The overall mission of Mountain Research and Development is to foster sustainable development in mountains by supporting peer-reviewed interdisciplinary, disciplinary, and transdisciplinary 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. Papers are peer-reviewed and offer internationally and nationally relevant research on key topics relating to mountains, mountain people, and sustainable development in mountains; book reviews are written by acknowledged experts, and institutional members of the International Mountain Society (IMS) present information about their mountain initiatives and priorities.MRD provides open access to all of its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public, especially to developing countries, supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Open access leads to increased readership beyond the international mountain community, thus increasing the benefit of experience in sustainable mountain development presented in MRD. Open access also results in increased recognition and citation of authors' work.

山地研究與開發的總體任務是通過支持同行評審的跨學科、學科和跨學科的山地研究，發展科學能力，利用發展經驗，促進政策對話，加強山地社區內的網絡，促進山區的可持續發展。山地研究與開發(MRD)致力于山地及其周邊低地——在全球具有特殊重要性的生態區，在這些生態區，社區往往被邊緣化。MRD旨在展示世界山區系統最新研究和開發方法的最佳成果。論文經過同行評審，并在國際和國內提供有關山區、山區人民和山區可持續發展的關鍵主題的相關研究;書評由公認的專家撰寫，國際山地協會(IMS)的機構成員提供有關其山地倡議和優先事項的信息。MRD提供了對其所有內容的開放訪問，其原則是讓公眾免費獲得研究成果，特別是發展中國家，支持更廣泛的全球知識交流。開放獲取將增加國際山地社區之外的讀者數量，從而增加MRD中提出的可持續山地發展經驗的益處。開放獲取還能提高對作者作品的認可和引用。