It is strangely fascinating, receiving academic spam.
On one hand, it's gratifying that somewhere out there in cyberspace, some industrial name-crunching web-trawler has somehow identified your academic activities and spit out your contact inviting you for abstracts and papers at an upcoming "prestigious conference", or to participate in some exclusive academic survey, or even just plain old "we-have-the-biggest-and-flashiest-most-expensive-machines-that-go-PING-so-you-need-to-get-one-too-for-your-cutting-edge-research" adverts. Most are phrased in an innocuous way to subtly stroke your ego about being the exclusive receipient of such unsolicited attention.
On the other hand, it's still spam that's made its way through the trusty ol'uni email filter: 99% is stuff not even related to my field or stuff I simply do not need. Surely their trawling algorithm needs a lot more refinement. Sure - the occasional cardiovascular, palliative care or mitochondrial membrane potential conference paper might look good on my physics/engineering CV.
Aside from a few [genuine] conferences, a large number of the conferences (strangely) seem to be held in Orlando, have tacky acronyms, contain template-generated wordings, and seem to be sent out of a server in Venezuela some 10-15 times a year, concerning some meta-topic about meta-research (research about research). Hrmm. Could it be some sort of a conference paper farm colluding to bolster academic CVs? or just a regular garden-variety scam preying on unsuspecting academics: collecting conference fees for a virtual conference? hehe.
Here's a healthy and fascinating sample crop of what I get... (edited of course):
CITSA 2011
"We invite you to submit a paper/abstract to The 8th International Conference on Cybernetics and Information Technologies, Systems and Applications: CITSA 2011, to be held in Orlando, Florida, USA, on July 19th - July 22nd, 2011; in the context of The 4th International Multi-Conference on Engineering and Technological Innovation: IMETI 2011"
MMMse 2011
"Call For Abstracts, Papers, and Invited Sessions Organizers. The Summer International Symposium on Qualitative, Quantitative and Hybrid Models and Modeling Methodologies in Science and Engineering: MMMse 2011. July 19th - July 22nd, 2011 ~ Orlando, Florida, USA"
isCES 2011
"Call For Abstracts, Papers, and Invited Sessions Organizers. International Symposium on Collaborative Engineering and Science: isCES 2011 March 27th-30th, 2011 ~ Orlando, Florida, USA. In the context of The 2nd International Conference on Engineering and Meta-Engineering: ICEME 2011"
ISSE 2011
"As you know, Murray Gell-Mann, who received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1969, affirms that: "it is vitally important that we supplement our specialized studies with serious attempts to take a crude look at the whole." In the context of Information Systems (IS), specialized studies, practice, and research in Software Engineering might be of vital importance in taking a look at the whole IS field, and vice versa. Accordingly, one of the main purposes of organizing The International Symposium on Information Systems and Software Engineering: ISSE 2011 is to provide a forum to suplement specialized studies and research in software engineering, and in specific areas of Information Systems, "with serious attempts to take a look at the whole" by means of potential interdisciplinary communication in a multi-disciplinary forum."
ICEME 2011
"We would like to inform you that we extended the submission deadline for The 2nd International Conference on Engineering and Meta-Engineering: ICEME 2011 (March 27th - 30th, 2011 - Orlando, Florida, USA) which will be collocated with: The 17th International Conference on Information Systems Analysis and Synthesis: ISAS 2011 and The 9th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies: CCCT 2011. The deadlines are the following (check web sites for the respective deadlines of the other conferences and for possible new deadlines of ICEME 2011)"
IMCIC 2011
"We invite you to submit a paper/abstract to The 2nd International Multi-Conference on Complexity, Informatics and Cybernetics: IMCIC 2011 (March 27th - 30th, 2011 - Orlando, Florida, USA). If you have any colleagues who might be interested in making a submission to the conference, please feel free to forward this e-mail to them. Below are the deadlines for IMCIC 2011: Papers/Abstracts Submission and Invited Session Proposals: August 25th, 2010 Authors Notifications: November 8th, 2010 Camera-ready, full papers: November 29th, 2010"
AG 2010
"Call for Papers/Abstracts. The 3rd International Symposium on Academic Globalization: AG 2010 June 29th - July 2nd ~ Orlando, Florida, USA. Papers/Abstracts Submissions: April 23th, 2010 Authors Notification: May 12th, 2010 Camera Ready (Final Version): May 26th, 2010. AG 2010 Organizing Committee is planning to include in the symposium program 1) sessions with formal presentations, and/or 2) informal conversational sessions, and/or 3) hybrid sessions, which will have formal presentations first and informal conversations later. Submissions for Face-to-Face or for Virtual Participation are both accepted. Both kinds of submissions will have the same reviewing process and the accepted papers will be included in the same proceedings."
