{{Short description|Academic publishing company}} {{Infobox publisher | image = Bentham Science Publishers Logo.png | parent = | status = | founded = 1994
| successor = | distribution = Global | keypeople = | publications = Scientific journals, e-books | imprints = | revenue = | numemployees =300 - 500 | nasdaq = | url = {{URL|http://benthamscience.com}} }} '''Bentham Science Publishers''' is a company that publishes scientific, technical, and medical journals and e-books. It publishes over 120 subscription-based academic journals<ref name="access">{{cite journal |date=September 2004 |title=Bentham stays small for high impact |url=http://www.aardvarknet.info/access/number50/monthnews.cfm?monthnews=11 |journal=ACCESS – Asia's Newspaper on Electronic Information Product & Service |issue=50 |access-date=2017-10-12 |archive-date=2011-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716120253/http://www.aardvarknet.info/access/number50/monthnews.cfm?monthnews=11 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and around 40 open access journals.<ref name=home>{{cite web |url=http://www.benthamscience.com/ |title=Bentham Science - International Publisher of Journals and Books |access-date=2010-12-26}}</ref>
As of 2023, 66 Bentham Science journals have received JCR impact factors, and they are a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bentham Science Publishers|url=https://publicationethics.org/category/publisher/bentham-science-publishers|access-date=2021-09-29|website=COPE: Committee on Publication Ethics|language=en}}</ref> ''Bentham Open'', its open access division, has received criticism for questionable peer-review practices as well as invitation spam; it was listed as a "potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open access publisher" in Jeffrey Beall's list of predatory publishers,<ref name="scholarlyoa" /> before the list went defunct.
== History == Bentham was incorporated in 1994 by Atta-ur-Rahman and his friend Matthew Honan as a private business entity at the Sharjah Airport International Free Trade Zone in the United Arab Emirates.<ref name="Sujag">{{Cite news |title=A journal full of lies and deception: The shaky foundations of Bentham Science's phenomenal success |last=Nadeem |first=Faryal Ahmad |url=https://loksujag.com/story/bentham-science-publishers-scam |date=2022-04-23 |website=Sujag - سجاگ}}</ref> An investigative profile from ''Sujag'' notes the publisher to have operated out of Pakistan — for the first six years, from the premises of International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences and then, from private residential blocks at Karachi — in reality, under the banner of a tax-exempt proxy firm, owned by Rahman's sons.<ref name="Sujag" />
As of 2022, the publisher publishes more than 120 subscription-based journals, indexed in Scopus, Chemical Abstracts, MEDLINE, EMBASE, etc.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bentham Science Publishers SCOPUS Index |url=https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=Bentham%20Science%20Publishers%20B.V.&tip=pub |website=SCOPUS |access-date=7 January 2022}}</ref> Bentham Open Access published more than 150 peer-reviewed, free-to-view online journals under Bentham Open.
==Criticism of Bentham Open== Bentham Open journals claim to employ peer review;<ref name="Bentham Open">{{cite web |url=http://www.bentham.org/open/index.htm |title=Bentham Open Home Page |work=Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. |access-date=2010-07-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727131047/http://bentham.org/open/index.htm |archive-date=2010-07-27 }}</ref> however, a fake paper that was generated using SCIgen in 2009 was accepted for publication, though it was never officially published and the publisher has since contended that the acceptance was a play-along to catch the author.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/Science-Publisher-Suggests-It/47768 |title = Science Publisher Suggests It Played Along With Hoax| date=18 June 2009 }}</ref>{{efn|Also, another similar paper submitted to the Open Software Engineering Journal in 2009 as part of the same operation was rejected by the publisher after peer review.<ref name="Videnskab: Chief Editor Resigns After Controversial Article on 9/11">{{cite web |url=http://videnskab.dk/content/dk/naturvidenskab/chefredaktor_skrider_efter_kontroversiel_artikel_om_911 |title=Chefredaktør skrider efter kontroversiel artikel om 9/11 |language=da |work=Videnskab.dk |access-date=2010-07-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091201114804/http://videnskab.dk/content/dk/naturvidenskab/chefredaktor_skrider_efter_kontroversiel_artikel_om_911 |archive-date=2009-12-01 }}</ref><ref name="New Scientist: CRAP Paper">{{cite web |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17288-crap-paper-accepted-by-journal.html |title=CRAP paper accepted by journal – opinion – 11 June 2009 |work=New Scientist |access-date=2010-07-29}}</ref><ref name="The Scientist: Editors Quit After Fake Paper Flap">{{cite web |url=http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55759/ |title=Editors quit after fake paper flap |work=The Scientist |access-date=2010-07-29}}/</ref>}} The author, a graduate student at Cornell University, was motivated into the submission after being bombarded with unsolicited invitations to publish in Bentham's journals and offers to serve in their editorial boards for topics beyond his expertise.