Is it a "spamnal"? I just received the following email invitation:
Dear Professor, Editors/Associate Editors are required in the fields of computer science for the journal “Antarctica Journal of Mathematics”. Are you willing to join as an editor/associate editor for the journal “ANTARCTICA JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICS”?At first, this seems like a flattering invitation. But, why the Antarctica journal of math? Are there many mathematicians in Antarctica? Or does this journal focus on math issues of relevance to Antarctica (perhaps global climate change)? Then I looked at the "To:" and "Cc:" lines of the email. There were addresses for folks at various universities, but my address was nowhere to be found. This, of course, is one of the hallmarks of spam. A quick check on google revealed a brief posting at the Annals of Improbable Research blog and a brief LiveJournal discussion suggesting that maybe the use of Antarctica was a marketing ploy. There's also the journal's web site, at a free web hosting service, which I'll not link to. There was one issue of the journal in 2004 and two in 2005. Most of the publications are from India, and in fact a large percentage are from people associated with the journal. The overall site design follows the "use lots of colors" philosophy. I think I'll pass on this opportunity. But if Science or Nature needs editors, I'd be happy to entertain an invitation.
And in the world of print-on-demand books, there should be a word for spam books. I was first flattered to get an invitation to contribute to a book, but soon I found out that they charged the authors $110 per page! Here's my reply.
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