Publisher contacted my supervisor

D

Has anyone else had this? My supervisor received an email from a publisher (presumably because my details are on her website) asking me to consider publishing my PhD thesis when completed.

Also, I'm applying for a job at the minute and I was wondering if it would be worth mentioning in the application? (I won't though if it's fairly standard for publishers to do this) even though I haven't even got back to them yet?

Thanks in advance all!

L

It wouldn't happen to be Cambridge Scholars or Peter Lang by any chance? I've had these spam emails, I mean notifications of interest in the last 6 months. Obviously someone has sold my info to them. Sucks ass.

Avatar for sneaks

I've had publishers phone me and email about whether I'd like to put my thesis work into short research books/special issue things, but my sup has advised against it. You need to be sure they are REF-able otherwise you're just throwing your research away - I'd rather put it into journal articles (which are seen as better in my field)

B

It's rather odd to contact your supervisor and not you. I think I'd phrase it as 'initial interest' rather than anything more substantive in an application. But I'd agree with Larrydavid about checking first whether it is a reputable firm. In addition to those he mentions beware of Lambert / HDM or any of their numerous names based in Saarbruecken in Germany. they even got caught 'publishing' wikipedia articles and selling them on Amazon...

Avatar for DrCorinne

Hello.

I agree that you need to check who these people are - I know people (not the last in their fields) that published with Cambridge Scholars. One of my colleagues published her Masters thesis with Lang. They both seem to be successful publications held in top libraries. But they are in the humanities not in science. So, it also depends what field you are in.

One thing that it is very important to check is who is going to hold the copyright. Again, one of my colleagues published his PhD with a high profile publisher only to discover that they now hold the copyright of his research. So be very careful on this.

Then, in my view is also down to being realistic. It is obvious that everyone would like to publish in top magazines, but the reality is that there is a fierce competition and while you spend time waiting for their peer reviews your research might be published by someone else without even mentioning your name (yes, it does happen!).

So, I wouldn't rule out anything at this stage, although I would be very careful before signing an agreement. If you can rely on your supervisor  or other academics for feedback and support you can definitely try to submit articles, but if not, you may want to consider other alternatives.

22726