The ethics of spam
I've received something similar to this email from Ethics International Press before. In that instance, the message referred to Dr Rosamund Thomas, as if her name was supposed to mean something to me.*
The irony of using harvested email addresses, without opt-in, seems to be lost on ethical Bob.
I'm almost tempted to submit a proposal for a book to be entitled The Ethics of Unsolicited Commercial Email and its Use in Predatory Publishing. But I'm concerned that they might take it seriously.
Ethics International Press are continuing our Open Call for academic book proposals. Proposals should primarily be for scholarly books, including text/reference books. You can download a Book Proposal Form here and see information for authors on our website, www.ethicspress.com Ethics International Press aims to be broad in scope, inclusive and welcoming of diverse voices and approaches, and a friendly and unpretentious place to publish. Please note that we make no charges to publish. Ethics International Press was founded in Cambridge, UK, in 1993. In 2021, a consortium of publishing professionals took on the running of Ethics International Press, with the intention of building on and expanding the organization. We aim to build Ethics International Press into the world’s leading specialist academic publisher in ethics and related fields. We have started that process with active commissioning of monographs, edited collections, and book series, and by assembling an international Advisory Board. Scope We are taking a deliberately broad approach to the topic of ethics, so are happy to consider English language proposals in fields including, but not limited to: • Business/responsible business including issues relating to the UN Global Compact • Politics and the Public Sector • Environment, sustainability, climate change, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) • Arts and Humanities, including History and Culture • Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion • Philosophy • Religion and spirituality • Law and justice • Education • Medical ethics • Artificial Intelligence and Technology • Security and surveillance We are pleased to consider adapted Doctoral Theses, and Edited Collections, including adaptations from conferences and symposia. Books should normally range from 50,000 to 150,000 words. Call for chapters We are also inviting chapter contributions to Edited Collections in a number of fields, including: • Statistics • Climate Change • Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) • Responsible Business • The COVID 19 Pandemic If you have a chapter (rather than a full book proposal) please do contact us. We may be able to match it with one of our Edited Collections. Again, there are no charges to publish a chapter in one of our Collections. A Chapter would normally be 3000 to 5000 words in length. Please see the Calls for Chapters section on our website. We look forward to hearing from you. With best wishes Robert Blair Commissioning Editor Ethics International Press
* Dr Thomas is Director of the Centre for Business and Public Sector Ethics, Cambridge, UK. Yeah, I know, whatever! (shrug)
robert.blair@ethicspress.com
I cannot recall if Bob's returned before, but now he's returned for sure. That's total freakin' poetry, folks; which is more than can be said for his missive.
Ethics International Press takes a deliberately broad approach to the topic of Ethics
, only stopping short of not sending unsolicited requests for dubious publications. There are no publication charges, which begs the question as to the business model: presumably pay-to-view.
Like Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Ethics International Press was founded in one of Britain's, if not the world's, foremost seats of learning: Cambridge. And, also like Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Ethics International Press is no longer based in Cambridge. While CSP relocated to a grimey little hole in the northeast of England, EIP moved to Bury St Edmunds. Unlike CSP, however, EIP doesn't make this relocation transparent on their website or in their communications, you have to search for that information.
According to the company's record on the registrar held at Companies House, it dropped the name Ethics International Press Ltd on 17.06.2021 and is due to be delisted next month. Another company named Ethics International Press Ltd was incorporated with different officers on 23.07.2021 and is based in Bradford, an altogether less salubrious part of the country. I'm not an expert on company registrations, and I have no real idea what this all means, but none of it gives the original EIP the air of a trustworthy organisation. Possibly even unethical.
Nevertheless, it all put me in mind of the words of Sir Noël Coward, on being invited to a celebration of Bury's patron while visiting the town: I come to Bury St Edmunds, not to praise him!
From: Robert Blair <robert.blair@ethicspress.com> Subject: Call for Academic Book Proposals: Ethics International Press Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2022 10:10:50 +0000 (GMT) Sender: robert.blair@ethicspress.com
Ethics International Press is pleased to invite proposals for scholarly books and edited collections. We specialise in publishing for the academic market, so if you are researching and writing in fields broadly related to Ethics or addressing ethical issues, we would be delighted to hear from you. You can download a Book Proposal Form here. We aim to be broad in scope, inclusive and welcoming of diverse voices and approaches, and to be a friendly and unpretentious place to publish. All proposals are independently reviewed. Please note that we make no charges to publish. We take a deliberately broad approach to the topic of Ethics. In a sense, ethical questions, considerations and decisions can be said to underpin most, if not all, areas of human endeavour. As examples, we have published books dealing with: • philosophical issues such as Religion and Faith, Morality, and Decision Making • applied fields, such as Bioethics, Education, Built Environment, Data Science, Legal, Medical, and Business Ethics • explorations in Psychology, Psychiatry, Counselling, and Childhood Studies • current challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Climate Change, Food Security, Poverty, and Technology/AI • discussions in Arts, Humanities and Social Science fields such as History, Society and Culture, Politics, and Literature If in doubt about scope, please ask and we will give you an answer on likely suitability very quickly. Additionally, we have a number of 'Open Calls for Chapters' in edited collections including Statistics, Technology and AI, Critical Psychology and Psychiatry, and Socio-Technical Systems. You can see more information on our edited collections here. We aim to build Ethics International Press into the world’s leading specialist academic publisher in Ethics and related fields. For more information about Ethics International Press, including current and forthcoming titles; our Advisory Board members; and our Notes for Authors, please view our website, at www.ethicspress.com. The books we select for publication are aimed at scholarly researchers, teachers, and students, worldwide. We publish in English. Ethics International Press was founded in Cambridge, UK in 1993. We look forward to hearing from you. With best wishes Robert Blair Commissioning Editor Ethics International Press www.ethicspress.com Copyright © 2021 Ethics International Press Ltd, All rights reserved. From time to time, we send invitations to publish in the field of Ethics and associated subjects. We hope you find them informative and useful. If not, you can unsubscribe from receiving any future emails by clicking the link below, or emailing us at admin@ethicspress.com with 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in the subject line of the email. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Click here to leave mailing list
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Ahh, what the hell. Let's go for it!
Dear Mr Blair, Thank you for your solicitation. I would be interested in a book on the subject of the ethics of unsolicited commercial email used in pseudo-academic publishing. I suggest the title of “The Ethics of Unsolicited Commercial Email by Predatory Publishing Houses”, although if you have better ideas that’s fine. I think that this will be an invaluable addition to the subject area. Chapters will discuss the following topics: • address harvesting and collected distribution lists versus opt-in methods; • the illogic of unsubscribing from mailing lists that haven't been willingly subscribed to in the first place; • the use of templates and mail merge; • the use of tracking images and referral links in predatory email; • soliciting academic works from random strangers; • selling academic works of questionable merit to unsuspecting academics and students; • despoiling the academic record through inadequate or non-existent peer review; • obfuscating business location to project a more prestigious impression. Once again, if you have ideas as to how this could be further expanded, I'm happy to discuss this proposal further.