Announcements
12 March 2026
MDPI Webinar | International Day of Forests, 20 March 2026
To commemorate the International Day of Forests 2026, MDPI is honored to host a special webinar dedicated to celebrating and raising awareness of the importance of all types of forests. This global observance reminds us of the vital role that forests play in combating climate change, sustaining our economies, and driving economic prosperity.
With the theme “Forests and Economies”, we aim to bring together researchers, educators, and practitioners to share insights, best practices, and collaborative solutions that can enhance the relationship between forests and economic development.
Join us as we celebrate the International Day of Forests 2026 and inspire action for a greener, healthier and more sustainable future for our forests and economies.
Date: 20 March 2026 at 10:00 a.m. CET | 5:00 p.m. CST Asia
Register now for free!
Program
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Speaker/Presentation |
Time in CET |
Time in CST Asia |
|
Introduction |
10:00–10:10 a.m. |
5:00–5:10 p.m. |
|
Dr. Himlal Baral The Role of Landscape Restoration in Advancing a Sustainable Circular Bioeconomy |
10:10–10:40 a.m. |
5:10–5:40 p.m. |
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Dr. Natasha Ribeiro Dry Tropical Forests: Unlocking a Silent Ally for Resilience |
10:40–11:10 a.m. |
5:40–6:10 p.m. |
|
Q&A Session |
11:10–11:30 a.m. |
6:10–6:30 p.m. |
|
Closing of Webinar |
11:30–11:35 a.m. |
6:30–6:35 p.m. |
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.
Unable to attend? Register anyway, and we will let you know when the recording is available to watch.
Invited Speakers:
- Dr. Himlal Baral, Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), Indonesia;
- Dr. Natasha Ribeiro, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique.
Relevant Journal Cluster:
MDPI’s Journal Cluster of Ecosystem and Resource Management
MDPI’s journal cluster of ecosystem and resource management contains journals that focus on individual ecosystems (e.g., Forests) as well as ecology on a broader scale. The demand for biodiversity and conservation research is growing as the world shifts to more extreme climates, and MDPI’s journals on diversity and conservation will play a larger role in making scientific discoveries more accessible to all researchers across the world.
Relevant Special Issues:
“Silvicultural Practices for Forest Health, Function, and Resilience”
Guest Editors: Zhongkui Jia, Luyi Ma and Zhong Chen
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2026
“Plant Biodiversity in Forest and Urban Ecosystems Under Climate Change: Monitoring, Environmental Impacts, Threats, Conservation, Management, and Economic Directions”
Guest Editors: Alexandra D. Solomou, Panagiotis Kouleli, Nikolaos Proutsos and Stefanos Tsiaras
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026
“Forestry Economy Sustainability and Ecosystem Governance”
Guest Editors: Fanbin Kong and Caiyao Xu
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026
“Using Remote Sensing to Assess and Monitor Changes in Forest Ecosystems”
Guest Editor: Ioannis P. Kokkoris
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026
“Intelligent Forest Fire Prediction and Detection: 2nd Edition”
Guest Editors: Demin Gao, Shuo Zhang and Cheng He
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026
“Advances in Vegetation Structure Modeling to Support Acquisition of Sustainable Development Goals Through Forest Management (Second Edition)”
Guest Editors: María Teresa Lamelas and Dario Domingo
Deadline for manuscript submissions:31 December 2026
“Microhabitat Diversity and Beetle Conservation in Managed Forests”
Guest Editor: Francesco Parisi
Deadline for manuscript submissions:31 December 2026
12 March 2026
Applied Sciences | Invitation to Read the Updated Editor’s Choice Articles
6 March 2026
Meet Us at the 21st International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ICSMGE), 14–19 June 2026, Vienna, Austria
4 March 2026
MDPI’s 2025 Best Paper Awards—Award-Winning Papers Announced
3 March 2026
Applied Sciences Exceptional Reviewers List 2025
28 February 2026
MDPI INSIGHTS: The CEO’s Letter #32 - MDPI China and Thailand, China Science Daily, 1,000 Partnerships, R2R
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
Reflections from China: Year-End-Celebrations and Open Access Publishing
In February, I had the pleasure of joining over a thousand colleagues from our Tongzhou and Haidian offices at their end-of-year annual celebration in Beijing.
