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[mayjohn]

This thread is still around? Awesome.

It is like a bad cold. It refuses to go away.

[runwithscissors]

This thread is still around? Awesome.

It is like a bad cold. It refuses to go away.

I love this thread. I keep wondering what the VDM shills will say next in order to convince us that tenure is in the bag after they publish your shiny new book paperweight.

[tamayo]

I have a lot of concerns about this publisher.

How do they possibly make money on this? How do you know that won't be using the manuscript or personal information in another way?

Do other publishers request bank information? Let's say you open up a special account just for this purpose. I wonder what could be done with that information as well as the other personal information they get? Money laundering, identity theft....?

Also, I wonder what these people could do in Mauritius. Why are they there and what are the publishing laws?

I goggled the acquisition editor and board of directors' names. They all seem to be in their 20's. I did not see evidence of more than college degrees. Their criteria for selection seems to be rather loose.

It sounds like they are basically a company that is willing to publish anyone's dissertation so that you can have a shiny copy that can be sold on Amazon. I don't think you'd make money on it.

The agreement says "if the average monthly fee for the settlement period was between 10.01 euros and 50 euros, instead of a royalty fee, the author receives a book voucher for the VDM portfolio...." "If the average monthly royalty fee for the settlement period exceeded 50 euros, the royalty fee will be transferred to the Author's bank account." How would you know how this was determined? I wonder if authors ever get checks. Proquest sold over 100 copies of my dissertation and I got a $30 check. Proquest might be a better deal.

I wonder if this mickey mouse publication might also look bad on the resume.

[cranefly]

The thread that just wouldn't die...
rtaveau, all of your concerns are discussed ad nauseum on this thread.

[sciencephd]

Also, I wonder what these people could do in Mauritius. Why are they there and what are the publishing laws?

I goggled the acquisition editor and board of directors' names. They all seem to be in their 20's. I did not see evidence of more than college degrees. Their criteria for selection seems to be rather loose.

Mauritius = cheap labor + tax haven.

They are in their 20's = cheap labor.  But hey, they are on facebook and some of them are hotties.

[mfaer]

I carefully read through the comments and google out some facts.
At least, someone (assistant professor in US, even more around the world) did post a VDM publication in a CV on line as http://www.cs.wayne.edu/~hzhang/CV.pdf

The final judgment to publish through VDM is up to your purpose, your filed and your institution.

What did you actually edit in this post?

[lesliemccartney]

I have also been recently contacted by VDM and am rather skeptical about becoming involved until I have heard from someone that it is indeed legit.  Did you have any follow up or deal with this company?
Many thanks for your reply.
Leslie

[peppergal]

Wow, this thread really won't die!

I get contacted by VDM every couple of months.  The first time, not knowing any better, I responded, thanking them for their interest, but declining their offer because my dissertation was already under contract elsewhere.  Since then, I have gotten dozens of emails (all from different people) offering to publish my dissertation.  They obviously do some research, since they mention the correct title of my dissertation.  However, a quick google search of my name and/or the title of my dissertation gets as its first hit my department homepage, with my CV, from which it is very clear that my dissertation has been published elsewhere.

The last time, I responded again, telling them that I found their pursual of me to border on harassment, and informing them that I have now blocked all VDM email addresses.  We'll see if that stops them.

[polly_mer]

I have also been recently contacted by VDM and am rather skeptical about becoming involved until I have heard from someone that it is indeed legit.  Did you have any follow up or deal with this company?
Many thanks for your reply.
Leslie

Dear Leslie,

Did you read any of this thread?  VDM is legit in the sense that all indications are they do what they claim to do: put your dissertation on their webpage, print copies on demand, and ship them to people who order them.  However, that method of distributing one's dissertation is not considered publication as a book for most academic job purposes and many people on hiring and tenure committees will laugh if such an item appears on a scholarly CV.

Instead, we recommend revising the dissertation into a more conventional book form and publishing a book with presses recommended by senior people in your field.  That path is likely to lead to a book that will be generally accepted for hiring, tenure, and promotion.

So the choice is whether you just want a nicely bound copy of your dissertation available to the general public with no further effort to mine your dissertation for other publications or whether you need a book to further your academic career.  For the former, go ahead and use VDM, but be aware that cheaper methods are available for the same quality.  For the latter, eschew VDM and send proposals to academic presses that publish books in your field.

[jonesey]

One of the faculty at my school just published her diss with VDM: the university was so proud they posted this info as a press release. 

Sometimes, I feel like I'm the only person at my school who knows the difference between "peer reviewed" and "POD."  Heck, maybe I'll put my Facebook posts on my CV.  No one here seems to know the difference.

[systeme_d_]

Jonesey, I can't resist pointing out that there are many reputable academic publishers that do peer reviews and that also print on demand.

Smaller scholarly presses often simply cannot afford to print an entire run with no sure prospect of making back the printing costs, so POD is becoming much more common.

Now, VDM does NOT do peer review, so it is a different animal altogether.

[jonesey]

Jonesey, I can't resist pointing out that there are many reputable academic publishers that do peer reviews and that also print on demand.

I know (I've been published in a couple) and I apologize if my statement came out as an indictment against the POD industry.  My point was that the VDM's of the world make all POD's look bad.

[systeme_d_]

And your point stands.  :)

[locutus]

I just got the email and immediately thought "Hey I know that name from the CHE fora!". I feel happy to be included. This will go on line one of my CV.

[bulcsu]

VDM is a respectable German publishing house, member of Börsenverein
des Deutschen Buchhandels. We attach great importance to the fact that
our titles are orderable from all booksellers in Germany, Switzerland
and Austria.We publish about 10 000 books annually, mainly in
economics and social sciences and are therefore one of the leading academic
publishing houses in Germany. VDM Verlag is an associate member of the
American Booksellers' Association (www.bookweb.org) and the Booksellers'
Association (www.booksellers.org.uk) of the UK and Ireland.
We publish books in the form of a monograph, which means that our
books are independent scientifc publications (and not journal
articles).
 If you simply compare our publishing house program on www.amazon.com
(go to All books, then Advanced search, then to Publisher and enter
the publisher’s name) with the program of other publishers: The
extent, representation, quality, deliverability, reviews etc. all
speak for themselves.