In consequence, the scientific community recently initiated a discussion to increase the required prerequisites for a journal to be listed in PubMed.14 The results of the present survey highlight, that a broader education on how to identify predatory journals and proper resources and tools to facilitate this are urgently needed in the oncology scientific community, as there was no difference between the knowledge groups with regard to confrontation with scientific studies by patients. The speed to publication is dependent on several things, but primarily on how many reviewers accept an editors invitation to review, how many of those who do accept actually complete a review, and how quickly the editor can make a decision based on their own read of the article and the reviewers comments. CDP is a primary, peer-refereed journal devoted to cancer prevention by predictive and preventive oncology. 2020). Diagnosis Methods: An online survey among oncologists working in Germany or Austria of various professional Editors JIF-Boosting stratagems-Which Are Appropriate and Which Not? government site. A review of APCs for the leading journal control group was not conducted. Long Axial Field-of-View PET/CT Could Answer Unmet Needs in Gynecological Cancers. 1 2020; Siler 2020). The Author(s) 2021. The COPE/DOAJ/OASPA/WAME Principles for Transparency and Best Practices in Scholarly Publishing stipulate that journal names should not be easily confused with another journal and that journal websites should not guarantee very short peer-review times (as a member of COPE and DOAJ, MDPI could hardly argue that it ignores those Principles). Both the increases in APC and the number of articles and special issues in JCR-indexed MDPI-journals may raise questions about the practices in use and their potential fit to these definitions. These facts suggest that MDPI has been open to question, a publisher that has been moving within a grey zone. A review of the frequency of special issue publication in the control group was not conducted. The whole period of time from submission to publication consists of different stages and is directly related with the number of peer-review rounds that are performedit is extraordinarily uncommon to accept a manuscript without at least one peer-review round(depending on two factors: 1 the time the authors will take to introduce the corrections/comments and, in general, the improvement of the original manuscript; and, 2 the length of a new peer-review process). (2019): predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices. In this prospective, anonymised online survey oncologists working in Austria and Germany irrespective of their educational level were eligible to participate. Diagnosis Predatory journals are a global threat to science (Harvey and Weinstein 2017; Grudniewicz et al. WebOnly Open Access Journals Only SciELO Journals Only WoS Journals Concerning the awareness of journals with predatory background, no difference in gender (p=0.515) was evident. The results presented above showed that the 53 MDPI-journals under analysis possess, to a greater or lesser degree, some of the criteria from various definitions for the identification of predatory journals and may deviate from best editorial and publication practices when e.g. (4) Editorial Board: Does the editorial board reflect the scope of the journal? 2019), which clearly manipulate the metrics. *, n (%) (n=170), Why would you publish your work in an open-access journal?, n (%), Promotion of the results over social media, As opportunity to publish negative results, Will not publish anything in an open-access journal, How much would you be willing to pay for a publication in an open access journal?, n (%), Do you know the term predatory journals?, n (%), Do you know how to identify a potentially Predatory Journal?, n (%), How would you characterise a Predatory Journal?, n (%), No editorial board or no real persons at the editorial board, Journal is located in a newly industrialising country, Were you confronted with scientific literature/studies by patients?, n (%), If yes, were any of the articles published in a Predatory Journals? One form of avoiding the proliferation of predatory journals based on the gold open-access model, which can favour quantity over quality, would be to promote a platinum/diamond open-access model, in which neither the authors nor the readers pay for access to the articles and the costs of the publication process are met by associations or institutions (e.g. Thus, universities, funding institutions, or any institution that evaluates scientific activity can disincentivize the submission of manuscripts to predatory journals and the acceptance of roles on their editorial committees, ignoring these milestones in the evaluation process of a curriculum vitae (Forero et al. Several new open-access journals were founded in the past few years and several established journals offer open-access opportunities to make research results more accessible to a broad audience.4 5 Indeed, several public founders require the grantees to only publish in freely accessible journals.6 However, the difference between open-access journals of high-quality and predatory journals consists in a properly conducted peer-review process including high and transparent publishing