Earning a higher doctorate without doing any research?

Is it possible that a publisher might be using fictitious academics to attract submissions to its journals?

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Keith S. Taber

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An obvious discrepancy is that the University of Ottawa is not Ottawa University, USA. One is in Ontario, in Canada – the other is in Kansas, in the United States. Someone who has attended one of these universities would be unlikely to be confused about which one they studied at, and graduated from.

I received an email from a journal managing editor claiming to be a highly qualified scholar (two doctorates)- for whom I can find absolutely no evidence on the web of her having ever published anything, or having any association with any university, research group, or learned society. Suspicious?

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I received one of those dodgy emails from a publisher that are now part of the normal noise one has to navigate through in the Academy. The email was signed by a Dr Nicoleta Auffahrt, as Managing Editor of the 'Department of Humanities and Social Science' 'at Global Journals'. So far, nothing too suspicious.

Dr Auffahrt wrote that she had read my [actually co-authored] research paper "Secondary Students' Values and Perceptions of Science-Related Careers Responses to Vignette-Based Scenarios". She told me:

• She had read it and felt it was worthy of admiration
• She had shared 'the finding' with her [unspecified] colleagues
• She reported that other [unspecified] scholars of our [sic] research community had also commended 'them' [?]
• She suggested that this paper demonstrated my potential to influence and inspire fellow researchers and scholars.

Two classes of academics

Now, perhaps there was a time when I might have taken some of this at face value, being naïve enough to believe that most people are basically honest, and that at least in the world of scholarship people value truth and honesty and would not casually lie.

One might expect such compliments to often hit home with academics: after all, isn't academia made up of two classes of scholars

• those who suffer imposter symptom and are waiting to be found out as not belonging;
• those who know their work is important and ground-breaking, deserving of being more widely known, and a sufficient cause to bring them attention, prestige, admiration, acolytes, and prizes?

The latter group, at least, would not find anything odd in receiving such unsolicited praise.

However, I've had too many emails of this kind that praise my work but which are clearly not truthful: often they either

• specify an example of my work in science education as a basis for inviting me to write, edit, chair, speak, etc., in fields completed unrelated to the cited work;
• vaguely praise my eminence, influence, achievements, expertise, and so forth, in fields where I have never published anything.

The reference to 'our research community' was intriguing, as the letter (appended below) was structured so as to

• (i) first praise me as though Dr Auffahrt was so impressed with my work that she needed to tell me; and then,
• (ii) by the way, incidentally, as she was writing – she thought she would mention, "also" her role working for a publisher that led her to invite me to submit some work.

So, was it feasible that Dr Auffahrt did consider us part of the same research community? When I checked her email signature I saw she signed herself as Dr. Nicoleta Auffahrt "D.Litt in Teaching Education".

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Now I was intrigued. Clearly 'teaching' and 'education' suggest that at least 'Dr' Nicoleta has a background in my general field of teaching and learning which makes a nice change from being invited to contribute on topics such as nanotechnology and various medical specialisms. Yet, this also raised some questions: what exactly is meant by 'teaching education' (cf. e.g., science education) as an academic area – was her work in teaching the subject of education or…?

Moreover, I was surprised that someone with a higher doctorate was acting as a 'managing editor' for a publisher. A D.Litt. was only likely to be awarded to a highly productive and influential scholar, and such a person might well take on editorial roles (as an editor, an associate editor, an editor-in-chief), but probably not as a managing editor.

A managing editor is employed by a publisher to oversee the administration and business side of a journal, unlike an editor who would normally being doing the intellectual work of evaluating the quality of submissions and directing the peer-review process (work which would often be seen as taking a leadership role in a research field) – and then usually only as a subsidiary post undertaken alongside an academic appointment. The prestige of the journal is often in part seen to be reflected in the university affiliations of its editors and associate editors.

There is, of course, no reason why someone who has achieved eminence in their academic field, recognised ultimately by being awarded a higher doctorate such as a D.Litt., might not decide to then make a career change and move into publishing; and, similarly, there is no reason why a publisher should not employ such a person if they were available – but it seemed an unlikely scenario. Unlikely enough for me to dig a little.

So, I did a web-search for Dr Nicoleta Auffahrt. I found her listed on one of the publisher's web-pages as part of an editorial board for social science. Her listing was:

"Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, Master of Arts in Ottawa University, USA"

So, a Ph.D., but no mention of the much rarer and more prestigious D.Litt. degree. Of course, the web-page may be out of date, whereas perhaps Nicoleta had updated her email signature, so that proves nothing.

