Is Bentham Science a Predatory Publisher?
Bentham Science recognizes that predatory publishing has become a topic of conversation in the world of academic publishing. Here, they lay out their steps and best practices that help them be a quality, reputable publisher.
Bentham Science Publishers publishes over 140 scholarly journals (Subscription based and Open Access) related to various subject areas of science, technology and medicine. The journals are indexed, recognized and associated with reputable scientific agencies, directories and other entities.
Each article submitted to Bentham Science journals (Subscription and Open Access) is rigorously peer-reviewed. You can read more about our peer review process here. Bentham’s publications are also part of COPE, an organization that aims to define best practice in the ethics of scholarly publishing and to assist authors, editors and publishers to achieve the defined standards. We have several notable journals included in the Journal Citation Reports of Clarivate Analytics with Impact Factor rankings.
The article published in Springer, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, that discusses predatory publishing, highlighted a link from a controversial list by Jeffery Beall which has been taken down due to its controversial nature. However, even if one considers his list, he had included publishers such as Biomed Central (part of the Springer-Nature group), Frontier Science etc., all of which are thoroughly respected and reputable publishers. This does not mean that those 2 publishers are predatory, and the same rule applies here. Bentham Science has promptly and clearly addressed all allegations in the past, of any predatory practices, and has duly satisfied its stakeholders and maintained their trust and association. Repetition of such claims is false and misleading.
The article mentioned above provides a checklist that is supposed to help identify so called “predatory publishers”. Bentham Science can claim with complete confidence that the criteria given in the list below do not apply to us and therefore, proposed authors and readers need not be concerned about the quality of our published research.
It should, however, be noted that simply meeting any one :f the conditions mentioned in the list below does not automatically make a journal or publisher predatory; the purpose of the list is to help authors and others select journals safely.
Characteristics of a Predatory Journal
Disclaimer by the author: Please note that this list does not mean that any journal fulfilling any of the points below is a predatory journal, but the more points on the list that apply to a journal at hand, the more skeptical you should be. This is a response by Bentham to whether any of the supposed criterion for Predatory Publishers applies to it in any way or not.
1) The publisher is not a member of any recognized professional organization committed to best publishing practices (like COPE or EASE).
Bentham Science publications are part of COPE: https://publicationethics.org/category/publisher/bentham-science-publishers
2) The journal is not indexed in well-established electronic databases (like Medline or Web of Science)The publisher claims to be a “leading publisher” even though it just got started
Most of our journals are indexed in established databases including PUBMED , MEDLINE, Scopus etc.
3) The journal and the publisher are unfamiliar to you and all your colleagues
Bentham Science is a well-known international publisher.
4) The papers of the journal are of poor research quality, and may not be academic at all (for instance allowing for obvious pseudo-science); The journal and the publisher are unfamiliar to you and all your colleagues; The papers of the journal are of poor research quality, and may not be academic at all (for instance allowing for obvious pseudo-science); There are fundamental errors in the titles and abstracts, or frequent and repeated typographical or factual errors throughout the published papers; or The journal website is not professional
You will not find poorly researched papers on our website, nor do we support pseudo-science in anyway.
5) The journal website does not present an editorial board or gives insufficient detail on names and affiliations
All of our journals present an editorial board with names and affiliation. We also update our editorial boards every 12 months.
6) The journal website does not reveal the journal’s editorial office location or uses an incorrect address
All of our office locations are mentioned on our contact us page.
7) The publishing schedule is not clearly stated
Each subscription journal has a clear schedule of issues stated on the journal home page.
8) The journal title claims a national affiliation that does not match its location (such as”American Journal of …” while being located on another continent) or includes”international” in its title while having a single-country editorial board
This criterion does not apply to any Bentham journals.
9) The journal mimics another journal title or the website of said journal
We do not mimic other journal titles or websites.
10) The journal provides an impact factor in spite of the fact that the journal is new (which means that the impact cannot yet be calculated)
We only state impact factor for journals cited in the Journal Citation Report of Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters) which we have listed above.
11) The journal claims an unrealistically high impact based on spurious alternative impact factors (such as 7 for a bioethics journal, which is far beyond the top notation)
See point 10.
12) The journal website posts non-related or non-academic advertisements
We do not post many ads on our websites, and when we do, the ads are related to our content or other media/event partners/sponsors.
13) The publisher of the journal has released an overwhelmingly large suite of new journals at one occasion or during a very short period of time
In recent years, we have only released 3–4 journals annually.
14) The editor in chief of the journal is editor in chief also for other journals with widely different focus
We screen our EICs for their credentials and ensure we have relevant researchers for these positions.
15) The journal includes articles (very far) outside its stated scope
Bentham ensures that all articles published in any of its journals are directly related to the Aims and Scope of the journal.
16) The journal sends you an unsolicited invitation to submit an article for publication, while making it blatantly clear that the editor has absolutely no idea about your field of expertise
Most of our communications is focused on the large number of researchers affiliated with it in some way, either as an author, reviewer, board member or ambassador.
17) Emails from the journal editor are written in poor language, include exaggerated flattering (everyone is a leading profile in the field), and make contradictory claims (such as “You have to respond within 48 h” while later on saying “You may submit your manuscript whenever you find convenient”)
Does not apply to Bentham at all.
18) The journal charges a submission or handling fee, instead of a publication fee (which means that you have to pay even if the paper is not accepted for publication)
We never charge for article submission. Our charges are stated clearly on our journal pages, wherever applicable. These charges are for image processing and Open Access fees. The charges are also incurred after an article has been peer reviewed.
19) The types of submission/publication fees and what they amount to are not clearly stated on the journal’s website
See point 18.
20) The journal gives unrealistic promises regarding the speed of the peer review process (hinting that the journal’s peer review process is minimal or non-existent) — or boasts an equally unrealistic track-record;
The journal does not describe copyright agreements clearly or demands the copyright of the paper while claiming to be an open access journal
The average reviewing time at Bentham is around 60 days.
21) The journal displays no strategies for how to handle misconduct, conflicts-of-interests, or secure the archiving of articles when no longer in operation
We have policies for COIs, retractions, and self-archiving stated on each journal page.
