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3 September 2024
MDPI INSIGHTS: The CEO's Letter #15 - CHORUS, Best Paper Award, August Events

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

I am pleased to share that MDPI is now an Affiliate Member of CHORUS, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to ensuring public access to articles reporting on U.S. government-funded research. This partnership highlights our long-standing commitment to advancing Open Access (OA) publishing and meeting funders’ open research requirements.

Read the full announcement here.

With the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) 2022 memorandum calling for immediate public access to all federally funded research by 2026, this partnership positions MDPI to further support academic institutions in adhering to national mandates while providing authors with fully compliant (CC-BY) OA journals.

The CHORUS platform went live in July 2014 and includes NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Science Foundation.

“This partnership positions MDPI to further support academic institutions in adhering to national mandates”

Joining CHORUS perfectly aligns our mission as the leading OA publisher, which is to drive transparency and innovation in scholarly publishing, with that of CHORUS itself, which is to advance Open Access research. It will also support MDPI publications from organizations such as NASA, with 1,200 research papers published by NASA-affiliated authors as at 31 August 2024.

Impactful Research

MDPI’s Best Paper Awards—Award-Winning Papers in 2023 Announced

MDPI is committed to supporting and recognizing the academic community and is proud to announce the recipients of the 2023 Best Paper Awards, which recognize high-quality papers of significant scientific merit and impact. Each year, the editors of our journals carefully select papers that showcase outstanding scientific achievement.

This year, 115 Best Paper Awards were presented, chosen from 346 exceptional papers in a highly competitive selection process. Congratulations to the authors for their remarkable contributions!

To learn more about all the awardees and their research projects, visit the following pages:

About MDPI Awards
MDPI regularly offers various awards to recognize researchers, particularly young scientists, and to promote communication within the scientific community. These awards exist to inspire and acknowledge talented scientists who have made significant contributions to advancing their fields.

To find out more MDPI awards, please click here.

“Our awards exist to inspire and acknowledge talented scientists”

Inside MDPI

MDPI AI Team Presented at EuroSciPy 2024 in Poland

As part of the CEO Letter, I hold dear this ‘Inside MDPI’ section, where I have an opportunity to highlight various projects, teams and updates within our organization. As such, I’m happy to showcase the following presentations from members of MDPI’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) team, which were recently presented at the EuroSciPy 2024 (16th European Conference on Python in Science). This conference took place in Szczecin, Poland from 26–30 August.

“This event was a great opportunity to reinforce our commitment to innovation and excellence in publishing”

MDPI colleagues Frank Sauerburger (AI Tech Leader) and Daniele Raimondi (Senior Data Scientist) both presented at the conference. Frank discussed MDPI’s AI infrastructure, while Daniele showcased a new methodological approach we have been developing to track the journey of rejected academic manuscripts. This approach combines AI, data science and analytics to improve the identification of manuscripts and authors, enhancing our understanding of publishing dynamics.

This event was a great opportunity to reinforce our commitment to innovation and excellence in publishing. It also allowed us to contribute to the academic discussion on integrating AI and data science into scholarly communication.

From data analysis in Jupyter Notebooks to production applications: AI infrastructure at reasonable scale – Frank Sauerburger

Frank’s presentation on MDPI’s AI infrastructure provided a chance to showcase the advanced technological frameworks that power our operations. Given the technical and academic focus of EuroSciPy, this talk demonstrated how MDPI’s AI capabilities are not only cutting-edge but also central to driving efficiency and innovation in scholarly publishing. Engaging with the EuroSciPy community helps position MDPI as a leader in applying AI within the publishing industry, fostering potential collaborations and attracting interest from top researchers.

A Qdrant and Specter2 framework for tracking resubmissions of rejected manuscripts in academia – Daniele Raimondi

Daniele’s talk on the novel methodological approach that combines AI, Data Science, and Analytics was crucial in highlighting how MDPI is advancing the precision and effectiveness of manuscript and author identification. This approach is pivotal in enhancing our understanding of publishing dynamics and ensuring the quality and integrity of the academic content we manage. By presenting at EuroSciPy, we had the opportunity to engage with an audience deeply involved in scientific computing, gaining feedback and insights that could further refine our methodologies.

Thank you, Frank and Daniele, for representing MDPI so well!

I will share more about MDPI’s AI team and projects in upcoming CEO Letters, as we have a well-rounded AI and Data Team working on an exciting suite of AI products for MDPI and the scholarly community at large.

