I would be very interested to hear more about the company you work for, and its activities.

Although I can’t say much about Bentham, in my organization’s case, there is little doubt in my mind that it is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on academics desperate for publications and editorial positions, as well as on third-world scholars who want to present in ‘first-world’ conferences. The main, and often only method of promotion, is mass e-mail, usually to lists that have been created from faculty lists on university websites and authors from recent journals and conference proceedings. The terrible quality of the services provided and the exploitation of researchers and students at every step of the process is evident, but the continued participation of a significant (albeit dwindling) number of senior scholars at respected institutions continues to surprise me.

My experience here has been quite awful at times, but it has done a lot to expose me to the hidden ecology of academia. I wish I could write about it, and I might, after I quit this place..

just to let you know, the article appears in the Washington Post, not the Washington TImes 🙂