John Bear actually recommended Kennedy-Western?

[ham]

It doesn't change the fact that your work is not scholarly. That's fine, of course, but it doesn't qualify for the award of a degree--at any level. The question was whether or not the work you submitted for your degree was (a) scholarly--whether it submitted and accepted for publications in peer-reviewed academic journals, or (b) supervised--whether it was developed under the supervision of a doctoral advisor and/or committee.

Again: it is unlikely the chap who just published an hardocover series through some university press will seek any kind of degree-by-published-work.
Go figure.
In your words, the Harvard plagiarism scandal and the global warming fraud mean nothing because -after all- the pack said it was trifle after all.
I have seen as much tripe by university presses as i have on free blogs...and as much good stuff from free publishers as i have from seventy-to-ninetynine-cents-a-page topshelf presses.
Read the review portion of peer-review journals and often you'll see the pack members going at one another's throat hurling accusations of incompetence and political mischief in all directions while picking one another's work apart...work that came by that topshelf press at eighty cents a page and ought to have met certain standards to start with.
Last, while few or nobody reads stuff from free publishers, as many (few?) read stuff from topshelf presses at seventy cents per page for obvious reasons. I think 90% copies sold are sent either to mandatory recipients -journals, certain departments or scholars- for free, or bought by libraries subscribing to that press house.
You then buy it on abebooks as second-hand books a few years later for pennies: that's what it all boils down to.