How to avoid them and what to do if you’re trapped.
- Organizers of predatory conferences place the desire for monetary gain over quality programming.
- Speakers and attendees of predatory conferences can waste time and suffer financial losses; speakers can suffer damage to their reputation.
- Knowing how to spot the red flags can help nurses avoid predatory conferences.
Educational conferences promote knowledge and provide a platform to share findings, build networks, and gain valuable insights, which makes them essential. However, many nurses remain unaware of the rising number of predatory conferences. These conferences advertise as legitimate events but, in reality, deceive speakers and attendees.
On the speaker side, predatory conference organizers target unsuspecting researchers with enticing email invitations, promising publications, and opportunities to present their study findings. These organizers capitalize on the scarcity of presentation slots at reputable conferences and exploit the need for early career scholars to present at conferences, while masking their true aim: profit.
On the attendee side, organizers target unsuspecting nurses seeking to expand their expertise. The nurses pay registration fees and incur travel expenses only to find themselves sitting in lectures with little relation to program descriptions, or even worse, find cancelled sessions, absent conference organizers, or no conference at all.
A report from the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) notes that conference behaviors exist on a spectrum, with one end representing a quality conference and the other a fraudulent one. The report states that predatory conferences may lack abstract peer review, charge high fees compared to the services provided, and invite people to speak on topics outside their area of expertise. Predatory conferences pose dangers to both presenters and attendees. (See Spectrum of predatory behaviors for conferences.)
Spectrum of predatory behaviors for conferences
An InterAcademy Partnership report includes indicators (markers) for fraudulent or deceptive conferences, those of low quality, and those deemed quality. (Not all low-quality conferences are predatory; in some cases, the organizers may simply lack the necessary knowledge to run a quality conference.)
The indicators help potential speakers and participants identify conferences at high risk for being predatory as opposed to quality conferences where they can learn and disseminate information.
Credit: This work is copyright of the InterAcademy Partnership and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. The full report (in English) can be found at https://www.interacademies.org/publication/predatory-practices-report-English.
Dangers
Predatory conferences harm the profession and individual nurses. Poor-quality research dissemination, with little or no peer review before acceptance, can start with the conference presentation and continue with the publication of results in proceedings and even journals. Published articles can find their way into reputable databases accessed by clinicians and researchers, affecting the quality of information. Damage to individuals includes reputational, financial, and emotional.
Reputational
Nurses who speak at predatory conferences may find their reputation damaged by association for lack of quality among the other speakers. In addition, dissatisfied attendees may leave the event with negative perceptions of all the speakers, even if one individual presented an effective program.
Financial
The lack of a central reporting mechanism makes it difficult to measure the exact financial impact on a victim of a predatory conference. However, speakers and attendees typically spend money on lodging and travel, with attendees also paying registration fees. In addition, nurses may take unpaid time from work to attend or speak at conferences. Such a financial investment results in negligible return. Attendees and speakers have reported arriving at conference locations only to find a poorly organized conference, lacking facilities or organizers, or no conference at all.
Emotional
Nurses duped by revenue-generating conference organizers may feel embarrassed that they didn’t recognize the predators and that they “should have known better.” They also may have proudly announced to friends, family, and colleagues that they’d been selected to present at a prestigious conference in an amazing travel destination, only to have to go back and explain that they were victims of a predatory conference. They may blame themselves rather than the predators.
Red flags
Fortunately, resources exist to help avoid predatory conferences. Many organizations have identified red flags (grouped into several categories) that can alert nurses and other clinicians to the possibility of a conference engaging in predatory practices.
Affiliations and history
Ask questions. For example, is the conference sponsored by an organization familiar to you or your colleagues? Of course, new organizations exist, but take extra precautions by learning about them, including their structure, affiliations (for example, with a national association), and board of directors. The organization should have an address: Search for images of the location online. Is it a business office or a residential street? Extra digging is especially important if this is the organization’s first conference.
It takes staff and effort to hold a conference, so stay alert to organizers who hold many conferences in many different fields in many cities (and online) simultaneously. Is it realistic that a particular company could effectively organize so many conferences?
Process
Predatory conference planners may make unrealistic promises such as abstract review in 1 to 3 days (or in some cases, no review at all). Abstract reviews typically take 4 to 8 weeks, or even longer, depending on the size of the conference. Check for criteria used to review abstracts. The presence of these criteria indicates that a thoughtful review will take place.
Also consider money. Predatory conferences may require speakers to pay the full registration fee, with no deduction for being a presenter, as is typically (although not universally) the case. In addition, costs for attendees may be higher than what’s usually charged for conferences.
If you receive an email inviting you to present at a conference, watch for verbiage that excessively flatters you; for example, adjectives such as “eminent.” The invitation should be based on your expertise, but some predatory conference planners invite people to speak on topics in which they have no experience.
Be wary of emails that contain typos and non-scientific language, which may occur because those behind the conference lack sufficient editorial and scientific expertise. In addition, awkward sentence structures can indicate the need for caution. For example, this was part of an abstract submission email from a predatory conference: “We anticipate your gracious presence at our conference. Kindly revert for further queries.” However, note that in the case of international conferences, some awkward verbiage may result from translation challenges.
