Date: 25 May 2023, 5:00 p.m. CEST
Webinar ID: 864 3865 8899

Nano-alloy is a broad term used to describe a nanoparticle made of two or more metallic chemical elements. The research field of nano-alloys is growing along many fronts, ranging from theory and synthesis, analysis, and characterization to applications in catalysis, materials science, optics, electronics, and magnetics. The expected impact of nanoalloys on the technologies of both today and tomorrow–and through them on our societies–is comparable to that of metals in the history of civilization. At the bulk scale, the interest in alloys keeps growing since they have different physical and chemical properties compared to their individual constitutive elements. Beside this composition dependence, there are three additional knobs of freedom at the nanoscale, i.e., size, morphology, and segregation/ordering, playing a major role in the properties of the nano-alloy. In this context, this webinar will focus on recent advances in the study of the properties and applications of nano-alloy materials, as well as their opportunities and challenges.

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Program

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Webinar Chair and Keynote Speakers:

• Prof. Dr. Gregory Guisbiers, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA;
• Prof. Dr. Miguel Jose-Yacaman, Department of Applied Physics & Materials Science, Northern Arizona University, USA;
• Prof. Dr. Konstantin Neyman, ICREA, University of Barcelona, Spain;
• Prof. Dr. Vincenzo Amendola, Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Italy.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Metals 2022 Outstanding Reviewer Award. The Metals Editorial Board and editorial team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by reviewers in checking the manuscripts submitted to Metals. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround are maintained.

There are two winners this year, Dr. Wolfgang Löser and Prof. Dr. Weimin Wang, and here is a short interview with Prof. Dr. Weimin Wang.

Photograph for SEM test

Prof. Dr. Weimin Wang is a professor at the College of Materials Science and Engineering and Key Laboratory of Liquid–Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Shandong University, China. His research interests include glassy alloys, computation science in materials and electrochemistry in metals. He has published 150 papers in international journals.

My current research focuses on Fe-based and Al-based glassy alloys. The project includes the effect of pulse laser processing on crystallization and corrosion resistance of Fe-based glassy alloys, the effects of DC Joule heating on corrosion resistance and magnetic anisotropy of Fe₇₈Si₉B₁₃ amorphous alloys, effects of the stress field on the structure and properties of Al₈₆Ni₉La₅ amorphous alloy, and the structural, magnetic anisotropy and crystallization behavior after external field treatments of Fe-based amorphous alloys. This work tried to discover the external fields of glassy alloys and tried to search for some new strategies to improve their functional properties.

My work also involves the electrochemical behavior of Fe-based glassy alloy in alkaline solution and the effect of magnetic field on its corrosion resistance, insight into the backbone structure and corrosion properties of Al-Ni-RE amorphous alloys on solute elements addition, and the effects of cooling rate and solution concentration on corrosion resistance of Fe-based amorphous alloys. These works mainly use electrochemical analysis and try to discover new methods for passivating metallic alloys.

In short, the microstructure and properties of metallic alloys are my interests.

2. Which research topics do you think are of particular interest to the research community in the coming years?

(1) Magnetic materials. With the continuous development of the power electronics industry, the trend of miniaturization, integration, and high efficiency has put forward higher requirements for the soft magnetic properties of magnetic materials. Traditional soft magnetic materials, such as silicon steel and ferrite, cannot combine low-loss characteristics at high frequencies with high saturation magnetic induction. New amorphous and nanocrystalline soft magnetic materials, as a newly emerging metal material in recent years, have become an ideal choice for preparing a new generation of high frequency and high-efficiency motor materials due to their unique comprehensive soft magnetic properties such as high resistivity, low coercivity, high saturation magnetic susceptibility, and corrosion resistance.

(2) Metallic powders. The powder metallurgy industry has developed rapidly, and the production of metal powders has increased year by year. With the advantages of low cost, high degree of freedom of alloy composition, fast cooling rate, large-scale production, and excellent comprehensive powder performance, atomization has been able to account for over 80% of the current total powder production. It is one of the ideal processes for preparing fine amorphous powders.