Fluorescence microscopy and imaging accessories
"Fluorescence microscopy and imaging accessories: Our cell culture and microscopy ware for imaging applications provides a great opportunity, when living or fixed cells are in the focus of your research and image quality, cell adhesion and differentiation are important for your research. Whether you perform your research in single experiment set-up or your work is based on screens with throughput challenges we want to provide the cell culture and microscopy disposables you can rely on."
Lancet/JACC 1st Asia Pacific Cardiovascular Summit
"The Lancet/JACC 1st Asia Pacific Cardiovascular Summit: Breakthroughs and Controversies, July 9-10, 2011 Hong Kong. Call for Posters: Deadline for submission on April 30, 2011. Organisers: The Lancet, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Elsevier (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. The Scientific Committe invites authors to submit abstracts for Poster Sessions. Detailed guidelines for preparing and submitting abstracts are available at the meeting website. The deadline for abstract submission is April 30, 2011. We look forward to seeing you in July! Official language: English"
Laryngology 2011
"Laryngology 2011: Cutting edge laryngology for the 21st Century. 20-22 June, 2011, London, UK, Royal College of Surgeons. Only Ten Days Left to Submit Your Abstract. Deadline: Sunday, 20 March, 2011. Submit your abstract on any of the following topics before: Sunday, 20 March, 2011"
Motifolio
"PowerPoint Diagrams for Scientific Presentations. Professionally Designed, Ready to Use, and Easy to Edit: Biology, Anatomy, Pathway, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Neuroscience, Immunology, Histology. Motifolio Inc., PO Box 2040"
Clinical Trial Magnifier
"Dear Colleague, You are invited to subscribe to a new free electronic monthly newsletter, the Clinical Trial Magnifier. Clinical Trial Magnifier - December 2010. The second Clinical Trial Magnifier Conference was held on November 24-26 in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The conference focus was on clinical investigators' incentives to participate in industry-sponsored clinical trials. The consensus is that there are initially three very fundamental investigators' incentive issues that must be addressed in order to make industry-sponsored clinical trials more attractive for participation, i.e.: (1) ensuring publication of the results of any clinical trial, (2) development of administrative infrastructure support to facilitate and accelerate study start-up and to provide administrative services throughout the study conduct, and (3) development of fair, standardized clinical trial agreements. Each of the three identified development needs can be subject for round table discussion meetings in the future. Yours Sincerely."
METTLER TOLEDO
"Dear Scientist, You may have received METTLER TOLEDO’s Academia Brochure presenting a range of laboratory instruments. With its advanced measurement technology they can help you enhance your research. Help us to support you in achieving high quality research results. Access the link below to share your interests and enter for the chance to win an Apple iPad™. The contest ends February 28, 2011."
ArrowDox(TM) Micro Oxidation-Reduction Measurement System
"Dear Researcher: A new micro oxidation-reduction measurement system has been developed that measures biological samples as small as 10 microliters - less than the volume of a single drop of liquid. Measure redox potential in cell cultures, tissue cultures, whole blood, plasma, serum, urine, and saliva. The system includes a micro redox electrode that fits directly into your 96 well plates, microcentrifuge tubes, serum cups, capillary tubes, and your smallest cell and tissue cultures. A longer version of the micro electrode is available for your NMR tubes. The ArrowDox(TM) Micro Oxidation-Reduction Measurement System includes the micro redox electrode, a millivolt electrometer, and complete software program for tabulating redox potential values and plotting redox potential as it varies with time. The system hooks up directly to your PC via a USB or RS232 port."
CISP 2011
"Dear Colleague, We cordially invite you to submit a paper to the upcoming 4th International Congress on Image and Signal Processing (CISP 2011) and the 4th International Conference on BioMedical Engineering and Informatics (BMEI 2011), to be jointly held from 15-17 October 2011, in Shanghai, China. All papers in conference proceedings will be indexed by both EI Compendex and ISTP, as well as included in the IEEE Xplore (IEEE Conference Record Number for CISP'11: 18205; IEEE Conference Record Number for BMEI'11: 18206. CISP-BMEI 2008-2010 papers have already been indexed in EI Compendex). Substantially extended versions of best papers will be considered for publication in a CISP'11-BMEI'11 special issue of the Computers and Electrical Engineering journal (SCI-indexed). Topics of the BMEI 2011 Special Track on Informatics include (but are not limited to): Communications and Networking, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, Intelligent Computing, Information Security, Automation and Control, etc."
