In recent days and weeks defamatory messages about MDPI and its founder Dr. Shu-Kun Lin are being distributed by "Dr. Xin Ge" and "Cunfu Yiming" using a Google e-mail address ([email protected]). Dr. Xin Ge is presumably the owner and publisher of the website at http://www.2250s.com/. He is using a Gmail address to repeatedly bother academic editors and employees of MDPI. The message is one of many open letters sent by "Dr. Xin Ge" to Nature (www.nature.com), which are all ignored by Nature. The libelous message contains lies and misrepresented facts, and those are also repeated on the 2250s website.

The message is being sent because MDPI and its founder and President Dr. Shu-Kun Lin have taken a very strong stance against corruption and pseudoscience in the Chinese academic system. Since January 2013 MDPI has sponsored the "Scientific Spirit Prize in China", which is awarded annually by the organization New Threads. New Threads is chaired by Dr. Fang Shi-min (pen name: Fang Zhouzi), a renowned campaigner against academic corruption and pseudoscience in China.

Dr. Fang has made a number of enemies by systematically uncovering cases of corruption and pseudoscience within China and by Chinese scholars abroad. The sender of the message "Dr. Xin Ge" might be one of the targets of Dr. Fang. Dr. Fang Shi-min has been widely and internationally recognized, and awarded the inaugural 2012 John Maddox Prize, jointly awarded by Nature magazine and Sense about Science, in recognition of his extraordinary and courageous work. The message is one of many open letters sent by "Dr. Xin Ge" to Nature (www.nature.com) following Dr. Fang receiving the Nature magazine sponsored John Maddox prize in 2012.

Further Information:

• History of the MDPI publishing project, https://www.mdpi.com/about/history
• Dr. Shu-Kun Lin's biographic summary, https://www.mdpi.org/lin/lin-bi.htm
• Response by Shu-Kun Lin to allegations about data-stealing in the late 1980s, http://www.xys.org/forum/db/11/104/172.html

MDPI will continue to support those that stand up for science.

Dietrich Rordorf
Dr. Martyn Rittman
Dr. Shu-Kun Lin

(First uploaded on 22 January 2014. Updated on 24 February 2014)