Coming Together for Science

The 1st International Conference on AI Sensors & The 10th International Symposium on Sensor Science

I am pleased to share the success of our MDPI conference The 1st International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Sensors and the 10th International Symposium on Sensor Science in Singapore this past 1–4 August.

With nearly 400 attendees, the event brought together researchers and industry experts from China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India and other countries to share their findings on the latest developments in sensors, sensing technology, artificial intelligence for sensing applications and AI-enhanced sensing systems.

We accepted a total of 355 abstracts, featuring 772 authors from 28 countries. Over the course of the four-day event, 66 posters were displayed and 296 talks were delivered, including 4 plenary talks, 46 keynote speeches, 122 invited talks, and 124 selected oral presentations. View the event gallery here.

I am pleased to announce the winners of the four awards, including Best Presentation and Best Poster, recognizing the contributions of our participants during the conference.

Looking ahead, the 2nd International Conference on AI Sensors and Transducers is scheduled to take place from 29 July to 5 August, 2025, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Thank you to our Conference team, including Ionut Spatar, Teodora Nicoleta Cremene, Ang Kai Lin, Benjamin Tay, Leong Jin Yue Esther, Wong Jolin, Judith Wu, Alethea Liu and Flora Li, who were involved in making this event a success. A big thank-you also goes to our local MDPI colleagues for their support: Yu Nwe Soe, Hen Chu Yang, Kwah Zhi En Watcharapong, Zephan Yang, Daphne Neo, Huimin Cheng, Nathan Li and Ting Yin.

Upcoming In-Person Event

25–27 September, 2024
The 5th International Conference on Materials: Advances in Material Innovation
Location: Basel, Switzerland

ICM 2024 will unite experts to share insights on recent advancements in Materials Characterization, Processing and Manufacturing.

7–9 October, 2024
Non-coding RNA World 2024: Exploring Mechanisms, Designing Medicines
Location: Basel, Switzerland

ncRNA 2024 will explore the latest advances in the field, covering topics from basic biology to medical and technological applications.

Find more upcoming MDPI events here.

Closing Thoughts

The 2nd Sustainable Publishing Forum

In 2022, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) outlined three goals to reflect the academic community’s shared aspirations: promoting Open Science, maintaining research integrity and fulfilling social responsibility. Open Science has evolved from the Open Access movement of the early 2000s to become a preferred model in academic publishing. Publishers and academic journals play a crucial role in ensuring research integrity, with efforts to prevent misconduct markedly on the increase now.

As the world faces sustainability challenges, the academic publishing industry is increasingly committed to contributing the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Many publishers are implementing strategies to support these objectives, including ours, which you can view here.

The 2nd MDPI Sustainable Publishing Forum provided a platform for global editors and publishers to discuss these themes, aiming to strengthen collaboration and advance the contributions that scientific publishing can make to academia and society.

“Open Science has evolved to become a preferred model in academic publishing”

The 2nd Sustainable Publishing Forum

We hosted MDPI’s 2nd Sustainable Publishing Forum in Beijing, China, on 15–16 August, attracting nearly 120 attendees from local and international publishers, university presses, scientific and technical journal associations, libraries and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The event focused on promoting Open Science, maintaining research integrity, and fulfilling social responsibility.

This was an excellent opportunity for us to share more with conference attendees about the approach of our research integrity team. Our Head of Publishing, Peter Roth, also participated, speaking on how to identify and avoid predatory publishers and about the principles that underpin ethical academic publishing.

I extend my thanks to all of our conference speakers, including Hylke Koers (STM Solutions), who presented on STM Trends 2028 and shared insights on the STM Integrity Hub, of which MDPI is a member.

Stefan Tochev
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG

30 August 2024
Molecules Exceptional Reviewers List 2024


We are thrilled to share the updated Exceptional Reviewers List 2024. This program was designed to recognize and honor the scholars who have delivered consistently exceptional review reports to our journal. Committed to fostering rigorous research and promoting knowledge exchange, the journal Molecules (ISSN: 1420-3049) recognizes the significant role that our reviewers play in maintaining the quality and integrity of the articles we publish. According to surveys conducted in 2023, 91% of our authors rate the peer review as good or excellent, thanks to our pool of excellent reviewers.

