[Christmas article. Scientific spam]

Predatory publishing has led to an increasing amount of scientific spam mails addressed to medical researchers. This study aimed at characterising this spam further.

Prospective study of spam received during a three-month-period.

A total of 137 spam e-mails with scientific contents were received. The majority (88%) was automatically led to the spam filter. The mails represented various invitations from journals (77%), conferences (19%) and other (4%). Most of the mails used titles, had opening lines or flattery contents, and spelling, grammar or layout errors were common.

Since spam filters are not completely accurate, screening is often necessary, however, responding to unsolicited predatory scientific spam should be avoided.