have their paper published. A new journal will often contact people in the field noting the journal's existence and requesting submissions. However, Bentham took it as far as repeatedly spamming peopleRe: Bentham Science Publishers (Ted Bergstrom, liblicense-l, 2008-04-07)Black sheep among Open Access Journals and Publishers (Gunther Eisenbach, 2008-03-08), often irrelevantly, and offering scientists membership on its journals' editorial boards out of the blue. As of August 23, 2014, the Scientificspam.net DNS-based blocklist lists the 117.20.26.0/23 network from which Bentham spams in its entirety.ESCALATION LISTING: 117.20.26.0/23 (Bentham) scientificspam.net, 23 August 2014. Membership of a journal's editorial board can be quite prestigious, but when people realised what sort of company they were dealing with and withdrew their acceptance, Bentham kept their names on the masthead and ignored all demands for removal. In April 2009, the Open Chemical Physics Journal published an article advocating 9/11 conspiracy theories without anyone bothering to inform the journal's editor, who promptly resigned.Bentham Editor Resigns over Steven Jones' Paper (Screw Loose Change, 2009-04-28)
This aroused the interest of the curious, and Bentham was busted in 2009 accepting a paper for the Open Information Science Journal consisting of random sentences computer-generated with SCIgen, whose imaginary authors both worked at the Center for Research in Applied Phrenology (CRAP).Open Access Publisher Accepts Nonsense Manuscript for Dollars (Phil Davis, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2009-06-10)Jessica Shepherd, Editor quits after journal accepts bogus science article. The Guardian, 18 June 2009. The editor of said journal also quit when he found out what the publisher had done.Editors quit after fake paper flap (Bob Grant, The Scientist, 2009-06-11) Bentham's director of publication claimed they merely sent a fake acceptance to flush out the hoaxerCRAP paper accepted by journal (Peter Ahdhouse, New Scientist, 2009-09-28).
Bentham's questionable behaviour, and the extensive documentation of it, led directly to the formation of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association,Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association which endeavours to serve as a mark of respectability in OA publishers. Not only is Bentham not a member, OASPA has blogged specifically concerning it.Publishing ethics, open access, and OASPA (OASPA News and Commentary, 2009-06-11) Archived from the original at oaspa.org.
Jeffrey Beall published Beall's List of Predatory, Open Access Publishers, in 2014.Beall's List of Predatory, Open-Access Publishers by Jeffrey Beall, 2014 Edition; Facebook group.
==See also==
*Beall's List, a now-defunct listing of predatory journals
== External links ==
* Official site
==References==
Category:Publishers
Category:Scams
Category:Pseudojournals