At 2. In January 2025 I had an offer from a very well-known and respected journal from Switzerland. Normally, it would be an honour for me to publish with them. What caught my attention though, was the start of this Email: “I’m following up on the email you received…” ?! I did not receive any EMail previously and, furthermore, I had no idea who those people (Drs.) were. It was unbelievable to me that people from that journal would act like that. I asked back “who gave you my private email address? According to the GDPR I have the rights to know how you got access to it. Since you’ve made an effort to contact me for such an important research topic, please visit my professional LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/…/dr-techn-dipl-ing-anna…/ I clearly state, “I don’t do reviews, I don’t publish”. Please also check the following statement very carefully: https://www.linkedin.com/…/urn:li:activity…/. Please don’t ever contact me again for publication/review purposes; only to declare how you got access to my personal data.”. Needless to say, I never got an answer from this person or the journal.
What is more, this person had a professional profile on LinkedIn, and I contacted her asking her about it – I also had her phone number in the Email. The same unprofessional behaviour again; no answer. This phrase “I’m following up on the email you received…” might indicate that there was another conversation in my name, but I never got an explanation. This is another case of professional ghosting and clearly unprofessional. For more than three months after that, I did not receive any unwanted EMails and I was very happy. Little I know…
