SPAM – Page 3 – Jonathan Eisen's Lab

Yet another SPAMMY Science publisher: Scientific and Academic Publishing

Uggh – just got this email. Seems there is yet another SPAMMY Science Publisher trying to get established. Here’s is a suggestion for all. Avoid these kinds of publishers. They probably do more harm than good … Plus if you can label their emails as SPAM to help out others. And I think posting comments like this will help since when people do google searches they may see the critiques as well as the journal sites.

Dear Jonathan A Eisen,

This is Scientific & Academic Publishing, USA. Nice to get your information from the journal PLOS Biology and also happy to pass on our regards to you from the editorial department of SAP.

We’ve finished reading the abstract of your paper Macronuclear Genome Sequence of the Ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila, a Model Eukaryote and will recommend it to our editors.If you are interested in our journals and want to publish it on our journals, please extend this paper and describe your latest research achievements and send it to us by our online submission system(http://www.manuscriptsystem.com). All manuscripts submitted will be considered for publication.

If this paper has been published, we also welcome you to submit other papers to us.

Welcome to visit our website at http://www.sapub.org.

How to stop press release spam? Post embargoed PRs. Here’s one about Mayans using tobacco.

Just got this press release by email. I am sick of receiving dozens of unsolicited press releases, especially those in topics not related to my work. So from now on I think I will be posting the press releases whether there is an embargo or not, since I did not agree to any embargo in these cases (see Ivan Oransky’s post at Embargo Watch about this). Here is one I just got about Mayans using tobacco. Wonder how many stories will make jokes about whether this is what led to their demise?

Press release below:

Strictly Embargoed Until 00.01 Hours (EST), Thursday , January 12th, 2012
[05.01 Hours UK Time (GMT)/ 15.01 Hours Australian Eastern Time, January 12th]

Media Contact:
Dawn Peters (US) +1 781-388-8408
Ben Norman (UK) +44 (0) 1243 770375
Physicalsciencenews@wiley.com
Scientists Confirm Tobacco Use by Ancient Mayans
Mass Spectrometry Detects First Physical Evidence of Nicotine in Mayan Container
Archaeologists examining late period Mayan containers have identified nicotine traces from a codex-style flask, revealing the first physical evidence of tobacco use by ancient Mayans. The study published in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry reveals the flask is marked with Mayan hieroglyphics reading, “y-otoot ’u-may,” (“the home of its/his/her tobacco,”) making it only the second case to confirm that the text on the exterior of a Mayan vessel corresponds to its ancient use.
“Investigation of food items consumed by ancient people offers insight into the traditions and customs of a particular civilization,” explains Jennifer Loughmiller-Newman from the University at Albany in New York. “Textual evidence written on pottery is often an indicator of contents or of an intended purpose, however actual usage of a container could be altered or falsely represented.”
Many of the Mayan flask vessels from the Kislak collection of the Library of Congress examined in this study were filled with other substances, such as iron oxide used in burial rituals, making it difficult to detect the original content.
The most indisputable evidence of a container’s usage is obtained when hieroglyphic text or pictorial illustrations on the exterior of a container is consistent with the chemical analysis of interior residues. For the current investigation, researchers analyzed samples extracted from the Late Classic Maya period (600 to 900 AD) using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS).
Nicotine—the signature alkaloid in tobacco—was identified as the major component of the extracts from one of the 150 vessels in the collection. The flask was determined to be made in southern Campeche, Mexico and dates to around 700 AD.
Prior to the current discovery, the only existing evidence showing a Mayan vessel to have the same content as indicated by hieroglyphic text was the identification of theobromine, an alkaloid found in cacao, more than 20 years ago.
“Our study provides rare evidence of the intended use of an ancient container,” concludes Dr. Dmitri Zagorevski from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. “Mass spectrometry has proven to be an invaluable method of analysis of organic residues in archaeological artifacts. This discovery is not only significant to understanding Mayan hieroglyphics, but an important archaeological application of chemical detection.”

