MDPI is delighted to have collaborated with the University of Toronto (UofT), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Graduate Chapter to host an Academic Publishing Workshop. On 29 August 2025, MDPI held this workshop to empower academic growth amongst engineering graduate students and to allow participants to gain practical guidance on essential aspects of writing academic articles, including manuscript preparation, navigating peer review, and best practices for citation.

Building on the enduring partnership between MDPI and the University of Toronto, this event reflects our shared dedication to fostering research excellence and promoting open scientific exchange across all disciplines.

The workshop centered around a presentation given by MDPI speaker and Section Managing Editor, Ms. Kailyn Wanhella, on the topic of “How to Write Your First Journal Article and the Peer Review Process”.

The presentation was broken into sections including “How to Write a Journal Article” and “Getting Your Work Published”. Ms. Wanhella began with an overview of MDPI and an explanation on the open access model. She delved into how to find a research topic, how to determine if your topic is valid, and the basic structure of research to be followed.

The front matter was covered first with notes on how to formulate good titles, what makes up an abstract, and how to pick keywords. The main text was discussed with an explanation of the inverse triangle, methods and materials, results versus discussion, figures, and what tenses to use when writing. Afterward, the back matter was covered with clarification on acknowledgements, conflicts of interest, and references, as well as an overview of the use of artificial intelligence in publishing.

Ms. Wanhella finished by explaining how to publish a paper with MDPI by breaking down the steps to submitting, the MDPI editorial process, common author misconduct, and notes on how to respond to reviewers.

The workshop ended with an engaging Q&A session and thoughtful discussions. Participants wanted to discuss the use of AI in publishing and MDPI’s stance on it. They learned more about how publishers check for AI and the repercussions of using it. The students also asked about how to differentiate between results and discussion in their papers, which Ms. Wanhella answered by exploring examples from her past research. Moreover, participants learned about the exclusivity of their published papers and how one paper can only be submitted to be academically published once.

As we concluded the workshop at the University of Toronto, we celebrated a day marked by dynamic knowledge exchange. The enthusiastic involvement of the graduate students underscored the workshop’s success in empowering attendees with practical skills for high-impact publication and rigorous peer review.