Website
The conference website may highlight an exotic location, yet the conference is being held in a small hotel near the airport. The website may look unprofessional, but in most cases, the predatory website appearance doesn’t differ significantly from legitimate conference websites. When you try to access the site, take pop-up warnings seriously. For example, if you see, “Warning, your connection is not private,” don’t proceed.
Check for a well-organized agenda and focused content. Some predatory conferences intentionally cast too broad a net regarding topics so they can lure as many people as possible.
Try to verify the identity of speakers listed on the site. A quick online search can help you determine if they’re known in the field or have the expertise to present on the specified topic. Low-resolution speaker photos may indicate that the predatory conference organizers copied the images from a legitimate website without the person’s knowledge. In some cases, organizers use speakers’ names without permission. If you’re unsure, consider emailing the speaker to verify their conference participation.
Contact
Be cautious if you have difficulty finding contact information. Consider the responses you receive to any questions you may have. Does someone answer the phone, or can you leave a voicemail? Or does the phone continue ringing? Do you receive an email response to your question and does the response make sense?
Resources
Several resources exist to help you learn about predatory conferences and how to avoid them.
Think. Check. Attend. As the name implies, this tool takes a three-step approach (thinkchecksubmit.org/think-check-attend):
- Think about the whether this is the right conference to attend or present your research.
- Check the conference against criteria related to the quality of conferences.
- Attend (or present at) the conference only if it adheres to criteria associated with a legitimate conference.
You can access a checklist to facilitate your assessment of a conference. Others have developed checklists as well. (See Conference evaluation form.)
Conference evaluation form
If you’re invited to speak at a conference, read through the items in the checklist below while reviewing the email and conference website. Mark “Yes” or “No” as appropriate. At the end of the checklist, count the number of “Yes” and “No” responses. If you have more entries in the “No” column, it’s likely that the conference in question is predatory. A coauthor of this article (Campos), who was a victim of a predatory conference, found that this checklist would have helped her identify the problem before she took the step of submitting an abstract.
Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library. The website of this George Washington University library contains information about predatory conferences and includes an assessment tool and links to other resources. (guides.himmelfarb.gwu.edu/PredatoryPublishing/Conferences)
InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) report. “Combatting predatory academic journals and conferences,” a 2022 IAP report, provides an excellent overview of the issue of predatory conferences.
If you’re a victim
If you recognize predatory behavior by the organizers before the conference, promptly send an email to withdraw your abstract submission. If your name, biography, or abstract have been published on the conference website, give the organizers a deadline to remove the information and confirm that it’s been taken down.
Unfortunately, avenues to pursue after speaking or attending a predatory conference remain limited. Recouping fees can prove difficult. Legal recourse may be particularly challenging if the sponsoring organization is outside the United States. A nurse would need to find an attorney comfortable with international law, and the time and financial outlay required to prosecute the case might not be worth the effort. In the case of U.S.-based organizations, a speaker who signed a contract could take legal action if the contract was breached. But again, the time and money required could prove substantial.
Although legal action may not be practical, victims of predatory conferences sponsored by U.S.-based organizations can file a fraud complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (reportfraud.ftc.gov).
One of the most helpful actions to take if you’ve been a victim of a predatory conference is to share your experience so others don’t make the same mistake. The coauthor of this article (Campos) received an invitation to present at a predatory conference. After having accepted, she realized the organizers were engaging in predatory behaviors; it took effort to remove her name from the conference’s website before the conference. Her experience, which she details in a blog, illustrates how easy it is to be drawn in. (Read the blog at bit.ly/ANJSep25PredatoryConferences.)
What can be done?
Several options exist to stamp out predatory conferences. Education in nursing schools, conference presentations, and articles such as this can help raise awareness of the problem. In an editorial, Nature called on the research community to regularly publish information about good conference practices.
Those with conference speaking experience can mentor inexperienced colleagues so they make the right choices when deciding where to present their work. In addition, those in academia can lower incentives for presenting at predatory conferences by not setting unrealistic scholarly expectations for tenure. Leaders responsible for professional development clinical ladders can include information about choosing an appropriate conference in their guidelines.
That same Nature editorial acknowledges the role consumer-protection authorities must take. Countries like the United States have laws protecting consumers’ rights and offer mechanisms for reporting concerns after purchasing something sold under false claims. Clearly, predatory conferences would qualify.
Predatory conferences harm the profession and individuals. All nurses should avoid attending or speaking at them to maintain high standards for disseminating knowledge.
Cheryl Campos is the chief executive officer at Eir Nursing Consults, Education and Services LLC, in Monterey, California. Cynthia Saver is a medical writer with CLS Development in Columbia, Maryland.
References
Godskesen T, Eriksson S, Oermann MH, Gabrielsson S. Predatory conferences: A systematic scoping review. BMJ Open. 2022;12(11):e062425. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062425
Grudniewicz A, Moher D, Cobey KD, et al. Predatory journals: No definition, no defence. Nature. 2019;576(7786):210-2. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y
InterAcademy Partnership. Combatting Predatory Academic Journals and Conferences. March 2022. interacademies.org/publication/predatory-practices-report-English
Predatory conferences are on the rise: Here are five ways to tackle them. Nature. 2024;632:7. doi:10.1038/d41586-024-02445-y
Key words: conferences, predatory conferences, fraud
