# I'm a co-author of a journal article
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 4, 2022, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937 "2022-05-04T13:42:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/1 "2022-05-04T13:42:00Z")
I’m pretty excited about it. There are 9 co-authors of this paper and the primary did about 90% of the writing, but there are 1 or 2 sentences of mine in it!
So an odd thing. Ever since it came out I’ve been getting requests to submit papers to a wide variety of journals. Some related to my field some not. They read like the Nigerian Prince scam of journals. Also they have obviously scanned my name and not looked at it, as well as adding an unearned title. So if my name was Robert Jones it starts
_Dear Dr. Jones Robert_
_Greetings…!!_
_We honestly request you to be a part in the success of our Journal of Ecology & Natural Resources (JENR) ISSN: 2578-4994; IF: 2.454 which can be done only with your support._
Anybody else experience this?
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### Author:  [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/2 "2022-05-04T13:47:21Z")
Congratulations! It is a major accomplishment.
And yes, you will now get a TON of emails from predatory conferences and journals. Some of them are comically bad, like your example, some of them look much more legit so be careful. I get about six invites a day to be the keynote speaker at some conference not remotely related to my work. And a dozen invitations to submit follow up work. Fortunately the majority gets caught up by the spam filter.
But once again, congratulations on the publication! Now go do it again. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/3 "2022-05-04T14:02:06Z")
Thanks!
Fortunately I’m not in a “publish or perish” type of career.
Makes me wonder what other scams are out there for various careers.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/4 "2022-05-04T14:21:58Z")
As an undergraduate I worked in a neurophysiology lab. I worked hard and enjoyed my time there. As a thank-you the guy I worked for listed me as coauthor of a paper in _Brain Research_. I was so excited seeing my work published.
I received a package of complimentary copies of the article and immediately began showing it to friends. Unfortunately, none of my friends got further than the title before admitting they had no idea what it said.
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### Author:  [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/5 "2022-05-04T14:41:30Z")
Congrats! That’s a feather in your cap.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/6 "2022-05-04T14:57:10Z")
> [@Kelevra](#):
>
> So an odd thing. Ever since it came out I’ve been getting requests to submit papers to a wide variety of journals. Some related to my field some not. They read like the Nigerian Prince scam of journals. Also they have obviously scanned my name and not looked at it, as well as adding an unearned title. So if my name was Robert Jones it starts
>
> _Dear Dr. Jones Robert_
> _Greetings…!!_
> _We honestly request you to be a part in the success of our Journal of Ecology & Natural Resources (JENR) ISSN: 2578-4994; IF: 2.454 which can be done only with your support._
>
> Anybody else experience this?
1.) Congratulations! May you co-author many more articles! May you go on to solo-author even more of them!
2.) I get those all the time. Even if the source of the e-mail didn’t look untrustworthy, the mismatch between the topic of my article and the ostensible subject matter of their journal is enough to set off warning bells. “Really? I wrote this piece about some esoteric optics and you want me to write something for your biochemical journal? Why?” Ignore these people. Also ignore the people trying to get you to buy a copy of “Who’s Who” just because your name is in it.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/7 "2022-05-04T19:58:00Z")
The wonderful thing about your name on a journal article is that it is forever. You’ll be in every database on your field and wider ones like Google Scholar. It’s a permanent mark of distinction. Wear it proudly.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2022, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/8 "2022-05-04T22:43:44Z")
Huh, I have a couple of papers to my name, too, and I never got any of those emails. We did get a fair number of “Einstein was wrong and I’ve proven it now give me my Noble Prize!”, though.
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/9 "2022-05-05T00:19:06Z")
Oh God, I get several such emails every day. From journals that often have absolutely nothing to do with math (Obesity Studies, anyone?) I think these journals require submission fees, although some claim not to. I have no idea what scam the latter are pursuing. Maybe there are “page charges” once the paper is “refereed”.
I might mention that page charges were once common because math was extremely expensive to typeset. Now that authors typeset their own papers, page charges have disappeared for legitimate journals.
