#mdpi — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #mdpi, aggregated by home.social.
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Springer Nature Discovers MDPI
https://the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/posts/discover_nature/ - On academic publishing -
One more example: International Journal of Molecular Sciences #MDPI
www.scimagojr.com/journalsearc...
SJR 2025 = 1.316
Cites / Doc. (2 years) 2025 = 5.825
Impact Inflation = 5.825/1.316 = 4.43
🚨 WARNING 🚨
This is in the top 10% of inflated IFs. IJMS gets its cites from just a few sources. -
A new preprint introduces SI-hacking (Special Issue hacking): when guest editors turn a special issue into a publication venue for themselves.
:oa: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563
Yet over 1,000 "hacked" special issues are still published every year. Strikingly, #MDPI accounts for 85% of all SI-hacked special issues in the dataset, while #Frontiers contributes another 13%.
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And let's all give a slow clap to #MDPI, where probably not much of value was lost (output edited for clarity):
$ curl -LA vs/2.0.1 --head https://doi.org/10.3390/math13172817
HTTP/2 302
date: Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:12:03 GMT
location: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/13/17/2817HTTP/2 403
You had one job only…turns into 405 on api.crossref.org if you request a response in JSON or RDF+XML 🙄
Maybe I’m just holding it wrong.
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So. Heute kam die Anfrage aus der Chefetage, ob ich nicht ein Paper schreibe für ein Special Issue zu Ehren eines emeritierten Profs mit dem wir viel zusammen gearbeitet haben.
Und jetzt kommts: Verlag ist #MDPI. Immer wieder im Verdacht doch Predatory zu sein. Hätt ja auch nur knapp 3000 Tacken gekostet.
Aber alles gut. Ich habe in dem letzten Jahr sowieso keine wissenschaftlich verwertbaren Ergebnisse erzielt und nur für die Industrie zugearbeitet. Ich habe eh nix, was ich zu einem Paper machen kann.
Deprimiert ab.
#AcademicChatter #PhDLife #Academia -
#MDPI publication: "User Preferences for Cartographic Presentation in Tourist Information Search Across Geographic Scales"
The research examines the link between the type of tourist information that is searched for and the graphical level of abstraction, as well as geographic scale.
Conclusion: a single type of map that could be useful doesn't exist and different map styles are necessary, depending on the situation.
I'm glad there is a study to demonstrate that. 🤣
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Just a reminder, we not only wrote about the profiteering nature of the Springer-Nature Discover journal series, but we made a "guess the publisher" game! hal.science/hal-05113253 Game by @[email protected] pagoba.shinyapps.io/publi_guess/ #OpenAccess #AcademicSky #FoSci #MDPI #SciPub
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ntcnnmtrebbqijr6uglh7b7p/post/3mgrjawarg22k
Springer Nature Discovers MDPI -
If you're unsure what to map in #OpenStreetMap for #accessibility, this #MDPI article may help you: "Identifying Key Environmental Factors Influencing Wheelchair Navigation"
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„Nach einer kurzen Vorstellungsrunde führte Herr Roth in die Präsentation des Verlags ein, der durchaus polarisiere und für viele ein Kuriosum sei. Vor fast 30 Jahren als Außenseiter außerhalb des klassischen Subskriptionssystems tradierter Verlage angetreten, werde MDPI mit zunehmendem Erfolg trotz hoher Nachfrage von einem Teil der Forschenden auch misstrauisch begegnet. Ein Beispiel sei der deutschsprachige Wikipedia-Eintrag zu #MDPI, dessen Diskussionsverlauf tatsächlich den Eindruck erwecken kann, dass er stark auf Kritik fokussiert und weniger auf Aspekte, die eine neutralere Beurteilung erlauben. Auch sei MDPI auf einer anonym betriebenen Webseite, die sich als seriöses Informationsportal ausgab, jedoch kriminelle Machenschaften verfolgte, als #Raubverlag gelistet gewesen.“
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Far from enforcing their policies, publishers *hide* PISS. We learned most publisher policies ACTIVELY hide PISS by altering article metadata post-hoc. At a *minimum* #Frontiers, #Elsevier, #MDPI all do it publicly! Yikes. 🤯 Thanks to @[email protected] et al. for noting this (see pics). 11/n
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In fact we actually saw pretty similar rates of PISS across all publishers tested: #MDPI, #Frontiers, #BMC, #Discover, but also the non-profit RSoc. Give authors a chance to guest edit and they'll PISS. Relative rate: 1 in 7 editors PISS 😬 Still, the real problem is about ABSOLUTE quantity... 6/n
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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
The strain on scientific publi... -
Most journals practice special issues fairly responsibly. But it's the worst offenders that contribute most of the PISS. ~90% of PISS in our data come from just 150/904 journals. And it's exactly who you think it is. #MDPI #Frontiers 13/n
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#Peer_review is one of the key stones of trust in #SchollComm. This blogpost by a researcher about here experience being a reviewer for #MDPI is interesting for those considering publishing, reading or reviewing for such journals
https://deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/08/guest-post-my-experience-as-reviewer.html
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I recently met somebody actually working for #MDPI and before figuring that out, I was tricked by their partner into insult #MDPIgarbage.
