Or VDM — Verlag Dr. Müller?
Or VDM Publishing House?
Or LAP Lambert Academic Publishing?
Or Südwestdeutsche Verlag für Hochschul schriften?
Or Verlag Classic Edition (VCE)?
Or Alphascript Publishing?
Ready for the answer, dear readers? Okay:
They’re all the same entity. And most of them are what Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware has dubbed ‘author mills.’ For a short description of what an author mill is, see this entry on Wikipedia.
Got it? If you didn’t have time to read through those pages, let me sum it up for you:
VDM Verlag, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, and whatever they happen to be calling themselves today are publishing houses that publish on demand. What does that mean, exactly? Well, let’s say you’ve written something (like, for instance, your dissertation) that no publisher in his right mind would want to turn into a book and market. But you really want that 300-page treatise to be a book. The solution is simple — trot on over to VDM/LAP/whatever and ask them to publish it. You sign over the rights, they print a few copies for you to give to your mum and dad, and then they list it on Amazon.com with a price tag of a hundred dollars or so. If someone actually orders it, they’ll run off a copy and ship it out. And maybe they’ll pay you some royalties at some point, but more likely not (Strauss, 2009). Actually, you don’t even have to do the work of seeking these cats out — their cold-calling techniques are finely honed: if you’ve written a dissertation (even a crappy one that barely passed), it’ll be on file with UMI. The “publishers” will track you down, along with your committee members, and send you (and your committee) something that looks like this:
Dear Last Name, First Name,
I am writing on behalf of the International publishing house, Lambert Academic Publishing.
In the course of a research on the XYZ University, I came across a reference to your work in the field of ABC.
We are an International publisher whose aim is to make academic research available to a wider audience.
LAP Publishing would be especially interested in publishing your dissertation in the form of a printed book.
Your reply including an e-mail address to which I can send an e-mail with further information in an attachment will be greatly appreciated.
I look forward to hear from you
Kind regards,
Tatiana Zetu
Acquisition Editor
LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing AG & Co. KG
Saarbrücken
Dudweiler Landstraße 99, 66123 Saarbrücken Germany
Uh huh. So the short version is this: the published book on offer is really no different than having your dissertation on file at UMI or having UMI run off a few bound copies — because the idea of having a book published is that (and this is key) not just any Joe Schmo gets to have a book published. Think of it this way: if you’re harbouring any illusions about being in some special set of academics-with-a-book once you’ve gone with VDM/LAP, you’re just in the same set you were before — that of academics-with-a-dissertation. Which is pretty much everyone. It ain’t that glamourous, folks.
Here’s what the nice people over at U Mass Amherst’s library have to say about it:
Umass Amherst recommends that students who would normally publish a monograph of their thesis or dissertation for promotion and tenure purposes should rely on more traditionally accepted / peer reviewed publishers within their respective fields for publishing opportunities. This publishing venue uses a print-on-demand model and markets dissertations and theses through Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com and other large online booksellers. Royalties are paid to authors when sufficient sales warrant. VDM/Lambert Academic Publishing routinely contacts authors of dissertations and theses using information they get through ProQuest, the University, library catalogs, and other sources. Authors should note that VDM/Lambert Academic Publishing requests exclusive distribution rights for versions that they publish.
Why have I spent all this time going on about VDM/LAP? Simply because I noticed a few of them popped up on the publication lists of faculty members at UAEU. Then I noticed a few more — at the American University of Sharjah, KUSTAR, the Petroleum Institute, and the University of Sharjah. In most of the eighteen cases presented below, the VDM/LAP “book” is the only book publication these faculty have to show for themselves (one of them even has two – TWO!). Not only does this show something less than real scholarly achievement, but if the following faculty (and their program chairs/deans/provosts/etc.) truly believe that these publications are meaningfully different than the Ph.D. that got them a job in the first place, it shows more than a little naïveté.