Spending time with our teams in China is also a powerful reminder of the scale and complexity of MDPI as a global organization. Our colleagues in Beijing, Wuhan, and across the country play a significant role in our day-to-day operations and long-term development. I’m grateful for the hospitality, collaboration, and commitment shown by our managers and teams in China, alongside colleagues worldwide, who have helped steadily build MDPI, brick by brick, over the years.
Below are some data on Open Access (OA) publishing in China and our collaboration in this important research market.
Open Access Publishing in China
China has been the world’s leading country in research and review article publication volume since 2019, exceeding one million publications in 2025. Over the past five years, the gap between China and the second-ranked country, the United States, has continued to widen.
In 2025:
- 47% of China’s research output was published Open Access
- Of those OA publications, 76% were Gold Open Access (approximately 382,930 articles)
- The overall OA distribution remained stable compared with 2024, with Gold OA increasing by 1%
Over the past five years (2021–2025):
- China published 4,398,050 research and review articles
- Approximately 48% of this output was OA
According to Dimensions, when comparing the top 20 countries by publication volume (2021–2025):
- China ranks 1st worldwide in publication volume
- China ranks 9th in citation performance within this group (for comparison, the US ranks 2nd in publication volume and 10th in citation ranking)
- Average citations per article: 12.51
Among the top 10 universities globally by publication volume, six are Chinese institutions, alongside Harvard University (USA), the University of São Paulo (Brazil), the University of Toronto (Canada), and the University of Oxford (UK).
MDPI and China
China is an important and long-standing part of MDPI’s global publishing ecosystem:
- In 2025, MDPI was the largest fully Open Access publisher in China
- MDPI published 22% of China’s Gold Open Access output (82,133 papers)
- We received 290,999 submissions from China-affiliated authors and published 82,133 articles
- There are 8,500+ active Editorial Board Members based in China
- 64% (5,438) have an H-index above 26
- MDPI works with:
- 117 Editors-in-Chief
- 103 Section Editors-in-Chief
- 71 China-based institutions currently hold IOAP agreements with MDPI, seven of which rank among the top 10 Chinese institutions by publication volume
China's scale in research output means that the publishing platforms chosen by Chinese scholars will continue to influence the direction of scholarly publishing. At the same time, MDPI’s strength comes from its international collaboration, with colleagues, editors, reviewers, and authors working together across regions and disciplines.
Thank you to all our colleagues in China, and around the world, who support MDPI’s publishing activities across departments and help advance open access research every day.
Impactful Research
“Progress in open science is built through trust, dialogue, and relationships”
Behind the Scenes: A Conversation with China Science Daily
During my trip to Beijing, I also had the opportunity to visit China Science Daily and take part in an interview and broader exchange with their team in Beijing. Visits like this matter because progress in open science is built not only through platforms and infrastructure, but also through trust, dialogue, and relationships across research communities and regions.
China Science Daily: History Museum
As part of the visit, I was given a tour of their History Museum, which offers a thorough perspective on the evolution of China’s first science and technology newspaper, established in 1959. The exhibition highlights how the organization developed into a trusted institution connecting research with the public and policymakers. It was a helpful reminder that at the core of publishing is stewardship, credibility, and long-term public engagement with science.
An Open Exchange on Open Science
During the visit, I met with Dr. Zhao Yan, Editor-in-Chief of ScienceNet. We had an open and engaging conversation about MDPI’s role in Open Access, the evolution of open science globally, and the potential for more collaboration going forward. He especially appreciated the candid and personal nature of our exchange, noting that this kind of dialogue feels important in a landscape where trust and transparency matter.
Interview on Open Access
I also participated in an interview with Ms. Yan Jie, from the Online Media Center and Editor-in-Chief of ScienceNet, China Science Daily. Our discussion covered the growth of Open Access over the past 30 years, MDPI’s mission and values, academic integrity, collaboration with the Chinese research community, and MDPI’s own 30th anniversary milestone. It was a great opportunity to reflect on how open science has matured, and where shared responsibility across publishers, institutions, and researchers continues to matter most.
“Progress in open science is built by more than scale and infrastructure”
I’m sharing a few photos from the visit as a glimpse behind the scenes. The full interview will be published by China Science Daily in due course, and I look forward to sharing it when it is available.
More broadly, visits like this reinforce something I’ve always believed in: progress in open science is built not only through scale and infrastructure, but also through continued dialogue, mutual respect, collaboration, and a willingness to listen across regions and perspectives. That remains central to our work, especially as MDPI reflects on 30 years of publishing, built together.
