Web of Science excludes individual journals - e.g. from MDPI
In March 2023, the information provider Clarivate removed a number of journals from various publishers from its Web of Science Master Journal List, which means that these journals will no longer be indexed in the Web of Science and consequently will no longer be able to generate a Journal Impact Factor (JIF). The latter in particular worries authors who expect performance-based funding (LOM) related to the JIF.
The good news: the journal impact factor plays no role in the Charité's open access funding.
Clarivate stated that they excluded journals to maintain scientific integrity. (see Supporting integrity of the scholarly record: Our commitment to curation and selectivity in the Web of Science. Dr. Nandita Quaderi, March 20, 2023)
The MDPI journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH), for example, no longer meets the "content relevance" criterion for indexing in Web of Science, according to Clarivate. The journal published about 17,000 articles in 2022.
(See Scienceinsider: Fast-growing open-access journals stripped of coveted impact factors. 28 Mar 2023, by Jeffrey Brainard; doi: 10.1126/science.adi0098)
Also, the average time between submission and publication of an article at this journal is only 6 weeks, according to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
Whether these are dubious (or: predatory) practices by journals we ask you to check for yourself on a case-by-case basis before submitting an article.
In the past, the publisher MDPI has repeatedly been accused of predatory practices, i.e. prioritizing economic interests over scientific ethics. MPDI publishes thousands of Special Issues annually (!) for individual journals, filled with articles for which authors or their employers have to pay, pointing – at the very least – to a large economic profit for the publisher.
The Charité - through the Medical Library - promotes Open Access according to transparent criteria that ensure various publishing services at a high standard.
See publication fund and publishing agreements.
However, comprehensive quality review of a journal prior to submission is the responsibility of the authors.
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