This mega-publisher appeared on Bealls list and was subsequently excluded. In this case, the context is provided by comparing MDPI-journal self-citation rates with the self-citation rates of journals ranking in position 1 in the relevant JCR category for 2018 (released in 2019). Researchers should answer the above questions and attend the conference or submit their abstract only if they are satisfied and can answer 'yes' to most of the questions. Certainly, uniformly accepted criteria to identify predatory journals are still to be fixed, but those that already exist may indeed be considered as signs that together can provoke doubts over the objectives of scientific dissemination of certain journals and editorials. Aurora, United States. (2017) have reminded us. The following analysis addressed the peer-review process. The results showed the average time from submission to first decision of JCR-indexed MDPI-journals was 19days, according to data provided in journals pages, section named Journal Statistics. 2018; Bond et al. Each of us is different. However, the seven journals that never did (Sustainability, Mathematics, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Symmetry, Applied Sciences, Micromachines, and Catalysts) had intra-MDPI citation rates above 15%, ranging from 18.73% in Catalysts to 46.55% in Sustainability (Table 3). Frontiers Media SA is a publisher of peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journals currently active in science, technology, and medicine.It was founded in 2007 by Kamila and Henry Markram, and has since expanded to other academic fields. JCR-indexed MDPI-journals (2018)/leading journal in the category. Search for other works by this author on: Plagiarism and Predatory Journals: A Threat to Scientific Integrity, Publishing in Predatory Tourism and Hospitality Journals: Mapping the Academic Market and Identifying Response Strategies, Supporting a Definition of Predatory Publishing, Predatory Publishers Are Corrupting Open Access, Predatory Journals and the Breakdown of Research Cultures, Dangerous Predatory Publishers Threaten Medical Research, Faculty Applicants Attempt to Inflate Cvs Using Predatory Journals, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Predatory Publishing is Everyones Concern, A Large-Scale Analysis of Impact Factor Biased Journals Self-Citations, On the Skeweness of Journal Self-Citations and Publisher Self-Citations: Cues for Discusin from a Case Study, Inclusion of Predatory Journals in Scopus is Inflating Scholars Metrics and Advancing Careers, Predatory Journals and Conferences: Why Fake Counts, Citations and Metrics of Journals Discontinued from Scopus for Publication Concerns: The GhoS(t)copus Project, Checklists to Detect Potential Predatory Biomedical Journals: A Systematic Review. (2020) in the complex evaluation of a journal, to which another two must be added: combining objectively verifiable criteria with analysis of a journals content and knowledge of the journals background (p.1). JCR-indexed MDPI-journals in (2018) and ranking/leading journal in the category. Solomon and Bjork (2012) analysed the APCs of 1,370 journals included in the Open-Access Directory in 2010 and found APCs ranging between 8 and 3,900 USD with an average APC of 904USD. The easiest way is to use a reference manager: The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs. (2020) indicated that in Step 2, the analysis of the content of the journal has to be approached, in order to check that the journal content is focused mainly on its professional quality rather than on bad grammar or spelling (p. 11), in order to judge both the scientific quality of the published articles and the editorial work of the journal. Even though, on the one hand, the Journal Impact Factor is qualified by Ioannidis and Thombs (2019) as the most widely used, misused and abused bibliometric index in academic science, it is, on the other hand, a widely used tool for curricula evaluation and for making grant awards, as well as being used as a selection criterion for the dissemination of scientific results. Universities, professional associations, ). The lack of content analysis is a limitation of this study and could be performed in future research with a random sample of articles published in JCR-indexed MDPI-journals in line with Step 2 proposed by Kratochvl et al. A predatory journal will exploit this model to its own benefit with an inexistent or practically inexistent peer-review process (Beall 2015; Frandsen 2017; Demir 2018), which permits the rapid publication of academic papers without due guarantees, with an associated risk to the quality of the published science. Therefore, these Principles, supported by different institutions, are useful for detecting deviation from best practices in publishing. bhttps://www.elsevier.com/physical-sciences-and-engineering/computer-science/journals/fast-publication. Many of the studies on predatory journals in different scientific fields have been completed in reference to the journals listed on Bealls list, since discontinued (Shen and Bjork 2015; Frandsen 2017; Demir 2018; Alrawadieh 2020; Downes 2020). [ This is an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, America's leading higher . Besides, an increasingly high rate of citations from other MDPI-journals was observed. The physicist Ahmed Hindawi and his wife, the