Following from HQ’s analysis (above) of time from submission to acceptance and from acceptance to publication in each journal:
MDPI state themselves on their journal websites the unusually fast manuscript handling; for example:
The journal ‘Viruses’ http://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses:
“Rapid publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and published within 41 days (average Jan-Jun 2013)”
The journal ‘Molecules http://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules:
“Rapid publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and published within 44 days (average Jan-Jun 2013)”
How can a journal go through a serious peer-review, author revisions, production and publication in 6 weeks?
Further, MDPI states that production includes professional copyediting and English editing – unless this is ‘extensive’: “A separate English editing charge will be applied to articles that require extensive English language editing or formatting.” – see http://www.mdpi.com/about/apc). How is ‘extensive’ measured? Since this copyediting come during production, then the author would find out about this hidden charge after their paper is accepted, no?
