Probably my question (or, better to say, note) will not be new at all. I have accepted being a co-invited guest editor of a special issue and had to realize that after sending out more than 500 invitations to various persons with relevant scientific interest in the field where the publications are expected the response rate is meagre. The other guest editors did their work too but after several months the number (let alone the quality)of the submitted papers did not reach the critical level of a special issue, although the journal is NOT a predatory one - but involves payment by the authors. I had to realize that in several cases the journals just make money for themselves by special issues and the guest editors do the work for them by searching the potential clients. There are several well or less well known journal trying to get publictions, some of them maintaining peer review system at higher or lower level - just to make money. This is too general statement, and conditions change form one journal to the other, but the publication system is extremely swollen at the expense of quality. This does not mean that one cannot find good articles in obscure journal - hust the contrary. It onyl means that one has to do even more work to separate the grain from the hay. Peer reviewing is also declining as it is also "counted" therefore many accept reviewing and return nemaningless 1-2 sentence evaluations just to increase their score. No wonder that trust is science is diminishing.

More Gyorgy Banhegyi's questions See All
Similar questions and discussions