The overall mission of Mountain Research and Development (MRD) is to foster sustainable development in mountains by supporting peer-reviewed interdisciplinary and disciplinary research on mountains, developing scientific capacity, capitalizing on development experiences, promoting policy dialogue, and strengthening networks within the mountain community.Mountain Research and Development (MRD) is devoted to mountains and their surrounding lowlands —ecoregions of particular global importance, in which communities are often marginalized. MRD seeks to present the best in recent research on, and development approaches in, the world's mountain systems.All articles are peer-reviewed and offer internationally and nationally relevant research on key topics for mountains, mountain people, and sustainable development in mountains.MRD has 2 sections for peer-reviewed articles. Papers may either address a scientific community interested in mountains, sustainable mountain development, development-oriented research, and interdisciplinary interaction; or they may address a multi-disciplinary community of development-oriented researchers, policy-makers, decision-makers, project planners, and people in educational institutions. Disciplinary or sectoral papers are welcome provided they address an audience broader than that dealing with the specific research field presented. Book reviews presented in MRD are written by acknowledged experts; in the Platform section, institutional members of the International Mountain Society (IMS) convey information about their mountain initiatives and priorities.MRD provides open access to all of its more recent contents on the principle that making research freely available to the public, especially in developing countries, supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Open access leads to increased readership beyond the international mountain research and development community, thus increasing the benefits of knowledge on, and experience in, sustainable mountain development presented in MRD. Open access also results in increased recognition and citation of authors’ work. In order to help defray the costs of publication and the loss of income from subscriptions, authors are requested to pay a publication fee.Authors agree that their work will be published in MRD subject to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. Copyright to articles is retained by the authors.The contents of MRD published before 2000 (vols 1-19) are available in electronic format through JSTOR. Individuals may purchase single articles from MRD through JSTOR, or access them for free by visiting one of JSTOR’s 6000+ participating institutions worldwide. In addition, JSTOR waives its standard participation fees for any not-for-profit institution in a country on the continent of Africa. Institutions in 39 countries on the continent of Africa provide open access to the entire JSTOR archive, including MRD.