MAHansonSep 21, 2023

Wow. Ok. Normally I feel like it's a bit overplayed to individually comment on #MDPI in the whole #AcademicChatter conversation, but this is really a must-see:

A Special Issue where the guest editors are lead or senior author on 27 of the 28 papers it published. Were they also their own reviewers!? Like... that sounds like I'm taking the piss, but... no seriously were they?
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/processes/special_issues/Biologics_Botanicals

I guess this is a preview to an upcoming post. Look forward to it...

Processes

Processes, an international, peer-reviewed Open Access journal.

Show threadKate Nyhan is changing serversSep 22, 2023
@MarkHanson
American journal of health behavior did something similar with a special issue of papers funded by Juul, guest edited by a Juul consultant who was an author on several of the articles.
Show threadKate Nyhan is changing serversSep 22, 2023
@MarkHanson In the interest of fairness, here's my PubPeer comment and the response of the guest editor-cum-author response: https://pubpeer.com/publications/F13D7A8E45724F1D307B71C0B54A7B
And some news coverage: https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1247
PubPeer - Prevalence of ENDS and JUUL Use, by Smoking Status, in Natio...

There are comments on PubPeer for publication: Prevalence of ENDS and JUUL Use, by Smoking Status, in National Samples of Young Adults and Older Adults in the U.S (2021)

Show threadKate Nyhan is changing servers
@MarkHanson
Personally, my big issue is about disclosure. As I said on PubPeer, "It may (may) suffice for COPE that the sponsor of a special issue is disclosed once in the issue; in today's world where researchers consume individual articles, disclosure of issue sponsorship should happen at the article level too." I looked at the first article in the MDPI special issue and do not see such disclosure.
Sep 22, 2023 at 3:53pmWeb
Show threadMAHansonSep 22, 2023
@kdnyhan disclosure of backing for a special issue is a consideration I hadn't even thought of! Thanks.
Show threadKate Nyhan is changing serversSep 22, 2023
@MarkHanson in the pubpeer comment there's a link to the COPE guidance on an editor publishing in their own journal. I am not aware of COPE guidance specifically about guest editors/special issues.