(3) High entropy alloys. Traditional alloy design concepts combine one or two primary elements with secondary elements to produce many combinations. Related work has reached the bottleneck period. In the pursuit of alloys with special microstructure and properties such as high strength, new design concepts such as high entropy alloys (HEAs) have emerged. It is usually composed of at least 5 main elements, each of which has an atomic content of 5 to 35 at%. High entropy alloys have simple random solid solutions rather than ordered and/or intermetallic compound phases, such as disordered face-centered cubic (fcc, A1), disordered body-centered cubic (bcc, A2), ordered fcc (L12), ordered bcc (B2), and hexagonal close-packed (hcp, A3). It has unique properties different from traditional alloys: high strength and hardness, unique magnetism, superior corrosion and oxidation resistance, super high fatigue strength, good tribological properties, good high temperature softening and creep resistance, excellent radiation resistance, high thermal stability, and superior low-temperature mechanical properties.

3. Have you ever encountered any difficulties while conducting research? How did you overcome them?

The first difficulty is the shortage of funding. Just after defending my Ph.D. degree, I obtained a position at my university where I finished my Ph.D. degree. I am lucky because I have not had to join the job market and apply for positions by mailing my CV. But the funding is difficult for me to reach. I remember that the starting support of our university is only RMB 10,000, and a new computer costs half of that. Since then, I have had to apply for various government foundations and try to contact companies.

During this difficult time, I applied for a post-doctoral program at Nanjing University and Humboldt Foundation in Germany. After that, I obtained funding from the NSFC committee and other departments. However, the second difficulty arises in my research life.

The second one is how to work with graduate students. Firstly, the number of students is not enough. In some years, I do not have even one student entering my group. Every fall, I am worried about newcomers. In addition, after new students join my group, how to work with them is not easy to answer.

In short, the difficulties also bring much happiness to my life.

Young scientists should first have a good theoretical foundation, and their university and postgraduate study is of great importance. Mathematics, physical concepts, and computation coding are very important for exploring detailed projects.

At the same time, they should have good communication skills with their colleagues and students. When entering the workplace, knowing how to obtain effective information from friends, partners, colleagues, and peers and improving their academic level is very important.

In addition, a kind of persistence and perseverance help develop an academic style; this growth is very important, but it is very difficult.

Open access (OA) journals have an increasing tendency for advanced publishing groups because they are quick, highly efficient, broadly spreadable, and of large volume. OA has many positive impacts on the authors: its quickness, authors can get efficient feedback from the referees and adjust their research routines on time. For my students, the quick and high-level reviewing comments are very helpful for the next work. As we know, the length of time that it takes for a student to undergo a Ph.D. is three years, which is not that long and is mixed with other things. A quick response from the OA journal is needed for Ph.D. candidates.

The large volume is also advanced. In China, the volume of postgraduate students is increasing every year, and many universities require publishing records. Hence, the supply and demand are matching the increasing speed.

There is also a shortage of OA journals. Sometimes they focus on the profits rather than the quality. Such phenomena are adjusted by the self-cleaning characteristics of academic society.

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Metals 2023 Young Investigator Award—Dr. João Pedro Oliveira.

Dr. João Pedro Oliveira is an assistant professor at the Department of Materials Science at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal. Dr. Oliveira’s research interests focus on using advanced manufacturing technologies (welding and additive manufacturing) and advanced characterization techniques (such as SEM, TEM, and synchrotron X-ray diffraction) to link the microstructural characteristics of processed metals with their functional and thermomechanical behavior. Dr. Oliveira received his Ph.D. in 2016 and has an outstanding publication record. The impact of his research group can be measured by the number and scholarly impact of their publications, as reflected by a Scopus H-index of 43. He is regarded as an influential and promising contributor to the field of materials science and engineering. As a single applicant, Dr. Oliveira was also able to attract significant funding for research. Moreover, he is the principal investigator and coordinator of the ongoing European project on wire and arc additive manufacturing that has received EUR 1.7 million in funding. This is an outstanding achievement in today’s competitive environment.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. João Pedro Oliveira for his outstanding achievements.

We would like to thank the award committee for their excellent work in the difficult task of selecting a winner from such a large number of excellent candidates. We would also like to thank all the nominees from various fields for their participation. We will continue to reward young scientists with the Young Investigator Award and wish them every success in their careers.

