10 Tips to Spot Fake Conferences

Before you decide to attend an international or national event, you should follow some important tips to spot fake conferences.

The international market for holding conferences is hot these days, and many professors and students find a huge number of emails inviting them to attend international and domestic conferences.

The question is, are all these conferences valid and reputable? And how to ensure the credibility of an international conference and spot fake conferences?

The overwhelming development of higher education, along with all the minor and major damages it has had, has led to the emergence of a lucrative business for holding conferences and scientific congresses.

Bogus conferences and academic events are becoming quite common these days.  Unfortunately, you cannot find a special website where you can find the lists of legitimate conferences. However, there are a few ways to identify whether a conference is reputable or not.

Before you decide to attend an international or national conference, you need to identify your goals. Are you trying to publish your article in a scientific forum or want to broaden your communications network? What kind of audience do you prefer, academics or industry professionals? Are you going to complete your education or do you seek the opportunity to present your own comments and opinions?

If you skip this important step, i.e. setting up your goal, you will waste a lot of time choosing a conference and you will probably lose a lot of money later on in registering and attending the conference and fail to spot fake conferences. So first set your goal seriously which plays an important role in conference selection.

In order to validate any scientific conference and spot fake conferences, you need to consider some rules:

Conference Organizers

The secretariat of a validated scientific conference is often run by universities, colleges, institutes, or scientific associations and these events are recorded in the research calendar of their organizing centers. For example, in the field of management and business, the 4th International Conference on New Directions In Business Management Finance and Economics (ICNDBM) is held by Canadian Institute for Knowledge Development (CIKD) which is an international, multi-disciplinary research, publishing, consulting and training institute and is one of the most expert institutions of its kind.

Unfortunately, in recent years, we have been faced with a large number of scientific conferences held by business companies in the field of management and business, which issue certificates for paper submission, only on the basis of authors’ fees. These conferences are not scientifically valid, so don’t waste your paper and money on attending these conferences.

Before selecting a conference to attend, consider the scientific institutions that run the event, not the sponsors! Many illegitimate conferences refer to the multitude of academic and university-based supporters or sponsors. Who has validated these supporters and sponsors?! Fake conferences often falsely claim big organizations as partners or sponsors; there is a big mismatch between the profile of the conference and the profile of its sponsors.

Paper Presentations

Valid scientific conferences are held to promote scientific knowledge, not to exhibit and sell products or services! Therefore, a reputable scientific conference provides an opportunity to present research articles and achievements. The opportunity could be through presenting a series of articles orally, virtually or through discussion panels on scientific and specialized issues related to the conference.

Publication Opportunities

Some conferences publish the top papers in a scientific journal. A number of internationally accredited conferences collaborate with scientific research journals and you should be cautious about them! Some journals claim they have Thomson Reuters’ IF that is the only accepted and used impact factor. Don’t forget to validate these claims by a simple search on the list of Thomson Reuters, before making any decision to register and submit for a conference.

For example, CIKD provides publication opportunities for its ICNDBM conference in many prominent and renowned scientific journals, including the following options:

• Global Business and Organizational Excellence (SCOPUS )
• Heliyon (Abstracted and Indexed in Scopus and Thomson Reuters-ESCI)
• Quality – Access to Success (SCOPUS, WEB OF SCIENCE – ESCI, Ulrichs, WorldCat)
• International Journal of Organizational Leadership (ISSN 2383-1103, ISI Thomson Reuters, EBSCO, ProQuest)
• China Finance Review International (Scopus, ISSN 2044-1398, Scopus, Thomson Reuters,…) (Emerald Publishing)

Fishy Money Requests

Some conferences receive fees higher than what’s standard for your field from the attendees. A common practice of fake, deceptive and predatory conference organizers is to charge higher registration fees to maximize their profits, fees that are not on par with other events of the same size.

Besides, genuine conferences never ask for any fees regarding the visa process. If you get a request for cash to cover this, it is not a legitimate conference. You, as the presenter, are responsible for proceeding your visa process and making a payment through an embassy or consulate.

Conference Background

Valid conferences do not usually stop in the first edition! Holding a conference on a regular basis is a good sign to prove its validity for those who are interested in attending a special event. It can help you evaluate and compare the quality of the conference’s growth during a special period of time. You can also get a picture of the quality of a conference by reviewing articles that have been accepted and presented in previous editions of a conference.

Language of Conference Website

If the content on the website of a conference is poorly written, having spelling and grammar mistakes, you may become suspicious! Fraudulent organizers will not invest time and effort to develop a flawless website with the correct content.

Keynote Speakers

One great way to evaluate a conference’s credibility is to study its list of keynote speakers. Usually, reputable conferences with a strong executive committee invite famous speakers from the same field. Note, however, that if one or two prominent speakers are present at the conference, it does not indicate the event’s high-quality level. At least half of the speakers should be famous in the field.

Contact Details Available

It is fishy if a conference’s website does not provide the readers with contact details. If the event is legitimate, all its contact details, including email, Address, and phone number should be clear and correct.

Call for Paper Process

Valid conferences are generally advertised through Call for Papers. Don’t trust email invitations to submit papers to a conference.

You may want to keep these indicators and clues of spotting fake conferences in mind before you submit your research or pay the registration fees. As bogus events grow, more people will be on the watch for fraud. Now more than ever, you need to ensure every aspect of your show is as professional as possible.