[Corpora-List] WORLDCOMP Strikes Again for the Last Time

Thu Mar 14 16:03:51 UTC 2013

I've been working with clients for some time to help develop analytical
metrics to identify bogus research and dubious claims in the media and both
the trade and scientific press. It's been a bit of an obsession ever since
I worked as a knowledge officer and lead developer of search and retrieval
tools for NewsEdge a decade ago. As pretty much anyone on this list is
aware, current querying systems tend to generate silos of disinformation as
well as reliable information, and has resulted in piles of pseudoscientific
data that have been used to buttress bogus claims about everything from
macroeconomics to climate change. 
I'm painfully aware of the degree to which intellectual snake oil salesmen
and the PR departments of certain industries have ginned up fake
conferences and policy groups to disseminate garbage into the public
discourse. I fully appreciate why members of the scientific and technical
community are tempted to take extreme measures to out such characters. That
said, I think that one needs to appreciate that when people use ethically
dubious methods to "out" these guys, it tends to damage the value that can
be reliably assigned to their legitimate research. Moreover the phony stuff
has a way of entering the public domain along with the real research. 
I'm completely okay with Chris's trashing WORLDCOMP if they need trashing
and I'm sympathetic to his outrage that bogus conferences and research
groups are allowed to continue unimpeded for years.  However, any objective
set of analytical tools  applied to WORLDCOMP's body of submitted papers
and a review of their business operations ought to do that quite
effectively. I am not at all sold on the idea that one needs to jump off
the ethical cliff along with the people one is trying to expose, especially
if they are self proclaimed vigilantes publishing web pages whose claims I
cannot independently verify. It's also worth noting that ideologically
driven "investigators" have frequently reverted to these kind of tactics
(use of fake papers, fake identification other misrepresentation) to set of
traps in order to trash legitimate research focused on health care policy,
the environment, and law enforcement among other subjects. That should
serve as a caution contemplating use of such tactics, no matter how
idealistic their motivation.  