Inside MDPI
Bangkok Visit: Growth, Partnership, and Local Impact
In February, I also had the opportunity to visit our Bangkok office for the second time in two years to support their local meetings and deliver a training session on how we present MDPI at a corporate level.
It’s easy to spend time with our colleagues in Thailand. From Editorial and Production to Conferences, Marketing, Design, and our Regional Journal Relations Specialist (RJRS), the team continues to grow in scale and professionalism. I’d also like to recognize our local management and admin teams, who have been steadily expanding our office and supporting more than 500 colleagues on the ground.
Academic Partnerships
During the visit, we met with the Engineering Department at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL). Our discussion focused on the recent MDPI developments, Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) opportunities, Author Publishing Workshops (APW), and the potential use of JAMS to support their institutional journal.
“MDPI is the third-largest OA publisher in Thailand”
We also shared insights into the growth of Open Access (OA) in Thailand and KMITL’s own publishing trends. These conversations matter because institutions are looking for sustainable ways to support their researchers. Our IOAP agreements are one simple example of how we can provide value in this area while maintaining accessibility for authors.
Thailand and MDPI: 2025 Snapshot
Our Bangkok office, officially launched in 2022, has been growing to support over 500 staff members while continuing to expand its engagement in scholar visits, workshops, and conference collaborations. As at 2025, Thailand submissions to MDPI have increased about 21% and publications by about 25%, maintaining a rejection rate close to the company average. MDPI is the third-largest OA publisher in Thailand, publishing 15% of all Gold OA output in 2025.
Representing MDPI Externally
During the visit, I delivered a training session on how we present MDPI at external events.
This session covered topics related to:
- Our aim and guiding principles
- High-level company milestones and Indexing facts and figures
- Industry partnerships and collaborations
- Market trends in OA and subscription publishing
- Country-specific publishing data and collaborations with MDPI
- Insights from our Voice of Community report
I find that while many colleagues are very familiar with the specific journal for which they have responsibility, fewer have visibility into the broader MDPI ecosystem and the company’s global positioning. These sessions help build alignment, confidence, and consistency in how we represent the company.
What stands out most is that MDPI’s growth is not abstract: it’s visible in the people, the partnerships, and the professionalism developing across our offices.
Coming Together for Science
1,000 Institutional Partners: A Milestone Built on Trust
This month, we reached an important milestone: more than 1,000 institutions worldwide are now part of MDPI’s Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). On paper, that is a number. In practice, it represents trust.
This milestone symbolizes thousands of conversations with libraries and institutions. It stands for negotiations, renewals, consortium expansions, and, most importantly, relationships built over time. It reflects the work of colleagues across publishing, institutional partnerships, marketing, editorial, finance, and many other teams who contribute to making these agreements operational.
In 2025 alone, more than 61,300 research articles benefited from article processing charge (APC) discounts through IOAP agreements. Tens of thousands of authors were able to publish through a simplified and structured process. At the same time, institutional administrators gained clearer oversight and streamlined workflows.
Why IOAP Matters
When we launched IOAP, the objective was straightforward: to reduce barriers for researchers while supporting institutions in navigating the evolving OA landscape. Over the past decade, the research ecosystem has changed. Funder mandates, national policies, and Plan S–aligned requirements have accelerated the transition to OA.
Institutions need publishing partners who provide transparency, scalability, and operational efficiency. IOAP was designed to support that reality.
For colleagues who would like to better understand the program, this blog-post overview of MDPI’s IOAP provides additional context, including common questions around the transition to OA and how our institutional partnerships are structured.
“Institutions need publishing partners who provide transparency, scalability, and operational efficiency”
Recent Examples
Our agreements continue to evolve across regions:
- In Sweden, MDPI signed a national Open Access publishing agreement with 96 institutions, enabling affiliated researchers to publish without managing individual APC payments.
- In Spain, we extended our flat-fee agreement with Universidad Católica de Valencia, reinforcing institutional support for OA publishing.
These examples show that institutions seek structured, predictable models that support their researchers at scale.
Looking Ahead
Crossing the threshold of 1,000 partners tells us that institutions see MDPI not just as a publisher but as a reliable operational partner in advancing open science. This milestone is not a finish line. It is a reminder that the work continues.
