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ANNUAL REPORT 2015 MDPI Academic Open Access Publishing Since 1996 MDPI ANNUAL REPORT 2015 2 CONTENTS 3 20 YEARS OF OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING 12 BOOK PUBLISHING IN 2015 12 About 5 2015 KEY FIGURES 12 Benefits of Publishing Open Access Books 5 Papers Published in MDPI Journals by with MDPI Region 12 Top 5 Books 5 Geographical Distribution of Authors and Reviewers 13 INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIPS 5 Publication by Subject Area AND PARTNERSHIPS 5 Growth Based on Published Articles 13 Institutional Members 6 Summary of Key Performance Indicators 13 Partnerships 6 Readership 13 Learned Societies and Professional 6 Quality of Service Associations 6 Papers Published in Flagship Journals 14 OUTLOOK FOR 2016 7 2015 FINANCIAL INFORMATION 14 MDPI's 20th Anniversary 7 Information on Article Processing Charges 14 Company Expansion 7 Sources of Income 14 Sustainability Award 8 JOURNAL IMPACT FACTOR 15 CONFERENCES 2016/2017 DEVELOPMENT 15 Viruses 2016 - At the Forefront of 8 Impact Factors Virus – Host Interactions 9 Journal Rankings by Quartile in Science 15 World Sustainability Forum ( WSF ) in 2017 Citation Index Expanded ( SCIE ) 16 STAY CONNECTED 10 NEW JOURNALS LAUNCHED IN 2015 16 About MDPI 11 SCIFORUM CONFERENCES IN 2015 11 International Symposium on Sensor Science ( I3S ) 11 World Sustainability Forum ( WSF ) MDPI ANNUAL REPORT 2015 3 20 YEARS OF OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING When MDPI published its first paper in Molecules back • Polymers is the number one open access journal in in March 1996, not even the company founder, Dr. Shu- the Polymer Science subject category. Kun Lin, could have foreseen the lasting impression • Remote Sensing ranked number one open access open access publishing would have. The term “open journal and 5th among all journals in the Remote access” was not even used, but this is what Molecules, Sensing subject category. the first of MDPI's 150 open access journals, offered. • Sensors ranked number one open access journal By taking advantage of the progress in technology and in the subject categories Chemistry Analytical, the development of the Internet, it made academic Electrochemistry and Instruments & Instrumentation. publishing easier and freely accessible to scholars and • Forests is the number one open access journal in the lay people across the world. For a full history of MDPI Forestry subject category. please visit ▶ www.mdpi.com. • Nutrients is number two open access journal in the Nutrition and Dietetics subject category. Since then, MDPI has developed as a publisher across • Marine Drugs is number two open access journal in all scientific disciplines, solely publishing open access the Chemistry, Medicinal subject category. journals using a CC-BY license. The majority of MDPI journals provided authors a In 2015, MDPI made strong progress: we continued first decision after submission in under 32 days. Once the positive trend in yearly growth, achieving a 40 % accepted, articles were published online in 7 – 10 days. increase in the number of publications, a 30 % increase in revenue, and a 54 % increase in the number of MDPI became a member of ORCID in November 2015 submissions. We increased the amount of publications and we now use the unique digital identifier, which by 40 % while our rejection rate increased from 52 % to enables researchers to distinguish themselves from 54 %. others, as well as supporting automated linkages A total of 82 % of MDPI content was indexed in Scopus between a researcher and their professional activities. and 84 % of content published in 2015 will be available MDPI also started a collaboration with Publons in via Web of Science, with 28 journals in the Science 2015, to give credits to reviewers for their valuable Citation Index Expanded ( SCIE ) and 34 journals recently contributions. included in the Emerging Sources Citation Index ( ESCI ). MDPI articles are also indexed in numerous other In 2015, we expanded our portfolio by launching 13 specialized indexing databases. Six new journals new journals on a broad range of topics, bringing our received an impact factor in 2015 and four were the total number of journals to 150. number one open access journal in their respective categories