Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP)

MDPI is dedicated to providing free access to the latest research. To cover the costs of publishing open access, authors are billed for article processing charges (APCs) for accepted papers. Some institutions may find that associated authors regularly publish in MDPI journals, and that administering the increasing number of APCs can be time consuming. Our open access program aims to support institutions through the following means:

Simplification

We offer simplification of administrative processes in order to reduce the overheads associated with APCs.

• Invoices can be bundled and paid in bulk or issued on the same day each month.
• In place of invoicing individual authors, we offer central payment, where invoices are all sent to a single university address.

Opting in and out of the scheme is also straightforward.

• There is no cost and no complex contract with hidden terms and conditions.
• Participating institutions can cancel at any time.
• Sign-up is also simple, just fill in the online form.

Access and Transparency

• All institutional participants receive free access to Susy, our online submission system. It provides a wide range of meta-data on articles under processing, as well as articles published from associated authors since 2010.
• Data from Susy, including information on invoices, can be exported to Excel with a single click.
• Institutions can choose to be notified about new submissions, and receive alerts when a paper is accepted or published. Notifications can be enabled or disabled directly from Susy.
• Susy provides information on the status of published and submitted articles, including author names, the APC for each paper, actual invoiced amounts, dates of submission and publication, and much more.

APC Discounts

• Authors affiliated with participating universities receive a 10% discount on the APCs for any paper published in an MDPI journal. Note that only one discount through an IOAP scheme is permitted per paper, and the discount cannot be combined with other available discounts (e.g., discount vouchers, or society membership discounts).
• Researchers can also benefit from a 10% discount on the Book Processing Charges for MDPI Books.
• A list of current APC charges is available at https://www.mdpi.com/about/apc

Institutional Repository Deposits

• Receive automated deposits of papers from affiliated authors to the institutional repository.
• Deposits are made in a standard format using the SWORD 1.3 protocol.

Matching Paper and IOAP Participants

When a paper is submitted, it is automatically matched to an IOAP participant based on the email address. Authors are asked to confirm the choice, or select an institution if none was found. MDPI staff verify each selection as part of the initial screening of submitted papers.