Proper scientific Publications

This article deals with a problem that has gained considerable importance in recent years and must now be classified as a real threat, especially for early career researchers: predatory publishing. Whereas in the past, this was considered a marginal phenomenon of minor significance, more recently there have been developments that pose a real threat to scientific reputation if one falls into the clutches of such publishers. At the same time, the number of publications in publishing houses of questionable quality has grown rapidly, as these publishers know how to place a multitude of special issues and other journals in the wake of reputable or at least serious-sounding journals, where the scientific quality control of peer review has degenerated into little more than a shame.

One of the most obvious examples of this is the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), an open access publisher that publishes a large number of scientific journals. MDPI is suspected of being a predatory publisher that neglects quality assurance and good scientific practice.

In recent years, the number of publications in predatory journals has increased rapidly. I would urge you to think very carefully about publishing in an MDPI or similar journal to avoid jeopardising your academic reputation and consequently your career. To prevent this, you should make use of useful tools such as Think Check Submit – a tool that helps you identify reputable online journals.

We are therefore actively following the processes at the EU level to evaluate research performance in a new and different way moving away from a pure evaluation of the quantity of publications, as described in the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment. The basic idea is to abandon, as far as possible, the inappropriate use of journal and publication figures and metrics in research assessment – especially the inappropriate use of Journal Impact Factors (JIF). We have already shown this by signing the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). We, as university management, are actively accompanying the process via working groups in The Guild and Enlight. The Göttingen State and University Library (SUB) and the university Research and Transfer Services have already organised workshops on the topic.

This statement in its full length and further information can be found in the useful links below.

Professor Metin Tolan, University President

Professor Bernhard Brümmer, Vice-President for Research

Statement Presidential Board: https://news.uni-goettingen.de/blog/2023/11/03/1739/

Statement Allea: https://allea.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/ALLEA-Statement-on-Curbing-Predatory-Practices-in-OA-Publishing.pdf

Oviedo-García. Journal citation reports and the definition of a predatory journal: The case of the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), Research Evaluation, 30(3), 2021, 405–419. https://doi.org/10.1093/reseval/rvab020

Brainard (Science, 2023) https://www.science.org/content/article/fast-growing-open-access-journals-stripped-coveted-impact-factors

Crosetto (Blog, 2021): Is MDPI a predatory publisher? https://paolocrosetto.wordpress.com/2021/04/12/is-mdpi-a-predatory-publisher/