MDPI Journals Achieve Record Growth in 2025 Impact Factors and CiteScores with Expanded Global Partnerships
On June 17, 2026, Clarivate released the 2025 Journal Citation Reports, revealing that 330 MDPI journals now carry a Journal Impact Factor. Of these, 29 earned their first JIF and 254 recorded increases compared with the prior year. Just weeks earlier, Scopus published its 2025 CiteScore metrics, showing 363 MDPI journals receiving scores, with 234 of 322 previously ranked titles improving and 314 placed in the top half of their subject categories.
These figures arrive alongside continued expansion of MDPI’s Institutional Open Access Program, which surpassed 1,000 partner institutions across 59 countries in early 2026. The combination of stronger citation metrics and deeper institutional ties underscores the publisher’s position in open-access scholarly communication.
Defining Key Citation Metrics for Researchers
The Journal Impact Factor, calculated by Clarivate from Web of Science data, represents the average number of citations received in a given year by articles published in a journal during the previous two years. It offers one standardized lens on how frequently work in a particular outlet is referenced by peers. CiteScore, produced by Elsevier’s Scopus database, uses a four-year citation window and includes a broader set of document types, providing a complementary long-term view of influence.
Both metrics are journal-level indicators rather than article-level measures. Institutions and funders increasingly encourage evaluation of individual papers through usage data, altmetrics, and qualitative review alongside these numbers. MDPI publishes both indicators on journal pages to give authors and readers multiple perspectives.
2025 Journal Impact Factor Results in Detail
Of the 330 MDPI journals with a 2025 JIF, 231 sit in the first or second quartile of their categories, representing roughly 71 percent of ranked titles. Seventy-eight journals achieved Q1 status, and 33 posted a JIF of 5.0 or higher. Specific examples include Machine Learning and Knowledge Extraction reaching 8.4 and Antioxidants climbing to 8.2.
Twenty-nine journals entered the JIF list for the first time, reflecting the maturation of titles that previously appeared in the Emerging Sources Citation Index. Total citations across MDPI journals in Web of Science reached 25.2 million. More than 4.6 million authors have published with the company to date.
These outcomes span disciplines including materials science, public health, environmental studies, and mathematics, demonstrating breadth rather than concentration in a single field.
CiteScore Performance Across the Portfolio
Scopus assigned 2025 CiteScores to 363 MDPI journals. Forty-one titles received a score for the first time. Among the 322 journals that held a prior score, 234 improved, and quartile gains outnumbered declines, with 52 titles moving up at least one quartile. No previously ranked journals dropped out of indexing.
Eighty-six percent of the portfolio ranks in Q1 or Q2 in at least one subject category, while 42 journals place in the top 10 percent of their fields. Two titles, Foods and Life, reached the 99th percentile in their respective categories.
The four-year window used by CiteScore captures sustained citation patterns that the two-year JIF window may miss, offering researchers an additional data point when selecting outlets.
Partnership Expansion Supporting Wider Access
MDPI renewed every major consortium agreement in 2025 and added new deals in North America plus an expanded Bibsam agreement in Sweden. These steps brought more than 150 new institutions into the network. The Institutional Open Access Program now includes over 1,000 partners spanning 59 countries on six continents.
Separately, MDPI maintains active collaborations with 214 learned societies. Thirty-two new society agreements were signed during 2025, covering both affiliation and full publishing arrangements. Recent examples include a partnership with the American Podiatric Medical Association. Several society journals published by MDPI achieved indexing milestones or first Impact Factors in the same period.
IOAP participants receive APC discounts for affiliated authors, institutional dashboards, and usage reporting. Flat-fee and discount models provide flexibility for libraries of different sizes and publication volumes.
Implications for Researchers, Institutions, and Career Development
Stronger journal-level metrics can influence visibility of published work, which in turn affects how research is discovered by peers, cited in grant applications, and considered during hiring or promotion reviews. For early-career researchers and PhD candidates, publishing in indexed open-access outlets with rising metrics offers one route to broader dissemination without paywalls.
University administrators and librarians use these data when evaluating subscription versus open-access strategies and when advising faculty on compliant publishing routes under funder mandates. The growth in IOAP participation simplifies compliance with Plan S and national open-access policies for many institutions.
Job seekers in academia may note that hiring committees sometimes reference journal metrics as one signal among many. Demonstrating consistent publication in well-regarded outlets, combined with article-level impact evidence, remains a common expectation across disciplines.
Responsible Interpretation of Citation Data
Clarivate, Scopus, and signatories of the Declaration on Research Assessment advise against using any single journal metric in isolation for individual evaluations. MDPI echoes this stance by also reporting article-level usage statistics and encouraging context-aware assessment.
Variations in citation practices across fields mean that a JIF of 4.0 carries different weight in mathematics than in biomedicine. Quartile rankings within subject categories provide a more field-normalized comparison. The simultaneous release of multiple indicators helps users avoid over-reliance on any one number.
Broader Trends in Open-Access Publishing
The 2025 results align with sector-wide shifts toward open access. Greater indexing of open-access titles in major databases has increased the visibility of work published without reader-side fees. Consortium agreements and institutional programs reduce financial barriers for authors while giving libraries predictable budgeting tools.
MDPI’s scale—hundreds of journals across hundreds of subject categories—illustrates one model of how open-access publishing can operate at volume while maintaining peer-review standards. Continued growth in society partnerships suggests traditional scholarly organizations are exploring open-access routes through established publishers.
Photo by Aleksandar Andreev on Unsplash
Looking Ahead: Metrics, Partnerships, and Research Communication
Future Journal Citation Reports and CiteScore releases will track whether the upward trajectories observed in 2025 continue. New journals entering indexing pipelines will add to the count of first-time metrics. Expanded IOAP participation is expected to support further geographic and disciplinary coverage.
Researchers can monitor individual journal statistics pages on the MDPI site for the latest JIF, CiteScore, and indexing details. Institutions considering IOAP participation can contact the program team for tailored modeling of APC discounts or flat-fee options.
The combination of citation growth and partnership depth positions MDPI journals as active participants in the evolving landscape of scholarly communication, where open access, discoverability, and responsible metric use intersect.
