MDPI INSIGHTS: The CEO's Letter #27 - OASPA 2025, COUNTER 5.1, UK Summit in London, MDPI at the Italian Senate

Opening Thoughts

MDPI at OASPA 2025: Embracing the Complexity of Open Access

From 22 to 24 September, I joined the OASPA 2025 Annual Conference in Leuven, Belgium, where the theme, “Embracing the Complexity – How do we get to 100% Open Access?” tackled the hard questions about the future of scholarly communication.

With MDPI a longstanding member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) and Platinum sponsor of the conference, I was invited to present and participate in important discussions on how we can continue to move the needle in Open Access (OA) publishing.

From 50% to 100% Open Access

Last year’s OASPA conference celebrated a major milestone – reaching 50% of global research outputs published as OA. But, as noted during the conference, this was the “easy” part. The challenge ahead is much tougher: how do we take OA from 50% to 100%? For many academics and institutions, OA is still relatively new, and thus it is essential for us to continue educating people as to what OA is, how it works, and why it matters.

Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) presenting at OASPA’s 2025 Annual Conference in Leuven, Belgium.

MDPI’s perspective

At MDPI, we are fully committed to this. As a 100% OA publisher, our growth is inseparable from the success of OA itself. In many ways, MDPI is a byproduct of the global adoption of OA, and we play an important role in helping to advance it further.

I had the opportunity to share MDPI’s perspective in the panel discussion entitled: "Hello from the other side: views from fully Open Access journals using APCs," alongside industry colleagues from PLOS, eLife, AOSIS, and Frontiers.

Instead of giving a standard presentation, I highlighted aspects of MDPI that the audience might not be aware of. I also presented on the opportunities and challenges facing publishers that are already fully OA, the importance of diverse models in achieving 100% OA, and why OA is the baseline while Open Science is the future.

Recognizing Gold OA

As part of the panel, I had undertaken to make some bold and provocative statements. I therefore emphasized a point that is sometimes overlooked: we didn’t reach 50% OA without Gold OA – it accounts for more than half of all OA publications today. And we certainly won’t reach 100% OA without it.

“By educating the community and working together, we can continue to take Open Science to the next level”

“When people speak about Gold OA and MDPI, they should ‘put some respek on our name.”

MDPI is a leader in Gold OA and has been a driver of this progress at scale.

While Gold OA and MDPI are sometimes slighted, both deserve recognition for their contributions to advancing Open Science globally.

I closed my presentation with a reminder that the good we do is sometimes overlooked, and that when people speak about Gold OA and MDPI, they should "put some respek on our name."

I’m pleased to have seen attendees sharing positive experiences with MDPI, reminding us that we bring real value to the OA movement and deserve a stronger reputation. We also engaged in constructive conversations about various topics, including cost transparency.

A few themes that I took away from the conference:

Quality and integrity matter as much as access. OA publishers must not lose sight of research integrity, inclusivity, and sustainability while pursuing 100% OA.
Global collaboration is essential. Policies, funding models, and infrastructure differ around the world, and we will need cross-border collaboration to make OA a truly global reality.
Open Science is the bigger story. OA is just the first step – the future lies in open data, open peer review, research reproducibility, etc.

“MDPI’s scale allows us to better support authors, reinvest in communities, and push Open Science forward”

How we communicate MDPI’s role

For us at MDPI, this is also a reminder of how we communicate externally. When we tell our story, we shouldn’t forget to start with the bigger picture – Open Science and Open Access. Then we connect it to MDPI, our journals, services, and initiatives, exemplifying the fact that we are part of a mission larger than ourselves.

MDPI colleagues Clàudia Aunós (Society Partnerships), Marta Colomer (External Affairs), Stefan Tochev (CEO), and Nikola Paunovic (Scilit), at OASPA’s 2025 Annual Conference in Leuven, Belgium.

The journey to 100% OA will not be simple. But by educating the community and working together, we can continue to take Open Science to the next level.

Impactful Research

MDPI becomes COUNTER 5.1 compliant across 480+ Journals

I’m pleased to share that MDPI has officially become COUNTER 5.1 compliant and has joined the COUNTER Registry.

For those who might not be familiar with it, COUNTER provides international standards for tracking and reporting how research is being used. By becoming COUNTER 5.1 compliant, MDPI can now deliver credible, comparable, and transparent usage reports across our entire journal portfolio.

“MDPI is showing that they want to be measured against the same yardstick as other publishers”

Why is this important?

Because usage statistics aren’t just numbers: they’re powerful tools that help our authors, institutions, and consortia understand the real impact of their research. With COUNTER compliant reports, our institutional partners can now make more informed decisions about publishing agreements, funding allocations, and the long-term value of Open Access.