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. João Pedro Oliveira:

My name is João Pedro Oliveira, and I am currently working as an assistant professor of materials science at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal. I completed my Ph.D. on laser welding of shape memory alloys at NOVA in 2016 with Professor Braz Fernandes and Professor Rosa Miranda, where I spent a part of my time at the University of Waterloo, Canada, with Professor Norman Zhou. Then I moved to Ohio State University, USA, to work with Professor Antonio Ramirez as a postdoctoral researcher. Finally, I moved back to NOVA to be a faculty member there.

In my free time, I enjoy running a lot, especially in the mountains, and spending time with my family.

2. What is your current research and why did you choose this research field?

I started conducting research on the welding of shape memory alloys because I won a scholarship. I was immediately hooked because of the unusual properties of these materials. I then proceeded to a Ph.D. on this topic and was able to make my own path on evaluating the weldability and processability of novel shape memory alloys. My research interests in terms of materials selection have always been based on how interesting (or weird) the materials are. That is why my focus is on shape memory and high entropy alloys, because the alloy classes are so different from conventional engineering alloys. I am also very fond of using synchrotron radiation as a unique way to probe the microstructure and properties of my materials, so synchrotron-related data are often found in my work.

The field of welding and additive manufacturing appears because I like to be involved in a lab and try some processing myself when I have some spare time.

3. Have you ever encountered any difficulties while conducting research? How did you overcome them?

As a Ph.D. student, I did not have all the facilities for both processing and advanced characterization that I required to perform in-depth work. I overcame this by looking for potential collaborations. This worked out very well and some of these collaborators are now even my personal friends. There were times during my Ph.D. where I would be very frustrated because my first paper was not approved or accepted by editors. I was 2 years into my Ph.D. and had not published any papers. That was tough. However, a little over a year after my Ph.D. defense, I had by then published more than 10 papers, several of which were in leading journals. So, the takeaway is that publishing takes time. I had spent a lot of time trying to perfect my writing and communication skills and this helped me a lot in getting published. Now, publishing a large number of papers is no longer a standard. The quality of the papers published is indeed the key factor by which Ph.D. students should be evaluated on.

That being said, sometimes it is better to have fewer papers but more in-depth discussions, rather than breaking a potential good work into several low impact ones.

4. What qualities do you think young scientists need?

Ph.D. students must be curious. Why does "this" work and how can we explain "this" that we are observing? Can we formulate some hypothesis and validate it? If yes, can we transmit this information to others in a clear and easy way?

Ph.D. students should also try to find their own path. Sometimes this may take more support from their supervisor, and sometimes this is not really needed. A healthy and open student–supervisor relationship is also fundamental. Sometimes, Ph.D. students struggle in silence, especially if they are away from home, and some words of comfort or an opportunity to vent can make the difference between good or bad mental health.

More importantly, from time to time, stop and enjoy the ride. This will likely be the time in your life where you can follow your research (or other) interests in a low-pressure environment.

5. Can you briefly describe the key to a happy laboratory life?

I think my lab is quite happy. We are a multicultural group (students from Portugal, Brazil, China, and India) and I make sure that they work together whenever suitable. This allows them to gain more knowledge of adjacent topics that may be useful for them. I also try to have them collaborate with other labs and even visit them. Aside from giving them exposure to other work environments, it also shows them that no matter where, there are always good and bad factors in a research environment.

6. As the winner of this award, is there something you want to express, or someone to thank most?

This award is only possible because research is a team effort in most cases. So, I have to thank my students and colleagues for putting in the time when we are doing experimental work and writing papers. Special acknowledgements to my wife Susana for supporting me as well.

We are pleased to announce the winner of the Metals 2022 Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. This award is for a Ph.D. student or recently qualified researcher who has produced a highly anticipated thesis with impressive academic potential.

The award has been granted to the following thesis:
“Computational and experimental thermo-mechanics of metal additive manufacturing: stress, warpage, cracks and properties” by Xufei Lu, Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Spain.

The winner will receive CHF 800, a certificate, and a chance to publish a paper free of charge after peer review in Metals in 2023.