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all the reviewers who have generously volunteered their time and expertise to assist in the peer-review process of Molecules. Their dedication and attention to detail in evaluating manuscripts, offering valuable feedback, and contributing to academic rigor are truly commendable.

The Exceptional Reviewers List was introduced in April 2024. Each quarter, we will be selecting a group of outstanding reviewers and introducing them here.

Q1:

Name: Prof. Dr. Søren Christensen
Affiliation: The Museum of Natural Medicine & The Pharmacognostic Collection, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Name: Prof. Dr. Fabio Ganazzoli
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Chemical, and Material Engineering “G. Natta”, Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy

Name: Prof. Dr. John Arron Stride
Affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Australia

Name: Prof. Dr. Fernando Carrillo-Hermosilla
Affiliation: Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Orgánica y Bioquímica-Centro de Innovación en Química Avanzada (ORFEO-CINQA), Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnologías Químicas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Name: Dr. Francis Giraud
Affiliation: Université Clermont Auvergne, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Clermont Auvergne Institut National Polytechnique, Institute of Chemistry of Clermont-Ferrand, France

Q2:

Name: Prof. Dr. Zhongqi He
Affiliation: USDA ARS Southern Regional Research Center, United States

Name: Dr. Paula Sério Branco
Affiliation: Chemistry Department of Nova School of Science and Technology, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal

Name: Prof. Dr. Christine Saluzzo
Affiliation: Le Mans Université, UMR CNRS 6283, Institut des molécules et Matériaux du Mans, France

Name: Prof. Dr. Shannon Biros
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Grand Valley State University, 1 Campus Dr., Allendale, United States

Name: Prof. Dr. Julian Tyson
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Q3:

Name: Prof. Dr. Toshiyuki Takayanagi
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Saitama University, Japan

Name: Dr. Carrie Donley  
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States

Name: Dr. Anne Petitjean
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Queen's University, Canada

Name: Dr. Alicja Kluczyk  
Affiliation: Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wroclaw, Poland
“As a reviewer, you can witness the transformation of raw manuscript into a high quality publication, follow the clarification of scientific presentation, satisfy the curiosity by interactive contact with the Authors.”

Name: Dr. David J. Cocovi-Solberg  
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Institute of Analytical Chemistry, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Austria

Q4:

Name: Dr. Michael A. Terzidis
Affiliation: Laboratory of Chemical Biology, Department of Nutritional Sciences and Dietetics, International Hellenic University, Thessaloniki, Greece

Name: Dr. Patrice A. Marchand
Affiliation: UMR7178 CNRS, Hubert Curien Multidisciplinary Institute, Strasbourg University, 67000 Strasbourg, France

Name: Prof. Dr. Quanjun Xiang
Affiliation: School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu,  China

Name: Prof. Dr. Yoo Tanabe
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University, Hyogo, Japan
“The peer review is indispensable for publishing sound scientific works: High-level, reasonable R&D contents with concise introduction, sufficient arguments, and experimental sections. I want to contribute this task also in future.”

Name: Dr. Slobodan V. Jovanovic
Affiliation: Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Laboratory, Ottawa, Canada

Last Updated: 5/February/2025

20 August 2024
Interview with Dr. Danila A. Barskiy—Outstanding Young Editorial Board Member of Molecules


Dr. Danila A. Barskiy graduated from the Department of Natural Sciences of Novosibirsk University (Russia) in 2012 and completed his Ph.D. in 2015 based on his research at the International Tomography Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He then moved on to be a postdoctoral fellow at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (Nashville, USA) and the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley (Berkeley, USA). Since 2020, he has been a Sofja Kovalevskaja Research Group Leader at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Helmholtz Institute Mainz (Germany). His focus is on developing novel spectroscopic magnetic resonance methodologies and uncovering unresolved details of hyperpolarization chemistry. He is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and was a Vice-Chair of the Hyperpolarization Methods Study Group Committee of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM). Dr. Barskiy is among the recipients of the Erwin Schrödinger Award 2021 of the Helmholtz Association and a finalist of the Falling Walls 2024 science competition.

Research interests: nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR); magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); hyperpolarization; spin dynamics; spin isomers; parahydrogen; chemical kinetics; thermodynamics; catalysis

The following is an interview with Dr. Danila A. Barskiy:

Part I—Regarding his research career:

1. Can you briefly describe your research?
My ongoing research is related to spin physics, spin chemistry, and spin technologies broadly defined. I began my professional career with a focus on chemistry, specifically on heterogeneous catalysis. However, over time, my interests and research focus have evolved. I am now fascinated by fundamental questions at the intersection of physics, chemistry, and engineering, while still maintaining a focus on nuclear spins.

