Basics
Nov 14, 2025
Written by: Alessandra Giugliano
Predatory conferences are a growing concern in academia. These events masquerade as legitimate scholarly meetings but are organized primarily to collect registration fees. Commentators cited in a 2022 scoping review in BMJ Open argue that predatory conferences have proliferated so rapidly that they may now outnumber legitimate scholarly meetings
Early‑career researchers often receive flattering invitations to speak, but upon arrival they discover disorganized venues, missing keynote speakers and empty rooms. A recent Nature investigation sent a reporter undercover to one such meeting and documented sparse attendance, missing speakers, and marketing that did not match the event on the ground.
This article explains what predatory conferences are, why they ensnare well‑meaning researchers, how to spot them and what institutions can do to protect scholars. It also offers a practical checklist and resources (including AI tools) that can help you choose reputable conferences and safeguard your research career.
What Makes a Conference Predatory?
A predatory conference, sometimes called a fake academic conference, is a profit-driven event presented as an academic gathering. Unlike legitimate conferences, which require rigorous peer review and aim to advance a field, predatory conferences sell presentation slots to anyone who can pay. Organizers send spam invitations with flattering language, promising prestigious keynote roles or committee positions.
Predatory conferences often list renowned scholars without consent and use generic stock images on their websites.The scientific scope is overly broad or multidisciplinary, enabling organizers to run multiple events in one venue or repeat conferences across locations.
Abstracts are accepted within days, sometimes within 24 hours, which is incompatible with genuine peer review. Fees are high and uniform across locations, reflecting a pay‑to‑play model. The result is a conference that exists only to extract money, not to foster scholarly exchange. These patterns are synthesized in a 2022 systematic scoping review of predatory conferences in BMJ Open.
Why Researchers Fall for Predatory Conferences
Many researchers, especially doctoral candidates and early‑career academics, feel intense pressure to present and publish. The publish‑or‑perish culture in academia rewards quantity of presentations and publications, making it tempting to accept any opportunity. Supervisors and institutions sometimes reinforce this by valuing output counts rather than quality.
Predatory conferences exploit this anxiety by offering rapid acceptance and promising exposure in “international” or “global” events. Deceptive marketing features impressive‑sounding titles, tourist destinations and claims of prestigious sponsors. Early‑career researchers who lack mentoring or are unfamiliar with conference norms may not realise that real conferences rarely send unsolicited invitations. Personal vanity and the desire for recognition can also cloud judgment. Recognising these motivations can help researchers resist the lure of predatory invitations.
Red Flags: Warning Signs of a Predatory Conference
Diane Pecorari’s article Predatory Conferences: What Are the Signs? analyses multiple conference organisers and distils many of the warning signs that appear in the checklist below.
How To Check the Conference Organizer and Sponsors
Start by looking closely at who is actually behind the event. Predatory conferences are often run by commercial companies that recycle conference brands, hide ownership, or borrow the names of reputable institutions without permission.
Red flags to watch for:
The organizer is a for-profit company with no clear scholarly mission or track record in your field.
The conference website claims sponsorship from universities or societies that do not list the event on their own sites.
Advisory board members or “honorary chairs” are well-known names, but you cannot verify their involvement elsewhere.
There is no clear information about who owns or controls the organization behind the conference.
Ask yourself: would you be comfortable explaining this organizer and its sponsors in a funding report or to your supervisor?
How To Evaluate the Conference Aim and Scope
Legitimate conferences usually have a focused aim and a clearly defined audience. Predatory conferences often use vague, catch-all language to attract as many submissions and registration fees as possible.
Warning signs in the aim and scope:
Extremely broad themes that try to cover multiple, unrelated disciplines in a single event.
Generic phrases like “to promote scientific innovation” without any specific research questions or subfields.
Topic lists that read like a keyword dump rather than a coherent program.
A scope that does not match your discipline but still invites you to present.
If the scope looks like it could apply to almost any paper, treat that as a signal to investigate further.
How To Evaluate the Peer Review and Acceptance Timeline
One of the clearest distinctions between a legitimate and a predatory conference is the handling of peer review. Predatory events often accept nearly every submission to secure registration fees. Reports show that predatory organisers deliver recycled or meaningless reviewer feedback.
Key questions about review and timelines:
Does the website describe a real peer review process, including who reviews submissions and how many reviewers assess each paper?
Are acceptance decisions promised within unrealistically short timeframes, such as 24–48 hours?
Are past “sting” or nonsense papers known to have been accepted by the organizer or its sister conferences?
Is there any indication that acceptance is contingent on paying the registration fee?
When acceptance feels automatic or instant, you are not dealing with meaningful peer review.
How To Assess the Agenda and Editorial Committee
The program and scientific committee should give you a clear sense of who is shaping the conference. Predatory events often provide only sketchy schedules and vague information about who is responsible for academic quality.
Questions to ask about the agenda and committee:
Are session titles and tracks specific, or do they repeat the same broad buzzwords?
Are keynote speakers and chairs people whose work you recognize or can verify in your field?
Is an editorial or scientific committee listed, with institutional affiliations?
