We are pleased to announce the winners of the Axioms 2023 Best Paper Award. All papers published from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021 in Axioms (ISSN: 2075-1680) were considered for the award. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, two winners were selected.

Winning Articles:

• “Optimal Control Analysis of Cholera Dynamics in the Presence of Asymptotic Transmission”
  by Emmanuel A. Bakare and Sarka Hoskova-Mayerova
  Axioms 2021, 10(2), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10020060
• “Quadratic Lyapunov Functions for Stability of the Generalized Proportional Fractional Differential Equations with Applications to Neural Networks”
  by Ricardo Almeida, Ravi P. Agarwal, Snezhana Hristova and Donal O’Regan
  Axioms 2021, 10(4), 322; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10040322

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the Axioms 2023 Best Paper Award. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for your continued support of Axioms.

For more information about the awards presented by Axioms, please visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/axioms/awards.

1. “Brain Tumor Classification Using Dense Efficient-Net”
   by Dillip Ranjan Nayak, Neelamadhab Padhy, Pradeep Kumar Mallick, Mikhail Zymbler and Sachin Kumar
   Axioms 2022, 11(1), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11010034
   Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/1/34

2. “Investigation into the Explicit Solutions of the Integrable (2+1)—Dimensional Maccari System via the Variational Approach”
   by Kang-Jia Wang and Jing Si
   Axioms 2022, 11(5), 234; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11050234
   Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/5/234

3. “Variational Principle and Diverse Wave Structures of the Modified Benjamin-Bona-Mahony Equation Arising in the Optical Illusions Field”
   by Kang-Jia Wang
   Axioms 2022, 11(9), 445; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11090445
   Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/9/445

4. “Statistical Convergence via q-Calculus and a Korovkin’s Type Approximation Theorem”
   by Mohammad Ayman Mursaleen and Stefano Serra-Capizzano
   Axioms 2022, 11(2), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11020070
   Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/2/70

5. “Improved Chen’s Inequalities for Submanifolds of Generalized Sasakian-Space-Forms”
   by Yanlin Li, Mohan Khatri, Jay Prakash Singh and Sudhakar K. Chaubey
   Axioms 2022, 11(7), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11070324
   Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/7/324

6. “A Study of Clairaut Semi-Invariant Riemannian Maps from Cosymplectic Manifolds”
   by Yanlin Li, Rajendra Prasad, Abdul Haseeb, Sushil Kumar and Sumeet Kumar
   Axioms 2022, 11(10), 503; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11100503
   Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/10/503

7. “Approximation Properties of the Generalized Abel-Poisson Integrals on the Weyl-Nagy Classes”
   by Inna Kal’chuk and Yurii Kharkevych
   Axioms 2022, 11(4), 161; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11040161
   Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/4/161

8. “Pattern Formation Induced by Fuzzy Fractional-Order Model of COVID-19”
   by Abeer S. Alnahdi, Ramsha Shafqat, Azmat Ullah Khan Niazi and Mdi Begum Jeelani
   Axioms 2022, 11(7), 313; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11070313
   Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/7/313

9. “A Two-Stage Multi-Criteria Supplier Selection Model for Sustainable Automotive Supply Chain under Uncertainty”
   by Thanh-Tuan Dang, Ngoc-Ai-Thy Nguyen, Van-Thanh-Tien Nguyen and Le-Thanh-Hieu Dang
   Axioms 2022, 11(5), 228; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11050228
   Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/5/228

10. “Interval Fejér-Type Inequalities for Left and Right-λ-Preinvex Functions in Interval-Valued Settings”
    by Tareq Saeed, Muhammad Bilal Khan, Savin Treanțǎ, Hamed H. Alsulami and Mohammed Sh. Alhodaly
    Axioms 2022, 11(8), 368; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms11080368
    Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/11/8/368

MDPI will be attending the 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT 2023) in Taipei, Taiwan, which will take place from 25 to 30 June 2023.

ISIT is the premier international conference series dedicated to the advancement of information theory and related areas. It brings together an international community of researchers and practitioners each year to present and discuss new research results and perspectives on future developments relevant to all areas of information theory, including big data analytics, source and channel coding, communication theory and systems, cryptography and security, detection and estimation, emerging applications, networks, network coding, signal processing, and statistical/machine learning.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Entropy;
• Mathematics;
• Information;
• Axioms;
• Algorithms;
• Symmetry;
• Data;
• JCP;
• Cryptography.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following link: https://isit2023.org/.

Mathematics (ISSN: 2227-7390) be attending the 13th AIMS Conference on Dynamical Systems, Differential Equations and Applications, which will occur from May 31 to June 4 2023 at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA. The goals of the meeting include a cross-fertilization of ideas from different application areas and increased communication between the mathematicians who develop dynamical systems techniques and the applied scientists who use them.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Mathematics;
• Axioms;
• Symmetry;
• Fractal Fract;
• Dynamics;
• AppliedMath;
• Computation;
• Systems.

Mathematics plays an indispensable role in shaping the world we inhabit, propelling scientific breakthroughs and technological advancements, and fostering social and economic progress. This year's theme, "Mathematics for Everyone", underscores the universal and all-encompassing nature of mathematics, and its potential to positively impact individuals from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds.

We are confident that the prestigious Mathematics subject journals in MDPI, including AppliedMath, Axioms, Computation, Fractal and Fractional, Games, MCA, Stats and Symmetry, will offer ideal communication platforms to enhance scientific collaboration in line with the International Day of Mathematics theme. Let us harness the full potential of these platforms to propel Mathematics to new heights of development and innovation.

MDPI International Day of Mathematics Webinar 2023 14 Mar 2023, 10:00 (CET) Session 1: 10:00 am–12:00 pm CET Session 2: 14:30 pm–16:30 pm CET Free to register for the two Sessions. Recordings will be available on Sciforum shortly afterwards.

As a leading open access publisher, MDPI provides scholars with a high-quality and rich academic exchange platform by continuously expanding into new and exciting research areas.

In December 2022, MDPI launched five new journals, covering multiple subjects such as life sciences, biology, medicine and pharmacology, social sciences and humanities. These new journals are being edited by established scholars across the world.

If you are interested in creating more open access journals with us to publish cutting-edge research, please send your journal proposal application to newjournal-committee@mdpi.com.

MDPI is pleased to announce that we now display the co-authors’ email addresses in addition to the corresponding author’s email address on the webpage of published papers, protected by Captcha. For more information about this change, please visit the journal’s instructions for authors page. 

We believe this change will facilitate academic discussions and advance our cause of open science and research. The corresponding authors are responsible for communicating with their co-authors and indicating in our system (https://susy.mdpi.com/) if co-authors would prefer for their email addresses not to be displayed.

On 9 February 2023, Clarivate, a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics, added the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science platform, streamlining the research process by allowing researchers to locate and link to preprints alongside other trusted content in the database.

The Preprint Citation Index will act as a bridge to connect cutting-edge preprints with peer-reviewed journal articles published within the Web of Science Core Collection. Alerts can be easily set to monitor new research across several repositories and authors will also be able to include preprints on their Web of Science Research Profile to more accurately display their various research outputs.

As of its launch, the Preprint Citation Index will provide nearly two million preprints from various repositories, including MDPI’s own Preprints.org.

MDPI's Preprints Platform – Preprints.org

To advance Open Science and the fast dissemination of research, MDPI offers researchers a free multidisciplinary preprint platform. Preprints.org accepts submissions from all research areas and offers authors high visibility, permanent archiving, article-level Metrics and immediately citable content by assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all preprints.

During submission to any MDPI journal, authors have the option to share their research as a preprint. After an initial screening, the manuscript is available online in 48 hours or less. Once online, preprints can be downloaded, shared, commented on, and cited, providing authors maximum visibility.

We invite you to join the ranks of the over 100k researchers using Preprints.org and share your research.

For more information, please visit Preprints.org.

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative—the MDPI Special Issue Mentor Program.

This program will enable early career researchers (who must hold a Ph.D. in a related field) to experience editing a Special Issue in MDPI journals, under the mentorship of our experienced Editorial Board Members or other experienced scientists. The mentor program will provide an excellent opportunity for early career scientists to gain editorial experience, and to cultivate their ability to edit scientific research.

The mentee’s responsibilities include:

• Proposing a Special Issue title and assisting the mentor in preparing a summary (around 200–400 words) and 3–10 keywords describing the background, importance, and goal of the Issue;
• Writing a brief promotion plan for the Special Issue;
• Preparing a list of scholars who may be interested in the Issue and personally e-mailing invitations on behalf of Guest Editors;
• Writing an editorial for the online Special Issue together with the mentor.

The mentor’s responsibilities include:

• Conducting a final check before the Special Issue is published online;
• Performing editorial control of the Special Issue and quality control of the publications, both of which must be carried out in a timely manner;
• Providing suggestions to younger scholars if they have any doubts or concerns regarding submissions;
• Organizing video calls with young scholars and the Editorial Office regularly to discuss problems and improvement suggestions for the Special Issue;
• Making and submitting decisions regarding submissions with the assistance of mentees.

Certificates and awards:
After the Special Issue closes, the Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all the mentors and early career researchers.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Editorial Office of a journal you choose, and we will discuss the process (i.e., mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail. The full list of MDPI journals is as follows: https://www.mdpi.com/about/journals.

In addition to the new Special Issue Mentor Program, we will continue to welcome all Special Issue proposals focusing on hot research topics.

MDPI has just become the first open access (OA) publisher to reach the milestone of one million articles published. That is one million articles freely available to all, to circulate and build upon! We are proud to share this special moment with the global scientific community.

This landmark has been reached thanks to the immeasurable support of more than 600,000 expert reviewers, 66,000 editorial board members and 6700 hard-working colleagues across MDPI’s global offices.

Within more than 25 years of publishing, our journals received 2.1 million manuscripts and generated 4.6 million peer review reports to get to one million papers published.

Reaching the milestone of one million articles published reinforces our mission to remove any existing barriers and to make scientific research accessible to all. Since its inception, MDPI’s goal has been to create reliable processes to make science open. This is a path towards facilitating the dissemination of novel insights in scientific communities.

Regular feedback from authors and reviewers shows that our service is greatly appreciated and needed. At the same time, the feedback helps us identify areas for further improvement.

As it stands, a significant share of published research findings remain closed access. More than half of the content published with the most well-known legacy publishers stays behind a paywall, and that is not including articles published in hybrid OA journals, or made available months or years after publication.

