Information

Information for Editors

Overview

MDPI is an academic open access publisher based in Basel, Switzerland, and was initially founded in 1996 to collect and preserve rare chemical research samples. To support the samples project, MDPI started the journal Molecules the same year. Since 1996, MDPI has grown into a publishing house with over 360 journals and with offices in Beijing and Wuhan (China), Barcelona (Spain), Belgrade (Serbia), Cluj (Romania), Manchester (UK), Tokyo (Japan), Craców (Poland), Toronto (Canada) and Singapore. MDPI is backed by more than 115,000 academic experts who support our mission, values, and commitment to providing high-quality service for our authors.

Open Access

Open Access mean that readers can access published material for free, without paying a subscription charge. MDPI articles are freely available immediately after publication. This means that researchers, students, and interested lay people from anywhere in the world have rapid access to the latest research through MDPI journals. All MDPI content is distributed under a Creative Commons open access license.

We finance publication through article processing charges (APC), paid by authors and their institutions. APCs cover the cost of managing the peer review process, professional copy-editing, and promotion of published research MDPI has no other source of income.

For authors, open access means a potentially wider circle of readers for their research papers, with some research suggesting that open access papers are more highly cited.

At MDPI, we believe that open access offers value for money for researchers—our income per article is substantially lower than established subscription publishers. We offer a good deal for funding bodies—outcomes can be widely circulated and no barrier for reading offers transparency to those footing the bill. We also offer transparency to tax payers, who indirectly fund a great deal of research—through open access they have the opportunity to see the results of their contributions.

Journals Published by MDPI

More than 330 journal titles are currently published by MDPI and available online in open access format at www.mdpi.com. MDPI continuously launches new journals in response to academic developments, and to be able to serve additional research communities and their needs.

MDPI Editorial Offices

MDPI is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. The in-house staff consists of Managing Editors, Assistant Editors, Production Editors, English Editors, Copyeditors, Data Specialists, Software Engineers and Administrative Specialists. Except for most English Editors, all are employed by MDPI and its subsidiaries and work at the MDPI offices. Our collaborating editors on our Editorial Boards are typically employed at academic institutions or corporate research facilities located all over the world. The contact with the in-house editorial staff is mainly by e-mail and telephone. The in-house editorial staff normally work for several journals related to their educational background. Assistant Editors process manuscripts through the peer-review and production procedures; Managing Editors have the editorial responsibility for the journals; Production Editors, English Editors, Copyeditors and Data Specialists are responsible for putting accepted content into a publishable format (full-text PDF, XML and HTML versions). Contact information can be found at www.mdpi.com/about/contact/.

Editorial Process, Peer-Review and Production

Articles submitted to MDPI journals are subject to strict peer-reviewing. In most journals, the process is single blind peer-review (the reviewers know the authors’ identities, but the authors do not know the reviewers’ identities). Some journals operate double blind peer-review (the reviewers do not know the authors’ identities until the paper has been published). The MDPI online submission system, Susy, incorporates online tools for manuscript submission, peer-reviewing and editorial decision making. Reviewers and external editors do not need to have an account with the MDPI submission system in order to finish the tasks assigned to them. Rather, the system will recognize the reviewers and external editors through one-time usable IDs found in the URLs. Editors-in-Chief and Guest Editors can view articles submitted to their journal or Special Issue via Susy at any time.

The Instructions for Authors page on the website of each MDPI journal guides authors through preparing and submitting their manuscripts.

Once a manuscript is submitted, the submission is received by the in-house Managing Editor, who will subsequently coordinate the whole editorial process for the manuscript: peer-review, decision making, possible author revisions, manuscript acceptance, copyediting, English editing, proofreading and final publication. An in-house Assistant Editor will be assigned to the submitted article and will send review invitations.

At least two reports per manuscript are collected for each manuscript—three if the first two differ substantially. Reviewers must hold a PhD, cannot have published with the authors in the past five years, and must have recent publications in the field of the submitted manuscript.

The Editor-in-Chief, Guest Editor, or a suitable Editorial Board member can make the final acceptance or rejection decision for a manuscript, usually after the author’s revisions. We typically allow no more than two rounds of major revisions.

After the acceptance of an article for publication, the in-house editorial staff organize the production of the paper, which entails copyediting, English editing and final production in preparation for publication on the journal website. All journals are structured in yearly volumes and either monthly or quarterly issues. Nevertheless, articles are published online immediately after their acceptance and production.

In many MDPI journals, Academic Editors who have made the acceptance decision for a manuscript, after full peer-review, have the option to include their name and role as the Academic Editor on the published manuscript. This is at the Academic Editor’s discretion. Guest Editors of Special Issues are required to have their name(s) included on manuscripts they have accepted for publication.

Editorial Board Responsibilities

Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief is a champion of the journal and their discipline. They supervise journal activities, with the aim to ensure success of the journal within the scientific community. The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the scientific quality and development of the journal. The Editor-in-Chief is expected to maintain connection to the Editorial Board and assist the Editorial Office in the management of the journal. The initial term is for 2 years, which entails:

Acting as ambassador for the journal, MDPI and Open Access publishing;
Scientific decisions about the journal's scope;
Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
Suggesting topics for Special Issues;
Providing support and guidance to Section Editors-in-Chief, Editorial Board Members and Editorial Staff where required;
Maintaining oversight of the editorial process for individual manuscripts (mainly by making the final decision regarding whether or not a paper can be published after peer-review and revisions);
Understanding, leading and upholding MDPI’s peer review guidelines and ethics guidelines;
Chairing the annual Editorial Board Meeting.

