I would like to know about the research outreach (https://researchoutreach.org/) publishing agency.
For my peer-reviewed article, I am getting an offer to republish that in this. However, I can see researchers from reputed institutions are publishing here, but still I wanted to know more about it. Please if anyone have any idea regarding same, please share it.
Research Outreach is not and does not claim to be an academic journal. It is best thought of as a magazine dedicated to disseminating basic information about research primarily in the disciplines of medicine, science, and mathematics. Its goal is to make public, in less than technical terms, interesting current research in those fields. It is true to its name--it is all about "outreach" for existing research.
Research Outreach is not a “predatory journal.” It meets NONE of the criteria listed below by Scholarly Kitchen to "qualify" as a predatory journal. There is no peer review—the writers are journalists. Any claimed affiliation with an academic institution is real and solely within the context of the claim. There is no claim of journal impact factor because it is not a journal. The information about APC is disclosed right up front before there is any agreement finalized between Research Outreach and a researcher.
How do I know these things? Because I was approached in 2018 as a researcher and paid the inquiry no heed whatsoever, thinking, as many others undoubtedly have, that it was a scam of some kind just to get my money--in short, an appeal to vanity. However, when I was approached again early in 2019, I did some more research and had a long conversation with them by phone. The research of mine, an article in Mathematical Intelligencer, that they wanted to publicize was not what I wanted to publicize. I suggested something different but related and they accepted. We then came to terms quite easily. This article, when it is made available online—in May 2019—and when it is included in an issue of their magazine—in May or June 2019—will NOT be added to my CV. It is merely a way to gain broader exposure for a particular research project, reaching several people within academia but also many people outside academia.
Jim Tilley // April 25, 2019
https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/07/25/cabells-new-predatory-journal-blacklist-review/
How Does a Blacklist Work?
The concept is simple: the list manager seeks out information about journals that are engaging in deceptive and fraudulent practices, and then publicly exposes them. Among the most egregious of such practices are:
- Falsely claiming to provide peer review and meaningful editorial oversight of submissions
- Lying about affiliations with prestigious scholarly/scientific organizations
- Claiming affiliation with a non-existent organization
- Naming reputable scholars to editorial boards without their permission (and refusing to remove them)
- Falsely claiming to have a high Journal Impact Factor
- Hiding information about APCs until after the author has completed submission
- Falsely claiming to be included in prestigious indexes
Research Outreach is not and does not claim to be an academic journal. It is best thought of as a magazine dedicated to disseminating basic information about research primarily in the disciplines of medicine, science, and mathematics. Its goal is to make public, in less than technical terms, interesting current research in those fields. It is true to its name--it is all about "outreach" for existing research.
Research Outreach is not a “predatory journal.” It meets NONE of the criteria listed below by Scholarly Kitchen to "qualify" as a predatory journal. There is no peer review—the writers are journalists. Any claimed affiliation with an academic institution is real and solely within the context of the claim. There is no claim of journal impact factor because it is not a journal. The information about APC is disclosed right up front before there is any agreement finalized between Research Outreach and a researcher.
How do I know these things? Because I was approached in 2018 as a researcher and paid the inquiry no heed whatsoever, thinking, as many others undoubtedly have, that it was a scam of some kind just to get my money--in short, an appeal to vanity. However, when I was approached again early in 2019, I did some more research and had a long conversation with them by phone. The research of mine, an article in Mathematical Intelligencer, that they wanted to publicize was not what I wanted to publicize. I suggested something different but related and they accepted. We then came to terms quite easily. This article, when it is made available online—in May 2019—and when it is included in an issue of their magazine—in May or June 2019—will NOT be added to my CV. It is merely a way to gain broader exposure for a particular research project, reaching several people within academia but also many people outside academia.
Jim Tilley // April 25, 2019
https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/07/25/cabells-new-predatory-journal-blacklist-review/
How Does a Blacklist Work?