Once your name gets onto these mailing lists, you are there for life. I think I haven’t published a paper for five years and they all come to an email address I haven’t used in five years, but still forwards to me.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/10 "2022-05-05T00:34:01Z")
It is just spam. Like any spam, you would not be seeing it if you had a (good) spam filter.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2022, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/11 "2022-05-05T00:40:23Z")
I’ve never had any of those “offers”. I guess Canadian legal journals aren’t on their target lists.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2022, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/12 "2022-05-18T06:54:35Z")
I got my name on a research paper back in the day even though I was just a lowly summer intern mixing up batches of TAE buffer and struggling with polyacrylamide gels. I thought it was neat to be included.
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2022, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/13 "2022-05-18T08:30:17Z")
So what’s your [Erdős number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s_number)?
I think I figured out back in the day that my Erdős number is 4. (It helps that I have a mathematician as co-author.)
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/14 "2022-05-18T20:39:34Z")
My Erdös number is 2. I have a joint paper with a colleague who published a joint paper with Erdös while a student in Hungary.
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2022, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/15 "2022-05-19T04:24:12Z")
Wow. You certainly live up to your fictional namesake.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2022, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/16 "2022-05-19T05:49:57Z")
Congratulations!
I used to get “invitations” from pay to publish conference all the time.
You might remember a while ago some people from MIT wrote a paper generator, and they got their generated paper in a conference. But it was one of those conferences so it wasn’t quite the great achievement the press made it out to be.
I have a column, and after I wrote on on Internet of Things - humorous - I got flooded with request for me to write a book on it.
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### Author:  [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2025, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/17 "2025-04-03T13:20:46Z")
Three years later I’m still getting these. Per the advice above I have ignored them. But today’s struck my funny bone.
# Special Invitation: Inflammation 2025
Dear Researcher,
I have thoroughly reviewed your research titled “ **TITLE** ”, and I am confident that your work would greatly benefit our attendees at the International Meeting on Inflammation and Regenerative Medicine. This event will be held on **June 12-13, 2025** , in the beautiful city of **Rome, Italy**.
The paper I’m a part of had to do with harmful algae blooms. And despite what is in the invite I can assure you the title of the paper is not “ **TITLE** ”!
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/18 "2025-04-03T14:44:58Z")
> [@Kelevra](#):
>
> Three years later I’m still getting these. Per the advice above I have ignored them. But today’s struck my funny bone.
I get these all the time. What really gets me is that the journal or conference I’m asked to contribute to is comically unrelated to my original article(s)
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/19 "2025-04-03T15:09:53Z")
> [@Kelevra](#):
>
> Three years later I’m still getting these. Per the advice above I have ignored them. But today’s struck my funny bone.
>
> # Special Invitation: Inflammation 2025
>
> Dear Researcher,
>
> I have thoroughly reviewed your research titled “ **TITLE** ”, and I am confident that your work would greatly benefit our attendees at the International Meeting on Inflammation and Regenerative Medicine. This event will be held on **June 12-13, 2025** , in the beautiful city of **Rome, Italy**.
>
> The paper I’m a part of had to do with harmful algae blooms. And despite what is in the invite I can assure you the title of the paper is not “ **TITLE** ”!
Registration for presenters at this conference is $699. But, surely such a trivial amount (in addition to travel and hotel expenses) is well worth it to get your work on algal blooms brought to the attention of Regenerative Medicos.
> **[Conference Program |Inflammation 2025 | Inflammation conferences 2025|...](https://scisynopsisconferences.com/inflammation/program-schedule)**
>
> The scientific program of the International conference on Inflammation, scheduled in Rome, Italy from12-13 june,2025
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2025, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-co-author-of-a-journal-article/963937/20 "2025-04-04T00:33:28Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> Registration for presenters at this conference is $699. But, surely such a trivial amount (in addition to travel and hotel expenses) is well worth it to get your work on algal blooms brought to the attention of Regenerative Medicos.
I’m on the Steering Committee of a real conference, and that is not an unreasonable registration fee. It not being real is the problem.
I have a column in a journal, with half my columns being humor. It was always fun to get invitations like these for my jokes. I think my spam filter has learned to get rid of them, haven’t seen one for years.
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