What was very odd though, was the limited number of web-pages that a search turned up.

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Qualifications	M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt
Search term "Dr Nicoleta Auffahrt"/ "Dr. Nicoleta Auffahrt"	1 hit on Google (https://globaljournals.org)
Search terms Dr + "Nicoleta Auffahrt"	4 hits on Google (https://www.facebook.com; https://globaljournals.org; https://globaljournals.us; https://beta.globaljournal)

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Apart from three pages for the publisher, Google only provided one other 'hit' – a 'Facebook' page. Dropping the reference to 'Dr' still only found "Nicoleta Auffahrt" on Facebook and Global Journals webpages. That seemed very strange.

I also tried using Google Scholar. Google Scholar is a specialist search engine used by academics to find research reported in journal articles, academic books, conference proceedings, on websites, and so forth. Google Scholar did not suggest a single publication (and Google Scholar is pretty liberal in what it counts as a 'publication'!) that had been authored, co-authored or edited by "Nicoleta Auffahrt".

Typically searching for an academic brings up myriad references to their publications, conference talks, involvement in research groups, links with university departments, and so forth. A search for an experienced and successful academic would be expected to turn up, at least, hundreds, indeed – likely – thousands, of hits.

This is unavoidable if you work in academia – even if for some reason a scholar chooses not to have a specific Google Scholar listing (this does not stop your work being included in the database and returned in a search – it just means you do not get a personal profile page); not to have an Academia listing; not to post on ResearchGate; not to be on Linked-In (which is a common place for those working in publishing to seek to make contacts); and does not upload their dissertations/theses to University repositories…they still cannot prevent their books and papers and conference talks being referred to here and there.

Academic prestige is, after all, largely based on publications, and publications are by definition public documents. Assessment for a higher doctorate such as a D.Litt. is usually largely in terms of a scholar's published work being judged to be highly influential in their discipline or field (something that is usually only possible to judge some years after publications first appear). Moreover, one of the principle ways in which any academic is evaluated is in terms of the influence of their publications, as judged by citations – but Nicoleta Auffahrt's work does not seem to be cited anywhere. At least, Google Scholar had not found any. (No publications, and no citations.¹)

So, here the only evidence I had of a person called Nicoleta Auffahrt really existing that was independent of the publisher who had contacted me was…Facebook, and that offered limited pickings.

I responded to the email (text appended below), asking Dr. Nicoleta Auffahrt about her area of work and where she had been awarded the prestigious D.Litt.

The next morning, I found I had a reply – but from someone else at the publishers. I say 'someone' else, as the email account was linked to the name Dr. Stacey J. Newman but the email was signed Dr. Nellie K. Neblett. Stacey, or was it Nellie, had ignored my questions to Nicoleta (but sent me an interesting brochure which revealed how the publisher calculated its own impact factor, but using data from the very catholic listings in Google Scholar – so vastly inflating the value compared with properly audited impact factors).

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Then a couple of days later, I had another email (appended below) from 'Dr' Auffahrt "following-up" on her earlier email, but written as if I had not replied to her – and repeating the information that she was going to be in Sydney 'next week' (it should have been 'this week' by then, if her earlier email had been correct) and again wishing my (non-existent) Christmas candles would be glorious. Given that she had asked me to confirm my affiliation with the University of Cambridge in Cambridge Uk, United Kingdom [sic, we in the U.K. tend to capitalise both letters, something one might expect an editor to appreciate – but perhaps she thought 'Cambridge Uk' was a place in the United Kingdom?], and I had done so, I was not entirely sure why she thought it useful for me to know she would be in Sydney, unless this was just 'small talk'.

I replied pointing out that,

"If you have checked your emails and seen my reply, you will have found I was asking about your research, as I wondered how it might link with mine. You have me at a disadvantage(!) as you tell me you have read some of my work, but I've not had a chance to read yours – perhaps you could direct me to some of it?"

My reply to 'Dr' Auffahrt 's second email.

So far, no response to that.

Nicoleta Auffahrt's Facebook presence

The Facebook page had not been updated since Christmas day 2021 (when a video from the University of Pennsylvania about the student-run Medical Emergency Response Team was re-posted.) According to this page: 'Dr' Auffahrt

• Works at University of Pennsylvania
• Worked at University of Ottawa
• Studied at University of Ottawa
• Studied at University of Pennsylvania
• Went to Emma Hart Willard School
• Lives in, and is from, Ottawa, Ontario

(I was unable to verify that there is a Emma Hart Willard School in Canada, and it is unlikely any current school would not have a website that could be picked up in a Google search, but, of course, it may have closed down or changed its name since Nicoleta studied there.)