<ref name="New Scientist: CRAP Paper" /> In consequence, some editors quit the collaboration with Bentham.<ref name="Videnskab: Chief Editor Resigns After Controversial Article on 9/11" /><ref name="The Scientist: Editors Quit After Fake Paper Flap" /> In 2013, the now-discontinued ''The Open Bioactive Compounds Journal'' again accepted a blatantly bogus paper submitted as part of the ''Who's Afraid of Peer Review?'' sting.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bohannon |first1=John |date=1 October 2016 |title=Data and Documents |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.2013.342.6154.342_60 |journal=Science |volume=342 |issue=6154 |pages=60–65 |doi=10.1126/science.2013.342.6154.342_60 |pmid=24092725 |via=www.sciencemag.org|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Bentham Open has been accused of spamming scientists to become members of the editorial boards of its journals since 2008.<ref>[http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/04/some-background-on-bentham-open-but.html Some background on Bentham Open, but just some] Peter Suber, Open Access News, April 24, 2008</ref> In a 2017 study of invitation spam by publishers, Bentham Open was noted to be a habitual offender.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Clemons |first1=Mark |last2=Silva |first2=Miguel de Costa e |last3=Joy |first3=Anil Abraham |last4=Cobey |first4=Kelly D. |last5=Mazzarello |first5=Sasha |last6=Stober |first6=Carol |last7=Hutton |first7=Brian |date=2017-02-01 |title=Predatory Invitations from Journals: More Than Just a Nuisance? |url=http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/content/22/2/236 |journal=The Oncologist |language=en |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=236–240 |doi=10.1634/theoncologist.2016-0371 |issn=1083-7159 |pmc=5330713 |pmid=28188258}}</ref>
In 2009, the Bentham Open Science journal ''The Open Chemical Physics Journal'' published a study contending dust from the World Trade Center attacks contained "active nanothermite",<ref name="The Open Chemical Physics Journal">{{cite web |url=http://www.benthamscience.com/open/tocpj/articles/V002/7TOCPJ.htm |title=Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe |work=Open Chemical Physics Journal |access-date=2012-07-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710085318/http://www.benthamscience.com/open/tocpj/articles/V002/7TOCPJ.htm |archive-date=2012-07-10 }}</ref> a well known 9/11 conspiracy theory.<ref name="NYTCountersTheories">{{Cite news |first=Jim |last=Dwyer |title=2 U.S. Reports Seek to Counter Conspiracy Theories About 9/11 |date=September 2, 2006 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/nyregion/02conspiracy.html|access-date=April 30, 2009 |work=The New York Times| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512221337/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/nyregion/02conspiracy.html | archive-date=May 12, 2011<!--DASHBot-->| url-status=live}}</ref> The journal's editor-in-chief Marie-Paule Pileni claimed the article was published without her authorization, and resigned.<ref name="Videnskab">{{cite web |url=http://videnskab.dk/teknologi/chefredaktor-skrider-efter-kontroversiel-artikel-om-911 |title=Chefredaktør skrider efter kontroversiel artikel om 9/11 |work= Vindeskab.dk |date=28 April 2009 |access-date=2012-07-23}}</ref> In a July 2009 review of Bentham Open for ''The Charleston Advisor'', Jeffrey Beall accused Bentham Open of exploiting the Open Access model to make quick money, and rejected that they employed any meaningful peer-review.<ref name="Beall09">{{cite journal |last1=Beall |first1=Jeffrey |author-link=Jeffrey Beall |date=July 2009 |title=Bentham Open |url=http://eprints.rclis.org/13538/1/s8.pdf |journal=The Charleston Advisor |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=29–32}}</ref> Beall had since added Bentham Open to his list of "Potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers".<ref name="scholarlyoa">{{cite web |last1=Beall |first1=Jeffrey |title=List of publishers |url=https://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161222020349/https://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/ |archive-date=2016-12-22 |access-date=2014-12-28 |work=Scholarly Open Access}}</ref>
== Notes == {{notelist}}
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
== External links == * {{Official website|http://www.benthamscience.com/}} * [https://benthamopenarchives.com/ Bentham Open Archives website]
{{Academic publishing}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Book publishing companies of the United Arab Emirates Category:Academic publishing companies Category:Publishing companies established in 1994 Category:Mass media in Sharjah (city) Category:Companies based in the Emirate of Sharjah Category:Open access publishers * Category:Emirati companies established in 1994 Category:Bentham Open academic journals