Taxacom: Special Issue “Diversity and Taxonomy of Scarabaeoidea”

Mon Jan 27 07:49:48 CST 2025

Dear Frank, dear colleagues,

although I have no doubts that you, Frank, do a proper job as an editor, 
I want to state my concerns as to the style and possible risks of MDPI 
journals. Besides some direct personal experience that seriously speak 
against the correctness of the editorial conduct in some cases, I point 
to the recent case of a clearly poorly edited taxonomic paper in MDPI 
Diversity:

Rivas JA, De La Quintana P, Mancuso M , et al. Disentangling the 
anacondas: revealing a new green species and rethinking yellows. 
Diversity 2024a;16:127. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.3390%2Fd16020127&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cb4b814294365425b53eb08dd3ed97acb%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735828003716527%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=wFPHauQnvxGlqcS1O812nj3svmUEN0IUD5Nx9bvfyUg%3D&reserved=0. See comments 
on this paper in Wuester et al (2024) How not to describe a species. 
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 21 zlae099: 1-26 doi 
10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae099.

Additional concerns can be found here:

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpredatoryjournals.org%2Fnews%2Ff%2Fis-mdpi-a-predatory-publisher&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cb4b814294365425b53eb08dd3ed97acb%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735828003733363%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=iaFXlzjTCicxPOhtXVOwynC23nwHdawh8QuT3bOplh4%3D&reserved=0

There you find the important point: *MDPI* is using some of the same 
techniques of predatory journals. So the question is simple: if you are 
a scientist, should you work with *MDPI*?

Just in case someone cares.

Best regards

Theo Michael Schmitt

Am 27.01.2025 um 03:43 schrieb Frank T. Krell via Taxacom:
> Dear Colleagues and Friends,
>
> The two open-access journals “Diversity” and “Taxonomy”, published by MDPI, Basel, Switzerland, are inviting you to contribute to the Special Issue “Diversity and Taxonomy of Scarabaeoidea” (https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2Fjournal%2Fdiversity%2Fspecial_issues%2F5993P88LY3%2Chttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2Fjournal%2Ftaxonomy%2Fspecial_issues%2FIC75WN3I5C&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cb4b814294365425b53eb08dd3ed97acb%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735828003745185%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8q1af1XO3TguPNXtX3IVKi3R0rurrOIzgJoC7IJgnXQ%3D&reserved=0). I agreed to serve as Editor-in-Chief for this Special Issue after I had excellent experience with the journal Diversity in 2023, in terms of quality of peer review, editorial handling, and speed of publication.
> As these journals are open-access, they require an Article Processing Charge, which is higher for the established journal Diversity (https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2Fjournal%2Fdiversity%2Fapc&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cb4b814294365425b53eb08dd3ed97acb%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735828003756771%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=m0MX1KmYLwFOLI13lR55umId6lGxCupZcw46z4EFQLQ%3D&reserved=0) than for the relatively new journal Taxonomy (https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2Fjournal%2Ftaxonomy%2Fapc&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cb4b814294365425b53eb08dd3ed97acb%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735828003768219%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ivuzDafylnfb5%2Fh9tnPmu9UsQXOP1R83qiBktQKDeeo%3D&reserved=0). If you do not have funding for such fees, reductions are possible in cases. Let me know what you would like to submit, and I find out what we can do to accommodate your budget situation.
> Manuscripts of purely taxonomic content would be assigned to Taxonomy, manuscripts considering broader questions of diversity would be assigned to Diversity.
> The language of publication is English. For authors who are not fluent in English, the publisher offers a English Language Editing Service, which is not included in the Article Processing Charge, but seems to be reasonable:https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2Fauthors%2Fenglish&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cb4b814294365425b53eb08dd3ed97acb%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735828003779361%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=DiQMM7JF13obnDXHukngw0PasaDqJ0SO3hv2ecYiWEQ%3D&reserved=0
> If you are not afraid of having your manuscript published fast (and well-reviewed), please consider this opportunity. The current submission deadline is 31 October 2025.
>
> Thanks, and all the best
>
> Frank
>
> Dr. Frank-Thorsten Krell
>
> Senior Curator of Entomology, Editor-in-Chief
> Department of Zoology
> Denver Museum of Nature & Science
> 2001 Colorado Blvd
> Denver, Colorado 80205-5798, U.S.A.
> Frank.krell at dmns.org<mailto:Frank.krell at dmns.org>
> Phone 303.370.8244
> Fax 303.331.6492
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-- 
apl.Prof.i.R. Dr. Michael Schmitt, FLS
Universitaet Greifswald
Allgemeine & Systematische Zoologie
Loitzer Str. 26
D-17489 Greifswald
Germany

Tel.: ++49 (0) 3834-420 4239
E-Mail:michael.schmitt at uni-greifswald.de

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