A new policy announced by the US administration in August 2022 requires that, as of January 2026, all US federally funded research be made freely and immediately available after publication. While the new policy does not mandate articles be published under an open access license, it is aligned with the open access movement in removing all barriers to research. Similarly, some of the most advanced research institutions in the world intend to have all funded research articles published in open access by 2025.

MDPI is proud to be the leading agent of the transition to open access.

"Thanks a Million" to all the contributors!

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new Section “Hilbert’s Sixth Problem” in Axioms (ISSN: 2075-1680). 

The Hilbert’s Sixth Problem, “Mathematical Treatment of the Axioms of Physics”, concerns the axiomatization of those parts of physics which are ready for a rigorous mathematical approach. Our aim is to provide a virtual forum and database for experts, publishing papers on Hilbert’s Sixth Problem that are dedicated to the most up-to-date issues and mainstream topics. Articles are expected to have original content and demonstrate clear scientific novelty. 

This Section covers all areas of Hilbert’s Sixth Problem, including but not limited to the following:

• Axiomatization of Classical Probability and the New (Quantum) Probability: quantum mechanics; quantum theory; axiomatic approach to quantum probability; quantum computing; quantum cryptography; axiomatic treatment of probability with limit theorems for the foundation of statistical physics; the axiomatic foundation of probability; measure theory; algorithmic probability; 
• Physical Axioms: analytic machinery (formalism); physical interpretation; Boltzmann equations; fluid equations; higher equations of hydrodynamics; Hilbert’s sixth problem in statistical mechanics and machine learning; the rigorous theory of limiting processes “which lead from the atomistic view to the laws of motion of continua”; 
• Axiomatic Approach to: mathematical logic; algebra; functional analysis; differential equations; geometry; probability theory and random processes; theory of algorithms and computational complexity; etc. 

For more detailed information, please visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/axioms/sections/hilberts_sixth_problem. 

We are currently recruiting Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for this Section. If you are an active researcher in this field and are passionate about publishing cutting-edge research, please contact us by email at axioms@mdpi.com. Alternatively, you may wish to submit your work directly via the following link: https://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload/?journal=axioms. 

Axioms Editorial Office

We are pleased to announce that the website of the MDPI Sustainability Foundation has been revamped! For the past couple of months, our UX UI team and front-end developers have been working hard to launch the website in time for the opening of the Sustainability Awards nominations.

The website is not the only thing that has had a remodeling. Indeed, the format of the Emerging Sustainability Leader Award (ESLA) has been updated. ESLA is now a competition open to individual researchers or start-ups founded by researchers under the age of 35. Nominee applications will go through 2 rounds of selection until the final 3 are decided. The finalists will then be invited to give pitch presentations during the Award Ceremony to win either first place (10,000 USD) or runner-up (2 x 5000 USD).

The World Sustainability Award, on the other hand, remains the same: a total prize money of 100,000 USD is up for grabs by senior individual researchers or groups of researchers from the international research community.

Nominations for both the World Sustainability Award and the Emerging Sustainability Leader award are now open! Check out our new website for more information on how to nominate.

Stanford University has recently published an update to the list of the top 2% most widely cited scientists. The time node of the statistical data of this list is from 1960 to 2022, and it is divided into two lists: “Lifetime Scientific Influence Ranking” and “2022 Annual Scientific Influence Ranking”. The “Lifetime Scientific Influence Ranking” counts the comprehensive influence of scientists during their careers, and the “2022 Annual Influence Ranking” focuses on highlighting the academic influence of scientists in the previous year. This ranking, considered the most prestigious worldwide, is based on the bibliometric information contained in the Scopus database and includes more than 200,000 researchers from the more than 10 million scientists considered to be active worldwide, with 22 scientific fields and 176 subfields taken into account.

We are pleased to share that 56 Editorial Board Members from MDPI’s journal Axioms (ISSN: 2075-1680) were featured in Stanford University’s list of World’s Top 2% Scientists in 2022.

The latest Stanford rankings reflect the significant influence and research excellence of the scientists, who are committed to furthering their knowledge for the benefit of the world.

We would like to congratulate our Editorial Board Members on their excellent achievement and thank them for their immense contribution to the scientific progression and development of Axioms.

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative—the Special Issue Mentor Program. 

This program intends to provide an opportunity for early career scientists to enhance their editing, networking, and organizational skills and to work closely with our journal to gain more editorial experience. Early career scientists who have novel ideas for new Axioms Special Issues will act as Guest Editors under the mentorship of an experienced scientist; this mentor could be a member of the Editorial Board of Axioms (ISSN: 2075-4442) or could be from other well-established research institutes or laboratories, etc.

The mentee’s responsibilities include the following:

• Providing a CV, including a list of publications;
• Proposing a Special Issue title and a short introduction;
• Writing a brief promotion plan for the Special Issue;
• Reviewing and making decisions for submissions under the mentorship of our Editorial Board Members. 

The mentor’s responsibilities include the following:

• Conducting a final check before the Special Issue is published online;
• Co-editing the Special Issue with the mentee and performing quality control of the publications in the Special Issue;
• Providing suggestions to the mentee if they have doubts or concerns regarding submissions.

Certificates and awards:

When a Special Issue is closed, the Axioms Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all the mentors and mentees involved. The mentees will be prioritized as candidates for Axioms Young Investigator Awards in future editions.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Axioms Editorial Office (axioms@mdpi.com), and we will discuss the process (mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail.

In addition to the new Special Issue Mentor Program, Axioms continues to welcome all Special Issue proposals based on hot research topics, as usual.

Axioms Editorial Office

We are currently recruiting Topical Advisory Panel Members for the journal Axioms (ISSN: 2075-1680). Your responsibility would be to regularly provide support to Guest Editors and Editorial Board Members. More information regarding this is available at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/editors#Supporting_Editor_Responsibilities. The aims and scope of the journal can be found on the following website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/axioms/about.

The benefits of becoming a Topical Advisory Panel Member include the following:

• The opportunity to publish one paper in Axioms per year at a discount, as well as potential discounts for additional papers you invite;
• A certificate of recognition of your position;
• Additional sponsorships for conferences organized by Topical Advisory Panel Members of Axioms;
• Travel grants for conferences that you attend or organize.

The main responsibilities of new members of the Topical Advisory Panel are as follows:

• Providing regular reviews of manuscripts;
• Setting up at least one Special Issue (SI) in partnership with a senior researcher within two years of your appointment, with the topic of the proposal being within the scope of Axioms;
• Providing a strategy plan for the SI, including assisting in preparing the Special Issue’s/topic’s title, aim and scope, summary, and keywords as well as soliciting papers for and promoting the SI;
• Promoting our journal at conferences, social media, and other relevant platforms.

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must fit the following criteria:

• Have expertise and experience in a field related to the journal;
• Have published at least six papers in the last five years as a first author or a corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute. 

Each year, members’ performances are evaluated, and outstanding members are promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief. Please contact the Editorial Office (axioms@mdpi.com) or click on the following link to submit your application: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/axioms/topical_advisory_panel.

Axioms Editorial Office

Peer Review Week began 19 September 2022 under the theme of “Research Integrity: Creating and Supporting Trust in Research”. Through various blog articles, podcast, and webinar, we discussed this crucial subject throughout the week, celebrating the essential role peer review plays in maintaining research quality.

To begin, we held a Webinar on the topic. Professor Peter W. Choate and Dr. Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi joined Dr. Ioana Craciun, one of MDPI’s scientific officers, for an in-depth discussion.

We invite you to view the event recording:

During the week, the MDPI Blog in a series articles highlighted how good Peer Review safeguards research integrity. The following topics were covered:

• Peer Review Week 2022
• Research Integrity
• What We’ve Learned About Peer Review Reports
• 4 Steps to the Perfect Peer Review Report
• How to Write the Perfect Peer Review Report: An Interview
• Inviting Great Peer Reviewers

In a new edition of Insight Faster, an MDPI podcast, we were delighted to talk to the co-chairs of the Peer Review Week committee, Jayashree Rajagopalan (Senior Manager of Global Community Engagement for CACTUS) and Danielle Padula (Head of Marketing and Community Development at Scholastica) to get their take on this year’s event and its related topics.

You can find the Podcast here.

We hope you enjoy the contents!

To develop different research areas and continue to attract high-quality papers, Axioms (ISSN 2075-1680) is recruiting Section Editors-in-Chief (more details can be found at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/axioms/sections).

At present, the following Sections have not yet found suitable scholars to lead them:

• “Algebra and Number Theory”;
• “Geometry and Topology”;
• “Logic”.

We are now recruiting Section Editors-in-Chief (SEiCs) for these Sections. If you are an active researcher in one of the aforementioned fields and are passionate about publishing cutting-edge research, please do not hesitate to contact us at axioms@mdpi.com. You can find more information on our homepage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/axioms.

The Section Editor-in-Chief has the following responsibilities:

• Making decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted based on the reports that we collect;
• Reviewing a small number of papers per year and managing the Section together with other journal editors;
• Promoting Axioms and increasing its visibility at related academic conferences.

Axioms is an international, peer-reviewed, and open access journal of mathematics, mathematical logic, and mathematical physics, published monthly online by MDPI. The European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology (EUSFLAT), the International Fuzzy Systems Association (IFSA), and the Union of Slovak Mathematicians and Physicists (JSMF) are affiliated with Axioms, and their members receive discounts on the article processing charge.

We believe that by combining our rigorous editorial policies with your expertise, we can build a high-quality journal. We thank you in advance for your interest and look forward to collaborating with you in the future.

