Sanctioning of 50 journals raises concerns over special issues in ‘mega-journals’

More than 50 journals have been delisted by the Web of Science for failing to meet quality selection criteria. In a statement, Clarivate, the owner of Web of Science, said its selection process  for journals had improved thanks to better technology, making it able to identify more journals of concern.

Clarivate will no longer index papers, count citations or bestow an impact factor on these journals. Scientific publisher Hindawi accounted for 19 of the delisted journals  that span health, science and engineering. ‘The journals were doing something that made Clarivate think that they’re not on the up and up, and that they have reasons to question their standards,’ says Ivan Oransky at Retraction Watch. ‘What exactly that is, they don’t say.’

One journal delisted was the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH),  a so-called mega-journal that published over 9500 papers in 2020 and 17,000 papers in 2022 that had an impact factor of 4.6. In a statement, its publisher MDPI acknowledged that it been informed by Clarivate that two journals had been delisted, due to content relevance criterion.