2. What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?
There have been many developments in our field, some accomplished by our group and some by other researchers, that make me excited and very hopeful about the future of spin technologies. Currently, I am most excited about our recent publication where we determined, with the highest precision to date, an isotope effect caused by nitrogen isotope substitution in an ammonium cation using zero-field NMR methods. Typically, such precision in frequency determination could be expected from sophisticated techniques studying molecules in the gas phase. However, we have demonstrated a new tool that allows for such precision measurements under normal conditions, i.e., in room-temperature liquids.
Another exciting direction in our zero-field NMR work, soon to be published, involves investigating battery electrolyte composition and degradation directly through metal enclosures. This is possible because we work at extremely low frequencies (tens of Hz), where the skin depth is quite large, allowing the magnetic field to penetrate through metal, making various chemical signatures readily detectable. I believe this demonstration marks a milestone in several potential application areas, although much more work is needed to substantiate this claim.

3. If you could select one paper to highlight your research, which one would it be? (Doesn’t have to be from Molecules!)
The one mentioned above (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48390-2), although it is a difficult choice because we have many ongoing directions, all of which are very interesting. This work was also featured in several news outlets, such as https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/1183896/measuring-quadrupole-spins-with-zero-field-nmr-for-the-first-time.html.

4. What would you like to achieve as an ultimate goal for your research career?
It may sound strange, but reality has already surpassed some of my wildest expectations, and I am grateful for every new discovery, scientific realization, and accomplishment. I don’t have a specific “ultimate goal” in mind. However, I do have a strong desire to contribute to education and I hope to devote more time to this in the near future.

5. Have you ever encountered any difficulties in your scientific research or How do you overcome setbacks?
I believe that having problems and setbacks, and eventually developing the resilience to overcome them, is crucial for long-term success in any field, no matter how one defines “success”. Like everyone, I experience ups and downs, but these challenges are what build character.

Part II—Regarding the journal Molecules:

1. What attracted you to join the Academic Editor team of Molecules?
I was attracted by the transparent expectations, the extremely supportive team of editors, clear goals, and straightforward communication. I could openly share my suggestions for changing details of the editorial process, and the team always took them into consideration. Additionally, I appreciated that if something unexpected arose in my schedule, the Editorial Office was always ready to support me and handle communications with potential authors.

2. As an Editorial Board Member and Guest Editor (Special Issue “Hyperpolarized Molecules for Applications in Chemistry and Biomedicine”), what do you think is the most important responsibility while serving in these positions?
The most important responsibility is to ensure that published work is of the highest quality as it will be accessible in an open access form to a global audience. Ultimately, it is the editor’s responsibility to uphold the quality of science.

Part III—Work–life balance and advice to young researchers:

1. How do you balance your life and work? What are your hobbies? How do these hobbies promote and help scientific research?
I would not say I balance it perfectly… I resonate with the saying, “There is no work–life balance: there are life choices and their consequences.” In my free time, I enjoy playing piano or mandolin, assembling art-related jigsaw puzzles, and traveling to explore new places. Switching between different activities helps me relax and provides a fresh perspective when coming back to research.

2. As a young talented researcher, what valuable suggestions would you like to share with young students who are just starting out?
One piece of advice I would give is to understand that we often strive to achieve something in life due to inner unresolved struggles. It is crucial to be confident in your abilities, regardless of the outcome (even if it is a negative result of a proposed experiment). This confidence enables you to explore the most interesting scientific questions without bias. Embracing this approach, rather than focusing solely on incremental improvements driven by a fear of failure, is something I consider essential in academic research today.

3. Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
I would like to thank the journal Molecules and the MDPI publishing group for providing a high-quality open access platform that helps shape the future of science for those motivated to do so.

19 August 2024
MDPI’s 2023 Young Investigator Awards—Winners Announced


MDPI’s Young Investigator Awards recognize promising early career scientists, acknowledge their contributions, and foster collaboration within the scientific community. We are proud to announce the recipients for 2023, who were carefully selected by the journals’ esteemed Award Evaluation Committee.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the 79 winners of MDPI’s 2023 Young Investigator Awards for their excellent contributions in their research field. We look forward to seeing these rising stars continue to contribute to the advancement of science.

