Ethics question

So I got this unsolicited request to submit a manuscript by Ethics International Press. I’m not actually a doctor in any sense of the word, I did a few presentations at conferences over the years for a data collection project I worked on a decade ago, but Google, Facebook, Survey Monkey, etc. killed that. These people obviously lifted my email address off the conference websites. Still, it’s tempting to write a fake book with a nice photo of me smiling on the back. I imagine myself looking like this:

Problem is, my only academic knowledge of ethics is from taking a couple of classes as an undergraduate. I got a very good grade on an essay about why abortion should be compulsory, and a decent grade on why it might be good to torture grandmothers if it prevents a terrorist attack, but I suspect that’s amateur level shit and they want pro level stuff.

Would it be wrong to just copy Wikipedia pages on the moral dilemmas shown in The Good Place and format them up as a book? This is permitted under the Wikipedia copyright, but I’m a bit worried that someone else might submit the same manuscript. I thought of it myself, so that’s not plagiarism, surely.

Actually, when I think about it, maybe it’s a legal question, not an ethics question. Now I’m confused.

Here’s the email.

Dear Dr. Thols,

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, http://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

http://www.ethicspress.com

Well, I’ve got nothing, I thought you were asking about that place in the Home Countith.

Could you write an essay and pretend it was a chapter of a book?

I have to say if they are cold calling for manuscripts it seems like a pretty dodgy outfit

It’s just letting you know there’s an open call – they haven’t targeted you specifically, your data has been scraped from somewhere along with thousands of others. Anyone is free to send something in.

If you write something shit they’re just going to read 5 words and bin it.

I’m not sure you know how these things work. Write the proposal, make it sound ace, then do the research 🙂 Say yes to everything first!

Seriously though, I wouldn’t, if it’s an academic book they want.

I’d suggest starting with a chapter on Responsible Business, one of their example topics covered by their Edited Collections. Specifically, what responsible business solicits randoms to write scholarly texts?

I have to say if they are cold calling for manuscripts it seems like a pretty dodgy outfit

If you write something shit they’re just going to read 5 words and bin it.

This is a common gray area scam. Academics are desperate to get published to keep their jobs. Dodgy publishers publish fake research journals or books that aren’t peer-reviewed, any shit you submit will be published. The standard thing is there are “publishing fees” and the manuscript has to be formatted to a template supplied by the publisher. In other words, the author pays to get shit published, and also has to do all the formatting and proofing. The “publisher” just collects all the manuscripts and puts them online.

In this case, they aren’t charging publishing fees, but just collecting manuscripts formatted for print on demand. If the author wants a copy of their book (which academics have to do to include it as a job or promotion interview), they have to buy it at retail rates. Those retail rates probably run to US$200 per copy. The “publisher” is probably one guy running 100 different “journals” out of his cubicle in his lunch break. If he gets 10 hits per week, that’s serious pocket money.

Actually, thinking about it, they’re probably collecting manuscripts for E-books. Publishing costs are pretty much zero. You put them on Amazon for $1.99 and just rake in beer money from suckers.

Well, I’ve got nothing, I thought you were asking about that place in the Home Countith.

Well I thought it was funny 🙂

Can you not just cut and paste some of the threads on here?

Thank you, one person.

(-:

Can you not just cut and paste some of the threads on here?

Already have a bot scraping the site.

Write a bunch of nonsense in really bad handwriting with a crayon. See if they’ll still publish it

First time in ages the surname of Blair has been linked to Ethics

Well, I’ve got nothing, I thought you were asking about that place in the Home Countith.

Beat me to it, I was going to say, ‘remember ethics isn’t a county in the south-east of England’.
It was funny, tho’. 😁

We are taking a deliberately broad approach to the topic of ethics

Sounds like your essays on abortion and grandmothers should be ideal.