8

I have been invited to submit a book chapter. The invitation email says:

Due to your involvement in the field, and the research you published in your paper, 'X', publisher 'Y' invites you to extend your work and offer a more comprehensive overview of your studies. Contribute a chapter to 'Z', an upcoming Open Access book edited by Dr.'W'.

Surprisingly, paper 'X' is completely unrelated to the Book 'Z'. The book is edited by a renowned professor, the publisher is InTechOpen.

What to do in such case? Can I select any of my published papers in journal for this purpose? Will it not create any copyright problems?

Improve this question
6
  • 1
    Who owns the copyright for your journal paper?
    – JRN
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 10:14
  • 4
    This can only be answered by whoever gave you the invitation. What is their view of the book. I'm sure it isn't just random stuff.
    – Buffy
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 10:52
  • 21
    First of all, make sure that this is a legitimate invitation from a reputable source, and not a scam by a predatory publisher. (See the 3 links for more details.)
    – Disenchanted Lurker
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 10:55
  • 12
    Regarding your latest edit: You did not name the publisher, but I recognize the wording. I have the exact same email in my own spam folder. See: What is the consenus of IntechOpen, open access books, are they predatory?.
    – Disenchanted Lurker
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 11:42
  • 5
    @Buffy: Actually, given what else we know about this "publisher", I am pretty sure it is just random stuff.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 12:17

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
33

If they're sending you invitations to contribute to volumes that are completely unrelated to your work, the next step's simple: ignore the email. They're clearly not doing their research and are resorting to mass mailings.

Improve this answer
4
  • 3
    +1, I was just about to post the same answer. I get such emails all the time. They are clearly just spam of no academic merit - they simply want to get you to pay the "open access processing fees" that they will charge.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 11:51
  • 8
    And the fees are nothing to sneeze at: 1400 GBP for a book chapter, according to their website. Save your money (and reputation), and just ignore them.
    – Disenchanted Lurker
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 12:05
  • 6
    Ignore all emails from InTechOpen.
    – Anonymous Physicist
    Commented Oct 22, 2019 at 0:08
  • 1
    @InquisitiveLurker Wow. Reputable publishers pay you, not the other way round.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Oct 22, 2019 at 7:09
8

Normally, when getting an invitation to submit a book chapter, the expectation is that you submit a novel piece of work, unless stated otherwise.

Submitting a paper already published will not satisfy this requirement. There are two problems with this: 1) you often give the copyright to a publisher after the acceptance of your paper for publication. For a republication, you would need the permission from the publisher then, which is unlikely to be granted. 2) This will look like you are trying to publish the same result twice, which is frowned upon.

Improve this answer
7
  • 1
    Actually my area of research is completely different from the topic of the book. I don't know why that invitation came to me. What to do in such case ?
    – RIchard Williams
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 11:29
  • 13
    @richard-williams This "invitation" is not real. It's a mass-produced email sent to thousands of people whose addresses were scraped from publications and academic web sites. If you accept it, you will actively harm your career. Ignore it, and send similar emails to your junk email folder.
    – iayork
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 11:49
  • 8
    If you want to proceed, email the "renowned professor" (at an email address you find, not the one in the email you received) and ask if they're genuinely associated with it. These emails typically fake the editor names. Even if the "renowned professor" is actually associated with it, all that shows is that senior people can also be fooled by scammers.
    – iayork
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 11:54
  • 2
    @RIchardWilliams According to their website, intechopen have almost 107,000 "authors and editors". You are not joining an elite club here.
    – alephzero
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 18:23
  • 1
    Since the asker has edited the question to indicate that the publisher is predatory, this answer is now incorrect.
    – Anonymous Physicist
    Commented Oct 22, 2019 at 0:08

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .