Abstract <p>Choosing the most suitable material for experimental studies is one of the most critical steps in the research process. Typically, this selection is based on the researchers’ experience or findings from previous studies. However, systematically prioritizing the appropriate materials for a specific application could lead to optimal results in experiments. In this paper, we present a multi-criteria prioritization of tissue-mimicking materials for advanced ultrasound imaging experiments. A decision matrix with target-based criteria and interval data has been formed to rank the nine most suitable materials for the application based on nine target-based selection criteria. Criteria weights are calculated using the best-worst method (BWM), the Interval-Entropy (I-Entropy) method, and the correlation of criteria weights method (CCWM). The existing Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is unsuitable for multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problems in biomedical applications where target-based criteria and interval data are involved. Therefore, to use the TOPSIS method for such problems, the method has been modified and named the Interval data and Target criteria based TOPSIS (IT-TOPSIS) method. The modified IT-TOPSIS method has been validated using two test cases in the literature that use Interval TOPSIS (I-TOPSIS) and Extended-TOPSIS methods. Further, this IT-TOPSIS method and an extended VlseKriterijuska Optimizacija I Komoromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method are used to rank the materials. The robustness of the findings has been verified by computing the ranks for different weights to decision criteria. The study found that polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is the best-suited soft tissue-mimicking material for advanced ultrasound imaging experiments like ultrasound elastography, followed by gelatine and polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA).</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>