standards.7 We sought to investigate the relationship of persons working in the field of oncology with scientific background and their knowledge on predatory publishing. IJC has a global readership and receives over 3,000 submissions a year under a broad scope of topics relevant to experimental and clinical cancer research. Cancers. However, this solution could only work in the medium to long term. The online survey was established with limesurvey (Hamburg, Germany) and the link was distributed via email within the network of the Austrian Association of Haematology and Oncology (550 members), the Working Group Medical Oncology within German Cancer Association (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Internistische Onkologie (AIO); 1300 members) and the German Society of Haematology and Oncology (DGHO; 3300). In this survey, we could demonstrate that over one-third of the participating scientist in Austria and Germany are not aware of the predatory journal problem, although almost all participants indicated that they are actively read scientific articles. If our attention is focussed on the intra-MDPI citation rate trends between 2018 and 2019, we see that 46 out of the 53 journals increased their intra-MDPI citation rates. Published: 01 September 2021. sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal 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. The following analysis addressed the peer-review process. ihttps://www.elsevier.com/life-sciences/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/journals/fast-publication-in-agricultural-science. Cancer screening. The number of special issues was over twice the number of ordinary issues in 92.45% of the MDPI-journals under analysis. (, Shu F., Mongeon P., Haustein S., Siler K., Alperin J. P., Larivire V. (, Xia J., Harmon J. L., Connolly K. G., Donnelly R. M., Anderson M. R., Howard H. A. How many publications did you author as first or last author? Grudniewicz et al. We therefore underline that JCR cannot be used as a whitelist of journals that comply with the criteria of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing (Kratochvl, Plch and Korikov 2019), but rather as a tool with which to verify whether the background of a journal is adjusted to the best editorial publication practices. For being able to get an erection sometimes, but not every time you want to have sex. WebThe aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal. 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. 2020). mimicking names. 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. Having completed the verification of the formal criteria, Kratochvl et al. All potential predatory journals in oncology shared at least one common poor-quality characteristic: Lack of web-site integrity, absence of ISSN, irregular and/or unreal number of issues per year, emphasis on open-access, anonymous and/or misused names of editorial board members, ambiguous or absent peer-review process, and considerably lower APCs. 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). Data availability statement: Data are available on reasonable request. The research suggests that optimizing the timing of cancer screenings and therapy sessions, in line with circadian rhythms, could enhance the precision of diagnosis and elevate the effectiveness of treatment regimens. For example, Sustainability published a total of 7,414 articles in 2019, with peer-review periods of between 13.94 and 17.75days from submission to first review, while Vaccines published 226 articles in 2019 with peer-review periods ranging between 14.61 and 26.04days. Logically, this step requires expert knowledge in each scientific field that prevents a global analysis of the 53 journals under analysis. Cortegiani et al. Number of special issues of MDPI-journals (2018, 2019 and 2020). These actions will send out a clear message to researchers to refuse to publish in and to support predatory journals. Moreover, the Norwegian Register for Scientific Journals, Series, and Publishers downgraded MDPI to 0 in 2019 and later upgraded it to 1 again. Journal However, the participants were only infrequently aware of methods to identify predatory journal, for example, by using Bealls list. Awareness of predatory journals and open access among No hard and fast answer possible (1). Data sources Published studies in Medline from 1 January 2000 to 10 April 2020. being able to get an erection, but not having it last long enough for sex. 3rd Medical Department, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Hanusch Hospital, Vienna, Austria, 5 For example, they no longer have webs with typographic errors, but with a much more sophisticated appearance, converting themselves into a non-evident/hidden predatory publisher, in view of their editorial behaviour. Certainly, the number of special issues published or scheduled in 1 year reveals no quality-related information, although the fact that the number of special issues in JCR-indexed MDPI-journals is so much higher than the number of ordinary issues per year coupled with their constant increase since 2018 inevitably awakens suspicions of a lucrative business aim. Innovative approaches for cancer treatment: current The .gov means its official. 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.