Axioms Editorial Office

1. “Periodic Property and Instability of a Rotating Pendulum System”
by Ji-Huan He, Tarek S. Amer, Shimaa Elnaggar and Abdallah A. Galal
Axioms 2021; 10(3):191. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10030191
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/3/191

2. “Modeling Multi-Dimensional Public Opinion Process Based on Complex Network Dynamics Model in the Context of Derived Topics”
by Tinggui Chen, Xiaohua Yin, Jianjun Yang, Guodong Cong and Guoping Li
Axioms 2021; 10(4):270. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10040270
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/4/270

3. “Monitoring and Recognizing Enterprise Public Opinion from High-Risk Users Based on User Portrait and Random Forest Algorithm”
by Tinggui Chen, Xiaohua Yin, Lijuan Peng, Jingtao Rong, Jianjun Yang and Guodong Cong
Axioms 2021; 10(2):106. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10020106
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/2/106

4. “Some New Fractional Estimates of Inequalities for LR-p-Convex Interval-Valued Functions by Means of Pseudo Order Relation”
by Muhammad Bilal Khan, Pshtiwan Othman Mohammed, Muhammad Aslam Noor, Dumitru Baleanu and Juan Luis García Guirao
Axioms 2021; 10(3):175. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10030175
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/3/175

5. “Strong Interacting Internal Waves in Rotating Ocean: Novel Fractional Approach”
by Pundikala Veeresha, Haci Mehmet Baskonus and Wei Gao
Axioms 2021; 10(2):123. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10020123
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/2/123

6. “Modeling and Forecasting of COVID-19 Spreading by Delayed Stochastic Differential Equations”
by Marouane Mahrouf, Adnane Boukhouima, Houssine Zine, El Mehdi Lotfi, Delfim F. M. Torres and Noura Yousfi
Axioms 2021; 10(1):18. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10010018
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/1/18

7. “A New Inverted Topp-Leone Distribution: Applications to the COVID-19 Mortality Rate in Two Different Countries”
by Ehab M. Almetwally, Randa Alharbi, Dalia Alnagar and Eslam Hossam Hafez
Axioms 2021; 10(1):25. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10010025
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/1/25

8. “Outsourcing Reverse Logistics for E-Commerce Retailers: A Two-Stage Fuzzy Optimization Approach”
by Chia-Nan Wang, Thanh-Tuan Dang and Ngoc-Ai-Thy Nguyen
Axioms 2021; 10(1):34. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10010034
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/1/34

9. “A Simple Frequency Formulation for the Tangent Oscillator”
by Ji-Huan He, Qian Yang, Chun-Hui He and Yasir Khan
Axioms 2021; 10(4):320. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10040320
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/4/320

10. “Applying Transformer Insulation Using Weibull Extended Distribution Based on Progressive Censoring Scheme”
by Hisham M. Almongy, Fatma Y. Alshenawy, Ehab M. Almetwally and Doaa A. Abdo
Axioms 2021; 10(2):100. https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10020100
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/2/100

1. “Comparison of the Sub-Tour Elimination Methods for the Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem Applying the SECA Method”
by Ramin Bazrafshan, Sarfaraz Hashemkhani Zolfani and S. Mohammad J. Mirzapour Al-e-hashem
Axioms 2021, 10(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10010019
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/1/19

2. “Outsourcing Reverse Logistics for E-Commerce Retailers: A Two-Stage Fuzzy Optimization Approach”
by Chia-Nan Wang, Thanh-Tuan Dang and Ngoc-Ai-Thy Nguyen
Axioms 2021, 10(1), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10010034
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/1/34

3. “Modeling and Forecasting of COVID-19 Spreading by Delayed Stochastic Differential Equations”
by Marouane Mahrouf, Adnane Boukhouima, Houssine Zine, El Mehdi Lotfi, Delfim F. M. Torres and Noura Yousfi
Axioms 2021, 10(1), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10010018
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/1/18

4. “Optimization of Convolutional Neural Networks Architectures Using PSO for Sign Language Recognition”
by Jonathan Fregoso, Claudia I. Gonzalez and Gabriela E. Martinez
Axioms 2021, 10(3), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10030139
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/3/139

5. “Spatial Statistical Models: An Overview under the Bayesian Approach”
by Francisco Louzada, Diego Carvalho do Nascimento and Osafu Augustine Egbon
Axioms 2021, 10(4), 307; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10040307
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/4/307

6. “A Note on the Computation of the Modular Inverse for Cryptography”
by Michele Bufalo, Daniele Bufalo and Giuseppe Orlando
Axioms 2021, 10(2), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10020116
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/2/116

7. “Some Fixed Point Results in b-Metric Spaces and b-Metric-Like Spaces with New Contractive Mappings”
by Kapil Jain and Jatinderdeep Kaur
Axioms 2021, 10(2), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10020055
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/2/55

8. “Identification of the Critical Factors for Global Supply Chain Management under the COVID-19 Outbreak via a Fusion Intelligent Decision Support System”
by Kuang-Hua Hu, Fu-Hsiang Chen, Ming-Fu Hsu, Shuyi Yao and Ming-Chin Hung
Axioms 2021, 10(2), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10020061
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/2/61

9. “The Axioms in My Understanding from Many Years of Experience”
by Boyan Dimitrov
Axioms 2021, 10(3), 176; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10030176
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/3/176

10. “A Spherical Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (SF-AHP) and Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) Algorithm in Distribution Center Location Selection: A Case Study in Agricultural Supply Chain”
by Phan Thuy Kieu, Van Thanh Nguyen, Viet Tinh Nguyen and Thanh Phong Ho
Axioms 2021, 10(2), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/axioms10020053
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1680/10/2/53

MDPI will be attending the 5th China Intelligent Optimization and Scheduling Conference from 12 to 14 August 2022, in Taiyuan, China.

Themed “Intelligent Optimisation for Scheduling”, the conference will focus on big data, artificial intelligence, simulation optimization, intelligent optimization, scheduling optimization, and other directions through conference presentations, group presentations, wall presentations, enterprise application demonstrations, etc., to carry out cutting-edge theories, methods, technologies, and applications, and will invite famous publishers at home and abroad to introduce journal submissions. The conference will select outstanding academic papers, young scientists, outstanding Ph.D. theses, outstanding M.Sc. theses, innovative application practice projects, etc.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Sensors;
• Systems;
• Mathematics;
• Axioms;
• Smart Cities;
• Future Internet;
• Data;
• Algorithms;
• Automation;
• Signals.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have.

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the subject area of “Computer Science & Mathematics” for their outstanding presentations and to present them with the prize.

MDPI journals regularly offer travel awards to encourage talented junior scientists to present their latest research at academic conferences in specific fields, which helps to increase their influence.

The winners mentioned below were carefully selected by the journal editors based on an outline of their research and the work to be presented at an academic conference.

We would like to warmly congratulate the winners of Travel Awards for the year 2021 and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors.

MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.

Computers:

• Umberto Michieli, University of Padova, Italy

Journal of Imaging:

• Cameron Kaye, University of Manitoba, Canada
• Alexandra Trujillo, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina

Symmetry:

• José María, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain
• Naser Ojaroudi Parchin, University of Bradford, UK

In order to acknowledge our reviewers, who so generously dedicate their time to reviewing papers and demonstrate diligence, professionalism, and timeliness when reviewing manuscripts, MDPI journals regularly offer outstanding reviewer awards to scholars who participate in the peer-review process.

We are proud to recognize the winners for the year 2021 in the “Computer Science and Mathematics” for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with an Outstanding Reviewer Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the winners on their achievement.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Algorithms:

• Maxim A. Dulebenets, SA Florida A&M University-Florida State University, USA
• Artur Jez, University of Wrocław, Poland
• Dmitry Lukyanenko, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

Forecasting:

• Juan Ramón Trapero Arenas, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Future Internet:

• Pedro Pablo Garrido Abenza, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Spain
• Roberto Saia, University of Cagliari, Italy
• Marek Bolanowski, Rzeszow University of Technology, Poland

Journal of Imaging:

• Jung Sun Yoo, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
• Josemaria Martinezo, University of the Basque Country, Spain

Mathematics:

• Maria Alessandra Ragusa, Università di Catania, Italy; DN University, Russia
• Endre Kovács, University of Miskolc, Hungary
• Roman Vavrek, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
• Giacomo Ascione, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy
• Giorgio Sonnino, University in the City of Brussels, Belgium

Signals:

• Nina Golyandina, St. Petersburg State University, Russia
• Cataldo Guaragnella, Politecnico di Bari, Italy

Symmetry:

• Stefan Groote, University of Tartu, Estonia
• José Antonio Oller, Universidad de Murcia, Spain
• Kazuharu Bamba, Fukushima University, Japan

MDPI’s Young Investigator Awards recognize promising junior researchers, acknowledge their contributions, and enhance communication among scientists. We are proud to present the winners for the year 2021 in the “Computer Science & Mathematics”, who were selected by the journals’ editors.

We warmly congratulate the awarded Young Investigators for their outstanding contributions.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Mathematics:

• Marina Murillo Arcila, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain

Symmetry:

• Tanmoy Paul, University of Burdwan, India

The purpose of our best paper awards is to promote and recognize the most impactful contributions published within MDPI journals.

The editors of each journal carefully selected reviews and research papers through a rigorous judging process based on the criteria such as scientific merit, overall impact, and quality of the presentation of the papers published in the journal.

We are honored to present the winners in the “Computer Science & Mathematics”, who were selected amongst extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Axioms:

• A New gH-Difference for Multi-Dimensional Convex Sets and Convex Fuzzy Sets
  By Luciano Stefanini and Barnabas Bede
  Axioms 2019, 8(2), 48; doi:10.3390/axioms8020048

• Initial Value Problem for Nonlinear Fractional Differential Equations with ψ-Caputo Derivative via Monotone Iterative Technique
  By Choukri Derbazi, Zidane Baitiche, Mouffak Benchohra and Alberto Cabada
  Axioms 2020, 9(2), 57; doi:10.3390/axioms9020057

Future Internet:

• A review of Machine Learning and IoT in Smart Transportation
  By Fotios Zantalis, Grigorios Koulouras, Sotiris Karabetsos and Dionisis Kandris
  Future Internet 2019, 11(4), 94; doi:10.3390/fi11040094

Signals:

• Recognition of Blinks Activity Patterns during Stress Conditions Using CNN and Markovian Analysis
  By Alexandra I. Korda, Giorgos Giannakakis, Errikos Ventouras, Pantelis A. Asvestas, Nikolaos Smyrnis, Kostas Marias and George K. Matsopoulos
  Signals 2021, 2(1), 55–71; doi:10.3390/signals2010006

• An Educational Guide through the FMP Notebooks for Teaching and Learning Fundamentals of Music Processing
  By Meinard Müller
  Signals 2021, 2(2), 245–285; doi:10.3390/signals2020018

Symmetry:

• Hadronic and Hadron-Like Physics of Dark Matter
  By Vitaly Beylin, Maxim Yu. Khlopov, Vladimir Kuksa and Nikolay Volchanskiy
  Symmetry 2019, 11(4), 587; doi:10.3390/sym11040587

• Role of Asymmetric Autocatalysis in the Elucidation of Origins of Homochirality of Organic Compounds
  By Kenso Soai, Tsuneomi Kawasaki and Arimasa Matsumoto
  Symmetry 2019, 11(5), 694; doi:10.3390/sym11050694

• Convenient Asymmetric Synthesis of Fmoc-(S)-6,6,6-Trifluoro-Norleucine
  By Haibo Mei, Zizhen Yin, Toshio Miwa, Hiroki Moriwaki, Hidenori Abe, Jianlin Han and Vadim A. Soloshonok
  Symmetry 2019, 11(4), 578; doi:10.3390/sym11040578

• CMB Tensions with Low-Redshift H₀ and S₈ Measurements: Impact of a Redshift-Dependent Type-Ia Supernovae Intrinsic Luminosity
  By Matteo Martinelli and Isaac Tutusaus
  Symmetry 2019, 11(8), 986; doi:10.3390/sym11080986

We are delighted to announce that Axioms (ISSN: 2075-1680) has received its first journal Impact Factor of 1.824! Our journal ranks 95 out of 267 (Q2) journals in the “Mathematics, Applied” category. 

