Conferences and poor academic practice

A topic in Academic standards and scholarly / scientific values

An important part of academic life is sharing results and ideas through conferences,symposia, colloquia and the like. Some conferences in some fields are considered very prestigious, such that presenting at them is considered as important and impactful as publishing in some journals. Such meetings allow attendees to hear about the latest work in field, and to network with colleagues from other institutions and countries.

The most prestigious conferences are often organised by scholarly associations and learned societies (e.g. the American Educational Research Association; the European Science Education Research Association; The Royal Society of Chemistry; etc.)

Serious academic conferences may often be sponsored and run below cost, or use any surplus earned to support future meetings or other academic activities. Conferences run by academic organisations often offer bursaries to colleagues from low income countries and/or to students, to support attendance. Major conferences invite plenary speakers, but usually offer to pay their conferences fees, and possibly travel as seems appropriate for someone invited to participate.

However, as academics often enjoy attending conferences, and look for places to present their work (and record on their curriculum vitae / resumé there has developed a market for academic conferences. As with the explosion of low esteem journals, academics increasing get enticements to attend low status conferences, some of which can be considered predatory.

Predatory conferences

Predatory conferences are run, and marketed, as a business ventures to make money for the organisers, rather than as a means to support the scholarly community.  This does  not mean that conferences organised by private businesses are necessarily of no value to delegates, but they often suffer similar issues to predatory journals.

Indicators and customs of predatory conferences

There are a number of features that should make scholars wary of conferences that are not clearly run by academic institutions and learned bodies. Some of these conferences have such broad remits (e.g., social sciences and law) that there is unlikely to be anyone else attending working on similar problems to you. You may also be suspicious of whole series of conferences at various locations where you are invited to choose your preferred time and location!

(Read 'Just come to talk at our conference – don't worry what it's about')

Personal invitations to speak

Highly respected academics can expect to be invited to speak at conferences. 'Invitations' to those not well known in a field are usually little more that personalised flyers. Although you are asked by name to be an 'invited speaker' you are extended to pay the usual conference fees to attend and to support your own travel and hotel costs. You would be an invited speaker in the same way you would be an invited customer of the trader who puts a card through your door asking if you would, say, like your gutter cleared or your photosynthesising ecosystem of a garden replaced by an inert set of paving stones.

(Read 'Misunderstanding smart materials and solar energy')

Praise for your expertise

Such invitations claim you have been selected because of your expertise in the field. In that regard, I seem to be considered an exert in most fields as I expect is the case for most other well-established academics. In other words, this is a lie. They may be sending emails to anyone whose name and email address they have on file, claiming they have evaluated each person as an expert in the topic of their conference. Sometimes they may be a bit more selective, having picked up a potentially relevant terms from one of your publications, even though form a completely different content; of they invite you to some specialised medical conference because you are Dr …

(Read 'Keith S. Taber – acclaimed polymath (apparently)!')

(Read 'Senior academics and conference scams')

(Read 'International Congress on Advanced Materials Sciences and Engineering')

Fake identities

Conference organisers may sometimes use, or slightly modify, the name of a well-established and respected conference series, in order to hope to attract delegates who thought they were signing up for the more prestigious authentic conference.

Misdirection of association

Most universities and similar institutions are happy to rent out rooms out of academic terms in order to bring in some income. An invitation may tell you the conference is being held at some prestigious university, but it may not be clear the only link with that university is the financial transaction involved of hiring a venue and perhaps associated catering. It may be possible to attend a posh conference dinner in an impressive college dining hall, which some people may enjoy in its own terms, but this has no academic merit.

(Read  'A meeting at an 'other place'')

Outright lies!

The organisers of some conferences are not above using outright lies to sell their conferences. For example, claiming that extremely well-known academics are part of the organising committee, when those people know nothing about this.

Or nonsense?

Some invitations appear like those email scans which insert much (seemingly random) text into a message, presumably on the basis that search engines are more likely to hit upon a page with many potential search terms (even if the person searching is bemused to find a page of no relevance to their search.)

(Read 'Our Psychology conference offers an unformed fear')

There are many serious conferences organised by responsible bodies that attract a range of good speakers and interesting work, so it is usually better not to pay out to attend a conference of dubious academic merit.

Conferences post-COVID

During the global pandemic many conferences have been cancelled, and sometimes on-line alternatives arranged. The costs of organising an on-line meeting are relatively minimal, and no or nominal conference fees may be applied. It may well be that even when travel becomes safer many people will decide the cost (in time and energy as much as money, as well as environmental footprint) or travel to conferences is not justified by the advantages of face to face meetings over virtual conferences. If people can present by the internet, for no or minimal expense, the organisers of expensive predatory conferences may find their businesses are no longer viable.