THE MICRO pH ELECTRODE
"Dear Researcher: Special Limited Time Offer: Buy our unique solid state micro pH electrode that measures less than a single drop of liquid and get a complimentary digital pH meter. Click to reserve your free pH meter today! The revolutionary Ultra-M micro pH electrode is the industry standard for measuring pH in small samples. It features a nonglass unbreakable body and can measure samples as small as 5 microliters (1/10 of a drop). The electrode fits directly into 96 well plates, microcentrifuge tubes, serum cups, and capillary tubes. A special extra length (220 mm) version of the electrode is also available for your longest NMR tubes. CLICK TO SEE THE LATEST SCIENTIFIC PAPERS USING THE MICRO pH ELECTRODE. In order for you to try this micro pH electrode in your own laboratory and see for yourself how well it works, we are making a special limited time proposition. Buy the Model PHR-146 micro combination pH electrode and receive our companion Model 60 portable digital pH meter completely complimentary (US $225.00 value). The meter features a bright digital display for both pH and millivolts and can be used in both the lab and field."
PSI-Plot and ProStat
"Dear Colleague, The PSI-Plot and ProStat software programs from Poly Software International promise to streamline your professional projects in two ways: by quickly performing otherwise laborious analysis and management of research data, and then by rendering the results in impressive, high-resolution graphics either on-screen or hard copy. More than 75,000 scientists and engineers have chosen PSI-Plot or ProStat as their data analysis and plotting tool. What about you?! PSI Special Offer Coupon: For a limited time, you are selected to receive the $299 award winning PSI-Plot or ProStat full package for only $59.99. To learn more about PSI-Plot and ProStat click here. Please call us or click here to place your order at this promotional price. Coupon Code: CPN6522 (Expires 12/22/2010)"
Quantitative Measurement of Scientific Output
"Hello, Interest in quantitative measurement of scientific output has been steadily growing because of increasing needs in evaluation of candidates for new positions and promotions. Please, see more details about article rank calculation at BioMedTalk by following this link. Also, we inviting you to publish your research profile or CV at BioMedTalk to start new scientific-research cooperation. Please, follow this link for details to look through posted partners profile or use this profile search form. To post your profile or repay to questions, please, register by following this link first. If you have questions, please, contact a member of our support team. Thank you very much, BioMedTalk team"
"Physics Music Heroes"
"Dear: Attached with this email is the gift to you of a precious book written in both English and Chinese version. There was introduced poetic and music sense in style while writing this book, just as the cinema with affluence of music, so that attractive and affective to readers, and expected to represent a new breakthrough in literature. For more to share enjoying this attractive and affective book, the author encourages the receivers of this email to transfer the attached book to your colleagues, students, friends and alumni(best with Key and Brief "Physics Music Heroes"). The content of the attachment is the colloquia for the progessions in physics as milestone made together with the world people in 2005-2009 through televisions and satellites as the communication media. There achieved many very important progressions of physics, such as disproving the relativity of the ideal time and space, explaining the mass with the spatially localized electromagnetic structure, the electromagnetic orienting force, the electromagnetic multi-hairy structure, the unification of the electrical field and magnetic field, and so on. There explained and unified the strong force, the weak force and the gravitational force in the physics with the electromagnetic force, realizing the unification of the four forces in the physics. The television and satellites were the new public media announcing and propagating these achievements, widely influencing the people of the whole world, and vividly manifesting the unprecedented originality of the achievements. The author had written another literature with music, the Armed Police(Key and Brief "PLA Katyusha Sharing"). If interested to read, please reply the email to request the free copy."
Biomedical PowerPoint Toolkits
"Dear Scientist, When you prepare a presentation, you may already know how challenging it is to come up with suitable PowerPoint diagrams to illustrate a biomedical mode of action or an experiment for your slides. You can create your own diagrams from scratch, but it will be very time consuming. Our idea is to build the most essential and ready-to-use biomedical diagrams that can be integrated easily into your PowerPoint slides. That's the reason why we developed Biomedical PowerPoint Toolkits - a comprehensive collection of professionally designed biomedical drawing diagrams for PowerPoint. Whether you are looking for ready-to-use or modifiable diagrams for your slides, our PowerPoint Toolkits are right for you. To learn how our PowerPoint Toolkits can help enhance your presentation and save time"
Clinical Laboratory International
"Your Free Subscription to Clinical Laboratory International. Based on your research profile, we would like to offer you the following free subscription to Clinical Laboratory International. Each issue contains specially commissioned mini-review articles written by eminent scientists or clinicians on hot topics carefully chosen to be of special interest to pathologists, clinical biologists and clinical lab management. The articles go into the principles, diagnostic significance, practice and applications of the latest technological advances. Click here to sign-up for your free subscription which is available without any bligation to qualified scientists. Free Subscription to Clinical Laboratory International free to qualified scientists."
