Franziska Fischer, Commercial Director at ZB MED, and Peter Roth, Head of Publishing at MDPI, celebrate the signing of the new national open access agreement between MDPI and the ZB MED Consortium.
New National Open Access Agreement Between MDPI and German Research Institutions - ZB MED-Negotiated Publishing Deal for 2025–2026
This new cooperation aims to make scientific gold open access publishing more affordable and less administratively burdensome for researchers in Germany. The agreement includes substantial discounts on article processing charges (APCs) for corresponding authors from participating institutions. It offers flexible payment options, including centralized invoicing or individual payment of fees by researchers or their institutions. Additionally, the agreement features a flat-fee model that enables institutions to precisely plan expenses and optimize their library budgets.
„MDPI can look back on over a decade of successful partnerships with German research institutions,“ says Peter Roth, MDPI Head of Publishing. “The new agreement marks another milestone in the long-standing co-operation between MDPI and the German scientific community. It emphasizes our commitment to developing up-to-date and inventive solutions for the diverse needs of scientific institutions to promote open research for the benefit of researchers.“
Petra Labriga, Head of Strategic License Management at ZB MED, highlighted the agreement's significance: “As one of the world's leading Gold OA publishers, MDPI plays a central role in the German publishing landscape. We are particularly pleased that we were able to achieve considerable potential cost savings for scientific institutions and their authors at a national level through our negotiations.“
The partnership reflects a common goal of advancing the idea of Open Access and supporting researchers in making their scientific excellence internationally visible.
“We would like to thank the ZB MED consortium team for their excellent collaboration,“ added Adrian Stefan Zamfir, MDPI Institutional Partnership Manager for the DACH region. “We are delighted that this agreement will give even more researchers in Germany access to our tried-and-tested and reliable publication platform.“
Further information:
Conditions of the agreement and participation options (in German)
Catalogue of questions on details of the agreement (in German)
Contact
ZB MED: Consortium Team Web
MDPI: Adrian Stefan Zamfir Web