We congratulate Dr. Xufei Lu on his accomplishments. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the applicants for submitting their exceptional theses and the Award Committee for voting, and supporting this award.

Dr. Xufei Lu is an accomplished post-doctoral researcher at the International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE), Polytechnical University of Catalonia, located in Spain. He completed his master's degree in materials science and engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China from 2016 to 2019, and later went on to pursue his Ph.D. in structural analysis at UPC. Dr. Lu successfully defended his thesis with a mark of Excellent Cum Laude in 2022. Dr. Lu's research focus is metallic additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, and he has been studying this area since 2016. His research interests in AM cover a wide range of topics. Dr. Lu specializes in the numerical simulation of thermo-microstructural–mechanical evolution during the AM of metallic materials, especially the formation mechanisms of residual stresses, part warpages, and cracks for metal AM, as well as the corresponding control strategies. He has also studied the design and optimization of microstructures and macro geometric structures of AM builds and substrates for fabricating high-quality AM parts. Dr. Lu has published over 30 papers in reputed international journals, which have received more than 800 citations. He has also been a reviewer for prestigious international journals such as Additive Manufacturing, Materials & Design, Additive Manufacturing Letters, Journal of Thermal Stresses, and 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.

The following is an interview with Dr. Xufei Lu:

1. What’s your current research and why did you choose this research field?
My current research is on the numerical simulation of thermal–metallurgical–mechanical behavior during the additive manufacturing processes of metallic materials.
Additive manufacturing (AM) is a rapidly growing area of manufacturing that allows for the creation of complex shapes and geometries that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with traditional manufacturing methods. In AM, a digital model of the object to be printed is created, and this is then sliced into thin layers. The printer then builds up the object by depositing material layer by layer until the entire object is complete. The materials used in AM can include plastics, metals, ceramics, and composites. Applications of AM include prototyping, tooling, and end-use parts in a range of industries, including aerospace, automotive, healthcare, and consumer goods. AM is becoming popular in industry due to its advantages including:
Design flexibility: AM allows for complex geometries and designs that were previously impossible with traditional manufacturing techniques. This means that engineers and designers can create parts that are more lightweight, efficient, and customized to the application.
Faster prototyping: AM can quickly produce prototypes of new parts or products, allowing engineers and designers to test and refine their designs more quickly and efficiently.
Reduced waste: Traditional manufacturing techniques often produce a significant amount of waste; however, AM can reduce waste by only using the necessary amount of material to create a part.
Lower costs for small production runs: AM can be more cost-effective for producing small batches of parts, as it eliminates the need for expensive tooling or molds.
Improved supply chain efficiency: AM can be used to produce parts on demand, reducing the need for large inventories, and streamlining the supply chain.
Hence, I chose this field as my study topic.

2. Have you ever encountered any difficulties when conducting research? How did you overcome them?
For sure. It is very common to experience failure when conducting research, such as technical challenges, time constraints, and unexpected results. My solutions are collaborating with other researchers, seeking help from mentors or colleagues, staying persistent, thinking creatively, and adapting to changes.

3. What qualities do you think young scientists need?
I think young scientists need to develop the following qualities:
Curiosity: Young scientists should have a strong desire to learn and explore new ideas, concepts, and technologies.
Creativity: The ability to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions is critical for scientific breakthroughs.
Persistence: Science often involves setbacks and failures, and young scientists must be persistent in the face of challenges.
Strong work ethic: Successful scientists are typically hardworking and committed to their research.
Effective communication skills: Good communication skills are essential for sharing research findings, collaborating with other scientists, and securing funding.
Adaptability: The ability to adapt to new situations and work effectively in a variety of settings is important for scientists who work on interdisciplinary teams or in different laboratory environments.
Attention to detail: Science often involves complex data sets, and young scientists must be able to pay attention to details and ensure accuracy in their work.
Open-mindedness: Young scientists should be open to constructive criticism and new ideas, and be willing to revise their hypotheses or approaches if necessary.
Passion: Lastly, a passion for science is essential for a successful career in research. A love of discovery and the pursuit of knowledge can drive young scientists to make significant contributions to their fields.

