Post · bonfire.cafe

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social · last week

The icing on the cake for the hilarious April Fool's Day paper I wrote with @astrokiwi.bsky.social and Laura Revell is all the solicitation emails from predatory journals that scrape the arxiv.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.29324

(This one is particularly funny because they imply that they have an author list all lined up to jump onto the Cow-culation paper!)

Screenshot of an email:

Hello Prof. Samantha Lawler,

A Letter to the Editor is being finalized for submission to a journal from Springer, Wiley, Elsevier, Lippincott, or SAGE indexed in SCOPUS, PubMed, and SCIE.

Your background in "Cowculation Reentry Impact Risk to Livestock in the Satellite
Megaconstellation Era" is directly relevant to this submission.

One named author position remains available.

Our team manages preparation and submission from beginning to end.

Publication typically completes within 2-4 weeks of acceptance.

Here is a published sample you can verify directly:

View Sample

Reply if you want the details before committing.

Regards,

Editorial Team

Nexus Global Publications — Screenshot of an email: Hello Prof. Samantha Lawler, A Letter to the Editor is being finalized for submission to a journal from Springer, Wiley, Elsevier, Lippincott, or SAGE indexed in SCOPUS, PubMed, and SCIE. Your background in "Cowculation Reentry Impact Risk to Livestock in the Satellite Megaconstellation Era" is directly relevant to this submission. One named author position remains available. Our team manages preparation and submission from beginning to end. Publication typically completes within 2-4 weeks of acceptance. Here is a published sample you can verify directly: View Sample Reply if you want the details before committing. Regards, Editorial Team Nexus Global Publications

Mycotropic

@mycotropic@beige.party · 2 hours ago

@sundogplanets @astrokiwi.bsky.social

But there's ONLY ONE AUTHOR SLOT LEFT!!!?!!!!!!?!!?!

That's funny man!

Prof. Sam Lawler

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social · 2 hours ago

These predatory journal emails for our April Fool's day paper with a hilariously silly title will never stop being funny to me.

A screenshot of an email that says:

Dear Dr. Samantha M. Lawler,

This is a kind reminder regarding our earlier invitation to submit your manuscript to our journal.

We came across your valuable preprint titled "Cow-culation: Reentry Impact Risk to Livestock in the Satellite Megaconstellation Era" and believe your research aligns well with one of our journal sections.

If you are interested, kindly acknowledge this email and share a tentative title/abstract. We sincerely hope you will consider submitting your manuscript on or before May 20, 2026 to our submission portal.

Note: Please let us know if your manuscript has already been published elsewhere or is under revision.

Yours faithfully, — A screenshot of an email that says: Dear Dr. Samantha M. Lawler, This is a kind reminder regarding our earlier invitation to submit your manuscript to our journal. We came across your valuable preprint titled "Cow-culation: Reentry Impact Risk to Livestock in the Satellite Megaconstellation Era" and believe your research aligns well with one of our journal sections. If you are interested, kindly acknowledge this email and share a tentative title/abstract. We sincerely hope you will consider submitting your manuscript on or before May 20, 2026 to our submission portal. Note: Please let us know if your manuscript has already been published elsewhere or is under revision. Yours faithfully,

Ken Butler

@nxskok@cupoftea.social · 57 minutes ago

@sundogplanets an extra side-effect of writing an April Fool's Day paper!

Paul_IPv6

@paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange · 1 hour ago

@sundogplanets

a friend of mine had a music professor who did an april fool's article for a academic music journal.

basic premise was that string orchestras never got funding like marching band because they couldn't play at the football games.

he had this whole thing with special carts and wheels for the cellos and basses to allow "marching strings".

apparently, he got serious inquiries on how to get this gear for years after the article...

Albert Cardona

@albertcardona@mathstodon.xyz · 2 hours ago

@sundogplanets

An Onion-style headline that, in our current timeline, has a fair chance of becoming true/real/actual. And then it'll be cited as precocious.

@LJ@zirk.us · 2 hours ago

@sundogplanets OMG. This is the best thing I've read all day.

Faraiwe

@faraiwe@mstdn.social · 2 hours ago

@sundogplanets this is absolutely hilarious.

May I send the link and a screenshot to a few buddies who would get a kick out of this?

Prof. Sam Lawler

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social · 2 hours ago

@faraiwe Of course! Spread the ridiculousness

Faraiwe

@faraiwe@mstdn.social · 2 hours ago

@sundogplanets muchos thankos. I will relay any remarkable funny replies.

Faraiwe

@faraiwe@mstdn.social · 2 hours ago

@sundogplanets snort

Bruce Acton 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

@Bwacton@mastodon.social · last week

@sundogplanets @astrokiwi.bsky.social too bad it costs money to ‘publish’ in those junk journals, it would be a great way to screw up the AI scrappers.

P_______X

@P__X@mastodon.social · last week

@sundogplanets @astrokiwi.bsky.social amazing!🤣

Corvus

@corvus@mapstodon.space · last week

@sundogplanets @astrokiwi.bsky.social

This is fantastic! Made my day!