Sunday, November 11, 2018

Bioscope Group

Conferences and courses from Bioscope could be the product of enterprising faculty in Lisbon. Their motto is "at the forefront of science," and they sell books of abstracts (for 200 Euros) from past conferences. They also publish a Journal of Integrated OMICS (JIOMICS), which consists largely of "selected abstracts" from their conferences on such subjects as "Urine OMICS." The "editorial team" on the website is a blank page.

UPDATE (17 Sept. 2019): The website of the journal now lists two editors at www.jiomics.com/index.php/jio/about/editorialTeam. In response to an email from the first editor, Jose Luis Capelo Martinez, I have made changes to the original posting. The most significant is the removal of a statement on the absence of any abstracts on forensic science in the "1st International Caparica Conference On Translational Forensics (FORENSICS 2017), Vol 7, No 1 (2017), Jun 2017 ISSN 2182-0287." The abstracts can be found on pages 54-110 of Issue 2. Additional email with Dr. Martinez confirms that the Bioscope conferences are the work of bona fide academics.
Email
  • From: José Luis Capelo Martínez [jlcm.courses@bioscopegroup.org]
    Date: 11/9/18 6:26 AM, and 11/12/18 at 11:28 AM
    Subject: Professor Capelo. Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal.
    Dear Dr. Kaye, D.H.,
    I hope this email finds you well.
    1.- This is to kindly inform you that we are organizing the 2019 Bioscope Winter Courses in February, in Caparica (Lisbon, Portugal), as follows: February 18th-20th 2019 X Hands-on course in ultrafast sample treatment for proteomics February 25th-27th 2019 IX Hands-on course in sample preparation using nanoparticles for proteomics
    2.- The course is 80% hands-on in the laboratory and 20% theory. Further information is appended bellow.
    3.- The cost is 460 euros/person. Groups with 2/3 persons have a 10% discount. Groups with 4 or more persons have a 20% discount. We have managed a hotel (4 stars) by just 60 euros night with breakfast included. In addition, there is a direct tram communication with the University.
    I would like to kindly ask you to talk your PhD students and young doctors about the course
    More information is available at the Bioscope Group Website: ...
    If you have any question, please do not hesitate in contacting me at your convenience: + 351 919404933.
    We would like to kindly ask you to divulge this information among your colleagues and students.
    We hope hearing from you soon.
    Thank you very much for your attention and kindest regards,
    J. L. Capelo, PhD, MSc, FRSC
    Carlos Lodeiro, PhD, MSc, FRSC

4 comments:

  1. Estimated sir,

    I can not understand why you lie. I really hope this is just a confusion.

    You say: "They advertised a questionable "Forensics 2017" conference. Indeed, the "Selected Abstracts Of The 1st International Caparica Conference On Translational Forensics (FORENSICS 2017), Vol 7, No 1 (2017), Jun 2017 ISSN 2182-0287," have nothing to do with forensic science."

    Here is the index, judge yourself:
    SELECTED ABSTRACTS OF THE 1ST INTERNATIONAL CAPARICA
    CONFERENCE ON TRANSLATIONAL FORENSICS (FORENSICS 2017)
    A methodological Journal
    Applying Penetration Test to Improve Cybersecurity Forensic Investigation. 1
    A Network-Based Sniffer Architecture for Cybercrime Investigation. 2
    The Diplomatics and Digital Forensics Science in the digital records: The Pursuit of Authenticity. 4
    Forensic DNA analysis of the biological objects sampled from the poaching sites in Belarus. 5
    Postmortem changes and Interpretation of Amphetamine type stimulants. 6
    The determination of cholinesterase activity using photography. 7
    Investigation of suicide risk factors in Yerevan, Armenia. 8
    Use of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) on detection of postmortem Ocular findings: pilot data 9 from two cases.
    A rapid multi-target screening in urine for emergency toxicology by GC-MS and LC-MS/MS. 11
    A molecular population genetics approach for the identification and forensic assignment of viral 12 transmission groups.
    DSC as a new diagnostic method in forensic medicine. 13
    Forensic EcoGenomics – The successful application of microbial ecology techniques for enhanced 14 forensic analysis.
    Deadly head injuries by military weapon: a special attention. 15
    A study on physical features and potential wounding effects of fireworks which is one of the samples of 16 pyrotechnics.
    Recognition of the ‘high quality forgeries’ among the medicines: application of NIR spectroscopy and 17 chemometrics.

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  2. Dear Unknown,
    My statement is literally true, but the abstracts are in another issue of the "Integrated Omics" journal. My apologies for the confusion. I have revised the posting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very fishy case this.
    - As for the editorial team of the journal, this consists of the BIOSCOPE research group's PI (José Luís Capelo Martinez) and one of their PhD students (listed as Gonçalo Martins but the email address points to Gonçalo Pinto).
    - As for the conferences, I note that at least 3 events that are planned for 2020 all share the same conference chairs (the BIOSCOPE PIs), scientific committee (BIOSCOPE PIs + assistant researchers) and local organizing committee (BIOSCOPE PIs + assistant researchers + PhD candidates). However, the topics are very diverse: ‘Sample Treatment 2020’, ‘Leishmaniasis 2020’ and ‘Splicing 2020’. Taking a closer look at ST2020, the conference website defines the scope of the event as follows: "sample treatment is any tool that helps to interrogate any measurable matter". No details are provided on more specific topics that will be discussed, which means that anything goes. Even as an invited speaker, you are still expected to pay ~70% of the registration fee. Strikingly, meals are only included when staying in the official conference hotel with a 'conference package' (110 EUR/night instead of the usual 59 EUR/night).

    In conclusion, I agree with your assessment that these conferences are very likely the product of enterprising faculty. I'd be curious to hear from someone who actually attended though (and who is not affiliated with BIOSCOPE ;-)).

    Thanks for your post!

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  4. and in 2023 we are still with caparica symposium that are chaired by the same chairmen but in very diverse disciplines

    ReplyDelete