A big thank you to all authors, reviewers and editors for their support, and congratulations to all involved in this important milestone! 

For more information, please visit the following link: https://jcr.clarivate.com/jcr-jp/journal-profile?journal=AXIOMS&year=2021.

Axioms Editorial Office

The 2021 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:

For more information on Impact Factors and what it means to index academic journals, please visit our related blog posts.

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2022

Source: 2021 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2022)

The Axioms 2022 Best Paper Award for the 10th Anniversary Special Issues is now open for applications. The purpose of the award is to recognize the excellent quality of the papers published in the following 10th Anniversary Series Special Issues:

• “10th Anniversary of Axioms: Mathematical Physics”;
• “10th Anniversary of Axioms: Algebra and Number Theory”;
• “10th Anniversary of Axioms: Mathematical Analysis”;
• “10th Anniversary of Axioms: Logic”;
• “10th Anniversary of Axioms: Geometry and Topology”.

One article published in an Axioms 10th Anniversary Special Issue will receive this award. The winner, who will be selected after a thorough evaluation by the journal Award Committee, will receive CHF 500 and a voucher for the free publication of one paper in Axioms in 2023. We encourage you and your colleagues to make a contribution and apply for the award.

The winner will be announced by 31 January 2023 on the journal website.

For more information, please visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/axioms/awards/1884.

The 2021 citation metrics have been officially released in Scopus!

We are pleased to announce that 182 MDPI journals are included, of which:

● 21 journals received their first CiteScore.
● 85% of journals increased their CiteScore from 2020.
● 155 journals (85%) ranked above average, in at least one category.

The following 65 MDPI journals (36%) ranked among the top 25% of journals, in at least one category:

Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)

It is our great honor to congratulate the Editorial Board Members and Editors in MDPI's journals who have been distinguished as 2021 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate, according to Web of Science data. We herewith express our gratitude for the immense impact the named researchers continue to make on scientific progress and on our journals' development.

Clarivate's annual list of Highly Cited Researchers^TM identifies the most highly cited scientists for the past decade. Their impactful papers are among the top 1 per cent in the citation distribution of one or more of 22 fields analyzed in the "Essential Science Indicators", distinguishing them as hugely influential among their peers.

The full list of 2021 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed at the following webpage in the Web of Science^TM https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2021/.

--- Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) is a Clarivate product.

Academic editors play a crucial role in leading our journals and ensuring that each article undergoes a robust and timely peer-review. With the launch of Topics this year and addition of Topic Editors to our family of academic editors, we decided it would be a good time to restructure our academic boards, thus providing more clarity and support for each role. MDPI is pleased to announce the launch of a new position—Topical Advisory Panel Member, that will replace the previous position of Topics Board Member. The Topical Advisory Panel will be comprised of early career researchers eager to gain experience in editorial work.

The main responsibility of the new members of the Topical Advisory Panel is to regularly provide support to Guest Editors, Topic Editors, and Section Board Members. The responsibilities of the Topical Advisory Panel are available here: https://www.mdpi.com/editors.

Each year, the members’ performances are evaluated, and outstanding members are promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief.

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must:

• Have expertise and experience in the field related to the journal;
• Have received a Ph.D. in the last 10 years, approximately;
• Have at least 6-8 published papers in the last 5 years as first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute.

If you are interested in this role, please contact the editorial office by email.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Axioms (ISSN 2075-1680) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of mathematics, mathematical logic and mathematical physics, published quarterly online by MDPI.

The Axioms editorial team is pleased to announce this open call for Special Issue proposals, that give a group of authors the opportunity to work on an interconnected set of papers on an innovative topic. We would like to solicit high-quality proposals that will be evaluated in a competitive procedure on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Proposals within the scope of the journal are welcome. For more details, go to: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/axioms/about.

If you are interested in editing a Special Issue, please contact us before 31 March 2022. To make a proposal or request further information, please contact the Axioms Editorial Office (axioms@mdpi.com).

Information to be provided in a proposal:

• A 150-word introduction rationally explaining the significance, novelty, technical advancement, and adherence to the scope of the journal of the proposed topic;
• A few keywords on the topic;
• A plan for obtaining quality papers or a list of at least three planned papers;
• A brief resume of the proposed Guest Editors together with their information (title, name, email, affiliation, personal website, keywords of interests);
• A proposed submission deadline (we normally run a Special Issue for 6–8 months).

The duties and benefits of acting as a Guest Editor are as follows:

• Re-defining the title and scope of the Special Issue;
• Circulating the Call for Papers for the Special Issue and inviting submissions;
• Making decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted or not based on the reports we collect;
• Promoting the Special Issue and increasing its visibility at related academic conferences;
• If 10 or more papers are published in the Special Issue, we can make a Special Issue book and send a hard copy to each Guest Editor.

The Editorial Office will take care of setting up the Special Issue website; arrange the promotional materials; assist with invitations to contribute papers; and take care of the rest of the administrative tasks associated with peer review, including inviting reviewers, collating reviews, contacting authors, and professional production before publication.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office for further details and clarifications.

We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Axioms Editorial Office

Founded in 1996, MDPI was one of the first fully Open Access publisher. Over 25 years MDPI has grown to become the largest Open Access publisher globally, publishing over 160,000 articles across more than 350 journals in 2020. At the core, MDPI was founded in response to a pressing need of fast publication and inclusion. The scholar was set at the centre of the publication process for the first time. Acting as a service provider, rather than a product provider, MDPI exists to help scientists achive their objective to disseminate research results. At MDPI, we believe scientists deserve a better service from the publishing world.

The International Open Access Week (Open Access Week), founded by the SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Alliance and student partners in 2008, has been successfully running for 13 years. As an advocate and pioneer of open access publishing, MDPI actively responds to the call of International Open Access Week. This year’s theme of “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity” highlights the Recommendation’s call for equitable participation from all authors and readers.

For the last 25 years, MDPI has been committed to disseminating open research. Here is a video showing MDPI’s Commitment to Equity, Inclusion and Diversity for More than 25 Years.

International Open Access Week is an important opportunity to catalyze new conversations, create connections across and between communities that can facilitate this co-design, and advance progress in the building of more equitable foundations for opening knowledge—discussions and actions that need to be continued, year in and year out. MDPI has always aimed to provide professional and efficient publishing services to scholars around the world.

Our mission is to make scientific research accessible to everyone; this year, we interview and hold discussions with open science ambassadors on how to build an equal and inclusive environment for open science. Academic editors help us collaborate with more institutions to advocate for open access ideas.

Read our anniversary blog post: "Sharing 'Collective Human Knowledge': The Benefits of Open Access Publication"

Besides this, our scientific community is a key driver of our success and MDPI’s remarkable growth. Despite the pandemic, we have prepared online conferences and workshops to gather scholars from different communities.

The Basel Sustainable Publishing online forum provides an equal opportunity for stakeholders and researchers from multi-cultural environments to exchange ideas and eliminate barriers to participation.

Conference date: 25 October 2021, online
Conference website: https://bspf2021.sciforum.net/
Main topics: MDPI discusses the current dilemma of open access science from various perspectives such as governments, libraries, and publishers, and related measures on how to change the status quo of discrimination from a global perspective.

We aim to support equality, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications. We collaborate with universities and key laboratories and have scholarly communications with researchers, teachers, and students on open access workshops.

• 25 October 2021
  Energies journal and Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

• 28 October 2021
  Machines journal and State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University

• 29 October 2021
  Processes journal and Beijing Institute of Technology

• 29 October 2021
  Coatings journal and Wuhan University of Technology

MDPI is committed to providing open access and high-quality publishing services for scholars and promoting rapid dissemination of academic achievements. We hope to promote the practices and policies of open access publishing and diversify the dissemination of academic achievements.

Rigorous peer-review is the cornerstone of high-quality academic publishing. Over 369,916 scholars served as reviewers for MDPI journals in 2020. We are extremely appreciative of all those who made a contribution to the editorial process in this capacity. At the beginning of every year, journal editorial offices publish a list of all reviewers’ names to express our gratitude. In addition, this year, the MDPI Top Reviewer Award was announced, to recognize the very best reviewers for their expertise and dedication, and their high-quality, and timely review reports. We are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2020 MDPI Top Reviewer Award:

• Adriana Burlea-Schiopoiu;
• Alban Kuriqi;
• Álvaro González-Vila;
• Alessandro Alaimo;
• Alexey Beskopylny;
• Alexander Yu Churyumov;
• Alberto Fernández-Isabel;
• Andrea Mastinu;
• Antonios N. Papadopoulos;
• Anton Rassõlkin;
• Antonio Humberto Hamad Minervino;
• Arkadiusz Matwijczuk;
• Artur Słomka;
• Baojie He;
• Bartłomiej Potaniec;
• Bojan Đurin;
• Camilo Arturo Rodriguez Diaz;
• Carmelo Maria Musarella;
• Chiachung Chen;
• Chiman Kwan;
• Cristian Busu;
• Danil Pimenov;
• Dan-Cristian Dabija;
• Delfín Ortega-Sánchez;
• Demetrio Antonio Zema;
• Denis Butusov;
• Elena Lucchi;
• Gaurab Dutta;
• Livia Anastasiu;
• M. R. Safaei.

For more information about how to become a reviewer of MDPI journals, please see: www.mdpi.com/reviewers.

UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. In 2020 the SDG Publishers Compact was launched, aimed to inspire publishers and accelerate progress to achieve the 17 goals by 2030. Members of the programme are committed to support the publication of materials that will promote and inspire actions towards SDGs.