Section Editor-in-Chief

The Section Editor-in-Chief is a leader in their particular field, and is responsible for the scientific quality of a particular section of a journal. The Section Editor-in-Chief is expected to oversee the growth and development of the journal Sections and its board members. The initial term is for 2 years, which entails:

Acting as ambassador for the journal, MDPI and Open Access publishing;
Scientific decisions about the scope of their section;
Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
Suggesting topics for Special Issues;
Providing support and guidance to Editorial Board Members and Editorial Staff where required;
Maintaining oversight of the editorial process for individual manuscripts in their section (mainly by making the final decision regarding whether or not a paper can be published after peer-review and revisions);
Understanding, leading and upholding MDPI’s peer review guidelines and ethics guidelines.

Associate Editors

The Associate Editors support the Editor-in-Chief and Section Editor-in-Chief in their respective roles and comply with the same terms and conditions.

Editorial Board Members

The Editorial Board Members will be responsible for final decisions on manuscripts in their field of expertise, will edit Special Issues and they may be invited to review manuscripts. The initial term is for 2 years, which entails:

Pre-screen and take decisions on new submissions related to their research interests;
Set-up at least 1 Special Issue during their term on a topic related to their research interests (or supervising Special Issues related to your research field);
Provide input or feedback regarding journal policies;
Help to promote the journal among their peers or at conferences;
Attend Board Meetings to suggest journal development strategies;
Review manuscripts.

Section Board Members

The Section Board Members comply with the same terms and conditions as Editorial Board Members. According to their expertise they are assigned to a specific journal section for which they will be mostly committed. The initial term is for 2 years, which entails:

Pre-screen and take decisions on new submissions related to their journal Section;
Help to edit a Special Issue on a topic related to their Section (or supervising Special Issues related to your research field);
Provide input or feedback regarding journal policies;
Help to promote the journal among their peers or at conferences;
Attend Board Meetings to suggest journal development strategies:
Review manuscripts.

Advisory Board Members

The Advisory Board Members will provide guidance to the Editor-in-Chief regarding journal development strategies and policies. The initial term is for 2 years, which entails:

Pre-screen and take decisions on new submissions, especially in cases of conflict of interest;
Suggest topics for Special Issues and launch new Sections for the journal;
Provide input or feedback regarding journal policies;
Help to promote the journal among their peers or at conferences;
Attend Board Meetings to suggest journal development strategies;
Provide assistance in solving appeal cases or ethical disputes.

Supporting Editor Responsibilities

Guest Editors

The Guest Editors will edit Special Issues and are encouraged to invite colleagues from the same research field to contribute to the Special Issue. Special Issues enable collaboration with scholars all over the world. The main responsibilities of Guest Editors are:

Preparing the Special Issue title, aim & scope, summary and keywords;
Providing a list of potential contributors;
Pre-screen, supervise the whole peer-review process and take decisions on new submissions in their Special Issue;
Promotion of the Special Issue at conferences, on social media and other relevant platforms.

Topic Editors

The Topic Editors will edit Topics and are encouraged to invite colleagues from the same research field to contribute to the Topic. Topics offer the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines around the world. The main responsibilities of Topic Editors are:

Preparing the Topics title, aim & scope, summary and keywords;
Providing a list of potential contributors;
Pre-screen, supervise the whole peer-review process and take decisions on new submissions in their Topics;
Promotion of the Topics at conferences, on social media and other relevant platforms.

Collection Editors

The Collection Editors will edit permanent Topical Collections and are encouraged to invite colleagues from the same research field to contribute to the Topical Collection. The main responsibilities of Collection Editors are:

Preparing the Topical Collection title, aim & scope, summary and keywords
Providing a list of potential contributors, a couple of times per year
Pre-screen, supervise the whole peer-review process and take decisions on new submissions in their Collection
Promotion of the Collection at conferences, on social media and other relevant platforms.

Topical Advisory Panel

The Topical Advisory Panel is comprised of Early Career Researchers, eager to gain experience in editorial work. Early career researchers that currently hold an independent research position in academia or government institute are invited to apply to join the Topical Advisory Panel, where they will provide support to Guest Editors, Topic Editors and Section Board Members. Each year the member’s performance is evaluated and outstanding members will be promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor in Chief.

The main responsibilities include:

Providing regular reviews of manuscripts.
Setting up at least one Special Issue (SI) in partnership with a senior researcher within two years of the appointment and proposing a detailed strategy plan for the SI. The topic of the proposal should be within the scope of the journal. The scope of the Special Issue should be broad enough to attract a reasonable number of submissions but narrow enough to provide a cohesive collection of articles. The Special Issue should cover a small part of the scope of the journal, but not the whole.
Providing a detailed strategy plan for the SI including assisting in preparing the Special Issues/Topics title, aim & scope, summary and keywords, soliciting papers and promoting the SI.
Providing support for the Special Issues/Topics related to their expertise when the Guest Editor(s) is not available. This includes SI promotion via social media and giving advice on some scientific cases.
Promotion of the journal at conferences (adding 1–2 slides into your presentation, distributing flyers, recommending the journal to your colleagues, etc.), on social media and other relevant platforms.
Participate in working with Editorial Board Members or Editorial Office in promoting high-quality/featured papers (for example writing summary or highlights for editor's selected papers).

To qualify as Topical Advisory Panel member, applicants must:

Have expertise and experience in the field related to of the journal;
Within approximately 10 years of receiving a PhD;
Have at least 6-8 published papers in the last 5 years as first author or corresponding author;
Currently hold an independent research position in academia or government institute.

For publishing proposals, including the transfer of existing journals, the launch of new titles or the conversion of subscription journals to open access, please contact the New Journal Committee.