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Information for Authors

Overview

MDPI is a publisher of peer-reviewed, open access journals.

MDPI journals are highly visible and widely accessible, being indexed in the leading databases and published under an open access license. And all manuscripts published in these journals undergo a rigorous and efficient editorial process that offers simplicity to authors. As a pioneer in open access publishing, our core mission is to facilitate the dissemination of and increase access to relevant and impactful research.

We serve scholars from across the globe and from a variety of backgrounds. To deepen our understanding and strengthen our support of the research communities that we serve, we strive to build an equally diverse and inclusive portfolio of journals. Only by valuing differences can we create an equitable and inclusive environment for scientific exchange and foster the openness that is key to our mission.

The daily exchange of ideas between the East and the West has always been at the heart of MDPI's ethos. And we understand that diversity does not end there. More needs to be done to bridge the gap between the global North and South—and to create equal opportunities for people of any race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, country of origin, physical ability, or socio-economic status. MDPI is committed to publishing research findings based on their scientific merit, and to making those findings accessible to all.

Useful Resources for Authors

Manuscript Submission and Instructions for Authors

MDPI’s Pledges to Authors and Readers:

  • publish rigorously peer-reviewed manuscripts of high scholarly impact
  • maintain quick publication—manuscripts are published within 5–7 weeks of submission (provided no major revisions are required)
  • publish full open access journals—readers can access all content published on this platform for free
  • publish citation-tracked journals—MDPI continuously works towards quick coverage and citation-tracking of all of its journals in the top databases (Scopus, Web of Science, PMC, PubMed, and MEDLINE) and various other databases

Benefits of Open Access to Authors and Readers:

Read the full open access information here.

  • free availability of the literature without any subscription or price barriers
  • immediate access once an article is published (no embargo period)
  • authors retain all copyrights—authors will not be forced to sign any copyright transfer agreements
  • permission to re-use the published material if proper accreditation is given (Creative Commons Attribution License external link)

Market-Specific Taxes

Authors from Switzerland will have the local Value Added Tax (VAT) added to their invoices. Japan residents will have the Japanese Consumption Tax (JCT) added to their invoices at the rate set by the Japanese government.

Extensive English Editing

It is the authors’ responsibility to submit their work in correct English. The APC includes only minor English editing. The APC does not include extensive English editing. If extensive editing is required, your paper could be returned to you at the English editing stage of the publication process. This could delay the publication of your work. We offer professional English editing, completed in 1 day by native English speakers, here: Author Services. Vouchers that have been obtained for providing peer review can be used to pay for Author Services language editing.

Funding of APCs and BPCs

Many funding agencies and institutions explicitly allow the use of research grants for the payment of APCs and BPCs for publishing open access articles and books. For more information on APC and BPC funding, see the following page.

Discounts on APCs

Waivers may be granted at the Publisher's discretion and should be discussed with the editorial office when submitting the article. The editorial decision making is decoupled from the authors' ability to pay the Processing Charges; however, authors should consider in advance whether they have sufficient funds to cover the full APC/BPC.

MDPI also offers discount vouchers to selected reviewers. Please note that reviewer vouchers can only be combined with IOAP and affiliated society discounts.

Authors affiliated with participating universities receive a discount on the APC for any paper published in an MDPI journal. Note that only one discount through an IOAP scheme is permitted per paper, and that the discount can be combined with other available discounts (e.g., reviewer vouchers).

General Peer-Review and Editorial Procedure

All manuscripts sent for publication in our journals are strictly and thoroughly peer-reviewed by experts (this includes research and review articles, spontaneous submissions, and invited papers). The Managing Editor of the journal will perform a technical pre-check of the manuscript’s suitability upon receipt. The academic editor will be notified of the submission and invited to perform an editorial pre-check. The Editorial Office will then organize the peer-review process performed by independent experts and collect at least two review reports per manuscript. To uphold transparency and keep authors informed on the progress of the peer review, a preliminary version of the reviewers' reports, collected during the peer-review process, is made accessible to authors via the Susy platform. Authors can see in real-time the content and how many reviewer reports have been collected. As these reviewer reports have not been checked by an academic editor, authors are recommended to refrain from undertaking any revision until the full editorial assessment has been conducted and official notification has been received by the Editorial Office. We ask our authors for adequate revisions (with a second round of peer-review if necessary) before a final decision is made. The final decision is made by the academic editor (usually the Editor-in-Chief/Editorial Board Member of a journal or the Guest Editor of a Special Issue). Accepted articles are copy-edited and English-edited.

Editorial Decision and Revision

All the articles, reviews and communications published in MDPI journals go through the peer-review process and receive at least two review reports. The in-house editor will discuss each step of the process with the external academic editor and communicate decisions to the authors regarding the following:

  • Accept in Present Form: The paper is accepted without any further changes.

  • Accept after Minor Revisions: The paper is, in principle, accepted after revision based on the reviewers’ comments. Authors are given five days for minor revisions.

  • Reconsider after Major Revisions: The acceptance of a resubmitted manuscript depends on the revisions. The authors need to provide a point-by-point response or a rebuttal if some of the reviewers’ comments cannot be revised. A maximum of two rounds of major revisions per manuscript is normally provided. Authors will be asked to resubmit the revised paper within ten days and the revised version will be returned to the reviewers for further comments. For manuscripts that require longer than two months for revisions, we recommend that authors withdraw their manuscript while they prepare the resubmission to avoid unnecessary time pressure on revisions. Revised manuscripts will be assigned a new manuscript ID and linked to the original submission in our submission system (SuSy). Following resubmission, the editorial process will continue as normal (https://www.mdpi.com/editorial_process). To ensure an efficient and effective peer-review process, the same reviewers will be invited to review the resubmitted manuscript.

  • Reject and Encourage Resubmission: An article where additional experiments are needed to support the conclusions will be rejected and for manuscripts that require extensive revisions, where the paper status is “Reject and Encourage Resubmission”, authors may choose to resubmit their manuscript to the same journal in their own time upon completion of comprehensive revisions. Revised manuscripts submitted to the same journal will be assigned a new manuscript ID and linked to the original submission in our submission system (SuSy). Following resubmission, the editorial process will continue as normal (https://www.mdpi.com/editorial_process). To ensure an efficient and effective peer-review process, the same reviewers will be invited to review the resubmitted manuscript.

  • Reject: An article containing serious errors and making no original contribution will be rejected, with no offer of resubmission to the journal.

Digital Preservation of MDPI Content

To ensure indefinite preservation of our publications, all content published within an MDPI journal is permanently archived in the following databases:

For the purposes of record-keeping, MDPI retains copies of submitted manuscripts and supporting files. However, for articles that are rejected we will comply with requests from authors to delete files.

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