MDPI will continue to support and recognize the academic community. To explore details about the awardees by field, please visit the individual pages listed below:

Congratulations to all the winners for their exceptional contributions and dedication to advancing scientific research.

About MDPI Awards:
To support the academic community, particularly young researchers, and to enhance communication among scientists, MDPI journals regularly offer various awards to researchers in specific fields. These awards, serving as a source of inspiration and recognition, help to elevate the profiles of talented individuals who have made outstanding achievements and are making significant contributions to advancements in their respective fields.

To find out more about MDPI awards, please click here.

15 August 2024
Meet Us at the 34th International Symposium on Chromatography—ISC 2024, 6–10 October 2024, Liverpool, UK


MDPI will attend the 34th International Symposium on Chromatography – ISC 2024, held from 6 to 10 October 2024 in Liverpool, UK.

The International Symposium on Chromatography (ISC) represents the oldest conference series focusing on separation science. ISC symposia have been organized since 1956 every other year. ISC is internationally recognized as a premier setting for the discussion of all modes of chromatography and separation science, with a broad coverage of techniques and applications.

The theme for the symposium is “Imagine a world of Chromatography”, and the symposium program will reflect this theme by covering the many disciplines in which chromatography is an essential component of the analytical workflow. This will include the application of separation science in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical, environmental, food and health sectors, as well as lectures on the fundamental aspects of separation science and novel technological developments. The symposium will also highlight new challenges and emerging opportunities for both separation science and associated detection technologies.

As an integral part of the scientific programme of lectures and poster sessions, an exhibition and seminars on the instrumentation and services associated with chromatography, separation science and mass spectrometry will be organized. ISC 2024 will provide the perfect forum for attendees from academia, industry and government research institutions to exchange scientific discoveries and network. The world of chromatography offers many possibilities, and the symposium will allow ideas to develop through the many lectures and networking opportunities.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

If you plan to attend this conference, we invite you to visit our booth and converse with our delegates. We are excited to meet you in person and address any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://isc2024.org/.

15 August 2024
Meet Us at the 2nd International Symposium on Cellulose and Renewable Materials, 20–23 September 2024, Chengdu, China


The 2nd International Symposium on Cellulose and Renewable Materials will be held from 20 to 23 September 2024, in Chengdu, China. The conference is organized by Division of Cellulose and Renewable Materials of the Chinese Chemical Society, Sichuan University, and the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering.

Main Conference Themes:

  • Structure, modeling, and analytics of cellulose-based materials;
  • Processing, application, and function of cellulose-based materials;
  • Development and utilization of other biomass resources;
  • Forum of young scientists in the fields of cellulose and renewable materials.

The following MDPI journals will be represented in the conference:

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us by contacting us online. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person at a booth and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following link: http://www.iscrm2024.com/En/Default.

7 August 2024
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #14 - New Headquarters, Marketing, Poland

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

MDPI Moves to New Headquarters in Basel, Switzerland

I am excited to share that MDPI has moved to a new state-of-the-art office space in Basel, Switzerland. This move consolidates our operations by bringing together our two previously separated Basel offices into one central location.

We are always growing our talent pool and encourage you to view our Careers Page for the positions available in Basel and across our offices.

New Address: Grosspeteranlage 5, CH-4052 Basel, Switzerland

Effective Date: 1 July 2024

This new chapter in our company’s journey is designed to continue our mission of positioning MDPI as a leader in Open Access (OA) publishing, highlighting our commitment to making scholarly research accessible to everyone.

Boasting modern amenities, improved meeting and event spaces designed to support our growing needs, the new location provides a more collaborative and efficient working environment for our employees. The location offers convenient accessibility to public transportation and is situated near the Basel SBB railway station, with a variety of nearby services and amenities.

In fact, I can see the trains right outside of my window as I write these lines!

This move marks an exciting milestone in MDPI’s development, and I am confident that the new headquarters will serve as an inspiring and productive space for everyone. We also very much look forward to welcoming visitors here. You can read more about MDPI's history here.

