1 December 2023
The inflated concept of the not so special issue: A warning to early career scientists

Disclaimers: The following letter presents the authors’ personal opinions and does not represent the policies or opinions of their academic employers or of any scientific association they are affiliated to. Furthermore, it should be acknowledged that several of the authors serve in editorial roles for scientific publishers, but that the opinions expressed in this letter do not represent the opinion of any of these publishers. The signatories of this letter may have published in journals of the publishers discussed in this letter.

In recent years, we have observed a remarkable development in scientific publication. We have seen a substantial increase in the number of scientific peer-reviewed papers published, and an increasing share of these appears in special issues. While all publishers appear to be pushing more special issues and invite more review papers as an editorial strategy, certain publishers, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), Frontiers, and Hindawi, in particular, have made it their business model to launch a very high number of special issues, and invite young scientists to serve as special editors. This development has recently been summarized in a publication describing the development between 2016 and 2022 (Hanson et al., 2023). Frontiers, Hindawi, and MDPI all publish substantially more special than regular issues, and many of these journals have become so-called megajournals, characterized by large publication volumes, soundness-only peer-review, broad subject areas and multidisciplinary scopes, fast peer-review and rapid publishing. Among these publishers, MDPI is clearly leading the market with a very high and growing number of publications and close to 90% of all articles published in special issues in 2022 (Hanson et al., 2023).

We acknowledge that good quality articles have been and are still being published by journals of the above-mentioned publishers. It is also clear that scientists find value in publishing in these journals, given the high and growing number of papers published by them. However, although legitimate concerns can be raised about the quality, rigor, and integrity of the peer-review process practiced by these publishers, and some of the associated journals meet criteria often used to identify predatory journals (Oviedo-Garcia 2021), it is not our intention to discuss these aspects here. Rather, the purpose with this open letter is to specifically raise concerns about the inflated concept of special issues. The concerns are as follows:

Taken together, these virtual “special” issues represent no real value to the scientific community. They are clearly launched by the publishers to increase profit and market shares. Our concern is that this business model exploits young and early-career scientists by utilizing their networks to facilitate submissions.

In recent years, some academic institutions have chosen to change their performance evaluation systems in an attempt to curb and discourage the current productivism path. Some institutions no longer support payment of publication fees to these journals. Thus, publishing a high number of papers in these journals may affect career trajectories negatively.

Our message is that we should aim to publish our work in indexed and peer-reviewed scientific journals of good stature and characterized by a rigorous peer-review process. Indeed, publishing scientific articles is not the only goal of research. Scientific articles are, however, crucial to the career trajectory of junior scientists who should prioritize quality rather than quantity of their publications. We emphasize that special issues can be of value when curated and published under the right circumstances. However, there is little, if any, added value to publishing in one of the countless virtual special issues being launched on a daily basis, and we strongly recommend against supporting these for the reasons outlined in this letter.

Sincerely,

Martin K. Nielsen (USA)

Domenico Otranto (Italy)

Andrei Daniel Mihalca (Romania)

Stephen R. Doyle, (UK)

Guilherme G. Verocai (USA)

R. Jory Brinkerhoff (USA)

Thierry Hoch (France)

Jozef Vercruysse (Belgium)

Johan Höglund (Sweden)

Manuela Schnyder (Switzerland)

Andrew S. Peregrine (Canada)

Franco José Arroyo (Argentina)

A. Zintl (Ireland)

Cinzia Cantacessi (UK)

Julia Walochnik (Austria)

Christian Gortazar (Spain)

István Zachar (Hungary)

Andrea Zatelli (Italy)

Gábor Földvari (Hungary)

Tina Holberg Pihl (Denmark)

Emanuele Brianti (Italy)

Petr Volf (Czech Republic)

Ray M. Kaplan (Grenada)

Jocelyn Poissant (Canada)

Marcelo Beltrão Molento (Brazil)

Andrew R. Moorhead (USA)

Vineesh Indira Chandran (Denmark)

Nicola Decaro (Italy)

Alicja Tabor (Australia)

Peter Nejsum (Denmark)

Hein Sprong (The Netherlands)

Janet Foley (USA)

Peter Irwin (Australia)

Olivier Duron (France)

Jerome Depaquit (France)

Maarten J. Voordouw (Canada)

Richard J. Martin (USA)

Antonio Varcasia (Italy)

Mani Lejeune (USA)

David Modrý (Czech Republic)

José de la Fuente (Spain)

Laura Rinaldi (Italy)

Anja Joachim (Austria)

Guadalupe Miro (Spain)

Erik Andersen (USA)

Jennifer Ketzis (St. Kitts and Nevis)

Frederic Beugnet (France)

Julius Lukeš (Czech Republic)

Saverio Paltrinieri (Italy)

Aránzazu Meana (Spain)

John Stuart Gilleard (Canada)

Marcos André (Brazil)

Jan Votýpka (Czech Republic)

Grace Mulcahy (Ireland)

Dave M. Leathwick (New Zealand)

Aneta Kostadinova (Bulgaria)

Georg von Samson-Himmelstjerna (Germany)

Gastón Moré (Argentina/Switzerland)

Timothy Geary (Canada)

Martin Pfeffer (Germany)

A. W. Greer (New Zealand)

Maryna Galat (Ukraine)

Caroline Frey (Switzerland)

Jeremy Gray (UK/Ireland)

Andrew Hemphill (Switzerland)

