Academic E-Mail Overload and the Burden of Academic Spam

摘要

This article presents an editorial perspective on the challenges associated with e-mailmanagement for academic physicians. We include 2-week analysis of our own e-mails asillustrations of the e-mail volume and content. We discuss the contributors to high e-mailvolumes, focusing especially on unsolicited e-mails from medical/scientific conferencesand open-access journals (sometimes termed “academic spam emails”), as these e-mailscomprise a significant volume and are targeted to physicians and scientists. Our 2-personsample is consistent with studies showing that journals that use mass e-mail advertisinghave low rates of inclusion in recognized journal databases/resources. Strategies formanaging e-mail are discussed and include unsubscribing, blocking senders or domains,filtering e-mails, managing one’s inbox, limiting e-mail access, and e-mail etiquette.Academic institutions should focus on decreasing the volume of unsolicited e-mails,fostering tools to manage e-mail overload, and educating physicians including traineesabout e-mail practices, predatory journals, and scholarly database/resources.