Don't Print My Free Thesis!

Don’t Print My Free Thesis!

Inspired by Eva Amsen’s response to Scholars’ Press, I responded as follows. Additional background on the VDM conglomerate here and here.


Dear Anaya,

As you point out, your company found my thesis in the University of Illinois’s free repository. The U of I provides persistent and reliable access to research by faculty, staff, and students. I don’t want my doctoral research printed on paper and sold for profit – that’s why I chose to share it for free electronically.

Also, my scholarship is in the humanities, not science.

I should add that Scholar’s Press (and VDM) isn’t doing itself any marketing favors by emailing a generation of young scholars who are passionate about Open Access, Open Culture, and Open Science. The practices of Scholars’ Press, LAP LAMBERT and Omniscriptum, including reselling freely available Wikipedia articles, are in direct conflict with the goals of open scholarship (and really the entire spirit of the Internet).

No, I am not interested in publishing my freely available dissertation, but I do hope you’ll enjoy reading my discussion of how experimentations with novelistic genres allowed fin de siècle writers to develop new narrative forms capable of representing an increasingly global, interdependent, and actively anti-imperialist world.

Sincerely,

Brandon


On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 12:05 AM, Anaya James <XXX@scholars-press.com> wrote:

Dear Brandon Jernigan,

I am the representative of Scholars’ Press which is specialized in the publication of high-level scientific literature. Scholars’ Press is a member of an international publishing group, having nearly 10 years of experience in the publication of high-quality research works.

We would like to offer you our publication services for your work entitled “‘“forms of some intenser life”: genre and imperialism at the turn of the century”, that was found while searching the web.

We consider that there may be a demand for your work within the scientific community, due to the in-depth research to which it relates and we believe that a publication will contribute in increasing the knowledge about your specific topic.

Our publication offer is free of charge, our books are printed in paperback and marketed across the globe through more than 80,000 booksellers worldwide.

I would be pleased to send you more information about our services. Kindly let me know if you would like to receive details with regards to a publishing agreement with us.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Anaya James

Acquisition Editor