Thank you to the entire IOAP team and to all colleagues who contributed to reaching this achievement.
P.S. You can read about this milestone across industry outlets, including STM Publishing News, ALPSP, Research Information, EurekAlert, Brightsurf, among others. You can also read about the coverage in Poland (e.g., media-room, bomega) Korea (newstap), and Romania (EduLike).
Closing Thoughts
Reflections from the Researcher to Reader Conference
During 24–25 February, I attended the 2026 Researcher to Reader Conference in London, UK. Leaders from across scholarly publishing, research infrastructure, libraries, and technology gathered to discuss AI and research integrity, peer review reform, metadata and infrastructure, community engagement, open research policy, and the evolving role of publishers in a rapidly shifting ecosystem.
The conversations were open and honest, and at times uncomfortable – exactly what we need at times. Below are a few reflections that stayed with me.
The Battle for Knowledge: What Becomes Accepted as ‘True’?
One recurring theme was not whether science evolves but whether our infrastructure is resilient enough to sustain trust at scale. Science does not promise certainty: it promises process. As publishing systems grow more complex and become more technologically mediated, the question is how intentionally we design, monitor, and strengthen that process.
Peer Review: Speed, Credentials, and Structural Loops
Researchers consistently call for faster peer review. At the same time, reviewer credentials are often tied to publication records. This creates a structural loop. Publishing history opens reviewing opportunities, reviewing strengthens credentials, and those without early access remain outside the cycle.
There is a need for us to reflect on how opportunity circulates within our systems: we should ask how we create more inclusive pathways for researchers globally to participate in peer review.
Community Engagement Workshop
One of the highlights of R2R was the workshop format, whereby small groups met repeatedly over two days and moved from ideas to tangible strategies.
I joined the Community Engagement workshop led by Lou Peck (CEO at The International Bunch) and Godwyns Onwuchekwa (Principal Consultant at Global Tapestry Consulting). We explored two deceptively simple questions: What is a community? and What does engagement truly mean?
“Engagement requires shared design and shared responsibility”
Too often, organizations equate communication with engagement. The framework discussed mapped a maturity spectrum – from enablement (broadcasting, informing and consulting) to true engagement (collaborating and co-creating).
It was a useful reminder of the fact that if we want trust and loyalty, engagement must go beyond announcements and surveys. It requires shared design and shared responsibility.
AI: Democratization or Digital Colonialism?
I especially enjoyed the thought-provoking presentation from Nikesh Gosalia (Chief Partnership Officer at Cactus Communications), which highlighted an uncomfortable reality:
- 93% of AI-generated content is in English
- Approximately 2% is in French
- Approximately 2% is in German
- More than 7,000 languages are represented in less than 5% of the content within large AI systems
The implications are profound. Is AI democratizing access to scholarly publishing (making it easier for researchers everywhere to participate in global knowledge production)? Or are we encoding colonialism at scale (entrenching linguistic and structural hierarchies, and making it harder for voices from the Global South to be heard)?
AI is already reshaping how research is created, reviewed, discovered, and shared. Its potential is enormous. But its impact depends not only on capability, but on governance, design, and intentionality. Publishers, funders, and researchers all share responsibility in shaping how these systems evolve.
Ethicality in practice (Lightening Talk)
It was also great to have our colleague Dr Miloš Čučulović (Head of Technology Innovation at MDPI) present MDPI’s Ethicality platform during a lightning talk.
“Technology alone is not the answer”
Ethicality embeds AI-driven checks directly into the submission workflow, supporting editors proactively rather than reacting after publication. As we scale, tools like this help balance trust, efficiency, and research integrity.
This goes back into the underlying theme of the conference that technology alone is not the answer. However, technology embedded thoughtfully within clear governance frameworks can strengthen confidence in the editorial process.
Final thought
The question is no longer whether technology will transform research infrastructure: it is already doing so. The real question is what role each of us will play in shaping that transformation deliberately, with structural maturity, inclusive governance, and engagement that moves from informing to co-creating.
Science needs to evolve, responsibly. And that responsibility extends not only to what we publish, but also to how the systems behind publication are designed. Some important topics to continue reflecting on both internally and within our broader community.
