Not from Europe
Bell Press is a newly-launched scholarly open-access publisher that uses deception to make itself look like a legitimate, European, scholarly publisher. It is none of these things, however. Bell Press uses three strategies of deception to lure authors into thinking it’s an authentic scholarly publisher. First, the publisher claims to be based in Europe, but I cannot find any credible evidence to back this up. It lists offices in the U.K. and Germany, and all its journals titles begin with the phrase “European Journal of … “. However, the domain name registration data is blocked, suggestion the publisher wants to hide its true, likely non-European location.
Based in European …
Bell press is trying to be more European than most European publishers are, a strong suggestion that it is really from outside Europe. It’s trying to be “more Catholic than the Pope.” Also, typos on the site strongly suggest a non-European origin. The site claims the publisher is “Based in European” [sic], and I think any publisher honestly headquartered in Europe would know the correct way to say that. Other prominent grammatical errors on the website also indicate a non-European location.
Third, the publisher is brand new, but it uses deception to make it look like the publisher has been operating for a while. Statements on the site say, “Copyright ® [sic] 2009 – 2013,” but I think the site began only a few months ago.
Volume deception
Each of the publisher’s 27 journals is currently up to volume 11, but this is completely bogus. For each journal, the publisher has manufactured earlier volumes by taking titles and abstracts off the open internet and by making them up. Only the recent volumes have full PDFs; the earlier ones only have the titles and abstracts. Also, this publisher’s journals publish several (fake) volumes per year, making the journals look more established than they really are.
The owners of Bell Press must be dumb or naïve to believe that people are actually going to fall for their deceit. I strongly recommend against serving on any editorial boards this publisher establishes and against submitting any papers to its journals. Publishing with Bell Press will hurt your career more than help it.
Appendix: Bell Press Journals as of September 6, 2013
- European Journal of Agricultural Sciences
- European Journal of Applied Engineering
- European Journal of Applied Physics
- European Journal of Banking and Finance
- European Journal of Biomedical Technology
- European Journal of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry
- European Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture
- European Journal of Climate Change
- European Journal of Computer Science and Engineering
- European Journal of Developing Country Studies
- European Journal of Earth and Environment
- European Journal of Economics and Development
- European Journal of Education and Learning
- European Journal of Electrical Technology
- European Journal of Engineering and Innovation
- European Journal of Geoengineering
- European Journal of Industrial and System Engineering
- European Journal of Innovation and Business
- European Journal of Language and Culture
- European Journal of Life Science and Technology
- European Journal of Management Sciences
- European Journal of Material Engineering
- European Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing
- European Journal of Natural Sciences
- European Journal of Ocean and Marine
- European Journal of Science and Public Policy
- European Journal of Technology and Development