In practical terms, MDPI will now provide Platform, Title, and Item Reports, with standardized usage views available at the institute and consortium level. These reports cover usage from January 2024 onwards and will be updated monthly. Institutions will be able to access them via SuSy, or automatically through the COUNTER API.

I’d like to highlight and thank Becky Castellon, our Institutional Partnerships Manager, who has played a key role in driving this project forward. Becky captured it perfectly when she said: "Through these usage reports, our global research community can access trustworthy data about how their work is being used and accessed

This information is often vital for reviewing publishing partnership agreements and for making informed decisions about future funding allocations."

We also received encouraging feedback from Tasha Mellins-Cohen, Executive Director at COUNTER Metrics:

"We’re delighted to see born-OA publishers engaging with COUNTER. Our normalised usage metrics are relied on as the basis for credible return-on-investment calculations by libraries worldwide. By adopting the COUNTER standard, MDPI is showing that they want to be measured against the same yardstick as other publishers."

For MDPI, this milestone is another step in our commitment to transparency, trust, and impact. By adopting COUNTER’s standards, we’re not just aligning with best practice; we’re ensuring that Open Access publishing is measured on the same terms as traditional publishing, proving its value in concrete and globally recognized ways.

This is an important milestone for MDPI, but more importantly for the researchers, librarians, and institutions we serve. Transparency builds trust, and COUNTER compliance helps us show the global reach and influence of Open Access publishing in the clearest way possible.

Inside Research

Lin Li (Publisher, MDPI), Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI, Prof. Chengkuo Lee (Editor-in-Chief, AI Sensors), and Constanze Schelhorn (Head of Indexing) at restaurant in Basel, Switzerland.

Welcoming Prof. Lee (EiC of AI Sensors) to Basel

On 11 September, we welcomed Prof. Dr. Chengkuo Lee, Editor-in-Chief of our new journal AI Sensors, to our Basel office. Prof. Lee is a high profiled researcher (h-index 104, 37,000+ citations), a longtime collaborator with MDPI (25 published articles), and has already chaired several AI Sensors (AIS)-related conferences with us, including the recent event in Kuala Lumpur, where AI Sensors held its first editorial board meeting.

Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) showing Special Issue reprint books as part of a tour of MDPI’s Basel office.

Every journal has a story

During his visit, we exchanged ideas on how to build the journal’s identity and impact. A key takeaway that I shared was that every journal has a story: its vision, its purpose, and the community it brings together.

That story is what connects with readers and authors, beyond metrics alone.

I encouraged everyone working on journals to reflect: What is the story of your journal? And how can you bring that story to the forefront in how you communicate about it?

How MDPI supports new journals

Constanze Schelhorn (Head of Indexing, MDPI) presenting on the MDPI indexing process at the company’s headquarters in Basel.

We also shared with Prof. Lee how MDPI supports journals through our Institutional Open Access Program, indexing expertise, and the work of our Journal Relationship Specialists.

Launching a new journal is ambitious, but with our strong track record (93% Scopus and 87% Web of Science acceptance rates in 2024), Prof. Lee felt confident that AI Sensors will find its place in the scholarly landscape.

Having spent some hours together, it’s clear that Prof. Lee is not only an Editor-in-Chief but also an ambassador for MDPI. His leadership and collaboration reflect the mission MDPI by which MDPI lives: accelerating Open Access and advancing Open Science.

Special thanks to Constanze Schelhorn (Head of Indexing), Ting Leng (JRS, Managing Editor, AI Sensors), Lin Li (Publisher, AI Sensors), Aimar Xiong (Publisher), and Christian Eberhard (Office Administrator, Basel), for organizing and hosting the meeting.

Coming Together for Science

Highlights from the MDPI UK Summit in London

I was pleased to be back in the UK in September, supporting our Manchester team in hosting their first MDPI Summit in London. This day-and-a-half private event brought together 25 Chief Editors and Associate Editors to exchange knowledge, learn about latest developments at MDPI, and engage in discussions on advancing Open Science. The program included MDPI and guest presentations, and Q&A sessions.

Why these summits matter

Our Summits provide a platform to:

Share updates on the latest developments at MDPI, our editorial processes, research integrity practices, and indexing.
Highlight collaborations with institutions and societies in the region.
Offer external perspectives from guest speakers.
Create space for Chief Editors to share their insights, ask questions, network, and help shape MDPI’s path forward.