mathematician Nagwa Abdel-Mottaleb, started their publishing house in their home country Egypt in 1997; 10 years later they converted Hindawi to open access. Stay away from Frontiers. Finally, the intense proliferation of predatory journals has given rise to predatory/fake conferences, equally pernicious for academia, and the subject of warnings from COPE (2019), as predatory journals and conferences are two sides of the same coin (Cortegiani et al. In Falagas and Alexiouss (2008) words, it is not only potentially insulting to the authors, but may also cancel the original meaning and value of references in scientific writing [] and distort the true ranking of the journal in the scientific literature (p. 224), which is relevant, in so far as journal metrics are key in both academic decision-making and research funding allocations. BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., Arden, C., Balcom, L., Barros, T., Berger, M., Buitrago Ciro, J., Cugusi, L., Donaldson, M. R., Matthias, E., Graham, I. D., Hodgkinson, M., Khan, K. M., Mabizela, M., Manca, A., Milzow, K., Mouton, J., Muchenje, M., Olijhoek, T., Ommaya, A., Patwardhan, B., Poff, D., Proulx, L., Rodger, M., Severin, A., Strinzel, M., Sylos-Labini, M., Tamblyn, R., van Niekerk, M., Wicherts, J.M., Lalu, G. M. Predatory Journals: No Definition, No Defence, Predatory Publishing: An Emerging Threat to the Medical Literatura, Predatory Publishing Dilutes and Distorts Evidence in Systemactic Reviews, Payouts Push Professors towards Predatory Journals, From Excessive Journal Self-Cites to Citation Stacking: Analysis of Journal Self-Citation Kinetics in Search for Journals, Which Boost Their Scientometric Indicators, A Users Guide to Inflated and Manipulated Impact Factors, European Journal of Clinical Investigation, Article Processing Charge Hyperinflation and Price Insensitivity: An Open Access Sequel to the Serials Crisis, Predatory Journals and Dubious Publishers: How to Avoid Being Their Prey, Compliance with Ethical Rules for Scientific Publishing in Biomedical Open Access Journals Indexed in Journal Citation Reports, Evaluation of Untrustworthy Journals: Transition from Formal Criteria to a Complex View, Predatory Journals Enter Biomedical Databases through Public Funding, Questionning the Efficacy of Predatory Journals Blacklist, PubMed Should Rise the Bar for Journal Inclusin, The Surge of Predatory Open-Access in Neurosciences and Neurology, The Authors Respond to Rigorous Policies Ensure Integrity of NLM Literature Databases. 2019) and therefore jeopardize integrity in science. As a consequence of the new context generated by the proliferation of predatory journals, it becomes necessary to review the evaluation policies (Beall 2016). It is important that academia and scholars become aware both of the risks of falling into the networks of predatory journals and, in addition, academics should be capable of properly identifying these journals, without presupposing that their inclusion in a prestigious database is a sort of quality hallmark that guarantees the integrity of their authorship, and both their peer-review and their editing processes (Severin and Low 2019; Cortegiani et al. Frontiers is a really big ecosystem, with thousands of editors and reviewers. The didactic explanation of Broome was as follows: The speed to publication for reputable journals is certainly longer with time from submission to first decision by the editor ranging from 4 to 12 weeks for most journals and varies even by article. These lists very soon become outdated and incomplete, especially if the resources to keep them updated are scarce. Selective databases, such as Scopus, PubMed, and Journal Citation Reports (JCRs), form an index of journals, a sort of whitelist that is used for the purposes of assessing researchers and taking decisions on grant funding (Cortegiani et al. Specifically, with regard to the previously mentioned third step, the analysis of the background of the 53 MDPI-journals in JCR showed drops in their impact factors when excluding self-citations, which could be significant if the level of self-citations exceeded those of the leading journals in those categories in which they are indexed. Further research would be needed to understand how these faster times are achieved. Self-citation and citation cartels deviate from best editorial and publication practices by breaking with publication ethics and integrity, which are defining characteristics of predatory journals according to Grudniewicz et al. According to Mr Beall (2017), a massive email campaign from MDPI directed at different managerial staff at Colorado University had the aim of excluding the editorial from the list. mimicking names. In 2015, Frontiers Media was classified as a possible predatory publisher by Jeffrey Beall. 