Her Facebook page 'cover' picture (see below) is an image of 'Canada's University'.

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A photograph of the Université d'Ottawa (Canada) – and the profile picture on 'Dr' Nicoleta Auffahrt's Facebook page.

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The wrong Ottawa?

An obvious discrepancy is that the University of Ottawa is not Ottawa University, USA (where the publisher's site claimed 'Dr' Auffahrt was awarded her M.A. degree). One is in Ontario, in Canada – the other is in Kansas, in the United States. Someone who has attended one of these universities would be unlikely to be confused about which one they studied at, and graduated from.

'Dr' Nicoleta Auffahrt's Facebook cover picture was of the Canadian version (if from before some trees had been cut down – possibly as part of the removal of 50 trees as part of development work in 2015).

Friends and family?

Some people use a Facebook page extensively to connect with friends and family. Not everyone does. Some people start a Facebook page and either abandon it, or seldom update it. So, limited information on someone's Facebook page is not of itself evidence of any wrongdoing.

Nicoleta's account was linked to two 'friends' – the University of Pennsylvania, and a Canadian ice hockey player Brendan Jacome. (His Facebook page was even less informative than Nicoleta's – but unlike her, he has quite a web presence – Google made over 2000 returns for "Brendan Jacome").

Nocolata's Facebook activity was limited to

• posting a picture of 'her baby' (see below) as her profile picture, updating her cover photo, and posting a message that "Real education is only obtained through self- education" – on the same day just before before Christmas 2016;
• posting that she had "Started New Job at Global Journals Incorporated" in 2o19;
• and updating her profile picture and reposting the University of Pennsylvania video on Christmas day 2021.

Nicoleta's baby?

It looked like the only real clues on the Facebook page were the photographs of Nicoleta and the woman she described as her 'baby' – so, perhaps her daughter?

I tried to find any other photos that matched the image supposed to be of Nicoleta Auffahrt. I failed, so that lead did not help.

However, I soon found an image matching the picture of the other woman.

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The two images above are taken from Nicoleta Auffahrt's facebook page and a public profile for one Alessandra Manganelli when she was a Ph.D. student in Brussels (this page has no new content beyond a conference attended in the UK in November 2017). A smaller version of the same photograph appears on another page at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel site.

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Unlike 'Dr' Auffahrt, a quick Google for "Alessandra Manganelli" gives over 2500 hits. That is much more in line with what one might expect for an academic.

According to the web, Dr Manganelli, having completed her doctorate at the the Universities of KULeuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, moved to a post-doctoral position in Hamburg. It seems she undertook her doctoral studies in Engineering Science with input in Architecture from one institution (KULeuven) and in Sciences from the other (VUB). She works on areas such as Urban Governance, Social Innovation, Urban Agriculture, Local Food Policies, Urban Environmental and Climate Governance. Google Scholar lists a range of publications she has written or co-authored. That is, unlike in the case of 'Dr' Auffahrt, there is a lot of publicly available information about Dr Manganelli's research activities to support her claim to be a genuine scholar.

A Canadian connection?

Although Dr Manganelli seems to have done most of her work in Europe, one might imagine that, if she was indeed Nicoleta Auffahrt's baby, then she was perhaps born and brought up in Canada, before moving to Europe to study? However, not so: it appears Dr Manganelli is from Sienna in Italy.

Intriguingly, however, one of her publications is a book for a major academic publisher: "The Hybrid Governance of Urban Food Movements. Learning from Toronto and Brussels". She also co-authored a paper in the journal 'Critical perspectives on food guidance' on "… FoodShare Toronto´s approach to critical food guidance…". So, there is a Canadian connection.

Dr Manganelli's has her own Facebook page. (Dr Manganelli has 840 friends listed on Facebook, but Nicoleta Auffahrt is not one of them.) Her page suggests she did work at Toronto Metropolitan University from January/February to June 2017 (so, at the time when Nicoleta Auffahrt was supposedly in Ottawa before moving to Pennsylvania) – and Toronto is 'only' about 350 km from Ottawa. (Dr Manganelli's Facebook site tells visitors that she visited Toronto again in November 2022.) But Nicoleta Auffahrt seems to have posted Alessandra Manganelli's picture on her Facebook page just before Alessandra Manganelli arrived in Canada.

