More than 1000 international scientific conferences per year
The scientific conference is a strength for universities, higher institutes, and research centers in academic classification.
Critics of Arab scientific conferences: Fake research centers and profit-making conference-organizing institutions
Published by the site all conference alert More than 300 scientific conferences are being held in the new year 2019, with conferences varying according to specialization, occasion, and sponsoring bodies.
The English-language website covers approximately 134 countries, including 12 Arab countries, in 10 major fields of expertise: economics and business administration, education, health and medicine, engineering and technology, mathematics and statistics, law, religious studies, social and human sciences, physics, and life sciences.
These conferences are divided into three types based on geographical coverage and availability: national, regional, and international. In terms of funding for researchers and their attendance at the conference venue, there are two types: free and paid. This includes airfare, hotel and food expenses, and conference registration fees, as is the case at major universities and higher institutes worldwide.
All scientific conferences require the submission of a research paper at least three months before the deadline. Selection is then conducted, usually within three months, after which accepted papers are invited to present their research papers at the conference. This is in contrast to a scientific symposium, which can be attended without submitting a research paper. Early registration is required to reserve a seat among the symposium attendees.
Conferences are held to commemorate a specific occasion, such as World Arabic Language Day, World Environment Day, etc. They may also be held as international competitions, such as scientific conferences held at Saudi universities. They may also ultimately take the form of a collaborative workshop between several universities or within the same university.
Universities and higher institutes officially seek to actively participate in these conferences, which are held at the official level. This increases their standing in monthly international academic rankings, such as the Shanghai, QS, and Thomson Reuters, which rely on the volume of research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Scientific conferences, along with scientific seminars, postdoctoral fellowships, and graduate research grants, are all forms of strengthening universities' scientific research, which is a benchmark for progress and development in all countries.
Many institutions have been established around the world that are concerned with organizing scientific conferences and exhibitions in contracts with universities and higher institutes. On the other hand, independent research centers have been established that also organize conferences, but some of them are fictitious, according to a report prepared by the magazine... Arab Geographical Sciences The court issued a decision in Tunisia entitled (So that scientific conferences do not turn into corrupt trade).
Conference organizing institutions have faced harsh criticism for being the reason for the transformation of conferences from the scientific side to the profit side. In an article by Dr. Khaled Al-Hulaibi (from Saudi Arabia) - the general supervisor of Counselor's website - He says:
In the past, the purpose of scientific conferences was to present scientific information and scientific research, and the findings of researchers, and the participant, I won't say he is paid a price for that, but at least the participating scientific research is selected, and the inviting party takes care of accommodation and other things, and after that the distinguished scientific work is honored... Today, however, we (especially Arabs) have moved to a material shift that has nothing to do with science at all. Rather, how much will I gain financially from being invited to a scientific conference? Thus, we have institutions that hold conferences as if they are scientific in exchange for a subscription. I wish it was symbolic, even commercial. What I recently learned about it has reached ($1000) per person, and the reason is that it is for the bag for the conference, and some expenses such as: a meal or coffee. So fear God in science, oh merchants... Where are we going and where are we heading, while we see that science has become a profitable business? And who is the buyer, unfortunately? From the naive people in minds! And I say it frankly: Yes, naive minds, now we cannot lie and claim and say that we have certificates or have become scholars or have been invited to conferences as we used to do in the past, so we must expect that there will be someone who asks about these fake certificates and courses, and now commercial conferences accept what is submitted to them in exchange for the money that will be obtained from participants in such commercial conferences which have lost their scientific name.
In Egypt, academics expressed their dissatisfaction with the deviation of scientific conferences from their academic objectives, and that they have become more like a media appearance intended to gain fame, amid the absence of scientific conference topics such as discussions and dialogue sessions, despite the presence of 363 research centers in Egypt. These conferences, estimated at hundreds annually, have not produced any innovation. Drugs for diseases prevalent in Egypt According to one academic's opinion in his statement to the newspaper: Egyptian pyramids In early November 2018.
Are we witnessing a solution from universities and higher institutes to this dilemma that has become a source of concern for researchers, or is commerce continuing unchecked at the expense of science?