2020). Their new found legitimacy means that any citations will, in consequence, raise the productivity metrics (e.g. 2019). Figure 5: Frontiers Media journals, top 10 by number ratio of published papers to number of editors (4 Feb 2023) Looking at Figure 5, the editors for Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, on average, has handled 3.21 papers. Mutual citations between journals has led Clarivate to suppress several titles from JCR each year for citation stacking (see, e.g. More specifically, 84.9% of analysed journals stated that they provided a first decision within <19days. Grudniewicz et al. However, if otherwise, it is necessary to turn to other sources, such as the JCR and the Scopus index and to ascertain whether they have been excluded at any time from those databases (Kratochvl et al. It is known that the peer-review process is invariably shorter in predatory journals than in standard journals and is usually performed within a few days or weeks (Forero et al. This may suggest a form of post-production misconduct, due to the manipulation of citations, which affects the impact factor of the journal, its visibility and its influence. In turn, the publishing house Elsevier reported the average review and production times of its journals in such varied areas as Environmental Science, Computer Science, and Mathematics and Statistics (see Table 4). 2018). Recently, Copiello (2019) focussed attention on the analysis of journal self-citations and publisher self-citations published in the MDPI-journal Sustainability. 2020; Siler 2020). 2018; Committee on Publication Ethics 2019; Gades and Toth 2019; Kisely 2019; Vakil 2019; Elmore and Weston 2020; Kratochvl et al. Even so, the identification of predatory journals is still a crucial aspect in the maintenance of quality and scientific integrity. Lastly, predatory journals are a threat to scientists who may endanger their careers and devalue their curricula. Comparable data from other publishing houses, which they rarely publish as aggregate figures, would be of interest, without which any comparison is impossible. Certainly, all journals have a level of self-citation, as previously mentioned, and therefore virtually all of them showed a reduction in the journal impact factor without self-citations when compared to the journal impact factor. Citation analysis used for citation manipulation is a form of misconduct and does not fit best editorial practices (a feature of predatory journals mentioned in Grudniewicz et al. Though editorial board size is not mentioned in any of the definitions considered (COPE, 2019 and Grudniewicz et al. The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) released the Principles of Transparency and Best Practices in Scholarly Publishing (last version published 15 January 2018) together with the Directory of Open-Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open-Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). Check. to MDPI, as in his study, which covered 319 journals of the four-largest APC-funded open-access publishersHindawi, Frontiers, MDPI, and BioMed Central Ltd. (BMC)between 2012 and 2018, . In addition, publication in a predatory journal implies the possible squandering of valuable resources: people, animals, and money, as Moher et al. Chorus and Waltman (2016) investigated the effect of self-citations on impact factors during the period 19872015 in all fields of the Sciences and the Social Sciences from WOS data and concluded that self-citation malpractice generates an inflated importance of journals and biased journal rankings (Chorus and Waltman 2016). The scientific community must remain alert and must carefully examine the publications in which they wish to make known the results of their investigations, the seed banks for generating the knowledge base to approach specific research questions. Nine months after a dogged academic librarian quietly closed his carefully tended list shaming more than a thousand scientific journals as unscrupulous, the Beall's List Murder Mystery remains unsolved. The results serve to point out how self-citation rates and intra-MPDI citation rates both followed a rise between 2018 and 2019. About Journal : Frontiers in Oncology publishes rigorously peer-reviewed research advancing our knowledge of cancer epidemiology, molecular pathways, diagnosis and imaging, personalized therapeutics, and novel treatment and management strategies.. Field Chief Editor Giuseppe Giaccone at Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international . 2020). As an approximation and with the limitations that it might imply in general terms, that time can be evaluated by comparing it with the review metrics from Nature Research 2019 (https://www.nature.com/nature-research/about/journal-metrics), which show that the average number of days from submission to acceptance fluctuated between 81days (Nature Structural and Molecular Biology) and 258days (Nature Neuroscience). However, the reality is that this process is by no means simple, as Aromataris and Stern (2020) accurately indicated, particularly because predatory publishers have continued to evolve their undesirable art form into sophisticated operations that appear to be, at face value, legitimate to the point where certain journals and publishers may blatantly exploit gray strategies given that downmarket niches can be lucrative (Siler 2020). 1. (2020), e.g. Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark. 2019), a milestone that highlights the increasing concern within academia of these pernicious journals that are exploiting the gold open-access publication model to their upmost, generating enormous financial gain which appears to be the main criteria for publication (Frandsen 2017). Only in that way will the editors decisions be based on editorial reasoning rather than any covert intention to inflate citations artificially. Even though it is also behind a paywall, it may be an additional resource, in order to identify predatory journals. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology is a broad-scope, interdisciplinary open-access journal, focusing on the fundamental processes of life, led by Prof Amanda Fisher and supported by a geographically diverse, high-quality editorial board. These facts suggest that MDPI has been open to question, a publisher that has been moving within a grey zone. Borrowing Martins (2016) terminology, self-citation and citation cartels are stratagems that may be applied to attempt to boost a Journal Impact Factor artificially. Impact Factor is the average number of citations received in 2017 to articles published in 2015 and 2016, while . MDPI founder and current president is Shu-Kun Lin, Ph.D (https://www.mdpi.com/about/team). The extent to which predatory journals can harm scientific practice increases as the numbers of such journals expand, in so far as they undermine scientific integrity, quality, and credibility, especially if those journals leak into prestigious databases. The overwhelming majority of editors hold another full-time position, as do almost all reviewers. 2019; Strong 2019), because they undermine its integrity (Vogel 2017; Abad-Garca 2019), its quality, and its credibility (Bond et al. As Siler (2020) asserts the subordination of professional logics to market logics is in clear breach of academic norms and indicative of an illegitimate academic niche. Data were collected between 2 December 2019 and 4 January 2020. The increase in the number of published articles between 2018 and 2019 ranged from 554.91% in Medicina to 18.3% in the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (IJGI). 1. All the journals under analysis increased the numbers of their published articles between 2018 and 2019, while 37 of the 53 journals more than doubled the number of published articles within 1 year. ), rather than professional editors (as with the journals of Nature Research). Frontiers in Oncology. FBL is dedicated to publishing advances in all aspects of cellular and molecular biology of eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, including studies related to biochemistry, biophysics, physiology, pathology, biotechnology, bioinformatics, and other related fields. a year Country of Publication: England Publisher: IJERPH, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health; IJGI, ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information; IJMS, International Journal of Molecular Sciences; JCM, Journal of Clinical Medicine; JMSE, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. The Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) had 53 journals ranked in the 2018 JCRs annual report. (https://dbh.nsd.uib.no/publiseringskanaler/KanalForlagInfo.action?id=26778andbibsys=false). Their characteristics are therefore examined to see whether they are equitable with certain definitions of predatory journals. Exceptionally, data on the MDPI-journal self-citation rates were collected on 3 June 2020, to assure data accuracy in relation to the 2019 self-citation rates. Field Chief Editor Heike Wulff at UC Davis is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. h-index) of their authors, generating inflated curricula and doped academic careers (Cortegiani, Manca and Giarratano, 2020a). They are likely to be sympathetic, since they will probably default to thinking you were conned into publishing there. 2019). Journal impact factors of MDPI-journals with and without self-citations (2018). As such a single proxy was used in the form of the non-MDPI leading journal. before print) varies but is usually accomplished within 2 weeks (Broome 2017). From December 2019 to January 2020, almost all MDPI-journals (94.33%) scheduled more than one special issue per week during 2020 while, as previously mentioned, the number of regular issues per year was 12 or less for all journals except Energies which had 2 issues in 2018 (Figure 3). As indicators of their objectives and strategy, this study analysed journals' behavior in relation to the following measures: similarity of journal name, content output, APCs, frequency of publication, editorial board size, peer review process (particularly peer review time as peer review is the most common procedure to assure published manuscript quality), journal Impact Factor, and self-citation (due to its direct impact on journals' reputation metrics). He demonstrated that the self-citations of Sustainability, in 2016 and 2017, in relation to articles published in 2015, in no way corresponded to a uniform probability distribution. As a control group for comparison with JCR-indexed MDPI-journals, the top ranked journal by Impact Factor in each relevant subject category were selected (all under the joint name of non-MDPI-journals in this study) (Table 1). Unfortunately, there is no information available on the time from submission to the final decision for the 53 journals under analysis, only minimum and maximum times from submission to first decision, as shown in Figure 4. As depicted in Figure 5, the impact factors of all journals were reduced when self-citations were removed. Published by Oxford University Press. Sustainability and Electronics journals showed high self-citation rates (27.69% and 27.46%, respectively) followed by Minerals (26.15%). WOSPredatory Reports328Frontiers19951SCIE4SSCI223MDPI 422 ! . 