Do committee members appear on multiple questionable conferences run by the same company?
A thin, recycled, or unrealistic agenda is often a sign that the academic substance is secondary to revenue.
How To Verify the Conference Location and Schedule
Predatory conferences frequently cluster multiple events in the same hotel, city, and dates, or list vague venues that are hard to confirm. Before you commit travel funding, you want to be sure the event will actually take place as advertised.
Checks you can do:
Confirm that the venue is a real conference center or university, not just the name of a tourist city or hotel chain.
Look for evidence of previous editions held at the same venue, including programs and photos.
Be cautious if many different conferences from the same organizer are scheduled at the same time in one location.
Check whether dates shift repeatedly or remain “to be confirmed” even close to the event.
If you cannot verify the venue independently, treat that as a serious warning.
How To Spot Poorly Organized Conference Logistics
Logistics signal how much care is going into the event. Weak organization alone does not prove a conference is predatory, but in combination with other factors it should increase your suspicion.
Logistical red flags:
Registration processes that rely only on email and bank transfer, with no secure payment option.
Confusing or contradictory information about deadlines, session formats, or presentation length.
No clear policy for cancellations, refunds, or visa support letters.
A schedule that leaves very little time between submission, acceptance, and the event date.
If the logistics look improvised, ask yourself whether the organizers are genuinely prepared to host a scholarly meeting.
How To Evaluate the Conference Website for Red Flags
The conference website is often your first contact with the event. Predatory organizers use polished templates but provide thin, inconsistent, or misleading content.
Things to examine on the website:
Overall professionalism: layout, broken links, placeholder text, or stock images reused across many events.
Spelling and grammar: frequent errors or awkward phrasing, especially in technical terms.
Links back to genuine institutional partners or journals, not just logos.
Evidence of previous years: programs, proceedings, photos, or participant lists that look legitimate.
A website that looks busy but contains very little verifiable information is a common pattern in predatory conferences.
How To Read Conference Email Invitations Critically
Email invitations are a primary recruitment tool for predatory conferences. They often rely on flattery, urgency, and generic wording that does not reflect your actual expertise.
Characteristics of predatory conference invitations:
Unsolicited emails that call you a “world-class” or “eminent” scholar, especially if you are early in your career.
Subject lines that stress urgent deadlines or “last chance” offers for keynote roles or editorial board positions.
Invitations to speak on topics outside your documented area of research.
Bulk emails where the same message is clearly sent to many recipients, sometimes with formatting errors or mismatched names.
Treat any invitation as a starting point for due diligence, not as proof of recognition.
How To Check a Conference’s Reputation in Your Field
Reputation signals are powerful. Predatory conferences often try to mimic the names of established events or use unfamiliar brands that do not appear in normal disciplinary conversations.
Steps to check a conference’s reputation:
Ask supervisors, colleagues, or mentors if they recognize the conference or its organizer.
Search for the conference name together with terms like “predatory,” “fake,” or “scam.”
Look for past programs and see whether respected researchers in your field have actually presented there.
Check whether papers from the conference appear in reputable journals or indexed proceedings, rather than in predatory outlets.
If nobody in your field has heard of the event, and search results raise concerns, proceed very cautiously.
How To Compare Conference Fees With Legitimate Events
Finally, fees and payment structures often reveal the organizer’s priorities. Predatory conferences commonly charge high registration fees that are not aligned with typical costs in your field.
How to benchmark fees:
Compare the advertised registration fee with those of established conferences in your discipline.
Note whether presenters pay more than non-presenting attendees, which can indicate a focus on monetizing submissions.
Check what the fee actually covers: meals, materials, social events, or just access to a sparse program.
Be wary of additional “publication fees” tied to questionable journals or proceedings.
If the price is high, the program is weak, and the organizer is unknown, the financial risk is significant.
A Practical Decision‑Making Framework to Avoid Predatory Conferences
Use the following checklist to assess an invitation to a conference before committing. Answering “No” to multiple questions suggests the conference may be predatory.
Sponsor legitimacy:
Is the conference sponsored by a recognised professional association?
Does the association link back to the conference website?
Scholarly scope:
Are the topics focused on your field?
Avoid events with overly broad or generic themes.
Known keynote speakers and committee members:
Have you heard of the listed speakers?
Do they actually participate in the event?
Identifiable venue and reasonable timing:
Can you verify the venue?
Is the conference repeated frequently or run alongside numerous other events?
Professional website and clear contact information:
Is the website well organised and free of grammar mistakes?
Does it provide a physical address and direct contact details?
Invitation quality:
Does the invitation contain flattery or poor grammar?
Is it relevant to your expertise?
Is peer review clearly described?
Does the timeline allow time for proper review?
Fees:
Are registration fees comparable to other conferences?
Are there hidden or excessive charges?
Reputation and colleagues’ opinions:
Have your colleagues heard of the event?
Have your colleagues attended the conference?
When in doubt, consult resources like Think. Check. Attend, which provides an online questionnaire to evaluate conference legitimacy.
