Freelancing as a subject matter expert

[research_prof]

Folks,

I have received emails to review exam questions and assessment items as a freelance subject matter expert. The emails come  from the same company, which seems to have been founded in India but they seem to have offices in MA in the US.

Do you know if such requests are legitimate?

[Hegemony]

I'm uncertain which company you are referring to.

I did randomly and unexpectedly receive an invitation to write for a certain exam-writing company once, out of the blue. I asked around and knowledgeable people said, "Yeah, that email sounds legit." So I started writing for them. This particular company (which is not the College Board, and I mean that sincerely) has been wonderful to work for. It's not a paper mill, which I would never work for.  It is based in the western half of the U.S., not in MA.

But whether your company is legit is another question. Any chance you want to tell us the name of the company?

[research_prof]

I have sent you a PM. Please check your messages.

In any case, would it be ok for me to disclose the name of the company here? Not sure if I am breaking any rules of the forum.

[Parasaurolophus]

In any case, would it be ok for me to disclose the name of the company here? Not sure if I am breaking any rules of the forum.

I don't see a forum-related problem with naming them. You're asking a legitimate question, not advertising for them.

[Wahoo Redux]

This is funny, but I just sent my CV to a company that works with freelance "subject matter experts."  My wife was referred to this company, and she passed it on to me.  I did some Reddit and Google searches on these companies----they are legit (think Sparknotes) but the most common complaint is that you are not well compensated for the amount of work one is expected to do.  The editors all appear to have PhDs and are academics.

This is MPS limited.  I believe this is the company the OP is talking about.

I don't think it is the kind of thing I will put on my CV if they want to hire me, but what's the worst that can happen?  If they suddenly turn around and want a "subvention" or an investment or something I will simply send back some snark and block them.

[research_prof]

The company is Lumina Datamatics. @Wahoo, is that the company you are referring to? Has anyone worked with them to share their experience?

[Hegemony]

Probably the worst that could happen is that you supply your Social Security number for the tax forms and they steal it and do nefarious things with it. The second worst, and more likely, is that you do a lot of work and they never pay you. I think that would be a reason to start small and make sure the paychecks are coming in before committing a lot of time to it.

I suspect some of these outfits, like Sparknotes, pay as promised but not lavishly. (To be clear, I have no actual information about Sparknotes — just guessing.)

The company I freelance for actually pays what I consider a fair and reasonable wage. Of course it's important to be efficient in the work and not do the kind of thing we academics tend to, where you spend a week going over some tiny portion of the work revising the wording sixteen times. That would reduce the effective wage to the kind of wage we get for our own publications, i.e. zero.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I'm not sure about this particular company, but I did this kind of thing for a different company about ten years ago. It was good for a few thousand $s at that point and I could have made more if I had wanted to keep doing work for them.

[research_prof]

Thank you, @Sun_Worshiper. It sounded like a good deal to me to make a few extra thousand $s-that's why I wanted to ask and make sure the company is legitimate. At that time, how did they pay you? Did they mail you a check? Did you have to give them your personal info, such as SSN and DOB?

[mamselle]

The company is Lumina Datamatics. @Wahoo, is that the company you are referring to? Has anyone worked with them to share their experience?

Here's their Owler page:

   https://www.owler.com/company/luminadatamatics

I might know someone who would know about them, I'll ask and let you know what I hear back.

M.

[Wahoo Redux]

The company is Lumina Datamatics. @Wahoo, is that the company you are referring to? Has anyone worked with them to share their experience?

Different one, actually, although they might be under the same umbrella. 

[Sun_Worshiper]

Thank you, @Sun_Worshiper. It sounded like a good deal to me to make a few extra thousand $s-that's why I wanted to ask and make sure the company is legitimate. At that time, how did they pay you? Did they mail you a check? Did you have to give them your personal info, such as SSN and DOB?

They mailed me a check. That was about a decade ago though, so their approach may have changed by now.

The company was Wisewire, btw.

[research_prof]

Thank you all for your responses! If someone has experience working with them, it would be great to hear more about that. PM also works in case someone does not feel comfortable posting about that publicly.

[kaysixteen]

What do you all think reasonable compensation for doing such work for a private for-profit firm would be?

[research_prof]

I guess it depends on the time that one will spend. An hourly rate of 3-5 hundred dollars sounds fair to me.