These gatherings are more than updates: they improve our relationships with Chief Editors, who serve not only as leaders of their journals but also as ambassadors for MDPI within the research community. We often hear that this type of event is unique, something many other publishers do not provide. It shows that we care and are willing to go the extra mile to recognize and engage our key collaborators.

MDPI and the UK: Key facts

With over 80,000 publications, the UK is MDPI’s eighth-largest contributor.
MDPI is the fourth-largest publisher in the UK, accounting for 11% of the country’s 89,526 Open Access publications in 2024.
We collaborate with more than 4,000 active UK Editorial Board Members, 48% of whom have an H-index above 26. This includes 49 Editors-in-Chief and 74 Section Editors-in-Chief.
MDPI maintains over 1,000 IOAP agreements worldwide, with 63 from the UK.

“We are willing to go the extra mile to recognize and engage our key collaborators”

Agenda highlights:

MDPI Overview, Open Access, and UK Collaboration – Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI)
MDPI Editorial Process – Dr. Michael O’Sullivan (Scientific Quality Advisor Lead, MDPI)
Research Integrity and Publication Ethics – Daisy Fenton (Research Integrity Specialist, MDPI)
Institutional Partnerships – Becky Castellon (Institutional Partnerships Manager, MDPI)
Promoting and Developing Your Journal – Prof. Fabio Tosti (Editor-in-Chief of NDT)
Indexing to Impact – Dr. Michael O’Sullivan (Scientific Quality Advisor Lead, MDPI)
Engaging our Academic Community – Jaime Anderson Anderson (UK Operations Manager, MDPI)
Closing Remarks – Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI)

MDPI colleagues Stefan Tochev (CEO), Jaime Anderson Anderson (UK Operations Manager), Dr. Michael O’Sullivan (Scientific Quality Advisor Lead), Becky Castellon (Institutional Partnerships Manager), Daisy Fenton (Research Integrity Specialist) at the MDPI UK 2025 Summit in London.

Thank you!

A special thank-you to the Manchester team and all colleagues behind the scenes who made this Summit a success. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. We look forward to building on this momentum with future Summits in Europe and beyond.

Closing Thoughts

Dr. Giulia Stefenelli (Scientific Communications Lead, MDPI) and Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) participating in a press conference at the Italiane Senate in Rome to promote the 2^nd International Conference on Environmental Medicine (ICEM)

MDPI at the Italian Senate: Promoting Environmental Medicine and Open Science

On 16 September, Dr. Giulia Stefenelli (Scientific Communications Lead) and I had the honour of participating in a press conference at the Italian Senate in Rome, organized by the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (SIMA) to promote the upcoming 2nd International Conference on Environmental Medicine (ICEM) (20–21 November 2025).

This is an important event for MDPI, as we are the exclusive publishing partner for ICEM and have recently launched a new journal with SIMA, further building our presence both in Italy and within this important field of research.

Why this matters

The promotion of ICEM has received extensive national media coverage (more than 15 mentions in major Italian outlets; see links below).
The press conference brought together leading policymakers, academics, and Nobel Laureates to emphasize the impact of environmental exposures and epigenetics on human health.
We were introduced to government ministries, university rectors, and influential stakeholders, which helps us bolster MDPI’s visibility and reputation in Italy.

Highlights

Nobel Laureate Sir Richard Roberts joined the discussion, underlining the importance of environmental medicine in shaping future health outcomes. Nobel Laureate Prof. Dr. Tong Zhu (Peking University) will also speak at the November conference.

Institutional representatives included the Italian Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, the Italian Undersecretary for Health, and senior officials from the World Health Organization.

In my closing remarks, I highlighted that:

“Over the past five years, about 65% of research published in Italy has been Open Access, compared to an average of 55% worldwide.”

Italian research ranked seventh among the top 20 countries in average citations during this period, reflecting its strong international influence. Not only is Italy producing a high volume of research; it is also producing research of outstanding quality.

MDPI’s role

This event was not only about promoting ICEM but also about showcasing MDPI’s commitment to Open Access and our ability to connect scientific publishing with leading academic, medical, and policy institutions.

As Giulia Stefenelli noted:

“This event was highly relevant for MDPI, as it not only showcased our strong commitment to OA but also emphasized our role in advancing important fields such as Environmental Medicine.”

Learn more

Watch the full press conference (Radio Radicale)

Giulia’s speech: 33:20 (in Italian)
Stefan’s speech: 57:50 (in English)

ICEM 2025 Conference Program
Selected media coverage:

This moment at the Italian Senate shows how MDPI can connect publishing with science, policy, and society to help advance both Open Science and environmental health research on a global stage.

In Rome with Sir Richard Roberts (photo left) and Prof. Giuseppe Novelli (EiC of MDPI journal COVID).