Britta Lundström-Stadelman (Switzerland)

Stig Milan Thamsborg (Denmark)

Elias Papadopoulos (Greece)

Eva Tydén (Sweden)

Hubertus Hertzberg (Switzerland)

Helen J. Esser (The Netherlands)

Elisa Roma (Italy)

Carla Maia (Portugal)

Sándor Hornok (Hungary)

Agr. Moreno Dutto (Italy)

Giorgio Battelli (Italy)

Paolo Merella (Italy)

Luca Rossi (Italy)

Luigi Gradoni (Italy)

Giuseppe Cringoli (Italy)

Annunziata Giangaspero (Italy)

Maria Vitale (Italy)

Attila D. Sándor (Romania)

References

Csomós, G., Farkas, J.Z., 2023. Understanding the increasing market share of the academic publisher “Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute” in the publication output of Central and Eastern European countries: a case study of Hungary. Scientometrics 128, 803-824.

Hanson, M.A., Barreiro, P.G., Crosetto, P., Brockington, D., 2023. The strain on scientific publishing. arXiv: 2309.15884. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2309.15884.

Oviedo-Garcia, M.A., 2021. Journal citation reports and the definition of a predatory journal: The case of the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI). Res. Eval. 30, 405-419.

64
signatures
52 verified
  1. Jerome Depaquit, full professor of parasitology, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France
  2. Marco Festa-Bianchet, Head of biology department, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke
  3. Gerald Spaeth
  4. Petr Horák, parasitologist, Charles University, Prague
  5. Sergio Bermúdez, Researcher Acarologist, Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Research, Panamá
  6. Klara Petrzelkova, ecologist, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno
  7. Břetislav Koudela, parasitologist, University of Veterinary Medicine Brno, Brno
  8. Vincenzo VENEZIANO, Professor of Parasitic Diseases, University of Napoli Federico II - Italy, Napoli
  9. Pablo D. Jimenez Castro, Director of Parasitology, Antech diagnostics, a MARS company, Athens, GA, USA
  10. Josef Bryja, Professor of Zoology, Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno
  11. ThankGod Emmanuel Onyiche, Academic, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
  12. Roman Kuchta, researcher, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceske Budejovice
  13. Alina Botezat, Researcher, Romanian Academy, Iasi Branch, Iasi
  14. Rima Majumdar, Ph.D. Candidate, Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University, India
  15. Oana-Maria Balmos, Trainee, EFSA, Parma
  16. Celia Marr, Veterinarian & editor, Equine Vet Journal, Newmarket, Suffolk
  17. Maarten Oosterlinck, Veterinarian and Associate Editor
  18. Milan Vrtilek, researcher, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno
  19. Kateřina Jirků, Czech Republic, Biology Centre CAS, Ceske Budejovice
  20. Barbora Cervena, researcher, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, CAS, Brno
  21. Andres Gomez, ASS. PROFF, University o Minnesota, St Paul
  22. Jan Tachezy, Charles University, Faculty of Science, Prague, Czech Republic, Professor of Parasitology
  23. Jan Mach, Researcher, Charles University, Czech Republic
  24. Ivan Hrdy, Charles University, Prague
  25. Martin Pfeffer, Professor, University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Leipzig
  26. Amin Zakeri, Aarhus University, Aarhus
  27. Torben Lund Skovhus, Docent, VIA University College, Horsens
  28. Maibritt Mardahl, Consultant, Data-Set-Go.dk, Silkeborg
  29. Yvonne Adams, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen
  30. Francis Schaffner, Associate researcher, University of Zurich, Zurich
  31. Judit Knisz, senior research scientist, University of Public Service, Faculty of Water Sciences, Hungary, Baja
  32. Brian Mossin Christiansen, DVM, Oerbaek
  33. Annie An Stepec, Senior Scientist, Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE), BERGEN
  34. Carlos Honrado, Research Fellow, International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Braga
  35. Jose de la Fuente, Professor, Health and Biotechnology SaBio, IREC-CSIC-UCLM-JCCM, Ciudad Real
  36. Antonia Lestingi, Researcher, University of Bari 'Aldo Moro', Bari (Italy)
  37. Georgia Diakoudi, Researcher, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari
  38. Pasquale De Palo, Full professor of Animal Science, University of Bari-Department of Veterinary Medicine, Bari
  39. Antonio Camarda, Professor of Avian Diseases, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Valenzano
  40. Jairo Alfonso Mendoza Roldan, Assistant Professor, Univeristy of Bari, Bari
  41. Janina McKay-Demeler, Veterinary Parasitologist, Department of Primary Industries NSW Australia, Menangle
  42. Mario Ventura, Full Professor, Universita' degli studi di Bari, Bari
  43. Giuseppe Mastronuzzi, Full Professor, DISTEGEO University of Bari, Bari
  44. Francesco Giorgino, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari
  45. Bastian Fromm, scientist, Arctic University Museum of Norway, Tromsø
  46. Tean Zaheer, Fresh PhD (Parasitology), University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad
  47. Martin Reichard, professor of zoology, Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno
  48. Jinseo Park, Researcher, Korea Institute of S&T Information, Seoul
  49. Mark Mitchison, Assistant Professor in Quantum Science, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin
  50. Clément Fontana, Italy
  51. Mark A Hanson, Research Fellow, University, Penryn
  52. Eun sung Kim, Professor, Kyung Hee University, Dongdaemun-gu
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