Derek Lowe is shaking his head over Elsevier's tactic to garner good reviews for its textbooks, which comes on the heels of its Merck fake journals fiasco. According to Inside Higher Ed, an Elsevier employee sent an email to contributors to a psychology textbook soliciting positive reviews:
Elsevier tells Inside Higher Ed that it was "a poorly written e-mail" that did not reflect company policy. "In all instances the request should be unbiased, with no incentives for a positive review, and that's where this particular e-mail went too far," Tom Reller, director of corporate relations for Elsevier says.
Lowe adds, "So when you're encouraging people to write reviews, and offering them some baksheesh for doing so, that's fine. You just don't want to be so gauche as to actually come out and say that you want the reviews to be positive."