“This new chapter continues our mission of positioning MDPI as a leader in OA publishing”

For Those New to MDPI

A pioneer in scholarly, Open Access publishing, MDPI has supported academic communities since 1996. MDPI is leading the transition to Open Science by making a greater proportion of the research conducted worldwide free and accessible to everyone. To date, over 3.5 million researchers have entrusted MDPI with publishing their scientific discoveries. MDPI’s editorial process is bolstered by a network of dedicated reviewers, a team of 6,000 professional, well-trained staff members, and an in-house article submission platform designed to ensure efficient processes within its 440 fully Open Access titles. MDPI supports more than 800 academic institutions worldwide, helping them adhere to national mandates while facilitating authors’ publication in fully compliant (CC BY) Open Access journals.

Impactful Research

New and Emerging MDPI Journals Making an Immediate Impact

Unpacking some of the Impact Factor updates from the June CEO Letter, I wanted to dive a little deeper into the 137 MDPI journals which received Impact Factor for the first time.

Academic authors highly value efficient publishing processes, robust editorial support, and the opportunity to publish in high-impact journals. We are proud that our newly launched journals typically achieve coverage in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) of the Web of Science within just a few years, with a median time of only three years from release to inclusion.

As part of our commitment to advancing academic research and providing high-quality OA publishing, we actively seek new research areas to expand our portfolio of journals. We have a proven track record of successfully establishing new journals.

Our dedicated teams excel in fostering dynamic editorial boards and working closely with Editors-in-Chief (EiC) to define the precise scope and focus of each new journal. Our expertise extends to collaborating with indexing services, ensuring that our journals comply with best practices and are indexed promptly in all relevant databases.

Emerging Titles Ranked for the First Time

Our commitment to excellence is reflected in the annual impact metrics released this past June. The latest edition of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) showcases the integration of journals from the ESCI in the new unified category rankings, providing a simplified and more complete view of all journals within each subject category, including newly established titles.

Out of 137 new and developing MDPI journals ranked in the 2024 release, 79 are in the top half (Q1 or Q2) of their categories. Here is a breakdown of the number of MDPI’s ESCI-indexed journals by quartile in the JCR:

Quartile No. of journals
Q1 17 (12.4%)
Q2 62 (45.3%)
Q3 43 (31.4%)
Q4 15 (10.9%)
Not ranked (humanities-related journals) 2

These rankings highlight our success in rapidly establishing high-impact new journals. Among those that made it directly into the top 25% of their category are the International Journal of Neonatal Screening, Journal of Xenobiotics, Polysaccharides, Smart Cities, and thirteen other journals.

You can browse MDPI journals by Indexing. Simply visit our Journals page and select from the list of Indexing bodies in the top left-hand corner.

For quick reference, as at 31 July 2024:

Inside MDPI

MDPI Corporate Marketing Strategy and Team Meeting 2024

In July, I hosted the annual Corporate Marketing strategy and team-building activity with 15 of our team members.

The aim was to align the Corporate Marketing strategy with MDPI's goal of becoming the world's most trusted OA publisher. While we provide a high-level publishing experience for our authors, as seen from our surveys, we need to keep building on our transparent and open communication to foster trust within the scholarly community and continue enhancing our reputation.

The Corporate Marketing team plays an important role as the mouthpiece for all our major activities within MDPI, especially those that model what it means to be a trusted partner. The purpose of the strategy meeting was to develop a feeling of trust in one another and an understanding of how to inspire trust in the stakeholders with whom we interact.

“We need to keep building on our transparent and open communication to foster trust within the scholarly community”

We conducted a set of activities to facilitate that sense of mutual trust and trustworthiness. Examples of some activities we worked on during this strategy-building event include:

  • Exploring what trust means
    • ‘Letter to self’
    • ‘The brand I most trust’
  • Most Trusted Academic Publisher
    • ‘The brand I would like MDPI to become’
    • ‘The 2029 MDPI Annual Report’
    • Voice of Customer and Share of Voice – survey/data update on MDPI Brand Experience and Brand Perception
  • Integrate Trust-Based Objective into Marketing Plan
    • ‘Becoming the MDPI experience’
    • ‘Trusting the next steps’

While two days is not enough to finalize a marketing strategy, it is sufficient to get everyone who attended into the mindset of the direction in which we are working. From here, we will develop a program with next steps on main projects, update communications, and collaborate with team leads to incorporate this approach into our work going forward.

As a marketing team, we can communicate our messages, but trust has to be built at every touchpoint in the stakeholder journey. Just talking about it isn’t enough. We need to be about it. That’s a role each of us plays, from editorial to IT, from marketing to HR. We must build trust from the inside out. It starts with each manager and resonates out via every team member.