4. As Metals is an Open Access journal, how do you think Open Access impacts the authors?
I think Open Access publishing has a significant impact on authors, as follows:
Increased visibility and impact: Open Access publishing makes research articles easily accessible to a global audience, increasing the visibility and reach of the research. As a result, it can lead to greater citation rates and impact on the research field.
Greater dissemination of research: Open Access publishing enables authors to reach a wider audience without the restrictions of subscription-based journals. The research can be accessed by anyone, including researchers, academics, policymakers, practitioners, and the general public, leading to the greater dissemination of research findings.
More opportunities for collaboration: Open Access publishing can facilitate collaboration between researchers from different disciplines and institutions, leading to a more significant exchange of knowledge and ideas.
Better compliance with funding agency requirements: Many funding agencies now require grantees to publish their research in Open Access journals, making it easier for authors to comply with these requirements.
In summary, Open Access publishing provides authors with a range of benefits, including greater visibility, dissemination, collaboration, and compliance with funding agency requirements, among others.

5. Would you like to share your experience with the journal Metals and why you decided to apply for the Best Ph.D. Thesis Award?
Metals is a prestigious international journal dedicated to publishing high-quality scientific research and technology development related to all kinds of metals. The journal provides a forum for publishing papers that advance the in-depth understanding of the relationship between processing, structure, and properties or functions of metals. As an author, I have found Metals to be an ideal platform to publish my research work, and I am proud to say that I have published three papers in this esteemed journal.
I frequently browse the Metals webpage to read interesting publications and stay up to date with the latest research in the field. When I discovered the opportunity to apply for the award, I decided to submit my work for consideration. Winning the award came as a pleasant surprise to me, and I am grateful for the recognition of my work by Metals.

6. As the winner of this award, is there something you want to express, or someone to thank most?
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors Prof. Michele Chiumenti and Prof. Miguel Cerverafor, for the trust they put in me since the beginning and for their insightful guidance and full support. My supervisors gave me the freedom and all the support needed during my master’s degree and doctoral studies. Their knowledge and passion for science drove me beyond my limits and made the completion of this project possible.
I also want to thank my colleagues for their help and strong support during the whole research process.
Lastly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Metals journal for awarding me the Metals 2022 Best Ph.D. Thesis Award. It is a great honor to be recognized for my hard work and dedication to this field of research.

Conference: The 7^th Conference on New Energy and New Chemical Materials Cum National Symposium on Energy Conversion and Storage Materials
Date: 7–9 April 2023
Place: Wuhan, China

Materials (ISSN: 1996-1944) will be attending the 7^th Conference on New Energy and New Chemical Materials Cum National Symposium on Energy Conversion and Storage Materials as an exhibitor from 7 to 9 April 2023, in Wuhan, China.

The 7^th Conference on New Energy and New Chemical Materials Cum National Symposium on Energy Conversion and Storage Materials is an important academic conference in the field of new energy materials and devices research in China. It has been successfully held six times in Xiamen, Suzhou, Dalian, Zhengzhou, and twice in Xi'an. The conference will focus on academic exchanges and discussions on secondary batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells and electrocatalysis, advanced energy storage materials and technologies, anode and cathode materials, and other energy storage technologies from the academic and application fields. The conference will bring together famous domestic experts, scholars, and enterprise technicians to discuss the future development prospects and directions of new energy materials and devices research.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Materials;
• Metals;
• Catalysts;
• Nanomaterials;
• Batteries;
• Electrochem;
• Electronic Materials;
• Crystals.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you plan on attending this conference. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you might have.

For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: http://www.zgclzk.org.cn/col.jsp?id=141.

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.

Conference: The Fourth International Conference on Energy Storage Materials
Date: 13–16 April 2023

MDPI will be attending the Fourth International Conference on Energy Storage Materials as the exhibitor. With the theme of advanced energy storage materials and energy storage devices, this seminar invites well-known scholars and industry professionals from around the world to discuss the latest research progress and industrial development status and trends in advanced energy storage materials and devices from academic and industrial perspectives in order to promote the application process of energy storage materials and energy storage devices. The conference is held annually.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Batteries;
• Energies;

• Coatings;

• Sustainability;
• Materials;
• Electronics;
• Nanomaterials;
• Inorganics;
• Crystals;
• AppliedChem;
• Membranes;
• Electrochem;
• Applied Sciences;
• Metals;
• Molecules.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us at our booth: #9. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit http://www.icensm.ac.cn/eindex.html.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Victorino Franco has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of Section “Metallic Functional Materials” in Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701).