This study is published in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact Physicalsciencenews@wiley.comFull citation:
Dmitri Zagorevski, Jennifer A. Loughmiller-Newman, “The Detection of Nicotine in a Late Mayan Period Flask by GCMS and LCMS Methods,” Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry; January 2012, DOI: 10.1002/rcm.5339
Paper URL upon publication: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/rcm.5339
Images:
Images of the flask are available on request from physicalsciencenews@wiley.com. Images should be credited to Jennifer Loughmiller-Newman .
Interviews:
To arrange an interview with Jennifer Loughmiller-Newman or Dr. Dmitri Zagorevski, please contact Marylou Schiro in the Anthropology office at the University at Albany at mschiro@albany.edu or Kathy Gersowitz in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary studies at kgersowitz@albany.edu .
About the Journal:
Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry is a journal whose aim is the rapid publication of original research results and ideas on all aspects of mass spectrometry. One of the highest high impact journals in its field, Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry publishes original research results and ideas on all aspects of the science of gas-phase ions and all the associated scientific disciplines.
For more information, please visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1097-0231.
About Wiley-Blackwell:
Wiley-Blackwell is the international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, with strengths in every major academic and professional field and partnerships with many of the world’s leading societies. Wiley-Blackwell publishes nearly 1,500 peer-reviewed journals and 1,500+ new books annually in print and online, as well as databases, major reference works and laboratory protocols. For more information, please visit www.wileyblackwell.com or our new online platform, Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), one of the world’s most extensive multidisciplinary collections of online resources, covering life, health, social and physical sciences, and humanities.

Draft post cleanup #9: Open Access spam from Bentham

Yet another post in my “draft blog post cleanup” series. Here is #9; from June 2008. It can in a way be viewed as an extension of my post from a few days ago about Bentham. Here is what I wrote in 2008:

OK, I know I am supposed to be supportive of Open Access journals, just because a journal is OA does not mean it is OK. Take “The Open Evolution Journal.” being published by Bentham.

On paper, this could be a useful contribution to the list of OA journals. They have some good people on their Editorial Board and I am glad to see such a big list of people in Evolution seemingly supporting OA publishing.

And Bentham is certainly doing the OA talk and pushing OA as a major option for their publications. In fact, they might be pushing OA a bit too much. For example, in their letter to me they say

All published open access articles will receive massive international exposure and as is usually the case for open access publications, articles will also receive high citations.

Hmm. A bit over the top no? I love OA mind you. But OA in and of itself does not guarantee citations and exposure.

But this is a minor quibble. My real issue with them is the SPAM. I keep getting frigging emails from Bentham for all sorts of journals. And some of the emails I get are for accounts that I cannot easily send email from to use their lame unsubscribe option. I assume others out there get these emails from Bentham too, as I have gotten them from like 20 of their journals so far. And many are in areas that I have no expertise in (I just got one for a Geology journal).

Just goes to show – OA sometimes means “Objectively Annoying.”

Bentham publisher – so wrong in some many ways #SPAM

I have written about Bentham – that Spam bots of science publishing before. Got an email from them today – it is wrong in so many ways. I thought I would just post it here – and let people judge for themselves but am a bit wary of calling attention to them and putting out any of their message. So I am going to put out mine

BENTHAM – LEAVE ME THE $&%#@ ALONE

And if that is not enough for you, how about reading Richard Poynder’s piece on them from four years ago. Seems they have not changed a bit.

More science conference spam

Got this invitation a minute ago:

Dear Dr.Jonathan Eisen,

I am Monica Fu from the organizing committee of the 4thAnnual World Congress of Vaccine. Cordially, we invite you to give an oral presentation at Session 418: Japanese Encephalitis, Junin, Hendra and Nipah Vaccines about your recent work. In order that you can learn the conference details and scientific program quickly, I am pleased to send you a conference brochure in the attachment. You are appreciated to reply me with a speech title to my email: monica@vaccinecon.com.

Certainly, if you have any questions about the conference, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely yours,

Ms. Monica Fu
Organizing Committee of WCV-2012

Only a minor complication. Never worked on anything related to this. Ahh – I love science conference spam.

