#MDPI is an active hashtag on Bluesky. In the last 30 days, 11 people shared 78 posts with it — around 3 a day. Activity is up 35% versus the previous week, peaking on Sep 4 with 7 posts.

Posts with #MDPI

Mark A. Hanson

@hansonmark.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

New from The Strain Team: 🎊 Springer Nature Discovers MDPI 🎊 Springer Nature has spawned a copycat journal series called "Discover" mimicking #MDPI journal titles and citation behaviours. We even made a browser game to prove it (see 🔗). Gross! 😀 1/n #ResearchIntegrity #SciPub #AcademicSky

the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io

Spinger Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing

Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro

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Mark A. Hanson

@hansonmark.bsky.social

almost 2 years ago

So how have groups like #MDPI and #Frontiers accomplished this incredible growth? "Dear prof. ___, we read your manuscript and were thoroughly aroused. We invite a preeminent like you to submit to our special issue on TOPICYOUDONTSTUDY." These issues are not so special... 🧵 4/n

3 15 90

Mark A. Hanson

@hansonmark.bsky.social

almost 2 years ago

So where does that leave us? Well... we mention #MDPI because they come by it honestly. They were outliers in every metric, and by wide wide margins. All this growth is unsustainable. What's more, it's on the backs of volunteer work by scientists, while for-profit journals take in APCs. 🧵 8/n

2 12 71

Mark A. Hanson

@hansonmark.bsky.social

almost 2 years ago

When you dig in to it, it's the growth of specific groups. #MDPI, takes the lion's share, but #Frontiers has grown in articles/journal just the same. This isn't to let big pubs like Elsevier, Springer, etc... off the hook. They have increased output a lot, just spread over more journals. 🧵 3/n

1 5 61

Mark A. Hanson

@hansonmark.bsky.social

8 months ago

In the strain on scientific publishing, we showed that total publications have grown out of control. A huge part of that was guest edited special issues by groups like #MDPI and #Frontiers. This ongoing practice is the largest delegation of editorial power academia has ever seen. 2/n

direct.mit.edu

The strain on scientific publishing

Abstract. Scientists are increasingly overwhelmed by the volume of articles being published. The total number of articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science has grown exponentially in recent years; ...

1 25 57

Horror Lex®

@horrorlex.bsky.social

almost 2 years ago

Godzilla's already King of the Monsters. Should he also be an academic icon? Steven Rawle makes a fascinating case for RAWR! (er, YES!) in his new essay: "Godzilla at 70: Time for Kaijū Studies" at #MDPI Humanities Journal. #openaccess #horror #kaiju doi.org/10.3390/h130...

On the left, a screenshot of the article "Godzilla at 70: Time for Kaijū Studies" in plain text. On the right, a still of Godzilla himself from GODZILLA MINUS ONE (2023) as he trudges forward, jaw open, his skin prickly black with huge backbone spikes showing.

1 11 41

Mark A. Hanson

@hansonmark.bsky.social

almost 2 years ago

What's striking is how these articles are handled. #MDPI receives a manuscript and accepts it within ~37 days, across all journals. Math? Biology? Chemistry? Phsyics? Doesn't matter. All articles are equal in MDPI's eyes. #Frontiers and #Hindawi followed. #Hindawi is now closed down. 🧵 5/n

1 3 39

Mark A. Hanson

@hansonmark.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

#MDPI still invites me to submit to SIs🙃 I always respond w/ our strain on scientific publishing preprint. arxiv.org/abs/2309.15884 This time, they "welcome the submission" but I should edit it to "expand the discussion" on antioxidants.🤯 #SciPub #ResearchIntegrity #AcademicSky #PredatoryPublishing

chanyanuch@mdpi.com
To: Mark & 1 more... >
Re: [Antioxidants] Special
Issue: Oxidative Stress in Gut Microbiota - Paper Invitation
Decision
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe.
07:20
Dear Dr. Hanson,
Thank you for your interest in submitting your manuscript to our Special
Issue " Oxidative Stress in Gut Microbiota "
We welcome your preprint submission;

We welcome your preprint submission; however, we kindly ask that you refine the manuscript to better align with the journal's focus. In
particular, we encourage you to expand the discussion on antioxidants or oxidative stress to strengthen its relevance. You can review our journal's scope here: https://
eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/2
url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2F
journal%2Fantioxidants%2Fabout&data=0 5%7C02%7Cm.hanson%40exeter.ac.uk%
7Ccfcce7483ee146732eef08dd4a6c917c
%7C912a5d77fb984eeeaf321334d8f04a5
3%7C0%7C0%7C638748552589138814
%/CUnknown%/CTWEpbGZsb3d8eyJFbX
BOUthcGkiOnRydWUs|YOilwLjAuMDAw
MCIs|lAIOiXaW 4zMils|kFO|joit WEpbCIsIld
UljoyiQ%3D%3D%7C0%7%7C%7C&sda
ta=pjLOkdkzK820DleZCo4wcT VGH%2Fz4.
PUM2k6NHya3EwE%3D&reserved=0

3 6 37

Will Ratcliff

@wcratcliff.bsky.social

almost 2 years ago

I block every email address from #MDPI and #Frontiers without mercy. Every ecosystem has its parasites…

Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social

The strain on scientific publishing: we set out to characterise the remarkable growth of the scientific literature in the last few years, in spite of declining growth in total scientists. What is going on? direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... A 🧵 1/n #AcademicSky #PhDchat #ScientificPublishing #SciPub

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Mark A. Hanson

@hansonmark.bsky.social

over 1 year ago

"Discover" currently has 66 journals: 25 have *identical* names to #MDPI journals, 11 are one letter off (Food vs Foods), and 22 more are clear mimics (Chemical Engineering vs. ChemEngineering). From 2020-2024, #SpringerDiscover opened 61 new journals and grew its output by 🎊 8077% 🎊 Gross! 🤮 3/n

A full list of the journals by Discover, the vast majority of which mimic MDPI titles.

1 8 26

Horror Lex®

@horrorlex.bsky.social

almost 2 years ago

Need something to read as you digest all that turkey? Noted kaiju historian William Tsutsui writes about GODZILLA MINUS ONE and its complicated relationship to both the original GOJIRA and the real post-war Japan. #MDPI Humanities #openaccess #horror #kaiju doi.org/10.3390/h130...