So while I would be supremely embarrassed walking into my western tenure review with a single book photocopied published by Dr. Müller and Friends (in that case, suicide would seem a felicitous alternative to the review), over here it’s likely that I’d be given a pat on the back and promoted.
Because, after all, this is Academics in the Desert.
And here’s sample based on about 30 minutes of research:
United Arab Emirates University:
http://www.fedu.uaeu.ac.ae/doctors/Mehmet-Buldu.html
Buldu, M. (2009). Constructivism in early childhood education. Teacher educator beliefs and practices. Cologne, Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing AG & Co. KG
http://www.fbe.uaeu.ac.ae/dba/faculty_cv/elbanna_cv.pdf
Elbanna, S. 2010. Making strategic decisions: A state of the art review and empirical evidence from a cultural perspective. Dudweiler Landstr: Lambert Academic Publishing.
http://citweb.uaeu.ac.ae/citweb/profile.jsp?userName=f.ahmed
Ahmed, F.; Capretz, L.F. & Campbell, P. (2009) Software Product Lines: A Process Assessment Methodology, A Practitioner’s Approach, VDM Verlag, Pages: 284, ISBN: 978-3-639-11908-4.
http://citweb.uaeu.ac.ae/citweb/profile.jsp?userName=serhanim
M. Adel Serhani, “A Framework and Methodology for Managing Quality of Web Services”, VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller e.K. (February 20, 2008), ISBN: 3836457679, 204 pages.
http://citweb.uaeu.ac.ae/citweb/profile.jsp?userName=p.campbell
Ahmed, F.; Capretz, L.F. & Campbell, P. (2009) Software Product Lines: A Process Assessment Methodology, VDM Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-639-11908-4.
American Univerisity of Sharjah:
http://www.aus.edu/cas/masscom/people/Ibahrine.php
New Media and Neo-Islamism: New Media’s Impact on the Political Culture in the Islamic World. Saarbrücken: Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller. 2007
http://www.aus.edu/sbm/profile/mmajdalawieh.php
Scholarly Book: Munir Majdalawieh, “Security Framework for Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) System” Published by VDM Verlag ISBN 978-3-8364-7056-8, September 2008.
http://www.aus.edu/cas/matesol/newsletter/documents/Newsletter_Spring_2009.pdf
“In April [2009], Theme in Text: Weighing the Evidence, a book based on [Dr Peter Compton's] doctoral dissertation, was published by Verlag Dr Müller, Saarbrucken.”
http://www.aus.edu/media/publications/documents/AUSNEWS_May_2010.pdf
Dr. Sattar Izwaini (Arabic and Translation Studies) recently released his book Translation and The Language of Information Technology (Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag). The book is a study of the vocabulary of the language of information technology and how it is translated into Arabic and Swedish. One pioneering aspect of the book is how software and website interfaces are dealt with when translated.”
http://www.aus.edu/facultybios/docs/malsatari.pdf
Al Satari, M., Estimation of Seismic Response Demands for R/C Framed Structures: An Insight Into The Nonlinear Seismic Behavior. (VDM Verlag, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2008), ISBN 978-3-639-04424.
Khalifa University:
http://www.kustar.ac.ae/main/index.php?page=kamal-taha
Kamal Taha, Efficient Approaches for Querying XML Data: Keyword-Based, Personalized, and Distributed Queries, LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, May 2010, 160 pp.
http://www.kustar.ac.ae/main/index.php?page=osama-fawwaz
Osama Fawwaz (2010), “Theoretical Calculation of the Electronic States of the Molecule Narb”, LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, ISBN: 9783838376042.
http://www.kustar.ac.ae/main/index.php?page=george-wesley-hitt
G. W. Hitt, “Light-Ion Charge-Exchange Applied to Stellar Electron-Capture Studies” (book), LAP Academic Publishing, Saarbrucken, Germany (2010).
