Recently researchers have been engulfed by countless e-mail invitations to attend various scientific conferences. Participating in a scientific conference is one of many ways for the researcher to seek visibility and recognition in the academic society, so it’s no wonder that scientists are interested in these offers. However, they need to be careful – most of such invitations are the lure of predatory conference organizers.
What are the predatory conferences?
Usually identified as small for-profit organisations, they arrange scientific conferences that do not have any legal basis. They do not conduct peer reviews of conference proceedings, and in order to boost the impact of conference involve famous academics as conference speakers who are often unaware they are included in the speakers’ list.
The main goal of predatory conferences is to earn money from those willing to pay conference fees and the costs associated with open access publishing.
Recent data shows that the number of predatory conferences exceeds legitimate scientific conferences. Contrary to what many researchers think, not all predatory conferences are small and poorly organized. In order to ensure profits, a decent-seeming organisation is created, acting as a front for organizers of predatory conferences.
Identifying predatory conferences
Firstly it should be verified whether a conference is not included in the list of predatory conferences. On the other hand, if your query is not on the list, it does not mean that it is not predatory. Check for the following:
- Is the conference organized by professional associations or well-established, long-standing institutions? Be wary of organizations with overly generic names, as well as conferences that address various fields at once;
- Is there an opportunity to contact the conference organizers? Most of the legal organizers do not use free e-mail accounts and provide positions in the company, contact info and photo.
- How long does it take for the acceptance of the proceeding paper? Most predatory organizers promise an urgent acceptance of the paper.
- Does the conference offer awards for research and papers? Avoid conferences that offer various prizes and awards.
- Do conference organizers promise to give out conference materials? Legitimate scientific conferences will often not guarantee such a possibility.
- Is the editorial committee composed of representatives from different countries? Is any academic information about them available? Are those representatives listed on the website of the conference?
Initiatives against predatory conferences
While the number of predatory conferences is growing fast, there are initiatives which aim to prevent their spread. One of them – Think. Check. Attend – is aimed at helping researchers and scientists to identify reliable scientific conferences.
Think. Check. Attend presents a three-step rule and includes a simple checklist, which can be used by researchers to assess the credentials of a conference. This tool has been produced with the support of a coalition of organizations well known in publishing.
Other initiatives are the usual lists of potentially predatory conferences. One of the best-known examples is a list of possible predatory conferences published by US librarian Jeffrey Beall.
Influence on the academic society
Predatory conferences waste researchers’ time and money. In addition to lying to academics, the biggest problems are lack of peer review of scientific reports and poor quality control. If the academic community keeps being flooded with bogus research, it will be increasingly difficult to distinguish real research from fake.
More information about predatory conferences is available here.
Additional information about predatory conferences is available here.
Prepared by the Scientific Information and Data Division of Vilnius University Library