What are predatory journals/publishers and conferences?
Predatory publishers use questionable tactics to profit from scientific research and do not follow the best practices promoted by professional scholarly publishing organizations. They exploit faculty, post-docs, and students by soliciting articles (often using aggressive tactics through spam emails to solicit submission) and request article processing charges without the editorial and publishing services associated with legitimate journals. Additionally they usually lack transparency about article processing charges and fail to disclose this information to authors until after submission; have inaccurate statements about editorial board membership; and often have a misleading or suspicious peer-review processes. More information.
Predatory conferences work much like predatory journals; they are set up to appear like legitimate scientific conferences. These conferences charge high registration fees and are focused on profit over scholarly communication. Like predatory journals, they use spam email tactics to promote their events and may even advertise prominent speakers who have not committed to present. Often they also offer publication in one of their journals for those presenting. More information.