How to deal with collaborators prone to publish in MDPI?

Question

I am the only person in academia doing a certain research, so several colleagues ask me to collaborate. Of course, I am more than happy to take part in multidisciplinary work, as it tends to be more publishable (medicine/medicinal chemistry).

But there's one big drawback! My colleagues always insist on publishing in MDPI. This is due to the publisher's low acceptance criteria and quick processing of what they consider essential for evaluation purposes. So my voice is always overruled, and almost all of my collaborative papers are published either there or in something adequate like Frontiers...

Recently, I even managed to convince them to try ACS, but after the rejection in the first picked journal, they decided to switch straight to MDPI.

When I publish alone or in smaller teams of 2-3 people, with me as the only corresponding author, I never, ever send to these predatory journals. Nevertheless, almost half of my list of papers is published in MDPI!

Sorry but this is a rant, not a question. Please edit your post so that it is clear what exactly it is you are asking — Sursula, Nov 18 '23 at 11:14
@Buffy kind of - but then again you would not need the "ranty" body at all — Sursula, Nov 18 '23 at 14:37
"I am the only person in academia doing a certain research"---what?? — Dilworth, Nov 18 '23 at 15:50
Does this answer your question? https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/196993/my-boss-insists-on-submitting-to-mdpi — Allure, Nov 19 '23 at 03:22

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 18 '23 at 12:20

The solution is fairly clear. First, find better collaborators if possible or work on your own.

Second, when you begin a collaboration, since you say it is based on your ideas, set parameters about where things will or won't be published. If others don't agree, then don't work with them.

Third, it is necessary for publishers to obtain permission from all authors to publish their work, since the authors jointly hold copyright. If you don't give permission to a publisher, then they can't publish it. You may misunderstand this last point and have been giving permission, perhaps implicitly in some way. Just. Say. No.

How to deal with collaborators prone to publish in MDPI?

1 Answers1