As a company, our goal is to give all stakeholders with whom we interact – whether internal or external – the experience of working with an organization it can trust.

Coming Together for Science

MDPI in Poland: Krakow Office

In July, I had the pleasure of visiting our Krakow office, following my recent trip to Warsaw to meet with the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

During these visits, I prioritized meeting with our Office Manager, Editorial Director, Group Leads, and members from various teams, including editorial, production, marketing, and journal relationship specialists, to understand their roles and current challenges. Instead of a formal presentation, I opted for an open discussion, sharing updates from headquarters to engage with colleagues in a more personal way.

Our Krakow office has many things to be proud of, including a large number of PhD colleagues (over a third of its staff holds a PhD degree). Krakow provides an opportunity for expanding beyond the 100 colleagues we currently have, by adding new hires in departments including editorial, production and marketing, among others.

About our Krakow office

  • Opened in 2020
  • 99 staff members as at 1 August 2024
  • Main Departments include Editorial, Production, English Department, JRS, PR

Our Krakow office participates in international conferences, conducts author trainings and scholar visits, and engages in local market outreach. The office is also a member of the Polish Chamber of Commerce for High Technology (IZTECH) and is working on expanding its local engagement.

Krakow is the second-largest city in Poland, with a population of about 800,000. It also has a large student population of around 128,000, with seven universities. This means that roughly one in every eight residents is a student.

Poland and MDPI

Poland is a crucial market for MDPI. From 2020 to June 2024, Poland ranked 7th in submissions and 5th in publications for MDPI research articles. As at 31 July 2024, Poland ranks 7th in total MDPI publications, with approximately 70,000 research papers.

Between 2020 and June 2024, 61,500 authors from Poland published with MDPI. As at 30 June 2024, there are 1,205 active Editorial Board Members (EBMs) from Poland, with 661 EBMs (55% of the total) having an H-index over 25.

We also have four Editors-in-Chief (EiC) from Poland leading our journals: Coatings, Venereology, Advances in Respiratory Medicine, and Limnological Review, along with six Section EiC.

In 2023, we received approximately 21,000 submissions from Polish-affiliated authors, of which 12,032 were published.

“Poland is a crucial market for MDPI”

Meeting with Ministry of Education

On 22 July, we visited Warsaw to meet with the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

We were pleased to learn that they are strong supporters of the OA publishing model and value MDPI’s approach to the peer-review process, including our high ethical standards for quality control.

In 2023 Polish authors predominantly published their papers in OA, with MDPI holding the largest market share in OA publications within the country.

Our commitment to collaborating with Polish institutions is evident through our 33 Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) agreements with prestigious institutions such as the University of Warsaw, the University of Wroclaw, the Jagiellonian University, and Gdańsk University of Technology. Through IOAP discounts, a healthy waiver rate, and our peer-review voucher system, we provide the Polish scholarly community with significant savings in OA publishing. The Minister greatly appreciated these efforts and our commitment to offsetting some of the APC costs.

We discussed industry concerns about the threat of papermills and presented the preventive measures MDPI has in place to mitigate this risk and uphold high ethical standards. We informed them of our commitment to combating papermills, including our involvement with United2Act and the STM Research Integrity Hub, as well as our efforts to expand our research integrity team and explore proactive measures.

Closing Thoughts

MDPI Thought Leadership Op-ed on Open Access is Now Live on Politico

I am pleased to share that our thought leadership Op-ed piece on Open Access (OA) is now live on Politico. This is a nice push for continued influence and support of OA among policymakers and industry leaders.

Why Politico?

Politico's reputation as a highly credible and influential news platform makes it an important venue to reach key opinion leaders (KOL) from academia, policymakers, and thought leaders from many industries. This visibility helps promote the OA philosophy.

Open Access: A Moral Imperative for Progress

In this piece, I discuss the necessity of making scientific research freely available to all. I argue that publicly funded research should be publicly accessible, highlighting how OA democratizes scientific knowledge, accelerates research availability, and fosters collaboration.

“Open Access is a fundamental right for all citizens”

Democratizing scientific communication
The impulse to democratize scientific communication is nothing new. OA may seem like a recent innovation, but its principles have historical roots traceable to Europe in the 15th century. Just as the printing revolution accelerated the dissemination of new ideas, OA publishing unlocks new scientific insights that would otherwise only be accessible to a few.

