Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 189.
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
Hosted by DH-Cologne
www.dhhumanist.org
Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
[1] From: Maroussia Bednarkiewicz <maroussia.b@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.183: paying to be published? (81)
[2] From: maurizio lana <maurizio.lana@uniupo.it>
Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.183: paying to be published? (32)
[3] From: Karadkar, Unmil (unmil.karadkar@uni-graz.at) <unmil.karadkar@uni-graz.at>
Subject: RE: [Humanist] 37.183: paying to be published? (55)
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2023-09-06 10:09:12+00:00
From: Maroussia Bednarkiewicz <maroussia.b@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.183: paying to be published?
Regarding MDPI and their policy, as well as their classification as
predatory publication, here's an informative article that might be
interesting to read with regards to this discussion:
https://predatory-publishing.com/is-mdpi-a-predatory-publisher/
And here the predatory classification of MDPI journals:
https://predatoryreports.org/news/f/list-of-all-mdpi-predatory-publications
Kind regards,
Maroussia
Le mer. 6 sept. 2023 à 08:36, Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org> a écrit :
>
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 183.
> Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
> Hosted by DH-Cologne
> www.dhhumanist.org
> Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
>
>
>
>
> Date: 2023-08-31 13:31:41+00:00
> From: John Wall <jnwall@ncsu.edu>
> Subject: Pay for Publication
>
> Willard,
>
> I'm curious to learn if paying money for scholarly publication in the
> (digital) humanities is a phenomenon that others have experienced. Is it
> customary and I am simply not familiar with it? Is the need to publish
> becoming so critical that people are willing to pay for it? To pay what
> looks like lots of money for it?
>
> I've received a long and entailed email from someone associated with
> something called MDPI announcing a
>
> *"Special Issue entitled "Big Data Visualization and Virtual Reality", to
> be published in the journal Information (ISSN 2078-2489, IF 3.1). Based on
> your expertise in this field, we think you could make an excellent
> contribution. We welcome researchers, data scientists, designers, and
> industrial professionals to submit their original research and review
> articles that address open questions, provide insightful experiments,
> evaluations, and case studies, present an advance in performance and
> interaction modality design, or provide insights and guidelines towards
> future design and challenges. For further reading, please follow the link
> to the Special Issue Website
> at: https://www.mdpi.com/si/information/P1200T1SVV
> <https://www.mdpi.com/si/information/P1200T1SVV>" *
>
> All well and good -- except when I got further into the email
> I discovered that if they accepted the essay I must pay them over $1800.00.
> Or as they put it, *"An Article Processing Charge (APC) of 1600 CHF
> currently applies to all papers accepted after peer review." *
>
> This feels like someone here is going to make a tidy profit out of this
> issue. I've published a good number of essays in my time, but I've never
> been asked to buy my way into print before. I'm not at all interested in
> starting now, and I have advised these folks of my concern. It feels like a
> form of bribery to me.
>
> Others' thoughts?
>
> JNW
>
> --
> The Rev Dr John N. Wall, FRHistS
> Professor Emeritus of English Literature
> North Carolina State University
> Principal Investigator for
> The Virtual John Donne Project
> https://virtualdonne.chass.ncsu.edu/
> Including
> The Virtual St Paul's Cathedral Project
> https://vpcathedral.chass.ncsu.edu/
> The Virtual Paul's Cross Project
> https://vpcross.chass.ncsu.edu/
> The Virtual Trinity Chapel Project
> https://vtcp.chass.ncsu.edu/
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2023-09-06 18:54:11+00:00
From: maurizio lana <maurizio.lana@uniupo.it>
Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.183: paying to be published?
hi John,
i too receive frequently similar announcements/offers.
similar i mean
1) the flattering ouverture: "Based on your expertise in this field, we
think you could make an excellent
contribution"
2) the 360° intended audience: "researchers, data scientists, designers,
and industrial professionals"
3) the 360° object: "original research and review articles that address
open questions, provide insightful experiments, evaluations, and case
studies, present an advance in performance and interaction modality
design, or provide insights and guidelines towards future design and
challenges"
4) no scientific scope, no detail of main relevant topics.
when i see them i simply discard them.
best
Maurizio
------------------------------------------------------------------------
quanti nella loro vita / si fecero custodi delle Termopili, /
sono degni di più grande onore / se prevedono (e molti lo prevedono) /
che all’ultimo comparirà un Efialte / e comunque i Persiani passeranno
kostantinos kavafis, termopili
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maurizio Lana
Università del Piemonte Orientale
Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici
Piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli
--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 2023-09-06 08:16:13+00:00
From: Karadkar, Unmil (unmil.karadkar@uni-graz.at) <unmil.karadkar@uni-graz.at>
Subject: RE: [Humanist] 37.183: paying to be published?
Dear John,
To share my perspective (not comprehensive or universal) 😊
Historically, publishers have required subscriptions or purchases for published
materials (Springer, Wiley, IEEE, ACM, etc.) resulting in a situation where
readers/consumers/subscribers pay for the privilege of reading scholarly
materials. Over the last 20 years or so, as Web publishing went mainstream and
"open access" became a key phrase, several universities and even individual
professors tried their hand at forming editorial boards and publishing journals
online with a goal of providing free access to readers--they quickly ran into
problems of maintenance. While it's easy to publish an article or a journal
issue, someone must do the hard work of updating the hardware, web server
software, applications that run on the web server, manage the publishing
process, etc.
Several open access journals failed but such failures highlighted a market for
MDPI and Frontiers (a predatory publisher--do a Google search, if interested).
Publication and access has costs, which someone must pay. These publishers
charge the authors a one-time fee to publish their articles in order pay for the
costs of keeping the article free for access to the readers in perpetuity (taken
with a grain of salt).
Increasingly, research funding agencies are allowing the inclusion of such costs
in grant proposals in order to ensure that products of taxpayer funded research
should be freely available to the taxpayers
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2022/08/25/ostp-issues-guidance-
to-make-federally-funded-research-freely-available-without-delay/)
While payment for publication is arguable, pay-to-publish is a pejorative term
that implies that payment guarantees publication. Springer, for example, does
offer an open access possibility (https://www.springeropen.com/get-
published/article-processing-charges) but all articles still go through their
standard peer review process and must pass the reviewing/editing bars. I don't
consider this pay-to-publish. In contrast, Frontiers, a Swiss publisher has been
known to strong-arm editors, reviewers, and those maintaining lists of predatory
journals (https://forbetterscience.com/2015/10/28/is-frontiers-a-potential-
predatory-publisher/). I have vowed never to publish with any Frontiers journal.
I don't know enough about MDPI's history to comment on the specifics but
publishing-for-profit is a thing and article processing charges are a thing
(Gold open access, vs. the green open access, which the university publishers
attempt-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access).
Given the difference between a pay-to-publish journal (no quality, payment
guarantees publication) and a pay-for-open-access (quality, pay for broader
dissemination, free access to readers), you may have to do your own research. I
would check whether the editorial board of the journal that you will publish in
includes people of repute, whether their editorial process seems reliable and
reeks of quality (yes!), perhaps, even contact the editors...
With warm regards,
-unmil.
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