Affiliation: Department of Condensed Matter Physics, University of Seville, 41080 Seville, Spain
Interests: magnetic materials for energy applications; soft magnetic materials; thermomagnetic phase transitions; caloric effects; functional high-entropy alloys; additive manufacturing

Prof. Dr. Victorino Franco is a Full Professor at the Condensed Matter Physics Department of the University of Seville, Spain. His current research interests focus on magnetic materials for energy applications, including soft-magnetic materials, magnetocaloric materials, and functional high entropy alloys. He was a recipient of the Young Scientist Award from the Royal Physical Society of Spain in 2000 and the Royal Order of Chivalry of Seville in 2005 and was named IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecturer in 2019. He served as Chair of the Spain Chapter of the IEEE Magnetics Society, Chair of the Magnetic Materials Committee of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), and is currently the President of the Spanish Magnetism Club (CEMAG). Prof. Dr. Franco is an author of more than 200 international peer-reviewed publications that have received more than 10,000 citations and has an h-index of 47.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Victorino Franco, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and Open Access publishing:

Many journals in material science are classified by dimensionality, with a strong focus on nanomaterials and 2D materials nowadays, by the type of application in which the material will be used, like structural, optical, magnetic, etc. or they are simply too broad and encompass all the possible materials. What attracts me to Metals is that it is relatively focused on one specific type of material, avoiding the content becoming too dispersed, while it allows studies to analyze these materials from multiple perspectives. At the same time, dividing the journal into sections is a way to further classify the publications and cater to the appropriate audience without losing the necessary interactions between the different properties of metallic materials.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

There is a strong competition among journals to be ranked among the top in the different categories. Those covering very hot topics would probably make it to the top while that area of research lasts. This strategy leads to the fragmentation of the content, separating specific areas from other connected topics. Metals, as mentioned above, has the possibility of including a full breadth of properties within its umbrella, ranging from structural properties, such as the outstanding characteristics of high-entropy alloys, to functional applications; from experimental synthesis and characterization of materials’ properties to the simulation of the feasible (micro)structures and the associated functionality. This journal should continue to be an archival publication with high publication standards, where the most relevant characteristics of metals are studied, often in a multi-property and multidisciplinary way. Functionality is deeply linked to microstructure, processing, and composition, and this interrelation is of the utmost importance. Papers that simply list properties, unless they are the best in class, usually do not help the advancement of science and technology; those which explain why the response is like that, even if there are better properties published for other compositions, might pave the way for the improvement of the material. These articles are more appealing to me.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

Metallic materials are used in all aspects of our lives. From the staple that binds several pages together, to the structure of many buildings and civil infrastructures; from the magnets that attach the same papers to the door of the refrigerator, to the active magnetocaloric materials that will replace the operation principle of these devices, just to mention a few cases. For functional materials, their applicability is usually not only due to the property that provides the functionality, but it is also strongly connected to secondary properties, such as chemical stability, mechanical characteristics, thermal response, sustainability of the production method, etc. This multi-property approach will gain further relevance as we move towards a more environmentally friendly, sustainable way of life.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?

Changes in paradigm always imply some debate and, in some cases, even resistance from those who were key players before the change. When finances are involved, the discussion gets more intense. Authors were used to the situation in which their institutions pay hefty subscription fees to be able to read publications from colleagues. Nowadays, with Open Access in place, institutions (in some cases, the authors themselves) have to pay for publishing their content. Research funds are scarce and difficult to obtain (I know very few researchers, if any, that claim that they have too much research money); therefore, dedicating part of those funds to publishing is counterintuitive. At the same time, we have to realize that many of those funds are from public sources, and the results should be available for the advancement of the society at large, which supports the Open Access approach. But publishing is a service provided by private companies or independent organizations, meaning that someone should pay for those costs. Being a researcher myself, scavenging for any possible funding source to support the work and salaries of my team and to make it grow, I strongly believe that a part of those costs should be borne by the institutions, because they will use those publications to be able to appear in significant positions of institutional rankings.