The Petroleum Institute:
http://www.pi.ac.ae/pi_aca/pe/faculty_staff/sghedan.php
Jing Lu, Shawket Ghedan, Djebbar Tiab, “Analytical Solutions to Productivity and Pressure Transient Equations,” ISBN 978-3-639-10320-5, VDM Verlag Publishing Ltd., Saarbrucken, Germany , September, 2010.
http://www.pi.ac.ae/pi_aca/pe/faculty_staff/jlu.php
Jing Lu, Djebbar Tiab, Productivity Equations for Oil Well – New Solutions Based on Three Dimensional Models, ISBN 978-3-639-15123-7, VDM Verlag Publishing Ltd., Saarbrucken, Germany , May, 2009.
http://www.pi.ac.ae/pi_aca/cor/faculty_staff/hlim.php
Lim, H. L. (2008). Constructing learning conversations: Virtual collaborative learning processes in higher education. Germany: VDM Verlag. ISBN: 978-3639025583.
University of Sharjah (not American University of Sharjah):
https://www.sharjah.ac.ae/English/Academics/Colleges/Engineering/Departments/Elecomeng/Faculty%20Cv/Pages/DrShoufan.aspx
Shoufan A., “High Performance Group Key Management, A Way to scalable Internet Television”, VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken, 2007, ISBN: 978-3-8364-2128-7.
http://www.sharjah.ac.ae/English/Academics/Colleges/BusinessAdmini/Departments/Managementit/Documents/CV_Dr.OualidBenAli.pdf
Ali Walid (2008) “2D/3D MultiAgent GeoSimulation: A Generic Method and its Application”. ISBN-10: 3836472295
References:
n.a. (n.d.). Author Mill. Wikipedia. Retrieved (23 Nov 2010) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Author_mill
Strauss, V. VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Retrieved (21 Nov 2010) from http://www.sfwa.org/2009/09/victoria-strauss-vdm-verlag-dr-mueller/
University of Massachusetts Amherst. (n.d.). VDM/Lambert Academic Publishing. Retrieved (20 Nov 2010) from http://guides.library.umass.edu/content.php?pid=110362&sid=832620
Excellent work, EA. You could make a good living at this, you know – exposing the frauds in the UAE’s university system. But it could well be a lifetime’s work!
By the way, you could also do a posting on those Western ‘Doctors’, such as a few at HCT that I know, who have PhDs from one of the least wonderful US academic institutes (University of Arizona?), where you can get a PhD by completing a mixed bag of assorted modules. Yep, that’s right – no thesis or dissertation needed at all!
And the worse thing is that these frauds then insist on being addressed as ‘Doctor’!
I don’t know that I’d call publishing with VDM/LAP fraudulent per se, but simply rather meaningless since apparently anyone with a dissertation is welcome to join the club. Rather like the creation of the green American Express card — not a very exclusive group if everyone has one.
Ah, now I remember – it was the U. of Phoenix!! Ring any bells with you, doc.?
But isn’t Phoenix in Arizona….?
Wow, just found it on the web: “The Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership … [this] program has a requirement of 62 credits.” And how many credits is the dissertation ‘module’ worth? A mighty THREE!
Yes, Phoenix is in Arizona, and there is a University of Phoenix and a University of Arizona (the latter located in Tucson, although it may have branches in other cities in the state).
I take your point about a Ph.D. without a dissertation requirement being of dubious validity, but I see nothing amiss with a doctoral program of 60-some-odd credit hours where all but three or six of those credits are taught. The remaining few may be called ‘dissertation/thesis credits’ but this by no means implies that the work put into researching, proposing, writing, and defending a dissertation amounts to the same work put into one or two graduate level courses. I believe the the allocation of a few credit hours to the dissertation has mostly to do with effectively job-costing the advisor’s time — so while you will be spending a year or more of extremely hard work on the diss., your advisor will be spending roughly the equivalent of what he or she would spend in an independent study course. In other words, the three-to-six credits has nothing to do with the dissertation, but rather with the advisor’s time. It’s a way of charging tuition fees in exchange for the faculty supervision.
