Dear Sabine,

Quite right. We are't the only field struggling with this problem. Increased pressure to demonstrate research capacity and research achievements has led to an explosion of these problems … fake conferences and fake open access journals are the most visible because these permit the greatest profit for the least investment and effort. Since academic staff members and researchers in all university fields face the same challenges, all fields struggle with this problem.

Putting it another way, the problem is that many people are attempting to represent that they do research without respect to the actual quality or meaning of their work.

Jeffrey Beall's list of predatory open access publishing firms and journals is a guide to sorting through the swamp of fake journals:

http://scholarlyoa.com

There is no similar service for conferences.

This industry first came to my attention in the mid-1990s. A serious and highly respected engineer and scientist in the former Yugoslavia became tired of living on an academic salary in the exploding economy of the former eastern Europe. He had organised a number of successful conferences in his life as a real academic, so he decided to give it a try as a freelance conference organiser. By the time I got my first invitation to his ventures, he had a going concern with nearly two dozen conferences a year, always in exotic or highly desirable locations, some on specific themes, others on a wacky and implausibly broad range of themes. A back-of-the-envelope estimate suggested that he must have been making $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 a year net profit.

The New York Times recently discussed the general problem in an article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html

My advice with respect to conferences and journals is not to bother unless you know them to be serious and sponsored either by a university or by one of the respected associations specifically known to you. If you are not sure, you can ask someone designated as an associate dean for research or research director at your university.

The journals of design research are always eagerly seeking articles — if your work is serious, you will likely find a home. It may take a bit of work and polishing to move through peer review, but you pay with work, not with publishing fees. As for conferences, we seem to have plenty of room for papers, perhaps too much room. This may be a problem for the field, and quality should go up in the future, but it's our field and there is room for papers and posters on a responsible basis. With as many real conferences as we have in the design field, there is no need to pay for acceptance at a fake conference.

Thanks for sharing this note. I think the problem will continue to grow for a few years, but as universities and national research assessment agencies begin to address this, the number of fake conference organisers may begin to shrink when researchers no longer receive rewards for taking part in these events. Except, of course, for that fabulous conference on Quantum Molecular Design in Monte Carlo, the one where all conferees stay in five star suites and play roulette and blackjack between sessions ;)

Yours,

Ken

Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished Professor | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Mobile +61 404 830 462 | Home Page http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/people/Professor-Ken-Friedman-ID22.html<http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design>    Academia Page http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman About Me Page http://about.me/ken_friedman

Guest Professor | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China

Sabine Junginger wrote:

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We are seemingly not the only field struggling to fend off impostors…


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