Bentham Science Publishers

[Richard Poynder <richard.poynder@btinternet.com>]

Dear All,

I would be grateful if anyone could help me. I am interested in 
an Open Access publisher called Bentham Science Publishers 
(http://www.bentham.org/). I have been contacted by a number of 
researchers who say that the company is bombarding them with 
invitations to contribute papers to its journals. Apparently 
requests by the recipients to remove them from Bentham's mailing 
list have little or no effect.

I have tried to make contact with a number of people in the 
company including Richard Scott, who is most often the person 
whose name appears at the bottom of the invitation letters, and 
was until recently listed as the editorial director of the 
company on its web site (http://www.bentham.org/Contact.php). I 
also copied into my emails Bentham's US contact Richard 
Morrissey, and Matthew Honan, who earlier this year was also 
described as the company's editorial director 
(http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/01/bentham-oa-publishing-program.html). 
Likewise I copied in Professor Thomas Salt, since he too has 
signed some of the offending emails in his capacity as 
Editor-in-Chief of a Bentham journal called Current 
Neuropharmacology. Tom Salt appears to be based in the Department 
of Visual Science at the Institute of Ophthalmology in London.

Despite all my attempts to make email contact with the company 
and its representatives, however, the only response I have 
received has come from someone called Mahmood Alam who seems to 
be based in Pakistan. He informed me that Richard Scott was too 
busy to speak with me, but invited me to email my questions to 
him. After I sent some questions through to Mahmood Alam, 
however, he failed to answer them.

I have also tried calling the telephone numbers listed on the 
Bentham web site, but have only been able to get through to voice 
mail messages. The number listed for Richard Morrissey simply 
invites callers to email him (the address given is the one that I 
have failed to get any response from).

I would be most grateful if anyone who has any knowledge of 
Bentham, or any experience of publishing with the company, or 
editing any of its journals, or anyone who regularly reads any of 
the Bentham journals, could contact me on: 
richardpoynder1@o2.co.uk.

Thank you.

Richard Poynder
www.richardpoynder.co.uk