For many aspiring young scientists, the need to publish is crucial in finding tenure and funding so that they can either expand on their research or start a new one. As such, a lot of organizations are preying on these fledgling researchers.
A recent example for this is the case of Dr. Iris Pear. Iris Pear has been recently invited to present her groundbreaking work at the International Conference on Atomic and Nuclear Physics.
An excerpt of her work reads like so: Nuclear energy is not a nuclear nuclear power to the nuclear nuclear program he added and the nuclear nuclear program is a good united state of the nuclear nuclear power program and the united way nuclear nuclear program nuclear. Let me clear things up.
Facetious Paper Taken In By Conference In Atlanta
Iris Pear is not a real scientist, as some of you may have already concluded. Instead, she is the creation of Christophe Bartneck, an associate professor of computer science at the New Zealand's University of Canterbury.
The name is a play on "Siri Apple" and the idea of creating her came to Bartneck shortly after receiving the said invitation from his email, reported The Guardian. Having no background in nuclear physics whatsoever, the professor decided he'll submit one anyway but with the help of iOS's autocomplete function.
Hence, why the excerpt above read the way it is. Nonsensical and quite the headache to read, Bartneck still received a follow-up email three hours later telling him that Dr. Pear's submission has been accepted.
The next step would be for him to pay $1,099 to register as an academic speaker at the Atlanta convention, said Christian Science Monitor. Bartneck, of course, turned the prestigious offer.
Fake Organizations Preying On Researchers Wanting To Publish
"I did not complete this step since my university would certainly object to me wasting money this way," Bartneck told the Guardian Australia. "My impression is that this is not a particularly good conference."
This isn't the first time that a certain "scientific conference" has accepted a facetious paper. In 2014, the International Journal of Advance Computer Technology took in a paper titled "Get Me Off Your F***ing Mailing List," with the paper containing just those seven words repeated over and over.
Fortunately, it seems that the predatory organization did not do a good job of making the scam believable judging by their poorly-made site alone. And their Facebook page said that only 10 people would be attending.
As for the Bartneck, he said he didn't reply to the email any longer. He did say, however, that he's tempted in asking the organization about the reviewers' comments. "That would be a funny one," said Bartneck.