 On Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:15:18 +0100, Leon Derczynski <leon at dcs.shef.ac.uk>
wrote:
> Dear Jack,
> 
> This brief test could perhaps be considered unethical in that it wastes
> peer-reviewer time (assuming any is allocated), but one must
occasionally
> watch the watchers and evaluate review processes. Besides, such
activities
> have generated much discourse in the past (some of it even fruitful):
> 
> - regarding editorial bias and obfuscatory language;
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair
> 
> - regarding spotting re-submissions in ostensibly prestigious journals;
> http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/40164010 (Peters & Ceci)
> 
> There's a cost for evaluating review procedures, of course, though in
cases
> where rumours abound (e.g. WORLDCOMP), data is especially valuable. In
this
> case, I think perhaps the only "pollution" of the stream of research -
> particularly given that these authors did not publish their nonsense
> manuscripts - is that introduced by the venue.
> 
> All the best,
> 
> 
> Leon
> 
> 
> 
> On 14 March 2013 15:34, Jack Bryar <bryar at vermontel.net> wrote:
> 
>> ????
>> You submitted the same paper 2 years in a row?
>> You claim to have placed before the conference a paper with basic
>> fundamental errors-- on PURPOSE?
>> And this was ethical--- how exactly?
>> Chris- I don't know if you are the same fellow that works at Sykes or
>> some
>> other smaller IT firm, but whatever the problems are at WORLDCOMP ---
>> --- and I've seen the websites claiming it is all a scam --
>> https://sites.google.com/site/worlddump1/
>>
>>
http://crappyconferences.blogspot.com/2013/01/if-you-didnt-know-already-worldcomp-is.html
>>
>>
http://iaria-highsci.blogspot.com/2012/03/intimidation-attempts-prove-that.html
>> --- and I'm aware of WORLDCOMP's rather sketchy - even nonexistent
>> sponsorship
>> I'm not sure that intentionally distributing garbage research is ever
>> justified ethically. In an era when even satirical press releases get
>> treated as legitimate news, intentionally polluting the stream of
>> research
>> can only add to the fog of disinformation that complicates rational
>> discussions of so many technical and scientific topics.
>>
>> Jack Bryar
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:34:25 -0400 (EDT), chrisrogersrogers at aol.com
>> wrote:
>> > I graduated from University of Florida (UFL) and am currently running
a
>> > computer firm in Florida. I have attended WORLDCOMP
>> > http://www.world-academy-of-science.org  in 2010. Except for few
>> > keynote
>> > speeches and presentations, the conference was very disappointing due
>> > to
>> a
>> > large number of poor quality papers and cancellation of some
sessions.
>> > I
>> > was instantly suspicious of this conference.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Me and my UFL and UGA friends started a study on WORLDCOMP. We
>> > submitted
>> a
>> > paper to WORLDCOMP 2011 and again (the same paper with a modified
>> > title)
>> to
>> > WORLDCOMP 2012. This paper had numerous fundamental mistakes. Sample
>> > statements from that paper include:
>> > (1). Binary logic is fuzzy logic and vice versa
>> > (2). Pascal developed fuzzy logic
>> > (3). Object oriented languages do not exhibit any polymorphism or
>> > inheritance
>> > (4). TCP and IP are synonyms and are part of OSI model
>> > (5). Distributed systems deal with only one computer
>> > (6). Laptop is an example for a super computer
>> > (7). Operating system is an example for computer hardware
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Also, our paper did not express any conceptual meaning.  However, it
>> > was
>> > accepted both the times without any modifications (and without any
>> reviews)
>> > and we were invited to submit the final paper and a payment of $500+
>> > fee
>> to
>> > present the paper. We decided to use the fee for better purposes than
>> > making Prof. Hamid Arabnia (Chairman of WORLDCOMP) rich. After that,
we
>> > received few reminders from WORLDCOMP to pay the fee but we never
>> > responded.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > We MUST say that you should look at the website
>> > http://sites.google.com/site/worlddump1   if you have any thoughts to
>> > submit a paper to WORLDCOMP.  DBLP and other indexing agencies have
>> stopped
>> > indexing WORLDCOMP’s proceedings since 2011 due to its fakeness.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > The status of your WORLDCOMP papers can be changed from “scientific”
>> > to
>> > “other” (i.e., junk or non-technical) at anytime. See the comments
>> > http://www.mail-archive.com/tccc@lists.cs.columbia.edu/msg05168.html 
>> > of
>> a
>> > respected researcher on this. Better not to have a paper than having
it
>> in
>> > WORLDCOMP and spoil the resume and peace of mind forever!
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Our study revealed that WORLDCOMP is a money making business, using
UGA
>> > mask, for Prof. Hamid Arabnia. He is throwing out a small chunk of
that
>> > money (around 20 dollars per paper published in WORLDCOMP’s
>> > proceedings)
>> to
>> > his puppet who publicizes WORLDCOMP and also defends it at various
>> forums,
>> > using fake/anonymous names. The puppet uses fake names and defames
>> > other
>> > conferences/people to divert traffic to WORLDCOMP. That is, the
puppet
>> does
>> > all his best to get a maximum number of papers published at WORLDCOMP
>> > to
>> > get more money into his (and Prof. Hamid Arabnia’s) pockets.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Monte Carlo Resort (the venue of WORLDCOMP until 2012) has refused to
>> > provide the venue for WORLDCOMP’13 because of the fears of their
image
>> > being tarnished due to WORLDCOMP’s fraudulent activities.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > WORLDCOMP will not be held after 2013.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > The paper submission deadline for WORLDCOMP’13 is March 18, 2013 (it
>> will
>> > be extended many times, as usual) but still there are no committee
>> members,
>> > no reviewers, and there is no conference Chairman. The only contact
>> details
>> > available on WORLDCOMP’s website is just an email address!
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > What bothers us the most is that Prof. Hamid Arabnia never posted an
>> > apology for the damage he has done to the research community.  He is
>> still
>> > trying to defend WORLDCOMP. Let us make a direct request to him:
>> > publish
>> > all reviews for all the papers (after blocking identifiable details)
>> since
>> > 2000 conference. Reveal the names and affiliations of all the
reviewers
>> > (for each year) and how many papers each reviewer had reviewed on
>> average.
>> > We also request him to look at the Open Challenge at
>> > http://sites.google.com/site/dumpconf
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > We think that it is our professional obligation to spread this
message
>> to
>> > alert the computer science community. Sorry for posting to multiple
>> lists.
>> > Spreading the word is the only way to stop this bogus conference.
>> > Please
>> > forward this message to other mailing lists and people.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > We are shocked with Prof. Hamid Arabnia and his puppet’s activities
>> > http://worldcomp-fake-bogus.blogspot.com  Search Google using the
>> keywords
>> > “worldcomp, fake” for additional links.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Sincerely,
>> > Chris
>>
>>
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