One would presumably have to have a strong connection with another person to use their photograph as your social media profile picture for five years (Nicoleta Auffahrt used Alessandra Manganelli's image as her profile picture from 22nd December 2016 till 25th December 2021). But, perhaps I was being too literal in my reading of the term 'my baby'.

Perhaps

• Nicoleta and Alessandra had met somewhere (a conference, a holiday, on line?) and formed a close friendship which may even have influenced Dr Manganelli's decision to spend some time in Canada (fairly) near Nicoleta Auffahrt; then
• excited with anticipation at Alessandra's imminent arrival in the country, Nicoleta had posted a picture of her friend (her 'baby') as her new profile picture.

This seems a little forced to me, but it is not completely impossible. (I had no substantive interest in 'Dr' Auffahrt's personal life {nor Dr Manganelli's} – I just wanted to find out if there was evidence she was a real person who had genuinely earned those academic qualifications.)

Given the amount of information on the web, I am fairly confident Dr Manganelli is a real person.

(I emailed her to tell her I had found her picture on Nicoleta Auffahrt's Facebook page and asked if she had an email contact for Nicoleta Auffahrt. No reply (as yet) but Dr Manganelli is under no obligation to reply to emails from strangers asking her about her friends.)

I am less sure about 'Dr' Nicoleta Auffahrt.

I also emailed the registry at the University of Pennsylvania to say I had been contacted by someone claiming to hold a Ph.D. from the University, where I had suspicions about this, and asked if there was a public listing of Ph.D. holders that could be checked. So, far no response (beyond an automatic reply with a case number pointing out that a response "may take up to 3-5 business days", sent over two weeks ago). Perhaps the University of Pennsylvania does not concern itself with people who are possibly falsely claiming to hold its doctorates.*

Conclusion?

Perhaps, Nicoleta Auffahrt is a real person who does hold the degrees she claims, including a higher doctorate, despite having no scholarly trace on the web (though this seems incredible to the point of being virtually impossible), and does work for 'Global Journals'; and perhaps she did write the email telling me she was visiting Sydney (why tell me that?) and wishing me glorious Christmas candles (why say that weeks after Christmas?)… and then also writing the second email email ignoring my reply and repeating the information about Sydney and candles? I guess this is not impossible, just extremely unlikely. And if this is the case, and if she is so keen to 'develop an academic relationship' with me, then why does she ignore my replies and my request to learn more about her work?

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Alternatively, perhaps Nicoleta Auffahrt is a real person with a genuine, if seldom updated, Facebook page, and a close relationship of some kind (which is genuinely none of my business) with Dr Alessandra Manganelli, but her identify has been 'borrowed' by Global Journals. So, perhaps, there is wrongdoing, but Nicoleta Auffahrt is totally innocent of this.

I suspect this sometimes happens – it would explain why the long-retired philosophy professor, Kuang-Ming Wu, Ph.D., supposed editor of a philosophy journal, thought I was qualified to review a paper on…well, I read the abstract and was still not sure what it was about, but it clearly was not anything related to science education.

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It seems more likely to me that the Facebook page is a sham set up to give some kind of minimal web presence to 'Dr' Auffahrt (a fictitious Managing Editor at Global Journals), and that there is no Nicoleta Auffahrt (and that Dr Manganelli's image was simply arbitrarily sourced from the web somewhere without her knowledge).

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Of course, I may be wrong, but there is certainly something dodgy about communications from this publisher, as the supposed managing editor seems to share her email account with Dr. Stacey J. Newman / Dr. Nellie K. Neblett – and checking back through old email I found another invitation (appended below) from the same email address supposedly from a Dr. Gisela Steins (there is a real academic with this name who is a psychology professor in Germany and is listed on the editorial board of the Global Journal of Human-Social Science).

Prof. Steins thought my paper "Knowledge, beliefs and pedagogy: how the nature of science should inform the aims of science education (and not just when teaching evolution)" was "remarkable and significant" and could be "vital for fellow researchers and scientists". That was very nice of her – at least, if she did actually write the email!

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My reply to Nicoleta

Dear Dr. Nicoleta Auffahrt

Thank you for your kind message.

It was rewarding to learn that you considered our publication "Secondary Students' Values and Perceptions of Science-Related Careers Responses to Vignette-Based Scenarios" to be worthy of admiration, and that you have shared our work with your colleagues.