in SCIE: MDPI's mission is to foster scientific exchange in its MDPI ANNUAL REPORT 2015 4 various forms, either through scholarly publications in Europe ( Barcelona, Spain ) to expand our editorial or scholarly communication within conferences and conference teams. Our main objective is to further and discussion groups. In 2015, MDPI organized two increase the quality of our journals and improve the international physical conferences in Basel on sensor service we offer to our authors, reviewers, editors and science and sustainability respectively, and used its readers, thus consolidating our position as a preferred Sciforum ( ▶ www.sciforum.net ) platform to host two publisher. We will also explore new products to meet external physical conferences and seven electronic the modern scholar's needs. conferences. We are planning to host twice as many conferences on Sciforum in 2016. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of all who have contributed to the MDPI project over the last Our institutional membership program proved very 20 years: editors, editorial board members, reviewers, popular last year, with the number of members almost authors, readers, librarians, sponsors and friends. doubling since 2014. At the end of 2015 we had 90 Science is a collaborative effort and we hope we can member institutes and the number continues to grow. count on your on-going support. In 2016, MDPI aims to keep increasing its outreach and Delia Mihaila influence among scholars. We will open another office Chief Executive Officer, MDPI MDPI ANNUAL REPORT 2015 5 2015 KEY FIGURES Papers Published in MDPI Journals by Region Growth Based on Published Articles Asia 17,300 ( excl. China ) 13 % 40% North America Europe 19 % 37 % 12,390 China 34% 17 % 9,237 31% Africa & 50% Middle East 7,048 14% 6 % 4,687 76% South America 4,109 4 % Australia & 2,336 107% New Zealand 1,131 4 % 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Geographical Distribution of Authors and Reviewers Region Author Region Reviewer Distribution Distribution Europe 37 % Europe 46 % North America 19 % North America 32 % China 17 % Asia ( excl. China ) 9 % Asia ( excl. China ) 13 % China 6 % Africa & Middle East 6 % Australia & New Zealand 5 % Australia & New Zealand 4 % Africa & Middle East 1 % South America 4 % South America 1 % Publication by Subject Area Chemistry & Environmental & 26 % 9 % Materials Science Earth Sciences Medicine & Public Health & 19 % 5 % Pharmacology Healthcare Biology & Computer Science & 14 % 2 % Life Sciences Mathematics Business & Physical Sciences 11 % 2 % Economics Social Sciences, Engineering 10 % 2 % Arts & Humanities MDPI ANNUAL REPORT 2015 6 Summary of Key Performance Indicators • 40 % growth in publications compared to 2014 • Median article processing time decreased from 75 to 69 days • 84 % of content published in 2015 is indexed by Web of Science • Submissions increased by 54 % compared to 2014 • Average number of downloads and page views per month reached 4.2 million • Rejection rate increased from 52 % to 54 % • First decision provided to authors in under 32 days, acceptance to publication time was 7 – 10 days Readership 17,339 4,200,000 Articles published Average monthly page views in 2015 and article downloads Quality of Service Authors' Satisfaction with the Overall Reviewers' Rating of the Overall Publication Process Review Process 84% very satisfied 32% excellent 14% satisfied 50% very good 2% reasonably satisfied 14% reasonably good 0% unsatisfied 4% can be improved Source: MDPI authors' and reviewers survey, Q1-Q4, 2015. Papers Published in Flagship Journals IJMS 1,743 ▲ + 21.5 % Marine Drugs 384 ▲ + 10.66 % Sensors 1,666 ▲ + 30.3 % Viruses 367 ▲ + 35 % Molecules 1,385 ▲ + 6.3 % Water 357 ▲ + 69.19 % IJERPH 1,090 ▲ + 39.92 % Toxins 345 ▲ + 71.64 % Sustainability 861 ▲ + 66.86 % Forests 250 ▲ + 44.51 % Remote Sensing 788 ▲ + 34.93 % Polymers 154 ▼ - 3.14 % Energies 744 ▲ + 71.03 % Applied Sciences 132 ▲ +266.6 7 % Nutrients 620 ▲ + 71.27 % Religions 94 ▲ + 40.3 % Materials 593 ▲ + 28.35 % Entropy 453 ▲ + 38.11 % % Growth compared to number of papers published in 2014. MDPI ANNUAL REPORT 2015 7 2015 FINANCIAL INFORMATION Information on Article Processing Charges • For 70 journals, Article Processing Charges ( APC ) in 2015 ranged from 300 – 1800 CHF • 75 journals published