2022 Volume 13 Issue 2 Pages 81-91
There has been an increase in academic spam e‐mails (ASEs) that invite people to submit manuscripts or attend conferences across the world. The fees they ask for processing articles and participating in the associations are high, and many of the organizations do not have decent review systems; however, the current status of ASEs in the fields of rehabilitation and welfare is unknown. One of the purposes of this manuscript is to perceive the current situation of ASEs that have invaded the field of speech‐language‐hearing therapy (ST) so that speech‐language‐hearing therapists (SLHTs) can strengthen their understanding and recognition of the current situation. We asked 58 SLHTs about their awareness of ASEs, their number of years of experience, and whether or not they have attended academic conferences or published manuscripts, and we also collected and analyzed the ASEs sent to the SLHTs for a prospective cohort study.
The results showed that about 80 % of SLHTs did not even know of the existence of ASEs, and it was shown that this tendency is common among those who have little clinical experience and did not have the opportunity to present research at academic conferences or to publish manuscripts. In addition, some SLHTs accept offers from 1232 ASEs in one year. They are not only troublesome, but we should also pay attention to the tendency from the perspective of their development in the ST field. We considered that it is necessary that the existence and threat of ASEs is widely recognized, and we also have to provide education and alerts for them as soon as possible in the ST field.
