Predatory conferences

Conferences are designed to share research, network, and to collaborate with peers. Predatory conferences try to take advantage of this by reaching out and promising conferences in exciting locations. The details about the conference are usually very vague and the research topics are very general. They are designed to entice potential attendees into spending money on a conference that doesn’t exist.

The email invitation for a predatory conference is very similar to a predatory journal one: flattering and intimidating. While some conferences may be expensive to attend to, they often offer low-cost options for students or society members. Legitimate academic conferences sometimes also offer to cover part of the costs for the guest or keynote speakers to attend the meeting/conference. Predatory conferences on the other hand, invite you to present your work while paying high fees with no option to lower costs. Additionally, they may invite you to be part of a discussion panel or a roundtable with no offer to cover costs.

Before submitting a proposal or registering for a conference, use the Conference Evaluation Tool created by Emme Lopez & Christine S. Gaspard to assess if a conference is predatory or not. To learn more about this tool, please refer to: Lopez, E. & Gaspard, C.S. (2020). Predatory publishing and the academic librarian: Developing tools to make decisions. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 39(1), 1-14, https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2020.1693205.

If you have further questions or concerns about predatory conferences, contact your Subject Librarian for more information.