MDPI is an eager advocate of SDGs and has already been supporting the programme by creating Special Issues and publishing a series of books on SDGs prior to joining the Compact in 2021. MDPI's Sustainability Foundation initiated the World Sustainability Awards in 2016. We fully support UN's goals to promote sustainable actions that make the world a better place for all and, as part of its commitment, we will focus our actions on SDG10: Reduced Inequalities whilst promoting all 17 SDGs. For more details, please visit the programme’s website: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdg-publishers-compact/.

Joining this initiative was a unanimous decision. MDPI has in its core values the dissemination of science for all, breaking the wall between research access and under-represented members of the scientific community and the general population. To support this initiative further and continue to support under-represented scientists, MDPI will take a series of actions that will be announced once ready.

The first action MDPI takes is to nominate Dr. Liliane Auwerter as the coordinator of the programme. Dr. Auwerter studied Environmental Process Technology (UTFPR, Brazil), obtained her MSc degree in Water and Environmental Engineering (University of Surrey, UK) and in 2020 completed her PhD in self-healing low-friction materials for water transport (Imperial College London, UK), always focusing on diverse scientific projects that would potentially bring sustainability to industrial processes. As a student in Brazil, she engaged in volunteering activities focused on environmental education and took part in the Millennial Development Goals meetings held at the university.

For more information, please contact:
Dr. Liliane Auwerter
Scientific Officer
liliane.auwerter@mdpi.com

Axioms (ISSN 2075-1680) is recruiting Editorial Board Members for the following three sections: 

• ”Algebra and Number Theory”;
• ”Geometry and Topology”;
• ”Logic”.

The journal is looking to expand the Editorial Board and cover areas that are under-represented by the current team. If you are interested to serve as an Academic Editor on the Editorial Board, or have potential candidates to recommend, please reach out to us by 31 December 2021. 

Axioms is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal of mathematics, mathematical logic, and mathematical physics. It is fully covered by the leading indexing and abstracting services, including Scopus and SCIE (Web of Science).

 As an Editorial Board member, you would have the following responsibilities:

• Making decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted, based on the reports we collect;
• Editing a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;
• Recommending timely topics or appropriate conferences;
• Promoting Axioms and increasing its visibility at related academic conferences.

To apply or request further information, please contact the Axioms Editorial Office (axioms@mdpi.com).

This serves to announce to our valued authors based in Japan that value-added tax, or consumption tax will now be imposed on article processing fees and other service fees for all papers submitted, or resubmitted (assigned new paper IDs), effective from 15 August 2021. The change is in accordance with the Japanese "Act for Partial Revision of the Income Tax Act and Other Acts" (Act No. 9 of 2015), which includes a revision of consumption taxation on cross-border supplies of services such as digital content distribution.

For additional information from the National Tax Agency please see here ("Cross-border supplies of electronic services").

Contact: Setsuko Nishihara, MDPI Tokyo

MDPI Books recently released Book Builder, a new online tool to conveniently arrange, design and produce an eBook from any content published in MDPI journals. Book Builder offers two functions: on the one hand (1) Selections, available to every registered user of MDPI; on the other hand (2) Special Issue Reprints, which can be used exclusively by Guest Editors of Special Issues.

Selections

In just a matter of a few clicks, all users are now able to assemble books from MDPI articles and receive instantaneous feedback in the form of a fully produced and compiled book (PDF), which can be downloaded or ordered as print copy. Selections can include any paper published with MDPI, picking and combining content from different journals and special issues.

This way, the user may for example choose to compile an ebook focusing around a particular topic, or assemble articles from a group of others.

We invite you to make yourself familiar with the new tool! The Book Builder can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/books/book_builder.

Special Issue Reprints

The Book Builder allows Guest Editors of MDPI journals to create a reprint from a successfully completed Special Issue or Topical Collection in book format. If you are a Guest Editor for an MDPI journal, you can use the new tool  to create an PDF document which includes all articles published in the Special Issue as well as a book cover and table of contents.

For Special Issues containing a minimum of 5 articles, the Guest Editor can request its publication on the MDPI Book platform. Published reprints are assigned an ISBN and DOI.

In addition to the PDF copy of the Reprint Book, as a token of our gratitude, MDPI offers every Guest Editor one (1) complimentary print copy (via print-on-demand). All contributors benefit from a discount on orders of any additional print copies, to share with colleagues or libraries or others.

Why choose MDPI Books?

In line with our organization's values, MDPI Books publishes all content in open access, promoting the exchange of ideas and knowledge in a globalized world. MDPI Books encompasses all the benefits of open access—high availability and visibility, as well as wide and rapid dissemination. MDPI Books are distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License, meaning as an author you retain the copyright for your work. In addition, with MDPI Books you can complement the digital version of your work with a high-quality printed counterpart.

If you are interested in editing a book volume or series, or have a monograph manuscript to be considered for publication, please submit your proposal online and look at our Information for Authors.

Contact: Laura Wagner, MDPI Books Manager (email)

In June of this year, MDPI will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its foundation. To mark this significant milestone, we have created a 25th Anniversary page on our website that evokes the development of our company over the past quarter-century.

MDPI has been a pioneer of Open Access publishing ever since the concept was first created.

In a wide-ranging interview, our CEO Delia Mihaila reflects on the company’s 25th anniversary and its contribution to the world of scientific publishing.

Delia considers how MDPI has evolved since starting life in 1996 as a visionary ‘project’ run out of an apartment in Basel, Switzerland, by Dr. Shu-Kun Lin. A chemist who was passionate about the long-term preservation of rare chemical sample, Dr. Lin was determined to help scholars publish their findings as quickly as possible and make their research results available to as wide a readership as possible worldwide. That determination remains unchanged 25 years later.

Today, MDPI is an international organization with over 4,000 employees based on three continents and in ten countries, and ranks among the world's top four academic publishers.

MDPI's mission is to accelerate access to new scientific research, delivering insight faster for researchers worldwide. Read more here about the company's remarkable success story and what the Open Access publishing model can offer the global scientific community.

We are pleased to announce that the journal Axioms (ISSN 2075-1680) has been accepted for inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) in the Web of Science. Articles published from Volume 8 (2019) onwards will be indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection.

Axioms has been publishing research on mathematics, mathematical logic, and mathematical physics for more than nine years, and the journal is expected to receive its first Journal Impact Factor in the June 2022 release of the Journal Citation Reports.

We would like to thank our editors, authors and reviewers who contributed to the journal and helped to realize this achievement.

The journal Axioms is launching a new position—Topic Editor. The main responsibilities of Topic Editors are as follows:

• suggest topics or edit a Special Issue on a topic related to your research;
• promote the journal and increase its visibility at related academic conferences;
• advise on journal development.

Benefits

Topic Editors will have the opportunity to publish a paper in Axioms with a special discount each year. They are also encouraged to apply for travel grants for themselves.

If you are interested in this role or if you have any suggestions, please feel free to contact us (axioms@mdpi.com).

At MDPI, we strive to make your online publication process seamless and efficient. To achieve this, our team is continuously developing tools and features to make the user experience useful and convenient.

As the number of academic papers continues to grow, so does the need to analyze and work with them on a large scale. This prompted us to design a new feature aimed at helping researchers find journals that are relevant to their publication by matching their abstract topic. In this regard, we designed a similarity model that automatically identifies the most suitable academic journals for your paper.

We are pleased to introduce Journal Selector, a new feature that measures similarity in academic contexts. By simply entering the title and/or abstract into our Journal Selector, the author will see a list of the most related scientific journals published by MDPI. This method helps authors select the correct journals for their papers, highlighting the time of publication and citability.

The methodology is known as representation learning, where words are represented as vectors in hyperspace. Representation helps us differentiate between different concepts within articles, and in turn, helps us identify similarities between them.

We used an advanced machine learning model to better capture the semantic meanings of words. This helps the algorithm make better predictions by leveraging scientific text representation. In turn, this ensures high precision, helping authors decide which journal they should submit their paper to.

The goal is to support authors to publish their work in the most suitable journal for their research, as fast as possible, accelerating their career progress.

Contact: Andrea Perlato, Head of Data Analytics, MDPI (email)

MDPI is proud to adopt the principles of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) to support building equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications.

The C4DISC represents organizations and individuals working in scholarly communications and is focused on addressing issues of diversity and inclusion within the publishing industry.

MDPI’s Managing Editors encourage the Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors to appoint diverse expert Editorial Boards. This is also reflective in our multi-national and inclusive workplace. We are proud to create equal opportunities without regard to gender, ethnicity, geographic location, sexual orientation, age, disability, political beliefs, religion, or socio-economic status. There is no place for discrimination in our workplace and editors of MDPI journals are to uphold these principles in high regard.

Representatives from C4DISC meet monthly, and have started to implement initiatives to shed light and improve on the lack of diversity in scholarly communications. Some of the initiatives include developing a joint statement of principles; conducting market research; providing training resources, best practices, toolkits, and documentation for our collective memberships; and establishing outreach programs, curricula, events, and publications.

The Coalition is committed to:

• eliminating barriers to participation, extending equitable opportunities across all stakeholders, and ensuring that our practices and policies promote equitable treatment and do not allow, condone, or result in discrimination;
• creating and maintaining an environment that respects diverse traditions, heritages, and experiences;
• promoting diversity in all staff, volunteers, and audiences, including full participation in programs, policy formulation, and decision-making;
• raising awareness about career opportunities in our industries to groups who are currently underrepresented in the workforce;
• supporting our members in achieving diversity and inclusion within their organizations.

At MDPI we have slightly revised the layout for articles to be published in the 2021 Volume, starting at the end of December 2020. As of today, the article templates available for download on ‘Instructions for Authors’ pages have been updated.

The most noticeable change can be found on the first page of the article, where a left-hand column has been created to include the following front matter elements: (i) the recommended citation style for the article, (ii) the publishing history, (iii) as well as the Creative Commons Attribution license used (iv) a standard note regarding affiliations. At the same time, the extra spacing on the left means the authors’ affiliations are now more clearly set apart than before. Other front matter key elements such as journal logo, article type, article title, authors, abstract and keywords remain unchanged.

The blank column on the left runs through all pages in an article; as a result, the main text is slightly more condensed, which improve reader friendliness for smaller screens. Small figures/tables are aligned on the left with standard indenture, while large figures/tables are centered and covering the full width of the page. The revised layout was applied in the article pictured below, to serve as an example:

1) Information is displayed in the left information bar.

