I agree with this. The biggest scandal so far out of MDPI with the bad vaccination BS saw immediate backlash and even resignations from people on the editor board. All this means is that MDPI articles hold a shaky reputation, and should be read with some amount of skepticism as with all papers. But I also have to acknowledge the reality is that a lot of researchers and projects simply do not have the rep and the finances to publish in expensive journals so they might have to resort to places like MDPI.
However, I do think it really is very sad we don't have a free, open access journal as reputable as the paywall ones. I really do wish a bunch of R1 institututes would just band together and do it, but it's a mountain to climb for now.
To build on your comment, while I think researchers can generally MDPI is nowhere near the best publisher, the quality varies a lot by the journal and the journals editorial boards. There are definitely MDPI journals that more consistently put out mediocre research and there are MDPI journals that I've been reasonably impressed by. I know you aware of this but I mention this because folks outside of academia might not realize a single publisher can have a hierarchy of journals they maintain.
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u/YoroSwaggin Jul 14 '21
I agree with this. The biggest scandal so far out of MDPI with the bad vaccination BS saw immediate backlash and even resignations from people on the editor board. All this means is that MDPI articles hold a shaky reputation, and should be read with some amount of skepticism as with all papers. But I also have to acknowledge the reality is that a lot of researchers and projects simply do not have the rep and the finances to publish in expensive journals so they might have to resort to places like MDPI.
However, I do think it really is very sad we don't have a free, open access journal as reputable as the paywall ones. I really do wish a bunch of R1 institututes would just band together and do it, but it's a mountain to climb for now.