Interview with InTech's Nicola Rylett

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

The history of Open Access publisher InTech is a complicated and 
somewhat confusing one. According to a Scribd presentation, the 
company was founded in Vienna in 2004. Over the subsequent seven 
years it has undergone a series of name changes, moved country, 
and attracted considerable criticism, both for the quality of its 
peer review and the way in which it markets its services.

The company appears to inhabit a strange binary world: while some 
accuse it of repeatedly spamming researchers, and preying on the 
vulnerabilities and egos of researchers in order to make money, 
the company itself maintains that it is a victim of 
misinformation and misperception, and that it has a growing and 
happy customer base. As evidence of the latter, it cites a survey 
that it commissioned earlier this year. 81% of those responding 
to the survey, says InTech's new marketing director Nicola 
Rylett, rated their publishing experience with the company as 
either 'excellent' or 'good'.

What do we make of these conflicting pictures of InTech? The 
quality of peer review can be difficult to assess. Nevertheless, 
the publisher has acknowledged problems with its peer review in 
the past, and when I drew Rylett's attention to a chapter in one 
of its recently published books she agreed that the quality was 
"unacceptable." It also seems fair to conclude that the company's 
marketing techniques leave a lot to be desired. However, Rylett 
insists that InTech is addressing these issues. To that end, she 
explains, it is currently recruiting a new middle and senior 
management team.

It seems clear that InTech has proved very successful in selling 
its pay-to-publish services to thousands of researchers around 
the world. But can it persuade the wider research community, the 
scholarly publishing industry, and the Open Access movement to 
endorse it?

More here: http://bit.ly/rzB223