A Peek Inside the Strange World of Fake Academia

["David Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] A Peek Inside the Strange World of Fake Academia
Date: December 31, 2016 at 5:53:32 AM EST
To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com

A Peek Inside the Strange World of Fake Academia
By Kevin Carey
Dec 29 2016
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/upshot/fake-academe-looking-much-like-the-real-thing.html>

The caller ID on my office telephone said the number was from Las Vegas, but when I picked up the receiver I heard what 
sounded like a busy overseas call center in the background. The operator, “John,” asked if I would be interested in 
attending the 15th World Cardiology and Angiology Conference in Philadelphia next month.

“Do I have to be a doctor?” I said, because I’m not one. I got the call because 20 minutes earlier I had entered my 
phone number into a website run by a Hyderabad, India, company called OMICS International.

“You can have the student rate,” the man replied. With a 20 percent discount, it would be $599. The conference was in 
just a few weeks, I pointed out — would that be enough time for the academic paper I would be submitting to be properly 
reviewed? (Again, I know nothing about cardiology.) It would be approved on an “expedited basis” within 24 hours, he 
replied, and he asked which credit card I would like to use.

If it seems that I was about to be taken, that’s because I was. OMICS International is a leader in the growing business 
of academic publication fraud. It has created scores of “journals” that mimic the look and feel of traditional 
scholarly publications, but without the integrity. This year the Federal Trade Commission formally chargedOMICS with 
“deceiving academics and researchers about the nature of its publications and hiding publication fees ranging from 
hundreds to thousands of dollars.”

OMICS is also in the less well-known business of what might be called conference fraud, which is what led to the call 
from John. Both schemes exploit a fundamental weakness of modern higher education: Academics need to publish in order 
to advance professionally, get better jobs or secure tenure. Even within the halls of respectable academia, the 
difference between legitimate and fake publications and conferences is far blurrier than scholars would like to admit.

OMICS is on the far end of the “definitely fake” spectrum. Real academic conferences evaluate potential participants by 
subjecting proposed papers and presentations to a rigorous peer-review process. Some 15,000 people attend the American 
Educational Research Association’s annual conference, for example, and only about a third of submitted proposals are 
accepted.

In October, a New Zealand college professor submitted a paper to the OMICS-sponsored “International Conference on 
Atomic and Nuclear Physics,” which was held last month at the Hilton Atlanta Airport. It was written using the 
autocomplete feature on his iPhone, which produced an abstract that begins as follows: “Atomic Physics and I shall not 
have the same problem with a separate section for a very long long way. Nuclear weapons will not have to come out the 
same day after a long time of the year he added the two sides will have the two leaders to take the same way to bring 
up to their long ways of the same as they will have been a good place for a good time at home the united front and she 
is a great place for a good time.”

The paper was accepted within three hours.

[snip]

Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: <http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/>






-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/18849915-ae8fa580
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-aa268125
Unsubscribe Now: 
https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-32545cb4&post_id=20161231090428:08D58730-CF62-11E6-9F4E-82479E427CA5
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com