A separate problem is the misconception that requesting payment for publishing (after the paper is accepted through a rigorous peer review process) directly implies that there is a lack of ethics in the process. I strongly disagree with that distorted view. I have been on a number of editorial boards and played the role of guest editor of both Open Access and traditional journals, and the procedures for publication are equally strict. Many researchers are unaware of the existence of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), which is “committed to educating and supporting editors, publishers and those involved in publication ethics with the aim of moving the culture of publishing towards one where ethical practices become a normal part of the publishing culture”. Similarly, the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA) focuses on ensuring a diverse, vibrant, and healthy Open Access community. Being a member of COPE and OASPA, as MDPI is, comes with strict scrutiny of ethical standards and warrants that the publisher and the journal are reliable sources of scientific content. 

In short, Open Access seems to be the path to the future, being even requested by funding agencies. Some of the dust of the change of paradigm should settle down in the near future, such as who pays for publications and the removal of unethical publishers just in search for revenue that gives a bad image to the Open Access approach.

We wish Prof. Dr. Victorino Franco every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.

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.

It is our pleasure to announce the five winners of the Metals 2021 Highly Cited Paper Award, which recognizes the most cited papers published in Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2020. The papers selected for this award were assessed by the Metals Award Committee, led by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Hugo F. Lopez. The recipients of the Metals 2021 Highly Cited Paper Award are as follows:

First Prize (CHF 800 and a certificate)

“A Review of the Serrated-Flow Phenomenon and Its Role in the Deformation Behavior of High-Entropy Alloys”
by Jamieson Brechtl, Shuying Chen, Chanho Lee, Yunzhu Shi, Rui Feng, Xie Xie, David Hamblin, Anne M. Coleman, Bradley Straka, Hugh Shortt et al.
Metals 2020, 10(8), 1101; https://doi.org/10.3390/met10081101
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/10/8/1101

Winning Article Introduction

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a novel class of alloys that have many desirable properties. The serrated flow that occurs in high-entropy alloys during mechanical deformation is an important phenomenon since it can lead to significant changes in the microstructure of the alloy. In this article, we review the recent findings on the serration behavior in a variety of high-entropy alloys. Relationships among the serrated flow behavior, composition, microstructure, and testing condition are explored. Importantly, the mechanical-testing type (compression/tension), testing temperature, applied strain rate, and serration type for certain high-entropy alloys are summarized. The literature reveals that the serrated flow can be affected by experimental conditions such as the strain rate and test temperature. Furthermore, this type of phenomenon has been successfully modeled and analyzed, using several different types of analytical methods, including the mean-field theory formalism and the complexity-analysis technique. Importantly, the results of the analyses show that the serrated flow in HEAs consists of complex dynamical behavior. It is anticipated that this review will provide some useful and clarifying information regarding the serrated-flow mechanisms in this material system. Finally, suggestions for future research directions in this field are proposed, such as the effects of irradiation, additives (such as C and Al), the presence of nanoparticles, and twinning on the serrated flow behavior in HEAs.

Acceptance Speech from the Authors:

We are extremely grateful to MDPI for having been selected to receive the “Highly Cited Paper Award” as it is an honor for our work to be recognized in this way. We would also like to thank our team members since winning this award would not have been possible without their exceptional efforts. Our team hopes that this work will be both an inspiration as well as a source of knowledge for years to come. Lastly, we will also continue to push the boundaries of the field of serrated plastic flow.

Second Prize (CHF 500 and a certificate)

1. “Recent Development in Beta Titanium Alloys for Biomedical Applications”
by Liang-Yu Chen, Yu-Wei Cui and Lai-Chang Zhang
Metals 2020, 10(9), 1139; https://doi.org/10.3390/met10091139
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/10/9/1139

Winning Article Introduction

Beta-type titanium (Ti) alloys, which primarily consist of beta phase with a body-centered cubic structure, have attracted a lot of attention as novel biomedical materials in the past decades owing to their low elastic moduli and good biocompatibility compared with the other Ti alloys. This article provides a broad and extensive review of beta-type Ti alloys in terms of alloy design, preparation methods, mechanical properties, corrosion behavior, and biocompatibility. As reviewed, beta-type Ti alloys have lower elastic moduli, better corrosion behavior, and higher biocompatibility compared with other types of Ti alloys. Additive manufacturing technologies give the opportunity for further controlling the elastic moduli of beta-type Ti alloys by producing lattice structures. Hence, beta-type Ti alloys are suitable for use as implant materials. However, due to their inert characteristics, the bioactivity of beta-type Ti alloys needs to be improved.

