Announcements

MDPI was pleased to partner with Thaksin University in Songkhla on 8 July 2026 for a highly productive Academic Publishing Workshop dedicated to advancing academic publishing and scholarly communication. The event was officially opened by Associate Professor Dr. Samak Kaewsuksaeng, Vice President for Research and Innovation at Thaksin University, who welcomed the MDPI speaker team and expressed his appreciation for their contribution in sharing valuable knowledge with faculty members, researchers, and students.

Associate Professor Dr. Samak Kaewsuksaeng, Vice President for Research and Innovation of Thaksin University (TSU), opened the ceremony by highlighting TSU’s commitment to strengthening its research performance through increasing high-quality scholarly publications and maximizing the academic impact of research outputs. He emphasized the importance of publishing in reputable international journals as part of the university’s research strategy. He welcomed the collaboration between Thaksin University and MDPI through the Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP), noting that the partnership provides TSU researchers with greater opportunities to publish with an international open access publisher while enhancing the global visibility and accessibility of their research. He also expressed his expectation for expanding future collaborations with MDPI, including the development of Special Issues, academic conferences, and publishing workshops to support the university’s research community further. He concluded by expressing his sincere appreciation to MDPI for its continued cooperation and conveyed his confidence in a strong and mutually beneficial partnership that would advance the interests of both organizations and the wider research community.

The opening speech was delivered by Ms. Ploy Assavajamroon, one of MDPI’s representatives, who also highlighted the recent partnership between Thaksin University and MDPI through the Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). She began by introducing MDPI, including its core values, memberships, and collaborations with international organizations in academic publishing. She also presented an overview of MDPI’s journal portfolio, indexing status, and publishing platforms and services. To provide local context, she shared publication trends in Thailand and at Thaksin University, highlighting the increasing adoption of open access (OA) publishing. In the final part of her presentation, she acknowledged the support of the sponsoring journals—Processes, Sustainability, Energies, Conservation, and Biosphere. She concluded by introducing each journal, covering its scope, key metrics and rankings, as well as its marketing and promotional activities.

The session “How to Write Scientific Papers” was presented by Dr. Juthathip Poofery, Editorial Team Leader and Regional Engagement Editor. The presentation provided an overview of the essential elements of a well-prepared scientific manuscript, covering effective title and abstract writing, logical organization of the manuscript, clear presentation of research findings, and the importance of selecting appropriate keywords to improve research visibility. The session also emphasized publication ethics, research transparency, and the key information required in the back matter, including authorship contributions, funding, ethical statements, data availability, and conflicts of interest. The session concluded with an engaging discussion in which participants raised questions about the qualifications required to become a peer reviewer, how peer-review reports are evaluated and managed by journals, and the purpose of the various back matter statements in a manuscript. Additional topics of interest included strategies for selecting effective keywords, the use of AI tools for English-language improvement, MDPI’s English editing services, and the availability of discounts for article processing charges (APCs) and author services.

The presentation “Data Visualization and Layout Guidelines for Scientific Papers” was presented by Chatchanok Boonsanong. It introduced core principles for presenting research clearly and professionally, centering on three main areas: structuring a well-formatted manuscript, building clear and effective tables, and producing high-quality figures that accurately convey research findings. Through hands-on examples and best practices, participants came away with a stronger grasp of how strong formatting and visual design can improve the readability and quality of scientific papers.

The fourth session, titled “How to Respond to Peer Reviewers”, was presented by Ms. Hathaipat Kittirojana, a Regional Engagement Editor. She discussed the peer-review process at MDPI and guided the audience through how to revise the manuscript professionally. This session also included key tips for revision preparation and how to organize a response effectively. In conclusion, she encouraged the audience to remain positive, open-minded, and professional when replying to reviewers.

The following session, “Publication Ethics for Authors”, was delivered by Dr. Siriporn Tantiwatcharothai, Regional Engagement Editor at MDPI’s Bangkok office. She opened by underscoring how essential ethical standards are throughout the research and publishing process, then walked through common ethical challenges in scholarly publishing, along with how MDPI’s policies and guidelines address them. The discussion also touched on the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in research, along with the ethical concerns and risks it raises. Dr. Siriporn concluded by outlining MDPI’s process for handling ethics-related issues that surface after publication, giving attendees insight into how such cases are reviewed and resolved.

To conclude the program, a certificate-awarding ceremony was held to recognize attendees for their participation throughout the day’s sessions. The workshop provided a valuable platform for researchers to deepen their understanding of academic publishing while engaging directly with MDPI’s editorial experts on topics ranging from manuscript preparation to publication ethics and peer review. The event concluded with the signing of the Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) agreement between MDPI and Thaksin University, further strengthening the collaboration between the two organizations. By combining researcher training with a long-term institutional partnership, the workshop marked an important step toward supporting high-quality research and enhancing the global visibility and impact of scholarly publications from Thaksin University.