Long story short, I consoled them that at least they weren't working for #Elsevier.But they seemed really nice and extremely unhappy to be stuck with a terrible employer due to economic circumstances.
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„Bug in #springernature metadata may be causing ‘significant, systemic’ citation inflation“
Mit aktuellem Kommentar des CTO von #MDPI
#bibliometricsvia @sinensetin und @jagusch
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🌍 Excited to welcome MDPI as a sponsor of #MuninConference2025! 🎉 A pioneer in #OpenAccess publishing, MDPI shares our commitment at UiT to openness, collaboration, and knowledge for a sustainable future in the Arctic and beyond. ❄️📚 #OpenScience #Research #MDPI
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Holy shit, it (finally) happened: Someone (I have nothing to do with) cited a paper of mine. 😱
Okay, it's an #MDPI paper¹, but I'll take that.
For nearly 8 years of #PhDLife now (looks like I'll be done in spring 💪), this feels a bit... underwhelming, I guess. But that's how it is when you work on a super niche #PhD topic (#CO2 emissions from mofettes) and basically as a one-man-show with no consortia or big projects behind it.
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Example 3 (#MDPI):
Zou, Y., Wang, D., Qu, Y., Liu, H., Jia, A., & Hong, B. (2025). A Magnetron Plasma Arc Fusion Identification Study Based on GPCC-CNN-SVM Multi-Source Signal Fusion. Sensors, 25(10), 2996. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25102996Thats's it so far, only 3 examples. I bet there will be much more in the next months, if #Deepl does not fix that.
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Example 2 (#MDPI):
Li, X., Yue, H., Qin, Y., & Zhang, H. (2025). Extension Distance-Driven K-Means: A Novel Clustering Framework for Fan-Shaped Data Distributions. Mathematics, 13(15), 2525. https://doi.org/10.3390/math13152525Does not seem like anyone read, reviewed and corrected this at all. Not my domain, but this sentence just does not fit there at all.
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Submitting something to an #MDPI journal? Maybe think again 👇
http://deevybee.blogspot.com/2025/07/trouble-at-t-review-mill-how-mdpi-lets.html -
The next day I receive an invite to guest edit a special issue, impact factor in subject. First off, do we honestly need more special issues!? 🤨
Then, the tentative title suggests a field of science that only slightly links to my expertise, 7+ years ago. A reminder email mentioning my "expertise and reputation in this field" apparently is meant to convince me otherwise.ACP charge for one paper waived, ACP discounts for other papers, if I arrange enough papers they can print me a book.
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First time that I'm involved in an #mdpi submission, and my my, just the first n emails from them are "interesting".
Paper submitted by a former colleague; I'm somewhere in the middle of the authors list.
At the same time stamp, an automated reply offering "30% discount on professional English language editing". Not because the paper is badly written, since they have not had time to read the actual paper. Generating income, I guess? -
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I am a member of the German Association for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (to stay in the loop and be able to attend conferences). Today, I received an email from them distributing a mail from FEBS letters. They remind us scientists that they (the FEBS association) use their revenue from the journals to support meetings, fund fellowships, courses, etc.
They state that German scientists seem rather to publish with PLOS, Elsevier and MDPI. Now, while we can certainly all agree that publishing with #Elsevier and #MDPI is NOT a good idea.
Yet, FEBS' APCs are so high, that my uni would not support publishing with them. 🤷♂️
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"Springer Nature Discovers MDPI" https://the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/posts/discover_nature/ #OpenAccess #Springer #Nature #MDPI
[via @aufdroeseler] -
Just had a paper co-written with a colleague accepted by #MDPI's Cosmology Issue. Mixed feelings about this publisher, but in this case (and tbh also in the previous case I recently had) the overall reviewing process was tougher than I had in more standard journals (A&A, MNRAS):
3 reports by 3 different reviewer:
Ref1 - 8 shallow points/comments
Ref2 - ~60(!) different points/comments
Ref3 - 9 + 2 points/comments spread in two rounds.Other experiences?
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MDPI as a corruption indicator? A new preprint shows a striking trend across Europe 🇪🇺: more MDPI papers → higher perceived corruption → lower innovation.
👉 https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.06282v1
It’s not that MDPI = bad. But when it dominates, it signals a broken system chasing quantity over quality.
Ukraine? 🇺🇦 Not in the study, but we see the same rise of #MDPI. We could build better. Instead, we copy the worst.
#AcademicPublishing #SciencePolicy #ResearchAssessment #Bibliometrics #CorruptionIndex