MDPI Washington Editors Salon 2025

On 30 May 2025, we hosted the MDPI Washington Editors Salon, bringing together thirty editors, researchers, and academics to facilitate discussions regarding the future and challenges of academic research and open access publishing. This event was held at the Washington Hilton, located on Connecticut Avenue in the heart of Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. It provided a venue for discussion, academic exchange, and networking, contributing to MDPI’s continuous commitment to the scientific community and its growth in the North American market.

Our first presentation introduced the audience to MDPI, providing greater insight into our operations within the North American market. This was followed by a talk on the benefits of our IOAP program and Institutional Partnerships. Next on the program was our awards ceremony, in which we celebrated the contributions of a few selected attendees and heard their acceptance speeches. From here, we proceeded with our final presentation, which discussed the applications and challenges of AI in the publishing industry. After the conclusion of the presentations, we opened the floor to a round-table discussion and panel during which a lively exchange ensued among attendees and panelists about the potential, challenges and guidelines in the usage of AI in scientific publishing, how MDPI manages the impartial and rigorous peer-review process, how MDPI tackles the challenges in scientific publishing, institutional partnership to support universities and institutions to publish in the open access format, Scientific Publishing Exchanges, and more. The MDPI 2025 Washington Salon was a successful collaboration between staff and scholars discussing the future of academic publishing. We are thankful to all attendees for their part in making this event possible and for contributing to its success.