2) In the main text, there is a blank column on the left.

3) Small tables/figures are aligned on the left, large tables/figures are centered.

We are pleased to acknowledge that many academic editors who have made an impact on MDPI journals as editorial board members, editors-in-chief, or section editors, are recognized as 2020 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate.

Highly Cited Researchers highlights the top 1% of researchers, by citations, in one or more of the 22 fields used in Clarivate Analytics Essential Science Indicators. We offer our congratulations to 279 academic editors of MDPI journals who were recognized as the most influential scholars in their fields in 2020.

The full list of 2020 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed on https://recognition.webofsciencegroup.com/awards/highly-cited/2020/

--- Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) is a Clarivate product.

We are delighted to announce the establishment of our Open Access agreement with Jisc Collections, which will allow UK institutions to benefit from access to article processing charge (APC) discounts and streamlined payment workflows.

All institutions participating in the agreement will also gain access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information for easy identification and additional transparency.

Eligible authors affiliated with the participating institutions are prompted to choose the corresponding Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) when they submit an article via our online submission system.

About Jisc

Jisc's vision is for the UK to be the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world. At its heart is the super-fast national research and education network, Janet, with built-in cyber security protection.  Jisc also provides technology solutions for its members (colleges, universities and research centres) and customers (public sector bodies), helps members save time and money by negotiating sector-wide deals and provides advice and practical assistance on digital technology. Jisc is funded by the UK higher and further education and research funding bodies and member institutions.

For more information, contact helen.dobson@jisc.ac.uk.

About MDPI

MDPI is a publisher of fully peer-reviewed, Open Access journals with a focus on thorough and rapid editorial processing. Its aim is to ensure that high-quality research is verified and made available to the research community as quickly as possible. MDPI stands at the forefront of the Open Access movement, having launched its first online journal Molecules in 1996. Today, MDPI is a leader in Open Access publishing with over 250 journals across all research disciplines, and all content published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

For any questions about this agreement, please contact the MDPI IOAP team at ioap@mdpi.com.

Since 1996, MDPI has been committed to supporting the research community by providing the latest research freely available and making relevant and useful research available as quickly as possible. The world is current experiencing a pandemic of COVID-19, and researchers are working extremely hard to understand it and find a cure.

The values MDPI holds strongly are particularly important at the moment, and we will continue to publish relevant, peer-reviewed research as quickly as possible in open access format. This means that it will immediately be available for researchers, health professionals, and the general public to read, distribute, and reuse. We believe that scientific advancements will be crucial to overcoming this pandemic, and will do everything we can to support researchers working looking for solutions.

COVID-19 Academic Resources Center contains a variety of information related to COVID-19 available from MDPI, including journal articles, special issues, and preprints, among others.

For more information, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/covid-19

As a leading Open Access publisher, MDPI is committed to fostering open scientific exchange in all forms across all disciplines. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, many researchers have to stay at home and many academic conferences have been cancelled or postponed. In light of these changes, MDPI has adopted numerous initiatives that may help accelerate scientific exchange and provide support to the academics during this period.

Scholarly Community—Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia is an online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as providing benchmark information for researchers and the general public interested in accurate and advanced knowledge on specific topics.

Comprehensive and Free Literature Database—Scilit

Scilit is a comprehensive, free database for scientists that uses a new method to collate data and index scientific material. Our crawlers extract the latest data from CrossRef and PubMed on a daily basis. This means that newly published articles are immediately added to Scilit.

Display Academic Achievements—SciProfiles

SciProfiles is an innovative social network for researchers and scholars that is developed by MDPI. In line with our broad mission, the purpose of SciProfiles is to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and providing opportunities for academic networking.

Organize and Participate in Conferences Online—Sciforum

Sciforum is an event planning platform that supports open science by offering the opportunity to host and participate in academic conferences. It provides an environment for scholarly exchange, discussion of topics of current interest, building of networks, and establishing collaborations.

Post Early Versions of Research Outputs—Preprints

Preprints is a platform dedicated to making early versions of research outputs permanently available and citable. We post original research articles and comprehensive reviews, and papers can be updated by authors at any time. Content on Preprints is not peer-reviewed, and feedback can be received from readers.

***

MDPI remains committed to open science and open data and has signed a statement, along with more than thirty scholarly publishers, showing our intention to facilitate sharing of new research findings as early on as possible. The initiative sees publishers collectively removing barriers to new research, in the face of a global healthcare crisis.

The world is currently suffering from a global pandemic of the corona virus COVID-19. MDPI expresses its sympathies for all of those affected by the virus and stands in solidarity with medical staff and researchers treating patients and searching for scientific solutions.

MDPI has previously published papers covering corona viruses in addition to new papers on the current outbreak, see all papers here. In particular, Viruses has published a number of Special Issues and papers on the topic (see here, here, and here) as well as a forthcoming Special Issue.

Alongside journal articles, MDPI has been a strong supporter of preprints, which are increasingly being used to rapidly disseminate the latest research, and we run the preprint server Preprints.org. Our database of research articles, Scilit, is free to use and covers all publishers including preprint servers. New papers are often in search results within hours of publication and users can set up alerts for new papers.

Our main priority during this period has been the health and safety of staff, and we continue to allow staff to work at home and closely monitor the situation in all locations in which we work. Despite the restrictions, we continue to provide a full publication service and, by close collaboration with our editorial boards and making use our in-house teams, ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in publishing vital research. Fast and open publication has always been at the core of MDPI values and is now more important than ever.

We hope that a solution to the current situation will emerge soon. In the meantime, we will do our best to continue communicating vital research in all fields.

The advantages of the open access model of scientific publishing are being increasingly recognized in the scientific community. It allows new scientific evidence to be accessed from the moment of publication for free by anyone around the globe, boosting the impact of new research. In response, many funders, libraries and universities have been adopting new principles to accelerate the transition to open access.

Recently, “transformative agreements” have been negotiated between traditional publishers and various institutions. While increasing the number of open access papers, these agreements lack binding commitments to a full transition to open access, their conditions vary across different regions, and access is still limited for many users.

MDPI is a co-signatory of the recent position statement raising concerns about potential downsides of transformative agreements and how they may delay a full transition to open access. The statement highlights that these models “risk perpetuating current limitations on access, transparency and market competitiveness, while simultaneously facilitating excessive charges on the public purse”.

As a pioneering open access journal publisher, MDPI is the first to promote the importance of science being made available to everyone. Our peer-reviewed journals, covering diverse academic disciplines, are fully accessible to the public free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). This is why, along with other open access publishers, MDPI is a proud signatory of the position paper and is committed to contributing to the replacement of weak transitional agreements with “agreements with publishers that are already fully committed to open science and who offer full, immediate and transparent Open Access”.

Read the position paper here

We are pleased to announce that Encyclopedia will be awarding five Outstanding Contributor Awards for researchers in 2020. The nominations and applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Encyclopedia Editorial Board.

Prize for Winners

1. An official certificate;
2. A cash award of 500 CHF or an MDPI discount voucher of 800 CHF.

Application Deadline

31 December, 2020 (Please send your application email with a list of all entries you contributed to our office before the deadline: office@encyclopedia.pub)

Candidate Requirements

1. Have a Ph.D. degree;
2. Have more than three qualified entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020.

Evaluation Standards

1. Number of entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020;
2. Quality of entries online (including length, figure quality, and novelty);
3. Impact of entries (including the number of likes, discussion contents, views, and downloads).

If you are a researcher and have not yet contribute entries to Encyclopedia, please do not miss this chance to highlight your research results.

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of SciProfiles, its social network platform for researchers and scholars.

The purpose of SciProfiles is aligned with MDPI’s broad mission to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and to serve scholars and communities by providing opportunities for academic networking.

SciProfiles also ambitions to serve as a sustainable, transparent and community-driven research evaluation system aligned with the DORA principles (https://sfdora.org/). Through their scientific profiles, academics can highlight their contribution to research communities, and measure their impact on their field, beyond publication numbers and impact factors. SciProfiles is currently a beta version and will enrich to give researchers the possibility to highlight all of their contributions to science and their scientific communities as authors, reviewers, editors, conference organizers, conference panelists, conference keynote speakers, or even as lecturers or student mentors at their University.

The classic components of popular community social networks, including follower/following, classical metrics, endorsements and recommendations (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1690), comments (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397) are or will be very soon highlighted in SciProfiles as open science contributions.

To help increase the impact and visibility of articles and their authors to an appropriate audience, the platform offers a NewsFeed that includes recommendations of relevant content based on interests, publication history, saved searches or colleagues’ recommendations.

SciProfiles’ avatars are now being integrated on several MDPI platforms, meaning that you will directly access researchers’ profiles from any of the MDPI platforms:

MDPI's journal publishing website: www.mdpi.com
MDPI's conference hosting and management website: www.sciforum.net
MDPI's pre-print website : www.preprints.org
MDPI's knowledge sharing website : www.encyclopedia.pub
MDPI's books store: www.mdpi.com/books
MDPI's literature database : www.scilit.net

SciProfiles aims to serve scientific communities at large. It can be embedded into third-party websites and also welcomes integration of data from third-parties.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/2
Dr. Franck Vazquez: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/FranckVazquez
Dr. Martyn Rittman: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/martynrittman

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2019 MDPI Writing Prize. Entrants were asked to write on the theme "Judging research: How should research and researchers be evaluated and rewarded?" We received a large number of excellent essays from PhD students and postdocs, and the process of shortlisting and choosing winners was not an easy one. The winners demonstrated excellent writing skills alongside interesting and thought-provoking ideas.

As last year, we will begin the process of collating all entries into a book that will be available in open access format. Alongside promoting good writing skills, we see the prize as a way to promote the voices of early career researchers within broader debates and policy discussions.

Congratulations to all of the participants and especially the winners. The winners are:

1st Prize (500 CHF):
Albin Nilsson (National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw, Poland)
[Read here]

2nd Prize (250 CHF):
Qi Zhang (Shandong University, Jinan, China)
[Read here]
Igor Ogashawara (Indiana University, Indianapolis, US)
[Read here]

3rd Prize (100 CHF):
Margaret Sivapragasam (Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Perak, Malaysia)
[Read here]
Arvind Sharma (The University of Queensland, Gatton, Australia)
[Read here]
Jose Flores-Guerrero (University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands)
[Read here]

The MDPI Writing Prize is an annual award supported by MDPI Author Services, which provides services including language editing, reformatting, plagiarism checks, and image editing.

