MDPI Journals: Worth the Bother?
- December 8, 2023
- Posted by: Yury Subachev, PhD
- Categories: For publishers, For young scientists, Paper publication
When choosing a platform to publish an article, a scientist has to take two factors into account: time and money.
Reputable scientific journals are usually distributed by subscription. They do not charge fee for publication. Manuscripts are carefully reviewed and selected, therefore the process from submission of an article to its publication is quite long.
Open-access publications exist at the expense of authors’ fees. Publication of an article may cost from one and a half to three thousand dollars, but the waiting period is much shorter.
Today we shall talk about one of the most famous open-access publishing platforms – MDPI. Let us consider what opportunities it offers to the scientists and what potential risks should be taken into account.
The Swedish publisher MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) has been in existence for 25 years, publishing quite a great number of scientific journals. Today it is one of the world largest publishers of open-access journals.
Open access implies that all articles published by MDPI are available to all readers without subscription or additional charge.
MDPI publishes over 400 peer-reviewed journals covering various fields of science, technology and medicine. Among them are such well-known editions as “Sustainability”, “Molecules”, “Remote Sensing”, “Materials”, “Energies”, “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health”. In addition, MDPI publishes 9 conference journals.
MDPI sets high standards for reviewing manuscripts to ensure due quality and credibility of publications. The experts review submitted papers in order to assess their scientific rigour, methodology and contribution to particular fields of research.
The MDPI platform offers some unique features such as the authors’ ability to publish supplementary materials, datasets and multimedia content alongside their research articles. The authors are provided as well with a possibility of rapid publication in case of time-pressing or time-consuming research.
The publisher is funded through article processing fees.
2. How can I find the right MDPI journal?
MDPI journals are indexed by renowned and reputable citation databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed as well as industry-specific citation indices.
One can find journals or concrete publications at the publisher‘s website.
Articles are searched by title or keyword, author or his/her affiliation. One can set filters: searching among all journals or in a specific field, selecting all types of articles or only review papers, editorials, discussion articles, etc.
One can prefer another way: to find a journal (entering the title or choosing from the list). The journal page will present the information about the publication: type of access, indexing in citation databases, journal rating, terms of peer review and publication, last published articles.
The left column of this page contains detailed information about the journal: its mission and thematic coverage, editorial board, instructions for the authors, statistics, the list of most cited and viewed articles, etc.
One can open a particular issue of a journal and get access to articles for reading or downloading. One can use keywords to access the list of publications on a particular issue.
3. Little-known but useful search features on the MDPI website.
Clicking on the surname takes one to the author’s page. One will find there the author’s curriculum vitae, publications and information about the co-authors (one can read an abstract or full text and download the work in PDF format).
Unlike many other citation databases, MDPI enables one not only to get but also to actively share information. In fact, MDPI SciProfiles is an innovative social network for scholars. There one has an opportunity to:
- Elaborate on individual scientific research and present own academic achievements.
- Share own publications with the colleagues.
- Track downloads and citing in real-time mode.
- Get information about interesting developments in the selected research area.
- Monitor the work of the colleagues.
- Contact other scientists from the comfort of own home.
The Topics section presents collections of interdisciplinary-research articles. It brings the scholars of different scientific profiles together in order to develop related topics and generate new ideas. The authors can submit articles to any MDPI journal included in the theme. All of these publications will be posted on the Topics web page.
The participation in a topic extends readership and increases visibility of an article. In addition, the authors can participate in conferences, social media and other platforms.
All topics are supervised by an editor or editorial board. They are engaged in preliminary selection of materials for publication, oversee the review process and take a final decision on acceptance or rejection of an article.
4. Initiatives section.
1. One can plan, organise a scientific research project or participate in it on the Sciforum page. The platform has all due tools for organisation of conferences, symposia, webinars, from setting up a website and sending notifications to final protocols.
A scientific event can be either interpersonal or virtual. If necessary, the organiser will receive support from Sciforum staff. Event proceedings can be published directly on Sciforum (DOI is not assigned) or in one of MDPI journals.
2. MDPI Books is an open-access platform for publishing scholarly books. It publishes monographs, book series, reprints of special issues and thematic collections. It is possible to have a digital version and a paper book published. The copyright is retained by the author.