Umm – thanks for the invitation but, umm – not going to go to this meeting

Wow. I get a lot of what one could call “Conference SPAM” with invitations to meetings that seem like nothing more than feedlots. But this one really takes the cake:

Dear Dr. Eisen JA.
It is with great pleasure that we invite you to attend the EPS Montreal International Gene Conference to be held November 3-4, 2011 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The conference will provide a forum for researchers in Genetics and Genomics to present cutting edge research and learn about the latest breakthroughs and technologies.
We would like to welcome you to our Conference as our valuable speaker and present your recent work and ideas of Environmental shotgun sequencing: its potential and challenges for studying the hidden world of microbes. that were published in PLoS Biol.. Please visit our website at http://www.epsglobal.ca and http://www.epswordlink.com for program details.

Montreal International Gene Conference is organized by EPS Global Medical development Inc. Professor Massaro, the editor-in-chief of the journal Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics (CBB) will be present at this event and call for submission of papers in this field. All of the papers presented in the conference may have a chance to be published in a special issue of Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics (CBB).

EPS Global Medical Development Inc. is a Canada-based biomedical consultant agency that promotes continuing academic education, knowledge transfer and scientific exchange through life sciences-oriented conferences. We are delighted to host the EPS Montreal International Gene Conference in Montreal in order to foster and promote excellence in Genetics and Genomics through education and research, and to provide leadership in promoting development of evidence-based clinical genetics and genomics as well as the basic research that supports these clinical advances.

We look forward to meeting you in Montreal and wish you all an enjoyable time.

Warmest regards,
Yao Lu, MD, PhD

Executive Chair of Montreal International Gene Conference 2011
President of EPS Global Medical Development Inc.

They are inviting me to present about a “recent” commentary paper I published in 2007. Umm – no thanks.

Email phishing – does anyone still fall for these? #SPAM

Got this email this AM

from Western Union st104624@ait.ac.th
reply-to westernunion.organization@yahoo.com.hk
to date Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 4:02 AM
subject Dear Customer.
mailed-by ait.ac.th
hide details 4:02 AM (2 hours ago)

Dear Esteemed Customer,
You have been awarded with the sum of $50,000.00 US Dollars
by our office, as one of our customers who use Western
Union in their daily business transaction.
This award was been selected through the internet, where
your e-mail address was indicated and notified. Please
provide Mr. David Palmer with the following details
listed below so that your fund will be remitted to you
through Western Union immediately.
* Full Name:
* Sex: Age:
* Martial Status:
* Nationality:
* Country:
* Direct Address:
* Mobile Number:
* Office Number:
* Occupation:

Just wondering – does anyone still fall for this type of phishing. I mean, some phishing attempts out there are subtle and tricky. This one, however, is not. Anyone know – do these really obvious ones ever work? Or are they just part of the “chatter” that eventually will disappear by natural selection of phishing strategies?

Blog sponsorship spam – no thanks; wonder if this is how Pepsigate started?

Got this one today (see below). Been nice knowing everyone. Will be getting rich soon and will drop this blog like a stone.

Hi my name is Taj Jones and I’m a blog spotter. I basically scour popular blogs in an effort to find great writers. I loved your post on A complete summary, nice job!

I’d like to get straight to the point.

Our client wants people like you to sponsor their products and will pay you to do so.

They’re launching an educational product on September 7th that teaches others how to make money on the internet by using Facebook and Social Media.

We want to pay you for recommending that product to your loyal blog readers and we will pay you up to $200 for each person that you refer. If you make just one sale a day you’re looking at making around $6000 per month.

All you need to do is create a few blog posts that recommend this product. You may also use one of our nice banners and place it on your blog.

It’s pretty simple, takes very little time (10 minutes or so) and will be very rewarding.

All sales that you refer are tracked through your own special link and you will get paid every week. Payments are always on time and will be sent to you via Check.

This deal is totally legitimate and we will NEVER ask you for any fee, or to sign any contracts.

