am I the only one who is disturbed by this?

[jrtom]

I just got an email from the organizers of an academic/professional conference in the field of social network analysis. The gist is that they have too many abstracts for the amount of time that they have, and are therefore trying to figure out what to drop.

In this email, we find the following gem:

It is likely that we will drop some papers from the program because they aren't about social networks, they don't make sense, they have obviously been lifted from the internet, or for some other reason that convinced us that they don't belong on the program.

Now, I realize that this conference has never claimed to have a formal peer review process for inclusion in the program; it's a conference to which one can bring work in progress, and generally work of a speculative nature. I'm generally fine with that; there's a place for such conferences, and I'm glad this one exists. Heck, I presented there last year and probably would be doing so this year if I had more time.

But I mean, seriously, have the organizers not at least been doing the minimal checking required to filter out papers that aren't about social networks, or don't make sense? (I guess this would be the "hemorrhaging edge" . . . . )

Comments

Losers.

[fdmts.livejournal.com]

One would hope that there was some humor to their announcement.

Having been to more than a couple of conferences ... one knows that there is also a grain of truth in there.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

OMG!