Predatory Publishing

Fraudulent, deceptive, or non-reputable conferences take advantage of scholars in order to profit the hosting organization. These conferences are not overseen by an authoritative body and lack quality controls. Most hosting organizations do not peer-review or reject sub-standard scholarship. Attendance at a non-reputable or deceptive conference can damage your research career, while some fraudulent conferences never actually take place despite registrants having paid for them.

The following is a checklist you can use for assessing conferences in general:

• Is the conference the right fit for your research?
• Are you aware of the society or association organizing the conference?
• Have you or your colleagues attended before?
• Have you read any papers from this conference's proceedings before?

The following are some distinguishing characteristics of fraudulent conferences:

• Unsolicited emails for topics matching your research interests, as well as unrelated topics and fields.
• Emails asking that registration fees be sent to the conference organizers via Western Union transfer.
• Registration fees unclear.
• Registration refunds are refused, even when the meeting is cancelled.
• Contact information is unavailable on the conference website or the organization sponsoring the conference can not be verified.
• Organizers use the names of scientists or recognized scholars, often without their permission, to invite participants to the meetings.
• Multiple conferences occurring at the same hotel at the same time.
• Meetings names sound similar to (but not the same as) well-established meetings held previously by other professional associations or groups.
• Fees are accepted to issue certifications or publish an abstract of a paper in conference proceedings. The publication may have an ISBN (to lend credibility) encouraging scholars the publication on their CVs. This discredits the scholar if colleagues or institutions recognize the non-legitimacy of the event, publication or organization.