The concept is simple: the list manager seeks out information about journals that are engaging in deceptive and fraudulent practices, and then publicly exposes them. Among the most egregious of such practices are:
- Falsely claiming to provide peer review and meaningful editorial oversight of submissions
- Lying about affiliations with prestigious scholarly/scientific organizations
- Claiming affiliation with a non-existent organization
- Naming reputable scholars to editorial boards without their permission (and refusing to remove them)
- Falsely claiming to have a high Journal Impact Factor
- Hiding information about APCs until after the author has completed submission
- Falsely claiming to be included in prestigious indexes
Yes, James Tilley is correct, Research Outreach will provide publicity for your project and affiliations. It's not a peer-reviewed journal, it's basically PR. Though, I do not know what they now charge for their publications, I personally remember it being an extortionate amount, as much as one would pay to be in a peer-reviewed journal (which is already a lot). I found the prices unethical considering the low amount they pay the journalists to write the articles. For this reason, I started a digital magazine called NatureVolve.com which focuses more on bridging science and art, that features scientists for free, rather than charging extortionate amounts of money.
I'd also like to make aware this company used to be called Research Features, on which there is a detailed discussion of those who were asking the same questions as you. This discussion reveals a lot of information about it, and is maybe the reason Research Features have become Research Outreach (having changed their name): https://freethoughtblogs.com/fierceroller/?p=3027
Clarissa Wright is right; Research Outreach is the same outfit as Research Features (https://freethoughtblogs.com/fierceroller/?p=6074). They seem to have cleaned up their act in some ways: they now call themselves a not-for-profit Public Outreach agency, and they are upfront about their charges to the subjects of their articles. I don't yet know if they pay their writers more than £50 per article (https://freethoughtblogs.com/fierceroller/?p=4330).
It's not an academic journal.
I also have similar email from James Harwood, from Research Outreach .
As written in the mail, "they can call and answer our questions".
But, I'm still not sure.
Mauricio López-Espejo
Thank you for your answers. I also received an email from James Harwood. Best regards,
They have a database with information of researchers and then send spam to institutional emails.
Thanks for raising this question, they approached me and I wasn’t sure how credible they are. This helps!
I have received an email few minutes ago of Annie Venables representing Research Outreach asking me for publish one of my articles. Is it a truly reliable offer?
Dennis Pérez-Umaña as mentioned by some fellow researchers, this seems to be a PR exercise more than a scientific publication (not peer reviewed...etc), and you pay a fee for the service... so depending on what you want to achieve you can decide whether it's the right channel for you, by it's by no means a scientific publication
Today I have received an offer from James Harwood .
Mauricio López-Espejo you say that they just send 'spam' emails to institutional email addresses . How do you know this?
James Tilley you say that " It is merely a way to gain broader exposure for a particular research project, reaching several people within academia but also many people outside academia ." My question is : so far, could you see any real good outcome from this broader exposure? And, if you could, is it more on the academic side or on the general public side?
Thank you.
I also just got one of these from an Annie Venables. The article she suggests rewriting is in a new journal which is making all the papers published for the first two years freely accessible. So, there are no current barriers to access. It does therefore appear that very limited background research went into selecting my paper as suitable for their publication. I do not intend to pay for this 'service'.
I have just received a mail from "James Hardwood" to work on a paper so it will be featured in their next issue. Apparently, they are not an academic Journal and ask for publication fees, which lowers their credibility.
I just have received this e-mail from Annie Venables. By reading these messages here, I understand this proposal is just sales for their publishing, not for my research performance.
I receive an increasing number of such scams. I call it a scam because the "research" Annie Venables (exists?) thinks I'd like to publicise is simply a book review. The phone number is for Dursley, near Bristol UK.
I received yesterday a publication offer from Kristian Townsend. They propose me to «create a new article, possibly covering some basic details of the published paper I have seen online, or indeed, covering new ground or the wider scope of your work. This would be an entirely new article written and developed by Research Outreach, in close collaboration with you». They also say that I have to pay for it. It doesn't make any sense to me, because my article is already published in a very good journal (JCR Q2) and avalaible for any researcher in the world.
I just received one such e-mails from Annie Venables.
What I don't like in this approach is that:
> It is pretty clear that the people that contact us (do they exist?) have NO EXPERTISE in the subject matter as other researchers from completely different fields (mine is physical chemistry) are contacted by the same people
> The e-mails are completely AUTOMATED, which lowers the credibility from the get go
> The actual fees are NOT directly displayed in the e-mail even if they say that authors have to pay.