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of a new functionality giving the possibility for researchers and scholars to endorse, and formally recommend articles to their colleagues.

MDPI was an early signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (https://sfdora.org/read/) which calls for improvement in how quality and impact of scholarly research outputs are evaluated, especially in moving beyond journal-based citation metrics (journal Impact Factor, Scopus Citescore, etc.).

MDPI supports the establishment of article-level impact metrics, including citations, views, downloads, and Altmetric scores. These measures serve as an impact indicator for research articles on a case–by-case basis, assessing paper on its own merit. However, these metrics are also subjective and can give a biased picture of the article impact: they do not directly reflect the quality or the intrinsic scientific value of the article.

In our view, community engagement with publications based on community-driven metrics can help to overcome this limitation. We have therefore launched an option for scholars to endorse articles, indicating their own assessment of its content and making a recommendation to their community. This follows our implementation of the open source Hypothesis commenting tool, which has been available for all articles published by MDPI for over a year (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397). Both endorsement and commenting are available for all previously published and forthcoming MDPI articles.

In addition to potentially serving as a sustainable solution to article assessment, endorsements will help scientific communities to identify the most relevant articles, independently of the journal in which it was published.

The code for the endorsing functionality, which relies on DOIs and ORCIDs, will be made available on GitHub with an open source license.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin, President and Founder
Dr. Franck Vazquez, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Martyn Rittman, Publishing Director

Encyclopedia is a free online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as provide a comprehensive record of scientific development. If you have any suggestions or questions, please feel free to contact us via office@encyclopedia.pub.

We're presenting herewith a selection of original research articles published in our mathematical science journals. Enjoy the read!

Time-Space Fractional Coupled Generalized Zakharov-Kuznetsov Equations Set for Rossby Solitary Waves in Two-Layer Fluids

Fu, L.; Chen, Y.; Yang, H. Mathematics 2019, 7, 41. View article page.

An Iterative Algorithm for Solving Generalized Variational Inequalities and Fixed Points Problems

Yao, Y.; Postolache, M.; Yao, J.-C. Mathematics 2019, 7, 61. View article page.
Published in the special issue Fixed Point, Optimization, and Applications.

Energy of Pythagorean Fuzzy Graphs with Applications

Akram, M.; Naz, S. Energy of Pythagorean Fuzzy
Graphs with Applications. Mathematics 2018, 6, 136. View article page.

Methods for Multiple Attribute Decision Making with Interval-Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Information

Li, Z.; Wei, G.; Gao, H. Methods for Multiple Attribute Decision Making with Interval-Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Information. Mathematics 2018, 6, 228. View article page.

Numerical Solution of Fractional Differential Equations: A Survey and a Software Tutorial

Garrappa, R. Mathematics 2018, 6, 16. View article page.
Published in the special issue Fractional Calculus: Theory and Applications.

Neutrosophic Positive Implicative N -Ideals in BCK-Algebras

Jun, Y.B.; Smarandache, F.; Song, S.-Z.; Khan, M. Axioms 2018, 7, 3. View article page.

Line Integral Solution of Differential Problems

Brugnano, L.; Iavernaro, F. Axioms 2018, 7, 36. View article page.

Non-Gaussian Distributions to Random Walk in the Context of Memory Kernels

Dos Santos, M.A.F. Fractal Fract 2018, 2, 20. View article page.

Fractional Derivatives with the Power-Law and the Mittag–Leffler Kernel Applied to the Nonlinear Baggs–Freedman Model

Gómez-Aguilar, J.F.; Atangana, A. Fractal Fract 2018, 2, 10. View article page.

Using the Maximum Entropy Principle to Combine Simulations and Solution Experiments

Cesari, A.; Reißer, S.; Bussi, G. Computation 2018, 6, 15. View article page.

We are pleased to announce that Preprints has passed the milestone of 10,000 posted preprints. We are delighted to have reached this after just over three years of operation. Our congratulations and thanks go to our authors and advisory board who have supported growth of the platform and been crucial to its operation.

You can find further details at https://www.preprints.org/announcement/show/37.

Last week, the DeepGreen initiative in Germany started into an advanced test phase with the publishing partners S. Karger AG, SAGE Publishing, MDPI, Frontiers and De Gruyter, as well as 27 universities from all over Germany, from Hamburg University of Applied Sciences to University of Konstanz.

DeepGreen aims at lowering the barriers for open access publishing by automatically delivering metadata and full text publications from participating publishers to authorized repositories at German universities.

In preparation for a later live operation, the advanced test phase serves to gain experience with extensive data deliveries from publishers and also handling different repository software (including OPUS4, DSpace, EPrints, MyCoRe). DeepGreen thereby acts as a sophisticated platform, receiving articles published by authors affiliated with German universities and depositing these articles to respective university repositories, based on the affiliation metadata. For more information about DeepGreen: https://deepgreen.kobv.de

Karger AG has been a close cooperation partner of the DeepGreen consortium since 2016. S. Karger has more than 80 subscription-based and around 20 open access journals covering a wide spectrum in health science. DeepGreen will assign S. Karger articles to authorized institutions on the legal basis of German alliance and national licenses.

SAGE Publishing  was founded by Sara Miller McCune in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE publishes more than 1,000 journals and over 600 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. Our growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company’s continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. SAGE Publishing has been a close cooperation partner of DeepGreen since 2016.

MDPI  is a scientific open access publisher and has been a partner of DeepGreen since 2017. MDPI comprises 205 peer-reviewed journals of various disciplines. All articles are published under a CC-BY license and are freely available without embargo period.

Frontiers  is a scientific open access publisher with 61 journals of over 600 academic disciplines. All articles are peer-reviewed and published freely available under CC-BY license.

De Gruyter  is an academic publisher with more than 700 subscription-based and open access journals of 29 disciplines. Articles provided by De Gruyter will be assigned to institutions with German alliance and national licenses.

There is promising communication with other publishers.

DeepGreen is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the consortium comprises six institutions: the Cooperative Library Network Berlin-Brandenburg, Bavarian State Library, Bavarian Library Network, University Library of the Technische Universität Berlin, University Library of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Helmholtz Open Science Coordination Office at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

The University of Basel and the MDPI Sustainability Foundation are organizing the First Basel Sustainable Publishing Forum on 9th September 2019.

The aim of this event is to provide background and perspectives on Plan S to Learned Societies, which have to make well-informed decisions to transition their journals to Open Access (OA).

The BSPF will bring together several representatives of Learned societies, Plan S architects as well as representatives from various publishers and publishing platforms. After getting the big picture from cOAlition S, panel discussions will allow to better understand the diverse challenges that Learned societies are facing to transition their journals to OA as well as to identify sustainable, implementable and scalable solutions for successful Open Access transition.

For program details and registration, please follow the link below:
https://sciforum.net/conference/SustainableSolutionsToOpenAccess

In addition to MDPI journals who received updated CiteScores for 2018, the titles listed below were added in Scopus recently and therefore received a first CiteScore in May 2019, based on last year's citation activity in the database.

For almost all of the newly added MDPI titles, their CiteScore ranks in the upper 50% of the distribution (Q1 or Q2) in at least one of the research areas. The following titles rank in the top 25% cited journals based on CiteScore: Actuators; Biomedicines; Coatings; Cosmetics; Fermentation; Journal of Fungi; Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity; Nanomaterials; and Publications.

To access the full data for MDPI journals, please see here. More data can also be found in SJR Scimago Journal & Country Rank.

New CiteScore for MDPI Journals

We are pleased to welcome more universities from Poland, Italy, Germany, Brazil and other parts of the world to MDPI's Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). A warm welcome to the institutions listed below, who have joined the Program in February and March this year.

Authors affiliated with these institutions can now enjoy a discount on the APC for papers accepted for publication in any MDPI journal. If you would like to learn more about our program, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap or email us at ioap@mdpi.com.

MDPI will be attending the 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT 2019), to be held in Paris, France, 7–12 July 2019.

ISIT is the premier international conference dedicated to the advancement of information theory and related areas. Each year, it brings together an international community of researchers and practitioners in the field of information theory to present and discuss new research results and perspectives on future developments relevant to all areas of information theory, including big data analytics, source and channel coding, communication theory and systems, cryptography and security, detection and estimation, emerging applications, networks, network coding/information theory, signal processing, and statistical/machine learning.

The following ten MDPI journals will be represented:

Entropy
Information
Future Internet
Algorithms
Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks
Computers
Big Data and Cognitive Computing
Axioms
Data
Cryptography

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our stand. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://2019.ieee-isit.org/.

We are delighted to announce our participation in Jisc’s Publication Router project, as of March 2019.

Publications Router is a Jisc service that automatically sends notifications about research articles to institutions' systems such as their repositories or CRISs, since May 2015. Through this agreement, MDPI will provide Jisc with daily feeds and information regarding published articles, which will be gathered by their system and delivered to institutions also registered to this service. Nearly all of our articles are published within 15 days of acceptance, so institutions will receive them quite promptly.

The feed will include the full text of the published version of record, with no embargo, so the articles can be exposed immediately for public view. They are accompanied by rich metadata, including confirmation of the immediate CC BY licence, minimising the need for any manual intervention or checking.

For more information about Publications Router, you may contact Jisc’s central helpdesk at help@jisc.ac.uk. For any queries about MDPI’s institutional agreements and collaborations, you may get in touch with MDPI’s Institutional Engagement team at ioap@mdpi.com, which would be very happy to hear from further UK institutions.

Rigorous peer-review is the cornerstone of high quality academic publishing. Over 97,000 scholars served as reviewers for MDPI journals in 2018. We are extremely appreciative of all those who made a contribution to the editorial process in this capacity. At the beginning of every year, journal editorial offices publish a list all reviewers’ names to express our gratitude. In addition, this year the “MDPI Top Reviewer Awards” are announced, to recognize the very best reviewers for their expertise, dedication, high quality, and timely review reports. We are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2018 MDPI Top Reviewer Awards:

• Ali Behnood
• Andrea Pezzuolo
• Angela Gorgoglione
• Anna D'Auria
• Antonio D'Andrea
• Azhar Abbas
• Bogdan Zagajewski
• Chunhui Chen
• Dominika Głąbska
• Dominika Guzek
• Dragan Pamucar
• Francisco J. G. Silva
• Frank Li
• Gianluca Serafini
• Gyorgy Szekely
• Haozhi Pan
• Helvi Heinonen-Tanski
• José Manuel Gómez-Soberón
• Kathy Lewis
• Klara Kosova
• Luis N. López De Lacalle
• M. Z. Naser
• Malwina Tytła
• Masoume Amirkhani
• Matteo Ghidelli
• Moretti Laura
• Petra Schneider
• Roberto Cerchione
• Spyros Papaefthymiou
• Ştefan Cristian Gherghina

Since 2010, MDPI has run its own online submission system. More recently, we have made the software, with accompanying publishing services, available to other publishers as JAMS (Journal and Article Management System). We are now delighted to announce the launch of JAMS Journals, a standardized platform for operating open access journals at low cost.