The concept of taught doctoral programs (meaning a few years of coursework in addition to a dissertation) is rather US-centric, so that may be why it sounds odd.
Attention: All readers and authors.
I am writing on behalf of Lambert Academic Publishing. Publishing houses have long been considered as closed to everyone, without any interaction with authors, book buyers and readers. However, we, at LAP are different from conventional publishers. Instead we pursue an innovative ‘open book policy’ where we continuously identify scientific and academic projects from different universities and colleges. We do contact authors by email and propose publishing contract to them. Our aim is to provide knowledge to a wide market and connect the book buyers and readers to the right author and the books they are looking for.
Our books are distributed through more than 80,000 bookstores and more than 3,000 online shops worldwide.
We are committed in providing the best publishing experience available to our authors, we are thus open to the concerns of all our authors and customers. While our request for bank details have been often assumed to be some type of identity fraud we wish reassure our authors that we use the VeriSign security system and that such request is for the sole purpose of royalties payment. Upon suggestions of many authors we will be soon implementing new royalties payment methods such as Paypal.
Often confused with Vanity Press our publishing model is very different from it. We wish to provide the following details on the difference between a Vanity Press and our publishing model:
* We distribute your book worldwide through mainstream and well known shops such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble or AbeBooks.
* You are not charged any cost for the production of your book. We bear all production,distribution and marketing cost for you and we pay you royalties for specific periods.
* You are able to publish 80% your book through journals and reviews. Your book is not tied up when you get a contract from LAP.
Whereas Vanity Press charges for all the services mentioned above instead LAP look after all these at no cost to the author and with the advantage of a dedicated Acquisition Editor who is engaged to attend all the author’s request.
In a time where most actors of the publishing industry are turning irrelevant and out of date, Lambert Academic Publishing partners with its authors to enter the new publishing era. Authors can join us now and be part of this revolution of the publishing industry.
Regards,
Michael Davis
Customer Service Executive
Dear Michael Davis,
It appears you have not actually read my post, but have simply combed the web for anything critical related to VDM/LAP and provided the same boiler-plate response you have posted on other sites. See here, here, here, and here for examples. Since you have not taken the time to cobble together a substantive response to what I wrote, I am not inclined to take much time on responding to you. From this point on I will not approve any comments made by you or your firm unless they speak directly to the points that I have made.
That said, and for my readers’ benefit, I will reply to you this time:
The concern I have with your ‘open book policy’ is that it is rather akin to founding a private club and then inviting everyone to join. I see no material difference between having authored a doctoral dissertation and having published with your firm because it appears that your firm is content to ‘publish’ every dissertation in the UMI database. Perhaps you would be kind enough to explain in detail the criteria that you use for selecting dissertations that you consider worthy of publication, assuming that you in fact select a subset of all dissertations. I would also very much like to know, in your opinion, whether a thesis published in, say, one of Routledge’s Outstanding Dissertations series (such as the Current Research in Ethnomusicology series) carries the same weight in terms of scholarly achievement that a thesis published by VDM/LAP does. If you believe it does, please explain why.
Note also that I made no mention of the term ‘vanity press’ (generally accepted to mean publication paid for by the author) in my post. What your firm appears to be is an author mill. Nor am I interested in whether, when, and how much you pay authors.
Again, if you had actually read my post, you would have understood that I am questioning the scholarly ethos of tertiary faculty who choose to publish with your firm.
Sincerely,
ExpatAcademic
Dear Expatacademic,
When I read your post I felt that I had to respond to your critique as you have not searched well enough before you criticized the faculty members you listed above. Below please find the note on the first page my book that was published by Lambert Academic Publishing:
“The study presented in this book, under a different title, was submitted to faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Indiana University.”