So, I'm suspicious. If you want to do such "non-profit" initiative, at least be upfront about the cost, use noted people in their field with basic expertise to select relevant works, and make the minimal effort of personalizing the offer as a function of the field.
I just got a similar email. Surely it is not an academic journal. Do you have any idea about the publication costs?
I also got an e-mail from Annie Venables. I believe if you want to make your research available and break it down for a larger audience, it is best to go through your own institution and their media department.
I also received a similar offer through email sent by Archie. It is clear to me that I should not be engaged in their business.
What further lowers their credibility is that two such publishers are located at the same address in the same building: Research Outreach and Research Features; researchoutreach.org and researchfeatures.com.
Research Outreach Suite 25 Westend Office Suites Westend Stonehouse GL10 3FA United Kingdom T: +44 1453 827 934 E: [email protected]
Research Publishing International Ltd Suite 25 Westend Courtyard Westend Stonehouse Gloucestershire GL10 3FA +44 1453 826 895 [email protected]
I also received a similar offer from Kristian Townsend. You can find information about their fees for the different packages here: https://researchoutreach.org/our-services/
Many thanks for this discussion. I have received the same message from Annie Venables.
Is they sending these emails to people of specific research field or specific journal ??
I have just got an e-mail from Annie Venables and I agree with Théophile Gaudin: there are many reasons for being suspicious of this magazine.
Just got a similar message for October from Annie. The last sentence "cost for taking part" made we very suspicious of it. After reading this discussion here, I now understand that it might be scam, but definitely is suspicious! Has anyone called back yet? What precisely do they offer at what cost?
I received the following email and I am also confused.
Dear Dr. Chatterjee,
Please excuse the direct nature of this contact, however I would like to speak with you regarding your work on the Linear independence of harmonic numbers over the field of algebraic numbers study.
Research Outreach work in collaboration with research teams assisting with their Public Outreach activity, through means of a professionally produced series of publications and articles aimed at a broader audience.
I understand Public Outreach is a very important issue within the research community – where it is often difficult to obtain large numbers of views and interactions.
We are currently working on our October 2019 edition. This publication will feature a wide variety of science disciplines, including approximately 28 research articles. We would like you to be one of those featured.
My suggestion is that we might create a new article, possibly covering some basic details of the published paper I have seen online, or indeed, covering new ground or the wider scope of your work. This would be an entirely new article written and developed by Research Outreach, in close collaboration with you.
Research Outreach distributes all content, publications and your individual article, across major Social Media platforms, as well as our own website. Your work will be seen by a large and quantifiable global audience.
We are a non-profit community company, all content we produce is free to share and can be downloaded by any reader. Our website is entirely transparent and answers any questions you may have.
I have briefly looked over the details of your work and believe Research Outreach to be an effective platform to communicate your outreach requirements.
We publish under the Creative Commons Licence and you will own the copyright to your published material, and we can send you a separate PDF download, to be used on your web-page, at events, conferences, or as outreach material for students etc.
Please have a look at our website for examples of the publications we produce and further detail on our objectives and services:
www.researchoutreach.org
I can assure you the entire process requires very little work on your part, less than 1 hour, over a 10-week process.
Some of the services we provide are paid for, this means there is a cost to you if you decide to take part. I would be delighted to explain this and our editorial process. I understand your time is limited.
Rather than writing any further detail, could we please find 5 minutes to discuss?
During our call, I can answer any questions you may have and explain in detail the requirements and cost for taking part and of course the benefits of doing so.
Thank you in advance,
Kind regards,
Annie Venables Project Manager Research Outreach CIC
I got the same message from Edward Blake asking to write an article about a co-authored paper of mine. I checked their costs. It is free to put up on their website but if you want fancy formatted copies, etc, the costs are way ahead of my pay grade. They don't look like a scam though and there are no false claims from what I saw on the website.
...and me too, basically identical message. Reading all of you does it mean that it's gona be free to have an article written by them on our work and that we do not have to pay if it is only online but we have to pay if we want it on paper?
Just got a mail from Kristian Townsend. I agree with Gino Caspari that it is more advisable to check your own institution for a PR department. My research has been featured recently by the non-scientific press, but this should should be free of any charge, otherwise it comes with an aftertaste I think.
