There are companies that publish websites or magazines that showcase research. These companies send spam invitations to published researchers inviting them to pay to have their research promoted in the glossy magazines or on the websites.
One of the companies is the U.K.-based firm Research Media Ltd. which publishes the open-access magazine called International Innovation. According to its website, “Research Media is dedicated to the delivery of science, technology and research dissemination services.”
However, it appears at least some of the researchers featured in the online and print magazine have to pay to be featured in it.
We acquired this email which is an alleged spam solicitation to an American researcher. The solicitation offers to produce a feature article showcasing the researcher’s work for the price of $2,930.
Recently, a company that claims to be based in Canada has been emailing researchers offering to spotlight their research on various websites for $35.00. These sites include:
Also, the Swedish magazine Curie recently published an article with the Google Translate-translated title of “Pay dearly for showcasing your research.” This article investigates the practices of Research Media Ltd. described above.
Another Swedish publication, Tentakel, has an article with the translated title “He does not want to pay for articles.” The articles it refers to are the glossy magazines that promote someone’s research. Unfortunately, this article does not name the publishers’ names.
Publications such as these enjoy the same freedom of the press that we all do. However, scientists need to decide whether this commercialization of research is really necessary. Good research promotes itself.
Sharing your research is a different matter. It’s a great idea to share your research through social media including blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and the like, and on specialized scholarly sites such as ORCID and ResearcherID.
I regularly receive inquires about these firms. Please forward me any spam you have received from research-promotion companies such as these.
We need a good name to describe this type of publication, so if you have a suggestion, please leave a comment below.
Hat tips: Martin Rundkvist, Daphne Plaut.
Martin’s blog is at: http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/
