Having a journal for your society can help grow your international presence and provide a research platform to scholars, sharing insights from your organisation. Moreover, adopting an Open Access model will help increase the society and journal’s visibility and boost citations and impact. Here, we’ll introduce you to our Society Partnerships team, which can help your society create an Open Access journal and show you why you should choose MDPI, highlighting the successes of journals we have helped to create.

“Societies and research associations play a key role in building and shaping research communities, and we believe that they will continue to play an important role in them. At MDPI, we are committed to serving them well. We are thrilled to explore what comes next in the changing publishing landscape.” — MDPI Society Team.

Why MDPI?

As the largest fully Open Access Publisher and having over 25 years of experience, MDPI is very interested in supporting societies aiming to publish their journal in Open Access.

We are a customer-focused company. The guiding principles across all our activities are high-quality service, accessibility, speed, flexibility, simplicity, and sustainability. We serve the scholarly community thanks to our more than 6,000 employees based in offices across eleven countries, which is a good reflection of the increased global reach of our journals and services.

Since its inception, MDPI has launched over 420 international, peer-reviewed, and Open Access journals. We launched 87 journals in 2021, 33 in 2022, and over 20 in 2023. Our publishing work is acknowledged by our track record of indexing expertise. MDPI has successfully indexed 257 journals in Scopus, over 200 in the Web of Science (of which 92 are in SCIE, 7 in SSCI, 1 in AHCI, and 133 in ESCI), 87 in PubMed, 399 in DOAJ, and many other databases (data from November 2023).

Over the past 12 years, we have engaged with more than 180 learned societies and organisations, with collaborations ranging from affiliations with one or several of our journals to partnering and publishing journals on our partners’ behalf.

What are MDPI’s society partnerships?

Having a partnership with us means that we will work with you to meet your society’s publishing goals and help in creating an excellent Open Access journal. Besides, we will ensure you can promote your society effectively.

One of the distinguishing features of our service is that we have developed our infrastructure to ensure our publishing process is rapid and smooth from start to finish. We allow Academic Editors to focus on controlling the scientific quality and development of the journal whilst MDPI staff support with administrative work that is otherwise tedious for already-busy researchers, scholars, and practitioners.

By partnering with us, you will therefore receive a dedicated editorial team, as well as a production and marketing team, to support your journal. This ensures the journal remains cost effective whilst also having the capacity to manage a growing number of articles if your journal becomes well-established in its field. You will also receive regular operation reports, real-time updates on our platform, feedback from market research and competition analyses, indexing support, financial reports, article promotion, and other marketing activities ranging from the organization of awards to opportunities to attend scientific events with a booth.

Your journal will feature on our website, which attracts over 465 million page views per year. A full copy of each publication will also be deposited in the Swiss National Library electronic collection (e-Helvetica) and CLOCKSS for long-term archival storage.

Other benefits of partnering with MDPI

Here are some of the other benefits of partnering with MDPI to publish your Open Access journal:

• Your organisation will be the journal owner.
• Publishing agreements will be tailored to your needs and expectations as we want to build bridges to support your journey in the Open Access model.
• Your members can benefit from having reduced Article Processing Charges and can participate in other MDPI Initiatives at a cheaper rate or for free.
• Reviewers will receive voucher recognition for timely and quality reports, as well as an annual acknowledgement in the form of an editorial.
• We will share royalties with your organization as soon as the journal becomes profitable.

Check the Societies page to see what we offer in detail.

Remember that we can also support you with Converting an Open Access Journal for your Society.

Successful launches of Open Access journals

MDPI has partnered with national and international societies in Europe, Asia, and North America.

The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) was founded in 1910 and is dedicated to the development of international cooperation for the advancement of knowledge, research, development, education, and training in its field.

The ISPRS partnered with MDPI in 2011 to establish the International Journal of Geo-Information. Since 2012, the journal has published over 4,700 articles. This year, it received a CiteScore of 6.2 (Q1 in three Scopus categories) and an Impact Factor of 3.4 (rank Q2 in ‘Geography, Physical’ – SCIE in the Web of Science), with almost 17,000 citations received in 2022 alone.

Additionally, the European Burns Association (EBA) was established in 1981 as a non-profit organisation by leading burn specialists in Europe. They encourage cooperation in the field of burn care and prevention.

The EBA began its partnership with MDPI in 2020. In the same year, two Editors-in-Chief were appointed and the inaugural issue of the European Burn Journal (EBJ) was released. EBJ is published as a quarterly journal and, as of 2022, it publishes around 45 articles per year. It recently got accepted in ESCI—Web of Science.

The most recent launch is the Gout, Urate, and Crystal Deposition Disease (GUCDD) journal from the North American Gout, Hyperuricemia and Crystal-Associated Disease Network, with already 20 articles published in its first volume in 2023.

Creating an Open Access journal for your society

When considering the launch of a new journal, it is important you provide an initial idea or plan to ensure the journal can be a success in the short- and mid-terms. This includes a vision for the journal, the main audience, how to distinguish your journal from existing competitor titles, and other regional and international support, including any contacts and roles already accepted to be part of your publishing project. We will then assess your feasibility to become partners with us.

Upon defining the grounds, we will care for the set up and long-term success of your journal. Click here to get in contact with the Societies team and begin your journey with MDPI.