Should You Publish in an MDPI or Frontiers Journal? An Honest Assessment

Few questions in academic publishing produce more heat than "Is MDPI predatory?" or "Are Frontiers journals respected?" The honest answer is that both publishers operate real peer review, both are indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, and both have legitimate criticisms that apply unevenly across their hundreds of titles. Treating either publisher as a single entity is the mistake.

This is an assessment of the system, not a defence or an attack. The decision that matters is about an individual journal and an individual paper.

What MDPI and Frontiers actually are

MDPI is a Swiss publisher founded in 1996 that became a major open access publisher in the 2010s. It publishes hundreds of journals, many with rapid review timelines, and charges an APC. Frontiers is a Swiss publisher founded in 2007 with a collaborative review model in which reviewers can be named and interact with authors.

Both are for-profit open access publishers. Both appear in Scopus and Web of Science, though not every title appears in both, and titles can be discontinued. Both charge APCs that vary widely by journal.

The legitimate criticisms

• Volume and speed. Very high publication volumes and short review times raise the question of whether review is thorough at every title.
• Special issues. Some special issues have been edited by guest editors with weak oversight, and a few have been discontinued or retracted in bulk.
• APC-first incentives. When revenue depends on accepted articles, editors face pressure that subscription journals do not have to the same degree.
• Variable quality. A flagship MDPI or Frontiers title and a newly launched title are not the same product. The brand tells you less than the individual journal's history.

The legitimate defences

• Indexing is a real filter. Titles in Scopus or Web of Science have passed an evaluation, and delisting is possible and has happened.
• Transparency of fees and timelines. APCs and review timelines are published, which is more than many subscription journals offer.
• Fast, accessible science. For many authors, fast publication in an indexed journal is a genuine benefit, especially for time-sensitive or negative results.
• Open access mission. The articles are free to read, which matters for readers without institutional access.

When these publishers are a good fit

• The specific title is indexed in the database your institution recognises.
• The journal has a visible editorial board and a scope that matches your paper.
• The APC is covered by your grant, institution or a waiver.
• The speed matters and the review process, on inspection of recent papers, looks substantive.
• The paper is solid but not a fit for a selective society journal, and the alternative is a long delay or no publication.

When to avoid them

• The title is not in Scopus or Web of Science, or its indexing status is unclear.
• The special issue has a guest editor with no verifiable expertise and no visible editorial oversight.
• The APC is beyond your budget and no waiver is available, when a subscription journal would publish at no cost.
• Your promotion or funding committee has an explicit policy against the publisher. In that case the discussion is over regardless of the journal's quality.
• The reviews are implausibly fast for the claims, or the journal promises acceptance before review.

How to judge one title

Check four things: current indexing in Scopus Sources or the Web of Science Master Journal List; the editorial board's standing in your field; the quality of recent articles and whether they were reviewed (look at the review timelines and acknowledgment wording); and the APC and waiver terms. Then decide about that journal.

Our journal finder lets you compare the title against alternatives by quartile, APC and first-decision time. The predatory journal guide covers the warning signs that apply to any publisher, and the Q1-Q4 guide explains what the quartile actually tells you.

The bottom line

"Is MDPI predatory?" is the wrong question. "Is this specific journal indexed, reviewed, affordable and a scope fit for this paper?" is the question that has an answer. For some papers and some titles, the answer is yes. For others, it is no. Publishers are portfolios, not verdicts.