Dr PenI need feedback on Frontiers in Computer Science journal. Predatory, or not? Is it really any different from big name journals? Is it similar to MDPI? The APC is approx £1k, Citescore 5.3, Impact 2.7. These figures seem ok. (Some MDPI journals have very high APC.) All input welcome on this.
Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק@DrPen I saw two posts calling the Frontiers series quasi-predatory despite it putting out some good research.
Steve Thompson PhDEditor at McGill is good. They seem to have peculiar designations for editors. Don't know those others. Indexed in Scopus, Web of Science (ESCI) is good. They seem hungry, but not necessarily predatory.
@SteveThompson yes the indexing is good, the editor institutions is good. The areas of research 'designation' are kind of understandable (I think HE faculty are generally clueless re how they divide digital things up). A plus point is they have high profile for 'eyes on the product'.
Wouldn't say I'm 'clueless' as to how digital journals divide editor roles. I've been on the Editorial Board of Academic Editors at PeerJ and PeerJ Computer Science for over a decade. But I do have limited interest in the evolution.
@SteveThompson apologies, its just an expression! I'm referring to the blunt instrument of faculty and dept division of subject areas. Sometimes done with little logic and creating problems by combining disparate groups of people and requirements into an arbitrary whole.
@DrPen It just seems that certain 'attractive' titles do come with predatory pubs, is all.
@SteveThompson thats an interesting way of looking at it. They didnt seem much different from other comp sci journals, but I may not be as experienced as you. Tbh I think the line between predatory and 'proper' is now so blurred, esp since the recent AI deals, that I've become very sceptical. See recent Ben Williamson posts for all the reasons.
Dr. Evan J. Gowan@DrPen Although Frontiers does publish some good stuff, the amount of crap they let through puts them on the same tier as MDPI. Why not pick a better journal?
@DrEvanGowan because its part of a special issue potential contribution. MDPI has more predatary journals but even they also publish good work.