Hi, all. As I mentioned in the call, the specific text of my e-mail to
authors and the draft letter to publishers (in this case, for fraudulent
editorial board listing) are for your purposes only and not to be
circulated with the campus or schol comm community. We'll be providing the
overall recommendations from both of these in the blog post, but not the
exact language.

With that caveat in mind, I'm pasting my reply e-mail to the author below,
and the draft letter is attached.

I hope it helps.

Thanks,
Rachael

Dear [PROFESSOR],


I’m so sorry that disreputable publishers are suggesting false affiliations
with you. I agree -- these aren’t even real societies; they’re sites set up
to look close enough to real societies so that they can try to profit from
solicitations of scholarship. And it’s incredibly frustrating.

While I am a lawyer and my office provides support in publishing matters
(including issues like these), I must explain that I’m not counsel for the
university or for you. So the upshot of this is that I cannot provide legal
advice, but I can help you understand the law and what options you may
have. You will need to consider the explanations below and decide how to
move forward--whether through sending some of my sample language to
publishers yourself, or retaining outside counsel if the publishers do not
accede to the demands. Of course you can also contact university counsel,
but typically they respond by indicating that they’re also not lawyers for
the faculty and would just refer you to my office for general guidance.
(Again, it’s an option to contact them though.)

The short of this from a legal perspective is that suggesting an editorial
affiliation between you and these journals or publishers can constitute
various types of fraud (federal and state law), unfair business practices
(state), and privacy violations (specifically, the right of publicity;
state law). You likely do not need to worry at the moment about which
state’s law to apply -- you’re in California and can reasonably complain to
them about their violation of your rights in California.

We think that it is worth sending a letter (sample attached) asking these
publishers to take down your name and affiliation and remove all related
metadata and author profiles. You could send this to any known email
address that you have for them, including also their CEO, online admin
contacts, and certified Web Agent addresses (which you can often find
online through https://www.whois.com/).

A few notes about the sample language I have drafted for you:

   1.

   The communication should come directly from you. Unfortunately, for
   legal reasons, we can’t write to the publishers on your behalf, and it
   would be best that we not be copied on the correspondence. We have
   merely offered sample language which states what the law actually is.
   2.

   You’ll see in the sample letter that we have restated the facts as we
   understand them, but you should definitely edit so that they conform to
   what actually happened.
   3.

   I have strongly worded the language to let the publishers know that you
   understand their actions may be fraudulent and deceptive, and that you also
   understand the legal implications of that. While we have indicated that you
   wish to resolve the matter amicably, you should give some thought about how
   strong an approach you wish to take with them.
   4.

   You can let us know how they respond to your letter, and we can provide
   thoughts on the next steps and actions to take.


Separately, regardless of whether you choose to send these publishers a
letter directly, you can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC)
<https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/audio-video/video/how-file-complaint-federal-trade-commission>.
As we explain in the letter, the FTC is well aware of deceptive publishers
who falsely represent editorial affiliations and have enjoined another such
publisher (OMICS) regarding similarly-fraudulent representations and
actions.

Please review the suggested language below and let us know if you have any
questions or concerns. Once again, we’re very sorry you are going through
this, and we hope everything will work out.


Best,

Rachael

-- 
Rachael G. Samberg, J.D., MLIS
Scholarly Communication Officer & Program Director
Office of Scholarly Communication Services
University of California, Berkeley
Doe Library, 189 Annex
Berkeley, CA  94720-6000
Pronouns: she/her

*Guidance*: lib.berkeley.edu/scholarly-communication
*Updates*: @UCB_ScholComm