I also received an identical message. Thanks to everyone for sharing their information on these publishers!
Just received a similar email. Thank you for sharing the information about these publishers.
Yup, I received basically word for word the same message (didn't check them through a diff though :-P...), too, from Archie Jones.
I feel like I have better things to do at the moment :-/
IF you have a mandate to include public outreach, international awareness of your institution, AND have the budget to pay their (expensive) subvention fess, this is a fairly cheap (in printing costs) and timesaving way to do that - completing your outreach requirement while leaving you free to get on with your actual work. In other words, if it is something your institution is willing to pay for, as part of its own outreach and awareness (marketing) plans, go for it. But by all means don't pay for it out of pocket.
Well said, Jennifer Pournelle . My university encourages outreach/marketing through free channels (such as ResearchGate), but financial support, if any, is given only for publishing in high-impact journals. One of my PhD students asked about ResearchOutreach and my advice was: Don't spend money on it.
I just received an identical email from Jerry Finn from Research Outreach and was wondering what to make of it. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences.
Mine just came from Edward Blake. Seems they are sending a lot of these. Thank you all for the information and explanations.
Mine too was from Annie Venables. Thanks for the answers. Very useful.
I received the same suggestion from a person named Jerry Finn.
At first my interest was there but after having read the comments I am quite skeptical if this is something I would like to go with. It might be different if my former institution would require these outreach activities and pay for it.
Very informative thread, thanks for discussing this topic!
Archie Jones sent me an invitation from Research Outreach. Similar spam is pouring tons into my mail. Don't waste time in vain
I got a similar email today from Jerry Finn. Since it does not look like a real predatory journal, i decided to search for it. It took me few minutes to find this thread. Thank all of you for the helpful advise.
Hi, I also received an invitation and was trying to understand what to do. If I did understand correctly all your comments, it's an outreach journal that ask you to pay for publication. Well in the UK there are other outreach platforms that do not ask you to pay for publication, The Conversation is one of these.
I have got a similar mail from Kristian Townsend.Wishes to speak to me (if I have 5 minutes to spare, like that) to discuss. Has anyone talked to them? What do they say?
I think the real kicker is the gbp 1780 price tag. This way they are ensuring that they only get results from big money (pharma companies, agribusiness firms) research projects leaving out researchers like me who barely have money to run all my treatments
Thank you all for the wonderful input on Research Outreach. I was approached by Jerry Finn today via email.
I received one from Annie yesterday, too. Thank you for all of the comments.
I have also been approached. Thank you for your comments...very useful.
As usually, a non-funded author had opportunity to publish in a popular science magazine and to get a royalty. Today Research Outreach proposes to non-funded author to publish in a popular science non-indexed magazine with creative original content and author-proposed original illustrations and to pay 2000 US$ for paper publication. It's absolutely brilliant approach. Unfortunately Perig is unavailable as an author for Research Outreach journal.
I was contacted, as well, and I very much appreciate insight from all of you.
I agree with you about promoting your own research. I am very skilled at using social media and by deciding to make a major review published last year open access and letting patients know about this in addition to clinicians, it is by far the most widely read paper in that particular rheumatology journal in the past year and a half.
Thank you for all of the comments. I have also been approached. As an applied psychologist it maybe a platform for some my Cognitive Task Analysis work. I will however check with my University marketing people first.
Thanks very much all for your thoughts - very interesting as I also have been contacted, and I was unaware of the expense at first blush, Cheers :)
Thank you all very much, for your responses.
I have also been approached today and was looking for more information, which I have found here. It seems the price tag would be a little too high for me, and the article they were interested in was from my PhD; which is only vaguely related to my current position.
Thanks for the comments. It is very much helpful. I was contacted, as well, and I very much appreciate insights from all of you. Well reviewed. Cheers.
Honest comments. Looking for these, when I was contacted today. Thank you so much research gate and the above expert members. We ourselves should make the efforts for our research to reach the public. Why voluntary help from other agencies if there is no profit for them? It is simply not required once the research is published in high indexed standard journals.
