OMICS Goes from “Predatory Publishing” to “Predatory Meetings”
Stay Away From OMICS’ Conferences
In earlier blog posts I’ve described and documented examples of OMICS Group’s
unethical practices, including sending personal invitations to
potential authors to submit manuscripts without informing them of the
author fees, only to invoice them after their papers get quickly
accepted. This was also reported in an article published by the Chronicle of Higher Education called “‘Predatory’ Online Journals Lure Scholars Who Are Eager to Publish.”
Now new evidence has surfaced revealing that OMICS,
which is also in the business of organizing scientific conferences, has
been 1) using the names of scientists, oftentimes without their
permission, to invite participants to their meetings, 2) promoting their
meetings by giving them names that are deceptively similar to other
well-established meetings that have been held for years by scientific
societies, and 3) refusing to refund registration fees, even if their
meetings are cancelled.
First, OMICS implies that its editorial board members
are conference organizers by placing their names and photographs on
their conference web pages, and by sending email invitations to their
meetings which are “signed” by members of the editorial boards. However,
many of these people never agreed to be meeting organizers, and some
have never even agreed to be become OMICS editorial board members.
For example, one scientist who does not wish to be named wrote the following to OMICS:
http://scholarlyoa.com/2013/01/25/omics-predatory-meetings/“I have requested/demanded resignation from this Editorial board several times, via emails and phone calls. I have also been promised that my name would be pulled off the Editorial Board and all forms of events associated with OMICS. I am extremely disappointed and outraged to learn that you still list me as a member. Here, I request again, take an immediate action to remove my name from the editorial board!”
