Overview

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) is a Swiss-based open access publisher founded in 1996 in Basel. Its mission is to accelerate the dissemination of scientific knowledge through immediate, free access to peer-reviewed research across disciplines including science, technology, medicine, and the social sciences.

Mission and focus areas

MDPI promotes open science and sustainable publishing by removing barriers to access and reuse. Its work supports global research transparency and knowledge sharing, contributing indirectly to sustainability, innovation, and evidence-based decision-making. Journals such as Sustainability and Energies align with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) themes relevant to sustainable finance and responsible business practices.

Structure and governance

MDPI operates as a privately held company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, with offices and editorial staff across multiple countries. Each journal is managed by an Editor-in-Chief and an international editorial board overseeing peer review and publication standards. The organisation maintains ethical guidelines, open peer-review processes, and partnerships with academic societies and institutions.

Programs and offerings

MDPI publishes more than 470 peer-reviewed open access journals, as well as books, conference proceedings, and online platforms such as Sciforum for academic events and Preprints.org for early research sharing. It provides tools like Scilit for bibliographic data and SciProfiles for researcher networking. Through its open access model, MDPI enables wide dissemination of knowledge to academics, policymakers, and practitioners.

Mission and values

As a pioneer in scholarly, open access publishing, MDPI has been serving the scientific community since 1996. Our aim is to foster scientific exchange in all forms, across all disciplines. MDPI’s guidelines for disseminating open science are based on the following values and guiding principles:

• Open Access—All of our content is published in open access and distributed under a Creative Commons License, providing free access to science and the latest research, allowing articles to be freely shared and content to be re-used with proper attribution.
• Timeliness and Efficiency—Publishing the latest research through thorough editorial work, ensuring a first decision is provided to authors in under 19 days and papers are published in 4 days upon acceptance (median values for papers published in the first half of 2025).
• Simplicity—Offering user-friendly tools and services in one place to enhance the efficiency of our editorial process.
• High-Quality Service—Supporting scholars and their work by providing a range of options such as journal publication at mdpi.com, early publication at preprints.org, and conferences on sciforum.net to make a positive impact on research.
• Flexibility—Adapting and developing new tools and services to meet the changing needs of the research community, driven by feedback from authors, editors, and readers.
  Rooted in Sustainability—Ensuring long-term preservation of published papers and supporting the future of science through partnerships, sponsorships and awards.

By adhering to these values and principles, MDPI remains committed to advancing scientific knowledge and promoting open science practices.