Books can be read directly on the MDPI platform, downloaded in PDF format or bought as a printed edition.
3. Preprints.org, a multidisciplinary preprint platform makes it possible to upload a manuscript through the online submission system. The decision is taken within 24 hours. A preprint is immediately assigned a DOI, therefore the article can be cited right away. Preprints are open for comments.
To make a preprint more visible to the readers, one can link ORCID and SciProfiles with social media accounts. This is also a convenient place to track citation.
4. The Scilit platform is an aggregator of scientific publications. It provides free access to recently published content from various sources: journal articles, book chapters, monographs, preprints. The platform also accumulates publications from external sources such as PubMed, CORE, Unpaywall and other open repositories. Scilit provides several additional services:
- ranking of journals, publishers and countries;
- search for similar articles based on keywords;
- notifying the authors on their recent publications being cited;
- notification on appearance of new articles having selected keywords.
Scilit searches over 161 million publications, including 34 million open-access sources and 6 million preprints. The advanced search menu allows one to specify necessary parameters.
5. Encyclopedia Platform is a platform accumulating user-generated content. It hosts expert-level supplementary materials such as thematic reviews, authors’ track records, science videos and images.
Encyclopedia is a scholarly guide to topics and concepts in different spheres from arts and humanities to medicine and engineering. The encyclopedia’s review articles are based on firmly established knowledge and contain critical analysis and recommendations for future scholars.
The user can post own materials and edit the existing ones. Using the command “view history”, it is possible to read and compare the previous versions of an article. The readers can as well leave feedback and comments.
Encyclopedia’s articles can be quoted (several differing styles are available).
The platform helps the researchers to find the information they need quickly and accurately.
MDPI as well publishes a peer-reviewed journal of the same name and a book series.
6. JAMS represents a set of journal management services. They include:
- editing and reviewing;
- journal publication services;
JAMS is a modular system and is highly flexible, therefore it is suitable for both experienced and novice publishers. The platform makes it possible to reduce administration costs and bring together all workflow stages (submission, reviewing, revision, decision on publication). The manuscript will undergo proofreading, layout and XML conversion with guaranteed quality.
JAMS also provides a ready-to-use website for hosting journals with automated control setup.
Conclusion
Choosing a platform for publishing a scientific article may turn out to be not as simple as it seems. When deadlines are pressing a scholar has to choose between free – prestigious – protractedly and expensive – popular – quickly.
The undoubted advantages of subscription editions include their good reputation in the scientific world and low cost of publication for the author. However, the editorial process takes months and the requirements for manuscripts are extremely high.
The open-access editions, including MDPI journals, are distinguished by a broad readership and fast speed of the editorial process. Publishing on such a platform is expensive, and the reputation of such a journal is not always good. But this option will help if one needs having a publication quickly.
MDPI is distinguished by its multidiscipline journal profile, entirely open access and high manuscript processing speed.
Researchers can use the MDPI platform for several purposes:
- Search for journals and publications. The latest research can be found on the Scilit
- Search for information about authors, journals and publishers.
- As a social network for sharing information and discussing topical issues (SciProfiles).
- For conducting and publishing interdisciplinary research (Topics section).
- For organisation of scientific research projects (Sciforum).
- As a platform for publication of scholarly books (MDPI Books) and preprints of scholarly articles (org).
- As a source of reference materials on different scholarship fields (Encyclopedia Platform).
- As a platform for publishing one’s own journal (JAMS).
It is important to note that although MDPI is a reputable publisher the researchers are always advised to evaluate individual journals on the basis on such factors as their coverage, editorial board, indexing and reputation in a particular research community.
This is connected with the fact of the publisher’s being periodically faced with claims regarding the quality of scientific publications. Some experts believe that the high speed of manuscript processing is detrimental to the quality of reviewing. In 2014, the platform was even included in the list of despoiler publishers, but MDPI won the counterclaim.
With regard for the above, one should make sure, before submitting an article to the editorial board, that the journal is indexed in reputable databases and citation indexes and has a good reputation in the scientific community. One can read in more detail on how to choose a journal for publication of a scientific article and verify its quality here.
We wish you successful publications!
