Has taxonomic vandalism gone too far? A case study, the rise of the pay‑to‑publish model and the pitfalls of Morchella systematics

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985831%3A_____%2F22%3A00554815" target="_blank" >RIV/67985831:_____/22:00554815 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/journal/11557/volumes-and-issues/21-1" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/journal/11557/volumes-and-issues/21-1</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11557-021-01755-z" target="_blank" >10.1007/s11557-021-01755-z</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Has taxonomic vandalism gone too far? A case study, the rise of the pay‑to‑publish model and the pitfalls of Morchella systematics

Original language description

The genus Morchella has gone through turbulent taxonomic treatments. Although significant progress in Morchella systematics has been achieved in the past decade, several problems remain unresolved and taxonomy in the genus is still in flux. In late 2019, a paper published in the open-access journal Scientific Reports raised serious concerns about the taxonomic stability of the genus, but also about the future of academic publishing. The paper, entitled “High diversity of Morchella and a novel lineage of the esculenta clade from the north Qinling Mountains revealed by GCPSR-based study” by Phanpadith and colleagues, suffered from gross methodological errors, included false results and artifactual phylogenies, had misapplied citations throughout, and proposed a new species name invalidly. Although the paper was eventually retracted by Scientific Reports in 2021, the fact that such an overtly flawed and scientifically unsound paper was published in a high-ranked Q1 journal raises alarming questions about quality controls and safekeeping procedures in scholarly publishing. Using this paper as a case study, we provide a critical review on the pitfalls of Morchella systematics followed by a series of recommendations for the delimitation of species, description of taxa, and ultimately for a sustainable taxonomy in Morchella. Problems and loopholes in the academic publishing system are also identified and discussed, and additional quality controls in the pre- and post-publication stages are proposed.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10612 - Mycology

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Mycological Progress

ISSN

1617-416X

e-ISSN

1861-8952

Volume of the periodical

21

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

32

Pages from-to

7-38

UT code for WoS article

000764882000002

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85126109523