Update: Frontiers has an email specifically for research integrity concerns. I just forwarded this to them. If the person is real, maybe they've already bought their way onto a few articles and Frontiers can find them.
Hi All,
I got this really weird email. One way or another, it is bad news and I am not going to respond to it. It reads like the opening of a scam, in which case it is bad and highly illegal. There is also a part of me that wonders if the person is serious, in which case I am concerned that there may actually be a wider problem with people buying authorships. The email doesn't trace back to any institution I can find and I Googled the supposed "name" of the person who sent it and couldn't find a record of them as a faculty member or published psychologist anywhere. Should I contact the journal in question in case someone is buying authorships and let them handle it or should I assume this is the academic version of a Nigerian Prince scam and that they'll ultimately end up asking dumb/unscrupulous academics for Amazon gift cards to be reimbursed? Weirdly, I am less worried about the later than I am about the former. Here is the body of the email:
"Dear Professor!
to greet!
Sorry to bother you!
I want to publish some papers in " Frontiers in Psychology". Can you help me? I can provide a thank you fee!
For example, I will give you a $2000 thank you fee for helping me write articles. For example, if you add my name to your article, I will give you a $1000 thank you fee. Or I can help you pay for APC.
I know this email is presumptuous, but my friends and I need to publish dozens of papers every year. If you can help me, we can cooperate for a long time. I'm not kidding, I'm very sincere!
If you are offended, please forgive me!
Look forward to your reply!"
The best way is to ignore this offer. It is probably a "serious" one, i.e. someone really offers payment for authorship. See also this discussion about a similar business model (paying for citations): https://www.researchgate.net/post/New_scam_Do_you_want_to_be_paid_to_cite_others_research
See also this discussion about various kinds of scientific misconduct: https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_big_of_a_problem_is_scientific_misconduct. I have added your question as another example.
Thanks for sharing those discussion posts. This is pretty disturbing stuff, but it is important to be aware of it. The original email definitely took me off guard.
I don’t think this is real. I got the very same email but for Frontiers in Plant Science. The guy cannot be interested in publishing in fields they are not related, such as Plant Science and Psycology.
Perhaps this is a part of a research study to see scientist behavior in situations like this. I googled the guy who signed the email and it seems to be working on data analysis, at least that would fit with my hypothesis lol. It would be good to answer to see where it gets to… but I am not willing to loss my time on that..
I received the same email with a difference:
Therefore it seems to be an automated email. I don't understand the reason but does not deserve my time.
Hi All,
It seems that Frontiers are scammers favorite.
Below is my version of the same text.
Regards,
Jerzy
=========
Dear Professor!
to greet!
Sorry to bother you!
I want to publish some papers in " Frontiers in Chemistry". Can you help me? I can provide a thank you fee!
For example, I will give you a $2000 thank you fee for helping me write articles. For example, if you add my name to your article, I will give you a $1000 thank you fee. Or I can help you pay for APC.
I know this email is presumptuous, but my friends and I need to publish dozens of papers every year. If you can help me, we can cooperate for a long time. I'm not kidding, I'm very sincere!
If you are offended, please forgive me!
Look forward to your reply!
Warmly Wishes,
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