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
25 February 2026
Meet Us at the 73rd JSAP Spring Meeting 2026, 15–18 March 2026, Tokyo, Japan
25 February 2026
Interview with Dr. Raluca Mihaela Ivan—Winner of the Applied Sciences Travel Award
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|
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Raluca Mihaela Ivan is one of five winners of the Applied Sciences Travel Award. The Applied Sciences Travel Award was launched in 2017, and it is presented every year to encourage junior scientists to present their latest research at academic conferences in the field of applied sciences, which helps to increase their influence. As a winner, Dr. Ivan will receive CHF 600 and a certificate. All winners were chosen by the Award Committee (Prof. Rodolfo Dufo-López Chairperson, Prof. Dr. Pasquale Crupi, Dr. George Drosatos and Prof. Dr. Ana Martins Amaro). |
The following is an interview Dr. Raluca Mihaela Ivan:
1. Congratulations on your award! Could you briefly introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a little bit about yourself and your fields of interest?
My name is Raluca Mihaela Ivan. I completed my PhD in 2024 in condenser matter physics and I am actually working as a research scientist at the National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics in Romania.
My work focuses on laser–metal interaction and the development of micro- and nanostructured materials using pulsed laser techniques such as MAPLE and PLD. I am particularly interested in developing new functional materials for environmental and energy-related applications, especially water purification and environmental protection.
2. How did you hear about this award, and how supportive might this kind of award be for researchers?
I saw an announcement on social media and also learned about this award through the journal’s website. I think it is very supportive for early-career researchers such as myself because, in my opinion, it provides not only financial support for attending international conferences, but also helps young researchers like me gain visibility. I believe these kinds of opportunities are very important for presenting our results, starting new collaborations, and becoming part of the international academic community.
3. Do you have any suggestions for improving the visibility of these awards?
I think the visibility could be increased through more promotion, for example on social media or academic channels such as LinkedIn or ResearchGate, since many young researchers use these platforms to look for new opportunities.
4. Do you have any other suggestions on how our journal could further support young researchers and the academic community?
Yes, of course. I think that in addition to the travel awards, you could promote Special Issues dedicated to young researchers and possibly offer reduced publishing fees for them. Moreover, organizing workshops or webinars on writing and publishing could also be very helpful for them.
(Dr. Ivan expressed an interest in the Academic Publishing Workshop (APW).
During the interview Dr. Ivan added that journals could organize workshops on different topics and added “writing” as an example. JRS has shared that we are already organizing this type of event and that we will reach out to her soon about more information and potentially organizing another online meeting to discuss this event.)
5. Do you have any advice for aspiring young researchers looking to make a meaningful impact in their respective fields?
I would advise them to remain open-minded and curious because high-quality research often takes a lot of time. They should stay motivated and keep in mind the real-world impact of their work every day.
6. As an author, what has your experience been with our services? Are you interested in reviewing our journal in the future?
Yes, I have published an article in an MDPI Journal, and based on this experience, I really appreciate the efficiency of the editorial staff. They provide clear guidance on how to improve our manuscripts, and the publishing process was quite transparent, well-organized, and straightforward. So, con-gratulations on that! I may consider reviewing MDPI papers in the future.
20 February 2026
MDPI Virtual Academic Publishing Workshop (New Harvest), 25 February 2026
This Academic Publishing Workshop will be led by MDPI Regional Journal Relations Specialist, Dr. Sally Wu, on “Author Training”. Participants will receive practical advice on essential aspects of writing academic articles. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of the academic publishing landscape and how to successfully contribute to it.
Date: 25 February 2026
Time: 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. EST
Schedule:
|
Speaker |
Program |
Time in EST |
|
Dr. Sally Wu |
Introduction |
11:30–11:40 a.m. |
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Dr. Sally Wu |
Tips for Writing Great Research Papers
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11:40 a.m.–12:15 p.m. |
|
Dr. Sally Wu |
How to Respond to Peer Reviewers
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12:15–12:50 p.m. |
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Dr. Sally Wu |
AI in Publishing: Challenges and Opportunities
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12:50–13:30 p.m. |
Speakers:
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Dr. Sally Wu received a PhD in medical science from the University of Toronto in the fall of 2025. She joined MDPI in February 2025 as an Assistant Editor for Cells. She was recently promoted to Regional Journal Relations Specialist position in August. In this role, she works with many journals, liaising with authors, board members, and EiCs. She has attended several conferences across North America, hosted scholar visits, and taken part in other outreach events. |
18 February 2026
MDPI’s Open Access Program Reaches 1,000 Institutions Worldwide
