Taxacom: MDPI diversity et al

Sat Oct 22 00:44:49 CDT 2022

In my experience as occasional author, reviewer and editorial board member with an MDPI journal, the publisher is best described as a war zone between editorial boards seeking to retain and enhance scientific integrity and a publishing machine that worships speed and $$$ and seeks to drive the process accordingly. In some journals, the editorial board holds sway, and the journals publish mostly good science, in others, the publishing machine dilutes their efforts and poor work slips through. Hence the "myriapod effect", as Doug aptly termed it.

It is also true to say that MDPI is not overly given to reflection and contrition. A couple of years ago, I submitted a comment on an extremely poor species description packaged in an otherwise excellent paper on a completely different topic. My comment critiqued the attempted species description, but also sought to highlight lessons to be learned for the review process when an author strays from the main topic of the journal (without ever mentioning MDPI or singling out any individuals). The MDPI office insisted that I should solely slate the authors of the problematic paper and remove my comments on the review process - something of an indictment of their values IMO.

So in a nutshell, MDPI are certainly not a quality-driven publisher, but it would be unfair to lump them with the publishers of this kind of paper: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.audubon.org%2Fnews%2Fwhats-deal-birds-new-paper-asks-while-making-point&amp;data%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C4e5ad4d4b554407a67f708dab3f08a44%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638020142957920006%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=tpvaM8RT1RMIxTLuS321ugK9u8VBubUxejYTf7MErYM%3D&amp;reserved=0. Disregarding MDPI-published papers for promotion purposes etc. without assessing their individual strengths and weaknesses would be equally unfair. After all, those of us of a certain age and with long memories may recall that it wasn't MDPI that published Cold Fusion or a scientific name for the Loch Ness Monster...

Cheers,

Wolfgang

--

Dr. Wolfgang W?ster

Reader in Zoology (Herpetology)

Molecular Ecology and Evolution at Bangor (MEEB)
School of Natural Sciences
Bangor University
Bangor LL57  2UW
Wales, UK

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From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> on behalf of Douglas Yanega via Taxacom <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
Sent: 22 October 2022 01:14
To: taxacom at lists.ku.edu <taxacom at lists.ku.edu>
Subject: Re: Taxacom: MDPI diversity et al

On 10/21/22 4:52 PM, Michael A. Ivie via Taxacom wrote:
> Keep it about the facts, not the people.

Even that has its difficulties; MDPI is a proverbial myriapod, and it is
pretty near impossible to judge any one "leg" because of problems with
another. That is, while it is certainly a red flag when a large number
of editors for a specific journal resign in protest, extrapolating from
that to *other* MDPI journals, or the MDPI administration, requires more
evidence  - you can certainly be suspicious, that's just being prudent,
and some of the controversies have been pretty significant, but you
can't just jump to the conclusion that there is something fundamentally
and systematically wrong. That being said, what I find concerning is how
the administration has responded in most of these controversies, because
it has NOT generally demonstrated a firm grasp of accountability or
responsibility. You can only downplay such things just so much before
people start questioning your integrity.

These are good questions to ask, and good things to keep in mind, moving
forward.

Peace,

--
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
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