'Fake' sport and tourism conferences scheduled for Sydney and Melbourne

A series of academic and industry conferences on topics including sport science, analytics and tourism, scheduled to take place in Australia in the next few months, are likely to be fake events organised to exploit researchers’ need to share and publish their research.

Organised by Turkish-based WASET (World Academy of Science Engineering and Technology), the events have been described by The Japan Times as “predatory conferences”. They work on a model that researchers and academic institutions will pay to be included in conference programs where their work will be published, helping to enhance their professional reputation and academic tenure.

WASET also publish peer reviewed journals with a similar user pays model.

While organisations including the Max Planck Society and Stop Predatory Journals have listed WASET as a "potential, possible, or probable" predatory publisher, in 2015 the University of Toronto released a "scam advisory" about a purported conference on their premises advertised by WASET.

Having been active internationally for at least a decade, the business has recently included Australia in its schedule, with Australasian Leisure Management aware of the following conferences scheduled for the first three months of the year:

• International Conference on Applied Sport Science, 28th and 29th January - Sydney

• Creative Tourism and Local People Conference, 30th and 31st January - Sydney

• Tourism Industry and Economic Development Conference, 30th and 31st January - Sydney

• International Conference on International Sport Laws and Sport Analytics, 1st and 2nd February - Melbourne

• International Conference on Anthropometry in Sport Science, 25th and 26th February - Sydney

• International Conference on Sport and Exercise Science, 29th and 30th March - Sydney

While most WASET events are in Europe and the Americas, among more than 300,000 WASET conferences arranged each year (more than 800 a day) it also has events scheduled for Japan, Saudi Arabia and Thailand during 2023.

Largely presented digitally, a presentation method aided by the conferences of all types being presented in that format during the pandemic, the conferences are low-quality, with anyone able to present a paper by simply paying the registration fee.

In further comment on their value, a 2016 article in The Japan Times advised “these conferences are inferior events that contribute little to the field of academic knowledge but generate plenty of revenue for organisers’ bank accounts.

“Academics, some simply naive but others willingly participating, risk hurting their wallets and reputations by presenting at such conferences and helping to organise them.”

Despite its lack of credibility, Predatory Publishing estimated that over a six-year period WASET generated between US$9.6 million and US$12.3 million from its conferences.

While based in the Turkish city of Istanbul, WASET is registered in Azerbaijan.

Image: A WASET page promoting an upcoming Sydney conference (top) and a selection of WASAT conferences scheduled for late January 2023 (below).