Institutional and Supervisory Responsibilities
Reducing the impact of predatory conferences requires changes at the institutional level. Universities and research institutes should adopt policies that emphasize quality over quantity in performance evaluations. An InterAcademy Partnership report describes predatory conferences and predatory journals as part of a broader ‘spectrum’ of conference quality, from truly rigorous meetings to misleading and fraudulent events.
Instead of counting every presentation, committees should assess the credibility of conferences and encourage researchers to attend reputable events. Creating safe lists of vetted conferences and journals can guide scholars toward trusted venues.
Supervisors should discuss invitations with their mentees and help them interpret red flags. Departments could run training workshops using the Conference Assessment Tool (created by Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library at George Washington University) and invite librarians or experienced scholars to share their experiences. Mentoring programmes should highlight the vulnerability of early‑career researchers and emphasize that declining a predatory invitation is a sign of judgement, not failure.
What to Do If You’ve Already Attended a Predatory Conference
If you realise you have attended a predatory conference, you’re not alone. A 2022 systematic scoping review of predatory conferences in BMJ Open noted that attendees often feel disappointment and regret after discovering empty rooms and poor organisation.
Here are steps you can take if you’ve attended a predatory conference:
Document your experience:
Keep records of communications, receipts and the event agenda. This may be useful if you need to dispute charges or warn others.
Talk to mentors or supervisors:
Share what happened and seek guidance on how to represent the experience on your CV. It may be appropriate to note the presentation without emphasising the conference’s name.
Learn and educate others:
Use your experience to inform colleagues about red flags.
Sharing your story can help reduce stigma and build awareness.
Focus on reputable venues:
Prioritise established conferences with rigorous peer review for future submissions.
Consult safe lists or ask senior colleagues for recommendations.
Tools and Resources to Protect Yourself From Predatory Conferences
Several initiatives help scholars evaluate conferences:
Think. Check. Attend: An international initiative that offers an online questionnaire to guide researchers through verifying a conference’s legitimacy. It asks about organiser credentials, peer review, fees and more.
Conference Assessment Tool: A detailed checklist of yes/no questions that empower researchers to reach an informed conclusion. Download it and fill it out whenever you receive an invitation.
Safe lists and institutional guidelines: Ask your department or library if they maintain lists of trusted conferences. Many institutions are moving away from blacklists and towards positive lists of reputable venues.
AI‑powered conference finders: Services like thesify provide AI tools that match your research to legitimate conferences. They can analyse your abstract, recommend appropriate venues and summarise conference policies, saving you time and reducing risk.
In thesify’s Resources tab, conference suggestions such as HEALTHINFO 2025 and CENTRIC 2025 appear with match scores, locations, and deadlines so you can shortlist venues before checking them for predatory warning signs.
Always review the suggestions critically and cross‑check with the resources above. If you are evaluating AI research assistants or conference-matching tools, our guide on what makes an AI tool actually academic outlines criteria for transparency, data privacy and policy alignment.
Mentor and peer networks: Join academic societies and online communities where members discuss conference experiences. Peer recommendations remain one of the most reliable ways to find reputable events.
Frequently Asked Questions About Predatory Conferences
Are predatory conferences illegal?
Some predatory conferences may violate consumer-protection or advertising laws when they misrepresent sponsorship, peer review, or services. In many cases they operate in legal gray areas, so it is safer to treat suspicious invitations cautiously and consult your institution or legal advisors if needed.
Will attending a predatory conference ruin my reputation?
While one mistake is unlikely to derail a career, repeated participation in dubious venues can raise questions about judgement. Address the issue honestly with mentors and focus on reputable conferences moving forward.
How can I report a fake conference?
Contact your institution’s research office or library. If you suspect a fraudulent event, you can report it to your institution, funder, or relevant consumer-protection bodies in your country, in addition to warning colleagues.
Is it safe to submit to a new conference I’ve never heard of?
New conferences are not necessarily predatory, but vet them carefully. Use the checklist above, research the organisers and ask colleagues for feedback.
Fostering Integrity and Protecting Your Research Career
Predatory conferences thrive in an academic environment that emphasizes output over quality. They prey on researchers’ desire to share work and offer a shortcut to prestige, but attending them wastes resources and undermines scholarly integrity.
By recognising warning signs, such as unsolicited invitations, vague peer review processes, high fees and broad scope, researchers can protect themselves. Institutions must support scholars through mentoring, safe lists and quality‑focused evaluation.
Tools like Think. Check. Attend and AI‑powered conference finders help evaluate invitations, while communities like thesify promote integrity and responsible AI use in academic writing.
The full-screen view shows a draft paper in thesify alongside the Resources panel, where academic conference options like ICISSP 2026 are listed with key details that researchers can review and then vet for quality and legitimacy.
Ultimately, vigilance, education and collective action can reduce the influence of predatory conferences and foster a research culture built on trust and quality.
Use thesify to Support Your Conference Decisions
If you are preparing a conference abstract or comparing several calls for papers, you can sign up for thesify and upload your abstract or manuscript. You’ll receive structured feedback on clarity and argument, as well as conference, journal, and grant recommendations.
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