So, I have not hidden the fact that this book was published out of my dissertation. In fact, I am proud that it is sold in many bookstores throughout the world as well as on the internet by big companies such as amazon.com and Barnes&Nobles. The publisher sends me my annual share when enough amount is accrued in my account.
Please do not judge academicians without conducting a thorough search. My book was published 4 years after I was hired by UAEU, and my chair as well as my dean are well aware of the fact that it was published out my dissertation.
Moreover, as you claimed in your post it is not my sole publication (yes, maybe my only book), it is one of the twelve international publications that I managed to complete in my short career (6 years) as a professor. Below is a list of my publications for your records:
Articles:
Buldu, M. (2010). Making learning visible in kindergarten classrooms: Pedagogical documentation as a formative assessment. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(7), 1439-1449.
Buldu, M. & Shaban, M. S. (2010). Visual arts teaching in K-3rd grade classrooms in UAE: Teacher profiles, perceptions and practices. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 24(4), 332-350.
Buldu, M. (2009). 5- to 8- year old Emirati children’s and their teachers’ perception of war. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23(4), 461-474.
Buldu, M. (2006). Young children’s perceptions of scientists. A preliminary study. Educational Research, 48(1), 121-132.
Buldu, M. & Yilmaz, A. (2005). Assessing the quality in different U.S. early childhood education programs. Journal of Cukurova University Institute of Social Sciences, 14(1), 121-136.
McMullen, M. B., Alat, K., Buldu, M., & Lash, M. (2004). A snapshot of NAEYC’s preschool professionals through the lens of quality. Young Children, 59(2), 87-92.
McMullen, M. B., Buldu, M., Lash, M., & Alat, K. (2004). An assessment tool for professional development. Examining quality in our preschool professionals from multiple perspectives with the Early Childhood Professional Questionnaire. Child Care Information Exchange, 157, 31-35.
Book:
Buldu, M. (2009). Constructivism in early childhood education. Teacher educator beliefs and practices. Cologne, Germany: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing AG & Co. KG
Book Chapters:
Buldu, M. (2010). Mathematical concept development during early childhood period. In B. Akman (Ed.) Okulöncesi matematik eğitimi (Early childhood mathematics education), (pp. 27-47). Ankara: Pegem Yayınevi.
Buldu, M. (2010). Okul öncesi matematik eğitiminde değerlendirme (Assessment in early childhood mathematics education). In B. Akman (Ed.) Okulöncesi matematik eğitimi (Early childhood mathematics education) (pp. 189-210). Ankara: Pegem Yayınevi.
Published Conference Papers:
Buldu, M. & Buldu, N. (2010). Concept mapping as a formative assessment in college classrooms: Measuring usefulness and student satisfaction. Procedia – Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2, 2099-2104.
Buldu, M. (2002). Young children’s computer use: Perspectives of early childhood teacher educators. In D. Willis et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2002 (pp. 2544-2548). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Dear Dr Buldu,
Thank you for your thoughtful response.
I do not see how I have ‘not searched well enough’ — as I see it there is very little to search. I have noted that VDM/LAP is reputed to be a rather different sort of publisher, specifically the type that does not appear to have set any criteria for publication other than that of having written a doctoral dissertation. As I mentioned in my post, the act of publishing with VDM/LAP seems to be equivalent to the act of writing and filing a dissertation. In this sense, the ‘book’ publication is on a par with the filing of one’s dissertation with UMI, which in my mind does not set one apart from the set of Ph.D. holders.
Please note that I am not commenting on the value of your research in general or of your dissertation in particular. Nor am I criticising the publication of a book based on one’s dissertation. I am simply speculating on the value of having published with an outfit that has a reputation as an author mill.
I did not claim that the sole publications of those faculty on the list were books with VDM/LAP. I said that “In most of the eighteen cases presented below, the VDM/LAP “book” is the only book publication these faculty have to show for themselves.”
With all respect, please read what I have written carefully before accusing me of not having conducted a thorough search.
With best regards,
Expat Academic