Vanity publishing usually:

• does not require peer review
• can require the author paying a fee for publication
• involves the publisher selling work to readers

A definition of vanity publishing is available from the Preditors & Editors Guide

Vanity publishing and academic spam

The strategy of dishonest vanity publishers can be to use email addresses from reputable conference and journal papers for targeted academic spam.

Academics and graduate students receive spam emails requesting:

• attendance and/or participation at a conference,
• publication of their research online,
• publication of their thesis in the form of a printed book, or
• publication of their research papers as book chapters.

Whilst such offers may tempt early career researchers who are seeking publishing opportunities, vanity publishing does not employ the stringent processes of peer review and proofreading. Although online vanity publishers may claim that they facilitate peer review in the form of reader comments, the quality of publication cannot be controlled with the same vigour as a peer reviewed scholarly publication.

Self-publishing is controlled by the author(s) who pay for or do the actual production, marketing, and distribution of their books and receive the profits. The author owns the book and receives all its profits without sharing with other entities, and they also own the ISBN. Self-publishing does not employ the process of peer review and as such, the quality of material cannot be assured. Self-publishing should not be confused with Open Access Scholarly Journal Publishing which whilst it is digital, online, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions, employs the same peer review and editing processes of traditional scholarly publications.

Stratford, M. (2012, March 4). Predatory Online Journals Lure Scholars Who Are Eager to Publish log post. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Predatory-Online-Journals/131047/

Useful Links

Vanity publishing

http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/Consumers/Scams/Types_of_scams/Vanity_publishers.html

Beall's List of Predatory Publishers 2013

http://howpublishingreallyworks.com/?p=1167

Academic spam

Predators and Editors, a guide to publishers and publishing services provides some guidelines for spotting a scam publisher.

Blogs

http://utsavmaden.com.np/blog/2010/11/29/academic-spam-or-vanity-publishing/

http://blog.pokristensson.com/2010/11/04/academic-spam-and-open-access-publishing/

http://sandcountyfrank.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/academic-spam-redux-lambert-academic-publishers-responds/