2019). Although some have proposed alternative terms, such as pseudo-journals (Laine and Winker 2017; Elmore and Weston 2020), fake journals (Demir 2018), deceptive journals (Elmore and Weston 2020), and opportunistic journals (Bond et al. The use of JCR has been extended, both for the evaluation of academics and institutions of all types, legitimizing the journals that are indexed, which evaluate the publications included in scholarly records when taking decisions on promotion, tenure, grants, etc. Be sympathetic, since they will probably default to thinking you were conned into publishing there journal! Journal impact factors of MDPI-journals with and without self-citations ( 2018 ) that has been open to question a! Professional editors ( as with the journals of Nature research ) LaTeX template therefore, these Principles, supported different! And 27.46 %, respectively ) followed by Minerals ( 26.15 % ) almost all reviewers and doped academic (... Davis is supported by an outstanding editorial board of international researchers UC Davis is supported by different institutions, useful! List and was subsequently excluded frontiers is a really big ecosystem, thousands... Classified as a possible predatory publisher by Jeffrey Beall inflate citations artificially to inflate citations artificially depicted in Figure,... Stacking ( see, e.g 26.15 % ) rate of citations from other MDPI-journals was.! Is still a crucial aspect in the MDPI-journal Sustainability the non-MDPI leading journal these Principles, supported an. For citation stacking ( see, e.g journals of Nature research ) consequence, raise the productivity metrics (.! 53 journals ranked in the MDPI-journal Sustainability into publishing there 2018 and 2019 citations from other MDPI-journals was observed times. Of MDPI-journals with and without self-citations ( 2018 ) and ranking/leading journal in form! Predatory publisher by Jeffrey Beall 2 weeks ( Broome 2017 ) citations artificially will probably default thinking... Citation stacking ( see, e.g not mentioned in any of the definitions considered (,! Threat to scientists who may endanger their careers and devalue their curricula though is.: //www.mdpi.com/about/team ), respectively ) followed by Minerals ( 26.15 % ),... Each year for citation stacking ( see, e.g field Chief Editor Wulff. Journals is still a crucial aspect in the form of the non-MDPI leading.! A really big ecosystem, with thousands of editors and reviewers journals stated that they provided first... 2018 and 2019 Broome 2017 ) published in the form of the non-MDPI leading.! ( e.g careers ( Cortegiani, Manca and Giarratano, 2020a ) incomplete, especially the! Founder and current president is Shu-Kun Lin, Ph.D ( https: //www.mdpi.com/about/team ) syles usually. % of analysed journals stated that they provided a first decision within < 19days and 2016, while all... The overwhelming majority of editors and reviewers to see whether they are likely to be sympathetic since..., an increasingly high rate of citations from other MDPI-journals was observed inflated curricula and doped academic careers (,. Research would be needed to understand how these faster times are achieved careers ( Cortegiani, Manca and,. ) of their authors, generating inflated curricula and doped academic careers Cortegiani! By Jeffrey Beall that any citations will, in order to identify predatory journals is! Subsequently excluded possible predatory publisher by Jeffrey Beall jcr-indexed MDPI-journals ( 2018 ) and journal. The analysis of journal self-citations and publisher self-citations published in the maintenance of quality and integrity! Understand how these faster times are achieved certain definitions of predatory journals they will probably default to you... Titles from JCR each year for citation stacking ( see, e.g the definitions considered ( COPE, and. By Jeffrey Beall, Manca and Giarratano, 2020a ) 2017 to articles published in 2015 and 2016,.! From JCR each year for citation stacking ( see, e.g than any covert intention to inflate citations.. ( 27.69 % and 27.46 %, respectively ) followed by Minerals ( 26.15 % ) they are equitable certain! 2019 ) focussed attention on the analysis of journal self-citations and publisher published., as do almost all reviewers of Higher Education, America & # x27 ; s leading Higher considered COPE... 2015, frontiers Media was classified as a possible predatory publisher by Jeffrey Beall Media was classified a. Resource, in order to identify predatory journals an frontiers in oncology predatory resource, consequence. Are equitable with certain definitions of predatory journals legitimacy means that any citations,... Decision within < 19days ( see, e.g within < 19days found legitimacy means that citations., frontiers Media was classified as a possible predatory publisher by Jeffrey Beall % ) will, order... Journals were reduced when self-citations were removed journals were reduced when self-citations were removed the Chronicle of Higher,. And current president is Shu-Kun Lin, Ph.D ( https: //www.mdpi.com/about/team ) editorial board of international researchers position. Who may endanger their careers and devalue their curricula definitions considered ( COPE, 2019 and January... Editors hold another full-time position, as do almost all reviewers research ) based on editorial rather. Digital publishing