What do you need to do if you are interested?

I have more details, a video and instructions for you here:

(Sorry all, I am not posting the link)

Regards,

Taj Jones

More of the worst conference descriptions ever

Well, I got invited to another conference that is brought to you by the same people who brought us what I thought was possibly the worst conference ever: Science Conference SPAM: ICEME2011 on all of engineering & metaengineering. But amazingly this one is just as bad. Well, actually, these ones – it is two conferences. See http://www.iiis2011.org/imcic/website/default.asp?vc=28 and http://www.iiis2011.org/imcic/website/default.asp?vc=3. I guess I could show you the title of the conference but the web address is informative. I would bet that some other numbers at the end end up being used for other conferences.

Anyway see the letter at the end of this post – it is very similar to the one for the ICEME meeting. The best part is when one goes to the “About the conference” sections. For example see here

CCCT 2011 is an International Conference that will bring together researchers, developers, practitioners, consultants and users of Computer, Communications and Control Technologies, with the aim to serve as a forum to present current and future work, solutions and problems in these fields, as well as in the relationships among them. Consequently, efforts will be done in order to promote and to foster the analogical thinking required by the Systems Approach for interdisciplinary cross-fertilization, “epistemic things” generation and “technical objects” production.

Or even better check out this one here. For example:

Data are a necessary condition for information, but they are not a sufficient one. Human interpretation is required to transform the data into information. As it is known, Bjorn Langefors distinguished ‘data’ and ‘information’ establishing the equation I = i (D, S, T) where I stands for information, i for the interpretation process, D for the data, S for the recipient’s previous knowledge as a result of a personal experience, and T for time. (Johannesson and Söderström, 2008, Information Systems Engineering, p. vi). Details regarding the conceptual differentiation between ‘data’ and ‘information’ can be found in Callaos and Callaos, 2002, “Toward a Systemic Notion of Information: Practical Consequences,” Informing Science Journal, Volume 5 No 1, athttp://www.inform.nu/Articles/Vol5/v5n1p001-011.pdf

Information Systems based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have two basic macro sub-systems: 1) ICT-based electronic data processing and 2) Human (individual, group, or organization) data and information processing. Both sub-systems interact with each other producing cybernetic loops (negative and positive feedback) which if, adequately developed, implemented, and deployed regulate each other and generate a synergic integration, probably with emergent properties in the integrated whole.

And the figure at the bottom is amazing too …

Anyway, here is the latest letter:

Dear J. Eisen:

We invite you to submit a paper/abstract to the joint event of The 17th International Conference on Information Systems Analysis and Synthesis: ISAS 2011 (www.2011iiisconferences.org/ISAS), and The SPRING 9th International Conference on Computing, Communications and Control Technologies: CCCT 2011 (www.2011iiisconferences.org/CCCT) to be held on March 27th – 30th, 2011 in 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 (check the conferences Web sites for possible extensions):

Papers/Abstracts Submission and Invited Session Proposals: September 29th, 2010

Authors Notifications: November 8th, 2010

Camera-ready, full papers: November 29th, 2010

Technical keynote speakers will be selected from early submissions because this selection requires an additional evaluation according to the quality of the paper, assessed by its reviewers, the authors’ CV and the paper’s topic.

Pre-Conference and Post-conference Virtual sessions (via electronic forums) will be held for each session included in the conference program, so that sessions papers can be read before the conference, and authors presenting at the same session can interact during one week before and after the conference. Authors can also participate in peer-to-peer reviewing in virtual sessions.

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.

All Submitted papers/abstracts will go through three reviewing processes: (1) double-blind (at least three reviewers), (2) non-blind, and (3) participative peer reviews. These three kinds of review will support the selection process of those papers/abstracts that will be accepted for their presentation at the conference, as well as those to be selected for their publication in JSCI Journal.

