Researchers are fighting back against a mysterious conference organizer and an arbitration court that may not exist
When Björn Johansson received an email in July 2020 inviting him to speak at an online debate on COVID-19 modeling, he didn’t think twice. “I was interested in the topic and I agreed to participate,” says Johansson, a medical doctor and researcher at the Karolinska Institute. “I thought it was going to be an ordinary academic seminar. It was an easy decision for me.”
This Science piece is a salutary lesson to ignore predatory conference invites. Participating can harm your reputation as a researcher and can also harm the credibility of the theory/insight that you will be presenting about. As this piece discusses, it can also financially cost you. Even if you believe you recognise the event, it pays to do some research to confirm the bonafides of the event.
Johansson isn’t alone. Dozens of researchers participated in the same series of online conferences on COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 and many have received demands for payment from Villa Europa. At least five are being pursued through courts in their own countries for fees of tens of thousands of euros, although several researchers are fighting back.
But the case is peppered with puzzling circumstances. In court filings and interviews, the researchers say the demands are illegitimate and based on deceptive license agreements. Little is known about the individuals who organized the conferences. And many of the demands hinge on the ruling of a Polish arbitration court whose very existence has been questioned by experts in the country.
