Transfer Service
A manuscript transfer provides authors with a convenient method of resubmitting their manuscript file and any reviewer comments to another journal within our publishing portfolio.
We are committed to helping authors find the right home for their research, and we will provide authors with guidance and technical support through all stages of the transfer process. Authors will be able to choose to transfer a manuscript in the two situations described below.
1. Select alternative journals on submission
We currently ask all authors to select up to three alternative journals during the submission process. The suggested alternative journals will be ordered according to the authors’ preference. If a paper is deemed to be out of scope by the first-choice journal, it will be automatically transferred to the first alternative journal. If the first alternative journal also rejects the paper because it is out of scope, it will be automatically transferred to the second alternative journal, and so on.
The information below applies for the transfer of manuscripts when your paper is rejected and automatically transferred to your selected alternative journal.
Note: If you did not select an alternative journal during submission, the below does not apply.
How do I select an alternative journal?
Authors can use our Journal Finder tool to identify suitable journals in our portfolio. We suggest that you select alternative journals based on the scope and subject area of your manuscript.
All of our journals are listed here, and you can find out more about each journal by clicking through to its homepage.
Do I have to pay to transfer my manuscript?
No, there is no direct fee for transferring your manuscript.
Open access publication fees
If you transfer your manuscript to another open access (OA) journal, you will be charged an Article Processing Charge (APC) if your article is accepted for publication. The APC for each journal can be found on the individual journal’s website. For more information about APCs, please see here.
- Authors are encouraged to transfer manuscripts to other MDPI journals
If the journal that an article was submitted to cannot process this manuscript, but other MDPI journals can process it or the Academic Editor encourages authors to transfer the manuscript to other MDPI journals after revisions, the authors will receive an email listing the recommended journals. Authors can click on the link in the email to transfer or resubmit according to their own wishes.
