We’re excited to share with you some information about MDPI societies’ affiliations program. Societies are extremely valuable to the academic community. They provide excellent support for researchers, and this includes support during the publication process. At MDPI, we partner with academic societies in various ways to help them publish their members’ work.

Helping Societies to Support Their Members’ Publishing Requirements

Some societies have their own publishing programmes. However, many others look for alternative ways to publish. This includes forging links with existing publications in their fields of research.

For societies that don’t have their own journals, there is the option to become affiliated with an existing MDPI journal. An affiliation is a non-binding agreement between a society and a publisher, involving mutual benefits for both sides.

The benefits of establishing a society affiliation with an MDPI journal include:

Low maintenance

Setting up a society journal can be a complicated, time-consuming task that requires investment and constant upkeep. MDPI affiliates don’t actually need their own journal to publish members’ work. Instead, they work with already existing MDPI journals with their own staff, leaving them free to focus on more important matters. Affiliations provide stress-free assistance.

Non-binding agreement

Participating societies are not bound to a journal. The working relationship between affiliates and MDPI is fluid and flexible. Societies don’t need to commit to any binding agreements, financial or otherwise. This gives them the agility to change when things change.

Recommended publishing outlet

We understand how important it is to offer unique perks and benefits for society members. Becoming an MDPI affiliate grants societies access to an easy-to-follow publishing path for their members and the journal also provides direct support for authors and guidance for submission.

Affiliations receive discounted publishing costs

MDPI also offers discounts on journal submissions to all affiliates and their members. When societies sign up, they receive a code to share with members, which must be used to receive the agreed discount off the Article Processing Charge (APC) of their submissions.

There are also discounts available for open access books. Our innovative service MDPI Books provides a platform for publishing research in longer formats, even in print form.

Increased visibility for the society

Society affiliations are featured prominently on the journal webpage, as well as in the Society Collaborations section of the journal. Thanks to MDPI’s global reach across the world of academia, our journals provide the ideal promotional platform for societies. As a result, this can help attract members and improve citation prospects. In addition, news and conference announcements can be shared with a larger audience than would otherwise be possible.

Opportunity to establish Special Issues and topic collections through affiliations

Societies can easily set up their very own research collections in the form of Special Issues and topic collections. This makes distributing their research more efficient and personalised.

Support for society conferences

MDPI journals sponsor different activities at society conferences. These sponsorships are reserved for the events considered the most suitable, which is reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Affiliations receive discounts on other MDPI services including MDPI books and SciForum

Affiliates are also entitled to a discount on SciForum membership. SciForum is MDPI’s integrated conference organisation tool. It includes features like online billing and user management.

Societies can also publish their conference proceedings in MDPI’s dedicated journal Proceedings.

Of the close to 180 societies that we currently work with, over 150 choose to be affiliated. Thus, each society is usually associated with 1–3 specific MDPI journals.

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For more information, please get in touch with Dr. Carla Aloè, Publisher, at info-societies@mdpi.com.