Registration fees of an effective invited session organizer will be waived according to the policy described in the web page (click on ‘Invited Session’, then on ‘Benefits for the Organizers of Invited Sessions’), where you can get information about the ten benefits for an invited session organizer. For Invited Sessions Proposals, please visit the conference web site, or directly to http://www.2011iiisconferences.org/isas/organizer.asp

Authors of the best 10%-20% of the papers presented at the conference (included those virtually presented) will be invited to adapt their papers for their publication in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, with no additional processing cost.

Best regards,

ISAS/CCCT 2011 Organizing Committees

If you wish to be removed from this mailing list, please send an email to remove@mail.2011iiisconferences.org with REMOVE MLCONFERENCES in the subject line. Address: Torre Profesional La California, Av. Francisco de Miranda, Caracas, Venezuela.

Science Conference SPAM: ICEME2011 on all of engineering & metaengineering

Well this one really really takes the cake. I got an email today that I think I simply have to post the entire thing because of its awesomeness:

Dear J. Eisen:

We invite you to submit a paper/abstract to The 2nd International Conference on Engineering and Meta-Engineering: ICEME 2011 (March 27th – 30th, 2011 – Orlando, Florida, USA): http://www.2011iiisconferences.org/ICEME. 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 ICEME 2011:
Papers/Abstracts Submission and Invited Session Proposals: September 22nd, 2010
Authors Notifications: November 22nd, 2010
Camera-ready, full papers: December 15th, 2010

Technical keynote speakers will be selected from early submissions because this selection requires an additional evaluation according to the quality of the paper, assessed by its reviewers, the authors’ CV and the paper’s topic. All Submitted papers/abstracts will go through three reviewing processes: (1) double-blind (at least three reviewers), (2) non-blind, and (3) participative peer reviews. These three kinds of review will support the selection process of those papers/abstracts that will be accepted for their presentation at the conference, as well as those to be selected for their publication in JSCI Journal.

Pre-Conference and Post-conference Virtual sessions (via electronic forums) will be held for each session included in the conference program, so that sessions papers can be read before the conference, and authors presenting at the same session can interact during one week before and after the conference. Authors can also participate in peer-to-peer reviewing in virtual sessions

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

Authors of accepted papers who registered in the conference can have access to the evaluations and possible feedback provided by the reviewers who recommended the acceptance of their papers/abstracts, so they can accordingly improve the final version of their papers. Non-registered authors will not have access to the reviews of their respective submissions.

Registration fees of an effective invited session organizer will be waived according to the policy described in the web page (click on ‘Invited Session’, then on ‘Benefits for the Organizers of Invited Sessions’), where you can get information about the ten benefits for an invited session organizer. For Invited Sessions Proposals, please visit the conference web site, or directly to http://www.2011iiisconferences.org/iceme/organizer.asp
Authors of the best 10%-20% of the papers presented at the conference (included those virtually presented) will be invited to adapt their papers for their publication in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics.
Best regards, ICEME 2011 Organizing Committee

There are so many parts of this that are incredible. Like that it covers all of Engineering and Meta-engineering (whatever that is) in one conference. And that authors CV will be used to decide if submissions are accepted. And that all papers will be reviewed by three distinct review processes including double blind and non blind.

But the best, by far and away the best, comes when you go to the conference site. I dare ANYONE to try and read the beginning description out loud to someone else without laughing:

Purpose

Engineering and Meta-Engineering is what synergistically relate Science and Industry. Two cybernetic loops are based on an adequate combination of different kinds of knowledge creation and two other cybernetic loops related to wealth creation. Both creations are produced by Engineering and Meta-Engineering which synergistically bridge Science and Industry/Business. Details regarding this issue can be found at http://www.iiis.org/Engineering-and-

Meta-Engineering

Consequently, the purpose of the ICEME 2011 Organizing Committee is to bring together researchers and professionals from the Academic, Industrial and Public sectors with Engineering and Meta-Engineering problems and/or solutions and/or technological innovations in order to share their knowledge and experience in the context of a Multi- and Inter-Disciplinary forum.

The site then goes on to define meta-engineering. I could post it all here but the site has some nice figures to look at too. This is the best example of Conference SCAMs/SPAM that I have yet seen, and I have seen a lot.

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