JAMS Journals provides a comprehensive service, including a shared submission website, journal websites hosted at a URL provided by the publisher, and a full production service. There is a small setup fee and the cost for each published paper is just a few hundred Swiss francs.

The platform demonstrates that running an open access journal can be straightforward and affordable. The JAMS Journals platform is suitable for

• small publishers or groups of scholars looking to launch their own journal;
• existing publishers or societies seeking to explore open access options;
• publishers looking to convert an existing subscription journal to open access.

JAMS journals launches with two journals from Canadian-based publisher Etcetera Publications:

• Canadian Journal of Pesticides & Pest Management (http://www.cjppm.ca)
• Nanotechnology in Agriculture, Food & Environment (http://www.nanoafe.ca)

Dr AJ Al-Rajab (President of Etcetera Publications) comments:

“In the past few months, we were working on our project to launch new open access scientific journals in the field of agricultural and environmental sciences. We decided to go with JAMS for this venture because of the high quality of their services, reasonable prices, professionalism and easy communication. Our portfolio is expected to grow rapidly during 2019 to include more titles covering different areas in agriculture and environment. MDPI earned already our complete satisfaction and we are looking for a long term cooperation.”

Alongside the new platform, we continue to provide flexible, tailored journal management solutions for existing publishers. For any questions or to request a quotation, contact Dr. Constanze Schelhorn (constanze.schelhorn@mdpi.com).

2018 was a great year for preprints, with increasing numbers of authors looking to make their papers available online before peer review. Along with other preprint servers, our platform Preprints.org  saw an increase in the uptake from authors, and more than double the number of announced papers compared to 2017. In fact, we recently passed two important milestones: 8000 preprints online and 30,000 authors. 

We believe that the whole research community has the opportunity to benefit from work being available online as early as possible. We thank and congratulate our authors for supporting us to make this goal a reality.

In 2019, we will be looking carefully at how to provide better value for authors, maintain efficiency while growing in size, and make sure we remain well-connected with the research community. 

If you want to participate, you can consider screening preprints or joining our advisory board. And, of course, posting your own work.

As the awardee, Dr. Bartoli will receive an honorarium of 2000 CHF; an offer to publish a free publication in four journals (Algorithms, Axioms, Fractal and Fractional, and Cryptography) in 2019 or 2020 (submitted in 2019), with no limit to the number of pages; and a commemorative certificate.

We would like to thank for all the abundant and excellent nominations received, as well as the committee members for carefully considering all the nominations. From the editors of our mathematical journals—a big congrats to Dr. Bartoli!

• Prof. Dr. Henning Fernau, Universität Trier, Germany, Editor-in-Chief of Algorithms
• Prof. Dr. Kwangjo Kim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Editor-in-Chief of Cryptography
• Prof. Dr. Humberto Bustince, Public University of Navarra, Spain, Editor-in-Chief of Axioms
• Prof. Dr. Carlo Cattani, University of Tuscia, Italy, Editor-in-Chief of Fractal and Fractional
  

We are delighted to announce the establishment of our national Open Access agreement with the Austrian Academic Library Consortium (KEMÖ) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Through this national agreement, the Austrian institutions listed below as well as FWF will cover the Article Processing Charges (APC) of manuscripts published by eligible corresponding or funded authors in MDPI journals as long as central funds are available.

All participating institutions have gained access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information as well as Funder and Grant ID details for easy identification and additional transparency. At the same time eligible authors are benefited from an APC discount which comes at no cost for the institutions.

Eligible corresponding authors affiliated with the participating institutions are prompted to choose the corresponding Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) when they submit an article via our online submission system. The program will be selected automatically if authors submit their papers using their institutional email address. To claim their discount, FWF funded authors should choose the particular funder and add their Grant ID upon online submission of their manuscript. The institutions will then crosscheck the information and confirm the APC funding.

Eligible authors that have their APC covered by their institution or funder are advised to include the following sentence in their acknowledgments: "Open Access Funding by the [name of the institution/funder]".

The full text of the agreement is openly available online at: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2536007

For any questions about the agreement, please contact the KEMÖ Consortium at emedien@obvsg.at, FWF at Katharina.Rieck@fwf.ac.at, or the MDPI IOAP team at ioap@mdpi.com.

The Austrian institutions participating in this agreement are:

• Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
• University for Continuing Education Krems
• University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna
• University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria
• University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien
• Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences
• International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
• Institute of Science and Technology Austria
• MCI Management Center Innsbruck
• University of Graz
• University of Linz
• University of Salzburg
• Graz University of Technology
• TU Wien
• University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
• University of Vienna

This is our first collective agreement with a national library consortium, while the individual institutions around the world participating in our IOAP are now more than 500 - see details here: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap. We would be mostly interested in discussing about possible collaborations with other consortia, funders, and institutions in our mutual efforts to accelerate Open Access.

We are pleased to announce the new platform Encyclopedia, which is an online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as providing benchmark information for researchers and the general public interested in accurate and advanced knowledge on specific topics.

We encourage authors of review articles to quote and adapt the content of their published papers to create Encyclopedia entries. You can create completely new entries on topics in which you have knowledge and expertise. There is no limit on the topics or research fields. All of science and the humanities are included. Each entry will be published directly after submission.

We also have prepared a DOI application function in Encyclopedia. Once a DOI application is approved, the entry website will announce the DOI number and a pdf version with DOI information will be automatically created.

We look forward to your contributions and hope you will make use of this service. Find more about the service at: https://encyclopedia.pub/

We are delighted to announce that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is now a participant of our Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). Authors funded by the BMGF can enjoy discounts on the APC, while the funder covers the costs of eligible articles centrally. BMGF also has access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information as well as Grant ID details for easy identification and additional transparency.

We hope that funded authors find the programme beneficial and we are happy to offer our IOAP to other funders that need a streamlined workflow of compliance checking and APC coverage. 

To claim their discount, BMGF funded authors should choose the particular funder and add their Grant ID upon online submission of their manuscript.

For any questions about the BMGF agreement, please contact the funder at support@chronos-oa.com or the MDPI IOAP team at ioap@mdpi.com.

Recently, it was announced that a group of European funders supported 10 principles that will help to expand open access, known as Plan S. MDPI warmly welcomes this move as a step towards achieving more open and accessible communication of research across all disciplines. Some aspects remain to be clarified, however the details given so far match the aims and values that MDPI has held over the past two decades.

We believe that open access publishers should be active participants in discussions around Plan S, particularly regarding potential new business models and practical aspects of implementation. MDPI supports APCs as a transparent unit of payment for article publishing, however we are committed to exploring other measures and recently signed the Jussieu Call. Sustainability is a key value for MDPI, and future funding models should have at their heart the sustainability of knowledge and research dissemination. Plan S provides an opportunity for funders and publishers to directly discuss funding of open access journals in ways that are beneficial to all parties involved.

We are happy to announce the establishment of an Open Access (OA) agreement with Qatar National Library (QNL). QNL is committed to supporting and helping Qatar authors publish OA at no cost. Through this national agreement, QNL will cover the Article Processing Charges (APC) of manuscripts published by Qatar-based corresponding authors in MDPI journals.

Eligible corresponding authors affiliated with Qatar research centers and universities are prompted to choose QNL as part of our Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) when they submit an article via our online submission system. The program will be selected automatically if authors submit their papers using their institutional email and/or a computer registered with the institution’s IP range. QNL will then crosscheck the information and confirm the APC funding.

Qatar authors that have their APC covered by QNL are advised to include the following sentence in their acknowledgments: "The publication of this article was funded by Qatar National Library".

For more information, please visit Open Access at QNL or email the QNL Open Access team at openaccess@qnl.qa.

We are pleased to announce the MDPI Young Mathematician Award 2018 for Postdocs in the field of mathematics. The nominations will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars in the field.

Candidates’ Requirements:

• Postdoctoral fellows (within 8 years of receiving PhD) involved in the field of mathematics.
• The nominee should be no older than 40 years of age in 2018.
• The nomination package must include:

1. CV (including date on which the PhD degree was awarded and a list of publications)
2. Outline of research interests (up to two pages)
3. Nomination letter from an established mathematician not directly associaed with the candidate.

• Preference will be given to nominations that demonstrate a commitment to future research or a professional career in mathematics and related areas.

The prize consists of:

• 2000 Swiss Francs;
• A commemorative plaque;
• Free publication in 4 journals (Algorithms, Axioms, Fractal and Fractional, Cryptography) in 2019 or 2020 (submitted in 2019); and no limit to the number of papers.

Please send the nomination to mathaward@mdpi.com before 12 December 2018. The winner will be announced in December 2018.

The MDPI Young Mathematician Award 2018 is sponsored by MDPI journals: Algorithms, Axioms, Fractal and Fractional, Cryptography.

The 2017 CiteScore™ data is available now, based on citation data in the Scopus® database. The current CiteScore reflects citation activity in 2017 for articles published in 2014‒2016. Please note that the list below includes journals assigned a CiteScore in this year’s release. For a full list of journals indexed in Scopus, please see our journal list.

Thirteen of our journals received a CiteScore which is in the top 10% of the distribution in at least one of the categories (marked with * in the table below), while a further 32 journals exhibit scores that are in the first quartile of the respective categories.

To access the full data for MDPI journals, please see here. More data can also be found in SJR Scimago Journal & Country Rank.

Unlike CiteScores and the widely used Journal Impact Factors, the Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) metrics are normalized in order to correct for differences in citation practices between scientific fields. Therefore, the SNIP allows direct comparison between journals specialized in different fields.

According to 2017 data, MDPI publishes six journals with an average citation impact, or SNIP, in excess of 1.500. These journals are Biomolecules, Cancers, Journal of Clinical Medicine (JCM), Marine Drugs, Remote Sensing and Sensors (see the last column in the table below).

CiteScore Data for MDPI Journals