Benefits for scholars: amplifying impact through Open Access
Authors publishing in an OA journal can expect more citations of their work, increasing its potential impact. Research findings that are freely available are more likely to be cited than those hidden behind a paywall. Freedom of access greatly increases the potential audience for each paper, fostering a sense of community among researchers worldwide. Heightened visibility can attract prospective collaborators and employers for young scientists. At MDPI, we believe that all these factors can only accelerate the advance of science. Additionally, authors retain copyright in their work instead of signing it away, permitting broader dissemination under Creative Commons licenses and increasing its capacity for impact.

The moral imperative
OA is not just a matter of scientific policy; it is a fundamental right for all citizens and a prerequisite for a brighter, more informed future. Publicly funded research should be a top priority, and I am pleased to see policy moving in this direction. Our capacity to generate transformative scientific insights has to be democratized. The question today is no longer whether we can afford to embrace OA; rather, it is whether we can afford not to.

Stefan Tochev
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG

6 August 2024
Meet Us at the Materials Science and Engineering Congress 2024, 24–26 September 2024, Darmstadt, Germany


MDPI will be attending the Materials Science and Engineering Congress 2024, which will be held from 24 to 26 September 2024 in Darmstadt, Germany. This event is organized by the German Society for Materials Science (DGM), which is the largest scientific and technical society in the field of materials science and engineering in Germany.

The areas of focus for the conference include the following:

  • Biomaterials;
  • Characterization;
  • Digital transformation;
  • Functional materials, surfaces and devices;
  • Circular materials;
  • Modeling and simulation;
  • Processing and synthesis;
  • Structural materials.

The following MDPI journals will be represented at the conference:

If you are planning to attend the above conference, please feel free to stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following link: https://dgm.de/mse/2024/.

2 August 2024
MDPI Romania Author Training Sessions in May

In May, MDPI Romania held three author training sessions – one endorsing an external event and two stand-alone sessions.

The National Session of Scientific Student Communications took place at Technical University Cluj on 17 and 18 May 2024. MDPI Romania sponsored this event and contributed an author training session on the production of research papers and case study analyses. JRS Norbert Kiss gave a presentation called The World of Open Access to explain different open access publishing models and the benefits of open access publishing. His presentation highlighted the impact of open access publishing on scientific progress and innovation.

On 29 May 2024, MDPI Romania hosted an author training session for Ph.D. students, early career researchers, and professors at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy. In collaboration with Prof. Andreea Arsene, JRS Ioana Paunescu prepared two presentations: The Steps of the Publishing Process and Elaboration of a Peer Review Report. In her first presentation, she delved into MDPI’s history and mission, MDPI’s editorial process, and MDPI journals of various scopes that are accepting submissions. Her second presentation outlined the types of peer review, the contents of a peer review report by an MDPI reviewer, and the responsibilities of an MDPI reviewer.

MDPI Romania also hosted an author training session at the Iasi University of Life Sciences on 29 May 2024. JRSs Laurentiu Preda and Cosmin Artan gave four presentations: Efficient Writing of an ISI-Indexed Scientific Article, Benefits of Publishing in the Open Access Model, Various Methods of Open Access Publishing, and MDPI Guide for the Article Review Process. The first three presentations offered guidance on how to improve academic writing, the fourth focused on how to write peer review reports. A highly interactive discussion followed the presentations, during which the JRSs provided extensive answers to attendees’ questions.

MDPI is grateful for all the attendees, speakers, and organizers involved in these events. Through their enthusiasm and dedication, these events were great successes.

18 July 2024
Meet Us at the 26th IUPAC International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry, 18–22 August 2024, Beijing, China


MDPI will be attending the 26th IUPAC International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry in Beijing, China, that will take place from 18 to 22 August 2024. The conference is organized by Tsinghua University, China, and the venue will be the Beijing Friendship Hotel, a prestigious location for academic conferences and events. The conference will focus on four main topics: organic structure and chemical reactivity; reaction mechanism and application; supramolecular assembly, and AI and new POC frontiers.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

If you are participating in this conference, please feel free to contact us online prior to attendance. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person at booth #D10 and answering any questions you may have. For more information regarding the conference, please visit the following link: https://www.icpoc26.tsinghua.edu.cn/column/home.


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