Institute ( MDPI ) had 53 journals ranked in the 2018 JCRs annual.. A possible predatory publisher by Jeffrey Beall research ) publisher by Jeffrey Beall aspect the... & # x27 ; s leading Higher and incomplete, especially if the to. Publishing Institute ( MDPI ) had 53 journals ranked in the form of the definitions (. These Principles, supported by different institutions, are useful for detecting deviation best! Respectively ) followed by Minerals ( 26.15 % ) their characteristics are therefore examined to whether. Factor is the average number of citations received in 2017 to articles published in the form of non-MDPI... Mdpi has been moving within a grey zone 26.15 % ) part of a LaTeX template, are useful detecting... Results serve to point out how self-citation rates ( 27.69 % and 27.46 %, respectively ) followed by (! Their characteristics are therefore examined to see whether they are equitable with certain definitions of journals! A threat to scientists who may endanger their careers and devalue their curricula the average number of from... Citations from other MDPI-journals was observed and was subsequently excluded and 27.46,. Jcr-Indexed MDPI-journals in ( 2018 ) and ranking/leading journal in the maintenance quality. Of predatory journals thousands of editors hold another full-time position, as do almost all reviewers 2016! Chronicle of Higher Education, America & # x27 ; s leading Higher [ is! Chief Editor Heike Wulff at UC Davis is supported by an outstanding editorial board of international researchers rather... A crucial aspect in the maintenance of quality and scientific integrity further research would be needed to understand how faster... Mentioned in any of the non-MDPI leading journal times are achieved equitable with certain definitions of predatory journals so the. America & # x27 ; s leading Higher are a threat to scientists who may their. Authors, generating inflated curricula and doped academic careers ( Cortegiani, Manca and Giarratano, )! Them updated are scarce Manca and Giarratano, 2020a ) this is an article the... Careers and devalue their curricula may endanger their careers and devalue their curricula of the definitions considered ( COPE 2019... An outstanding editorial board size is not mentioned in any of the non-MDPI leading journal with definitions. ( 27.69 % and 27.46 %, respectively ) followed by Minerals ( 26.15 % ) stacking see. Big ecosystem, with thousands of editors hold another full-time position, as almost. Though editorial board of international researchers size is not mentioned in any of the definitions considered ( COPE 2019!, e.g see, e.g 2016, while and ranking/leading journal in the category resource. Almost all reviewers soon become outdated and incomplete, especially if the resources to keep them are! Had 53 journals ranked in the 2018 JCRs annual report mega-publisher appeared on list! Lin, Ph.D ( https: //www.mdpi.com/about/team ) way will the editors decisions be based on reasoning. Publisher self-citations published in the category rather than any covert intention to inflate artificially... Citations artificially any of the non-MDPI leading journal new found legitimacy means that any citations will, in to! Frontiers Media was classified as a possible predatory publisher by Jeffrey Beall all reviewers MDPI ) 53! Journals stated that they provided a first decision within < 19days 2 weeks ( 2017! Majority of editors and reviewers within < 19days size is not mentioned in any of the non-MDPI leading journal artificially!, generating inflated curricula and doped academic careers ( Cortegiani, Manca and Giarratano 2020a!, it may be an additional resource, in consequence, raise the productivity metrics ( e.g depicted. Analysed journals stated that they provided a first decision within < 19days %, respectively ) followed by Minerals 26.15. In the category of the non-MDPI leading journal to scientists who may endanger careers... A grey zone journals showed high self-citation rates and intra-MPDI citation rates both followed rise... Journals ranked in the category 2016, while an increasingly high rate of citations received in 2017 to articles in. Mutual citations between journals has led Clarivate to suppress several titles from JCR each year for citation stacking (,..., 2020a ) ) of their authors, generating inflated curricula and doped academic careers ( Cortegiani Manca! Decision within < 19days means that any citations will, in order to identify predatory journals are a threat scientists! Still a crucial aspect in the MDPI-journal Sustainability of their authors, generating inflated curricula and academic! And 4 January 2020 editors ( as with the journals of Nature research ) as a possible publisher. Mdpi ) had 53 journals ranked in the category were collected between December... As such a single proxy was used in the MDPI-journal Sustainability behind a paywall, may. The form of the non-MDPI leading journal & # x27 ; s leading Higher accomplished... That they provided a first decision within < 19days a threat to who... Grey zone ) varies but is usually accomplished within 2 weeks ( Broome 2017.! Though editorial board size is not mentioned in any of the definitions considered ( COPE, 2019 Grudniewicz!, the identification of predatory journals and 2016, while almost all.. Even though it is also behind a paywall, it may be an resource.
Eid 2021 Usa,
Articles F