Thank you all for the insight and useful comments! I received an email, just like the one you all received, apparently. This thread helps a lot in making the right decision!
I received an email from Roy Gent today. It seems like everyone got e-mails from different people?
Anyway. From the comments above it was easy for me to decide that no thank you, I don't want to pay someone approximately $2000 to write an article about my article.
Thanks for all your valuable comments. I received their email as well. They told me just modify very little to republish my review paper published in Advanced Energy Materials three months ago, which does not make sense. Then I try to find some information about this agency, I got much from here. Thanks~
Here is the email (they did not say confidential, so I paste here):
Dear Dr. Chen,
Please excuse the direct nature of this contact, however I would like to speak with you regarding your work on the Thick Electrode Batteries Principles Opportunities and Challenges study.
Research Outreach work in collaboration with research teams assisting with their Public Outreach activity, through means of a professionally produced series of publications and articles aimed at a broader audience.
I understand Public Outreach is a very important issue within the research community – where it is often difficult to obtain large numbers of views and interactions.
We are currently working on our February 2020 edition. This publication will feature a wide variety of science disciplines, including approximately 28 research articles. We would like you to be one of those featured.
My suggestion is that we might create a new article, possibly covering some basic details of the published paper I have seen online, or indeed, covering new ground or the wider scope of your work. This would be an entirely new article written and developed by Research Outreach, in close collaboration with you.
Research Outreach distributes all content, publications and your individual article, across major Social Media platforms, as well as our own website. Your work will be seen by a large and quantifiable global audience.
We are a non-profit community company, all content we produce is free to share and can be downloaded by any reader. Our website is entirely transparent and answers any questions you may have.
I have briefly looked over the details of your work and believe Research Outreach to be an effective platform to communicate your outreach requirements.
We publish under the Creative Commons Licence and you will own the copyright to your published material, and we can send you a separate PDF download, to be used on your web-page, at events, conferences, or as outreach material for students etc.
Please have a look at our website for examples of the publications we produce and further detail on our objectives and services:
www.researchoutreach.org
I can assure you the entire process requires very little work on your part, less than 1 hour, over a 10-week process.
Some of the services we provide are paid for, this means there is a cost to you if you decide to take part. I would be delighted to explain this and our editorial process. I understand your time is limited.
Rather than writing any further detail, could we please find 5 minutes to discuss?
During our call, I can answer any questions you may have and explain in detail the requirements and cost for taking part and of course the benefits of doing so.
Thank you in advance,
Kind regards,
Roy Gent Project Manager Research Outreach CIC
I also received an email from Roy Gent today, and I was looking for some more information's. Thanks to all of you!
I will add my name to the list of those who were contacted (today) and found this thread incredibly helpful. Thanks
I was also contacted today. This thread is very helpful to better understand about it. Thank you all.
Yesterday, I was also contacted. This thread was useful to get more insights. Based on your recommendations, I will decline their offer and choose another way to promote my research. Thanks.
I was contacted by a person called "Jerry Finn Project Manager Research Outreach CIC" and had no idea what this was about. If the price for being popularized is 2000USD, then certainly I'd rather write my own blog post with visuals. Thanks for all suggestions!
I was also contacted by Annie Venables with the same template of the above letter. Thank you all for sharing information, to me, this is a money making scam, you cant pay to have your work promoted, rather do it with your publisher, I am sure Elsevier has this function.
I was contacted by Research outreach today. Not sure if it's useful!
I was contacted today by Archie Jones. I'm grateful for the information.
I was contacted today by Roy Gent, Project Manager, with the same comment: "there is a cost to you if you decide to take part." As someone who is emeritus at one university and teaching in executive programs in another university, I cannot expect either university to pay these costs. James Tilley's answer was quite useful.
I has been contacted by Edward Blake in the same direction, thanks James for the information in my opinion this sort of strategy is not worthy to be promoted.
Thank you all for your priceless information. It´s clear that this busines doesn´t interest me
I was also contacted by Jerry Fin today about a review article. Not sure if I would be interested in paying to promote a review article that has no new findings. I think I will decline the offer.
I got several times their email. Just to have an idea what is the cost generally?
Alessandro Crimi, their pricing is here: https://researchoutreach.org/our-services/
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