DownEast Biomass Engineering Competition
"Dear Solver, hypios is happy and proud to announce the biggest problem we ever hosted: The DownEast Biomass Engineering Competition - US$ 5,000,000 Prize: Submit Proposals to help an underperforming Biomass Plant in Maine (USA) find a better, more profitable way to produce energy. All you'll need to do is go here and fill out a few extra fields to be an official participant. You can join individually, or as a team or a company. Once you've registered you'll have full access to the secured data room--where you'll find all you need to start working on the problem. Happy solving! The hypios team"
Assess Mitochondrial Membrane Potential
"Assess Mitochondrial Membrane Potential. Detection of the mitochondrial permeability transition event (PT) provides an early indication of the initiation of cellular apoptosis. This process is typically defined as a collapse in the electrochemical gradient across the mitochondrial membrane, as measured by the change in the membrane potential. Buy one MitoPT Kit, get a second MitoPT Kit for free (offer applies to kit of equal or lesser value). Offer expires September 1, 2010. Provide code RM071008 with order."
VI Congreso de Espeleológica en América Latina y el Caribe
"Estimadas(os) Amigas y Amigos: Estimadas Colegas: Tenemos el agrado de informarle que del 4 al 8 de Agosto los espeologos cubanos estamos de Aniversario y la ciudad de Matanza , Varadero , sera el escenario perfecto donde celebrar el 70 Aniversario y el VI Congreso de Espeleológica en América Latina y el Caribe. El objetivo de tan importante evento es intercambiar experiencias y dar a conocer a la comunidad de espeleológica el quehacer científico en estos tiempos. Temáticas: Espeleología general. Bioespeleología. Hidrogeología Cársica. Espeleología Histórica. Manejo y Conservación del Carso. Teniendo en cuenta todo lo anterior y con el propósito de poder contribuir al conocimiento de la Espeleología , nuestra Fundación Cubano Chilena (FCC) lo invita a participar en tan importante evento. Esperando poder contar con su presencia. Atentamente; Departamento de Eventos y Congresos. Fundación Cubano Chilena “FCC”."
iAMscientist
"Hello Dr., My name is Borya Shakhnovich, I started a web-service called iAMscientist. When I was in academia I was always frustrated when people couldn't easily find me based on my published work. iAMscientist was created to solve this problem by making it easy to create a profile that includes your peer-reviewed publications. A profile on iAMscientist connects you to your publications, which means that anyone will now be able to find you based on your research. We are working with NIH, medical research non-profits, consortia and companies that are interested in finding and funding cutting edge research using our targeting system. iAMscientist is by invitation only because we want to keep the service dedicated to peer-reviewed and established scientists in their respective fields. All you have to do is click here to accept this invitation. The system will ask you to signup, and select your publications from a list. iAMscientist will then create a profile. The whole process should take no more than 30 seconds. iAMscientist will use your publications to target opportunities including jobs, grants and RFAs to you. Faculty, and post-docs from top universities including Harvard, MIT, Cornell and Stanford have already signed up. Help us get a critical mass of scientists so that we can help attract sponsors, grants and employers, and you can focus on what matters: research, and progressing your career. "
T7 RNA Polymerase Gene Expression System for Bacillus megaterium
"High Yield Protein Production with the T7 RNA Polymerase Gene Expression System for Bacillus megaterium. The first and only T7 RNAP High Yield Gene Expression System for Bacillus megaterium! Tightly regulated and efficiently inducible xylA operon/T7 RNA polymerase. Strong T7 RNAP promoter with unique sequence. Stable, high yield protein production up to 8-fold increased in comparison to common xylose inducible expression. Easy transformation by use of pretransformed B. megaterium protoplasts. Control vector with GFP-sequence included in the kit."
International Multidisciplinary Forum on Palliative Care
"International Multidisciplinary Forum on Palliative Care. November 11-14, 2010 | Budapest, Hungary. If you are a family medicine physician, oncologist, geriatrician, neurologist, nephrologist, pediatrician, a pain and palliative physician, nurse, social worker, psychologist, physical therapist, chaplain or any other paramedical professional, interested in improving your palliative care skills and knowledge - DO NOT MISS THIS EVENT! The forum is targeted at all medical professions from all fields of medicine and will focus on innovative educational sessions in palliative care. The program will include presentations, interactive workshops, and present research at various levels of development. Join us in the cultural city of Budapest"
