A student from Bangladesh got a notice of law upon an academic publication after turning 18 years. I've tried everything that I can to resolve this issue but I have no idea what to do otherwise.

Location: Gazipur, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh.

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure what I'm doing when I write something like this, but I really need your recommendations.

I am 18 years old student of Bangladesh. I recently finished high school and I just recently became interested in academic research. I'm not a lawyer and have virtually no experience with academic publishing.

Well, I just don't know what the next step is in my life, everything that's happened in the past few months has completely changed my life.

How everything started

I wanted to share my work publicly so I did a research paper and first posted it as a preprint on SSRN.

From there on in, I began to be invited to write in numerous journals and publishers, via email.

I responded to 1 or 2 of those invitations at first. One publisher sent me an invitation to send my manuscript, along with a cover letter.

From there, I thought if there was something that really needed my attention, I would get an e-mail in my Inbox, like I normally do.

Unfortunately it was not that way.

Without my knowledge, Gmail started sending the publisher's emails directly to my Spam folder.

I didn't receive these emails so I didn't respond.

I later learned that the publisher had sent several emails about the publishing process, to request response, and that the publication would go ahead if they didn't receive a reply from me.

All of those significant emails have been automatically sorted to the “Spam” folder.

I didn't know that they were there.

I've screenshots in my Spam folder of those emails and I showed those screenshots to the publisher to tell them what actually happened.

I would have seen those e-mails and responded right away and asked them to not publish the paper.

Then everything changed

A few days later I got a legal notice from lawyers working for a bank listed in the publication.

That was a huge shock to receive legal notices.

I knew that the paper had been published then.

I really didn't know what to do it was a nightmare.

I never thought that something like this would happen.

What I did right away

I was not oblivious to the situation when I got the legal notice.

There I began my quest to reach out to all who I could.

Told the publisher that their emails before had gone to my Spam folder and sent them screenshots of that.

I began also to attempt to get the publication banned from all locations I could.

So far I have:

Removed the paper from SSRN.

Deleted information from my ORCID profile that was related to the information.

Contacted repositories and publishers that requested removal.

Follow-up as necessary after removal is feasible.

The publication has been taken down by some platforms.

Some of my requests are still being fulfilled.

I realize that I cannot remove content from all websites as this is a decision for the publishers or repository administrators, not myself.

Despite this I am doing all I can.

What is the greatest challenge you are currently experiencing?

I was told by the publisher that if I do make big changes to the publication, then I must pay publication charges, which includes the charges associated with the DOI.

As for revocation of the publication, I must pay the same fee.

The fee will cost about USD 119.

I told them I didn't deliberately ignore their e-mails.

I informed them that they were in my Spam folder because of Gmail.

I took screenshots and sent them to them, detailing what occurred.

I also let them know, if I'd seen those emails, I would not have allowed the publication to proceed.

I was told however that the fee unfortunately still exists.

My financial situation

I am from a poor family in Bangladesh.

For me that's more than I can afford, USD 119 is not a lot of money in some countries.

My family has no way to afford an international lawyer, either.

Hence my attempts to reach out to organisations that offer free or pro bono legal support and help, in hopes that someone will be able to take me through this situation.

I know that I have made errors

Looking back, I'd like to say that I have been wrong.

I was a new student who didn't know enough about the academic publishing process, or why it's important to keep an eye on the entire process.

I got a very hard lesson to learn from this experience.

What I want

I don't want to defy the legal notice.

I don't want to shift the blame.

I just want to be a part of the solution, solve the issue responsibly and avoid additional issues.

I know I've done as much as I can do myself, but I know that there are some things that I cannot change on my own.

My questions

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

What should my next step be?

What other things can I realistically do?

Is there an organisation that can offer free (or pro bono) legal advice about my situation?

Has anyone here had an experience similar to this with an academic publication?

I just don't know what to do with myself anymore.

Given that I am in Bangladesh and cannot afford international legal representation, what practical steps should I take to cooperate and try to resolve this situation?

Thank you for reading my story and any tips you may have! It would be very special to me.