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Taxacom: Special Issue “Diversity and Taxonomy of Scarabaeoidea”

John Grehan calabar.john at gmail.com
Mon Jan 27 09:48:34 CST 2025 

I think Frank makes a good point - that journals are not necessarily
inherently bad, the content having more to do with the combined quality and
experience of authors, reviewers, and editors. There is plenty of junk
science in 'prestigious' journals (just look at what passed for
biogeography). MDPI is out of my reach due to fees, but if people want to
pay and can do so, that is their prerogative. Zootaxa in the past (I am not
familiar with the present) charged $20 per page which overall is not
excessive, but not within my budget so I can still have the option of
restricted access that costs me nothing and still have the author pdf. But
I have used ZooNova quite a bit as it has no author fees and is open
access.  But in some cases I have had to look elsewhere as some co-authors
were caught in the academic rat race where they have to keep up their
publication metrics and only publish in 'prominent' journals such as
Zootaxa as demanded by their employers. Only thing I have found
distasteful about tMDPI is editorial harassment for articles occasionally
spamming my email. once made the mistake of replying and declining, only to
have further periodical predatory attempts. Almost as bad as used car
dealers.

Cheers, John Grehan

On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 10:34 AM Jean Mariaux via Taxacom <
taxacom at lists.ku.edu> wrote:

> Fully agree. I « had to » publish in one of their journals and was less
> than impressed. Would never do it voluntarily. The problem is that it seems
> less and less people do care… not sure, maybe it’s me.
> Cheers
> Jean
>
> Envoyé de mon iPhone
>
> > Le 27 janv. 2025 à 14:53, Michael Schmitt via Taxacom <
> taxacom at lists.ku.edu> a écrit :
> >
> > 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%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599814797%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qiUK5gIUhDMeGbdTeqgyrE3ouDdfpVAzmG9Poq6fbQ4%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%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599836425%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=eANwyFyWRq2cyLni73wivsHdNogZUqCKRJuqM%2BhMYdA%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%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599849608%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=uD3sMw5cCiZWVR1vGuJndAcbTAk5sANNFrDldssy5N0%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%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599862311%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=2mCsM8wXGiFs7a8Lan8PVx%2FztbV7AEo3p45g%2Fo7X%2BkA%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%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599874604%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nZaGFMKMgns4cbdIRhSqqGGYIsYLSm1T00bDCZhLW6E%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%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599886352%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=hD50sZSNLI7WOt7JAyzbp1H9smmr6USE31chdV5WzBk%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
> >> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FFrank-Thorsten-Krell&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599898033%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=BMj4z71wUHoWLXKqd6gBCygYIHXy8RSyHeRHiV0N5gw%3D&reserved=0
> >> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fcitations%3Fuser%3Da5mPMOQAAAAJ%26hl%3Den&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599909787%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=RD%2BJZ5TL02YrwRIG1MqIyYJ0%2Bm5%2B3f%2FVO1NWNfrWppo%3D&reserved=0
> >> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dmns.org%2Fscience%2Fresearch%2Fglobal-entomology-research%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599925230%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=HrhbyfjBA0791vjFxKvLwKMfuQ3KtGdQfGpeySPBtxU%3D&reserved=0
> >> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dmns.org%2Fscience%2Fresearch%2Fcolorado-entomology-research%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599939805%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=qbbJ71F9u2s1PtbKAjiyRvntg%2BQaquh1%2FyDW%2FNByAuM%3D&reserved=0
> >>
> >>
> >> Regardless of the time I send this email, I do not expect you to read,
> take any action, or reply to this email outside of your usual working hours.
> >>
> >>   *   Step into our new experience "Discovering Teen Rex<
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dmns.org%2Fvisit%2Fexhibitions%2Fdiscovering-teen-rex%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599963923%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=MkoVgWrUCQnzjDMBwcsGRZ99LdT2fxrLbBIJv1OmoAw%3D&reserved=0>" to witness
> scientists excavating a rare juvenile T.rex fossil, followed by the "T. REX<
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure1.dmns.org%2Ftrex-3d-requires-museum-admission&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898599991140%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=sCmTwj5SBKp%2B6mKFyiHExat7dHaBvDOZIGTNLR%2FA4%2Fk%3D&reserved=0>" movie on the
> giant screen Infinity Theater.
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Taxacom Mailing List
> >>
> >> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 38 years, 1987-2025.
> >>
> >> Send Taxacom mailing list submissions to:taxacom at lists.ku.edu
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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
> >
> >
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fzoologie.uni-greifswald.de%2Fen%2Forganization%2Fdepartments%2Fgeneral-and-systematic-zoology%2Fstaff%2Fapl-prof-ir-dr-michael-schmitt%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cfc3a7cbf76f94d0e062308dd3eea249d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638735898600016315%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=sLR7ZK3rKlBNteZlEf0PlP4UfWIsbCHQj2ec027L9uY%3D&reserved=0
> > _______________________________________________
> > Taxacom Mailing List
> >
> > Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 38 years, 1987-2025.
> >
> > Send Taxacom mailing list submissions to: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
> > For list information; to subscribe or unsubscribe, visit:
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> > You can reach the person managing the list at:
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> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
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>
> Nurturing nuance while assailing ambiguity for 38 years, 1987-2025.
>
> Send Taxacom mailing list submissions to: taxacom at lists.ku.edu
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