Congratulations on your role as Managing Editor, Department of Humanities and Social Science at Global Journals. This sounds a prestigious and challenging position. I hope you enjoy Sydney – I've not been there myself. I was a little confused by your remark about candles, as I had always assumed most Australians celebrated Christmas at the same time as in Western Europe – I am afraid Christmas already seems a memory here.

I wonder what you found of particular interest in the paper – perhaps you would be prepared to share what it is you found especially of value in this work?

In answer to your question, I am now retired from my teaching role. I maintain an affiliation with my Faculty as an Emeritus Officer of the University, and intend to follow my own scholarly interests for as long as I am able.

Perhaps this links to your own research? I hope you would be kind enough, in return, to answer a question for me. I was intrigued to see that you had a higher doctorate, a D. Litt. in Teaching Education, so clearly your background is relevant to my work. I was wondering where you were awarded that? I see from the journal publisher' web-pages that you were awarded your Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and your Master of Arts from Ottawa University, USA, but it does not mention your D.Litt. Is 'Teaching Education' meant to be an abbreviation for teaching and education or was your degree specifically related to teacher education? In my national context a D. Litt. would usually only be awarded after a highly positive evaluation of a portfolio of post-doctoral publications, but I believe in the U.S. some universities offer this as an outcome of a thesis-based programme. I would be interested to know more about your area of work – in particular the body of work for which the D.Litt. was awarded, and how it links to my own scholarship and research.

Best wishes

Keith

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Update: Dr. Nicoleta Auffahrt succeeded by her doppelgänger?

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My thanks to Dr. Murat Siviloglu for forwarding to me this extract (above) from an invitation he received from the current Managing Editor of the Global Journal of Human-Social Science. It seems perhaps "Dr Nicoleta Auffahrt" has moved on form her role, and now invitations are being sent out by "Dr Carolyn C. Mitchell". According to the invitation, Mitchell, like Aufffahrt holds the higher doctorate of a D.Litt., again in the odd subject of 'Teaching Education'.

The only references to a "Dr [or Dr.] Carolyn C. Mitchell"that showed on a web-search were on the Journal publisher's sites. I could not find anyone called Carolyn Mitchell who seemed to have a D.Litt., so, like her predecessor, Mitchell seems to have achieved high academic status without any visible trace of research and scholarship. ¹

Mitchell is also a 'dead ringer' for Auffahrt, as their profile pictures seem, well, identical.

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And the similarities do not stop there. According to the Journal website, "Dr Carolyn C. Mitchell" also holds the degrees of

"Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, Master of Arts in Ottawa University, USA".

It seems that when appointing senior editors, Global Journals certainly 'go for a type' as they say.

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Update (21st February, 2024)

On the 13th of February 2024, I received an email ("Immediate Cease and Desist Demand – Defamatory and Harmful Content") from the email address <legals@globaljournals.org> from someone claiming to be the Chief Legal Officer for Global Journals Incorporated, and asking me to remove this page (or face immediate legal action). The email acknowledged that the company engages in "the use of alternate identities by our editors and reviewers to engage potential authors" (something the email suggested they do "for privacy and safety").

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Notes

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¹ It may seen obvious that if someone has not published any work, then no one can be citing them. That is fair enough. However, Google Scholar will find citations in work that is accessible on the web to work that is not itself found on the web – for example, references made to books that were published many years ago and have never been digitised, or to conference papers that were distributed at talks in hard copy, but have never been included in web repositories.

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* Update. On 17th March I received a reply, from a Student Service Center Counselor, to my enquiry from eight weeks earlier:

Sorry for the delay as the registrar's office is months behind on email requests. We have been tasked with assisting to clear their portal. Below is what we typically send 3rd party requests for information:

Thank you for contacting Student Registration and Financial Services (SRFS). We have received your education verification request for (INSERT STUDENT NAME) from the University of Pennsylvania. Third-Party education verifications are required to go through the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). Please use this link: https://secure.studentclearinghouse.org/vs/Index to place your request. Penn's school code is…

email from University of Pennsylvania

When I investigated the National Student Clearinghouse website, I found I needed to first register as either a representative of a 'company' or as a student seeking to verify my own record.

"The mission of the National Student Clearinghouse is to serve the education and workforce communities and all learners with access to trusted data, related services, and insights."

https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/about/

It seems there is no facility for someone approached by a publisher to check the veracity of an editor's claimed qualifications.

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