Acceptance Speech from the Authors:

We are very grateful to have been selected to receive the “Highly Cited Paper Award” from MDPI. Thank you all so much for being here to share this occasion. We are so honored to have our work recognized by MDPI. It means so much to us that the work we are so passionate about resonates with others. We would also like to thank our group members and our family for their support throughout the writing of this article. Lastly, thanks to Jiangsu University of Science and Technology and Edith Cowan University for recognizing us. We hope that this recognition of our work can serve as an inspiration to others in the field. We will continue our efforts in the field of biomedical titanium alloys and look forward to bringing positive changes to biomedical titanium alloys for many years to come. We are humbled and appreciative.

2. “3D Printing of Highly Pure Copper”
by Thang Q. Tran, Amutha Chinnappan, Jeremy Kong Yoong Lee, Nguyen Huu Loc, Long T. Tran, Gengjie Wang, Vishnu Vijay Kumar, W. A. D. M. Jayathilaka, Dongxiao Ji, Mrityunjay Doddamani et al.
Metals 2019, 9(7), 756; https://doi.org/10.3390/met9070756
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/9/7/756

Winning Article Introduction

Copper has been widely used in many applications due to its outstanding properties such as malleability, high corrosion resistance, and excellent electrical and thermal conductivities. While 3D printing can offer many advantages from layer-by-layer fabrication, the 3D printing of highly pure copper is still challenging due to the thermal issues caused by copper’s high conductivity. This paper presents a comprehensive review of recent work on 3D printing technology of highly pure copper over the past few years, including Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Electron Beam Melting (EBM), Binder Jetting (BJ) and Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing (UAM). Additionally, the advantages, challenges, and performance of the copper parts fabricated by each method have been identified and compared.

In particular, direct SLM requires higher energy power than EBM to heat the copper powder to its melting point for part fabrication owing to the issue of low energy absorption of pure copper with conventional lasers. Due to rapid melting/solidification of copper powder, the copper parts fabricated by both direct SLM and EBM have many issues in the full melting process, such as thermal residual stresses and thermally induced deformation. These issues are not severe for the indirect SLM, BJ and UAM processes as their printing temperatures are much lower (below 50% of copper’s melting temperature). Both indirect SLM and BJ need quite low power to fabricate green parts, but post processing such as green part curing, debinding, and sintering are required to achieve the final metal parts. Additionally, their final sintered parts usually have low density and high porosity, which require further post processing to obtain fully dense structures. The UAM can produce fully dense parts without post processing but high power is required to process pure copper due to material hardening and oxidation issues. Regarding printed parts’ properties, EBM can fabricate copper parts with the best value of relative density (99.95%), electrical conductivity (102% IACS), tensile strength (177 MPa), and thermal conductivity (411.89 W/mK). In contrast, copper parts from indirect SLM have the poorest performance with a relative density of 84.8% and strength of only 8 MPa.

The potential applications of the 3D printed copper parts in thermal management systems, heat exchange devices, RF cathodes, and induction heat coils have been demonstrated in the paper. In the near future, the 3D printing of pure copper will most likely grow further to address all the current issues of the printing methods while exploring more potential applications of the printed copper parts. New 3D printers equipped with a green laser source have been developed to overcome the low absorption of pure copper to conventional laser sources and component damages. The technical issues and the optimized process of 3D printing highly conductive copper components can be addressed more effectively to open up new industrial fields of application such as in mobility, electronics, robotics, hydraulics, medicine and aerospace.

Acceptance Speech from the Authors:

We are honored to accept the Metals “Highly Cited Paper Award 2021”. This award is fantastic recognition and encourages our researchers and scientists to publish more impactful research work on metal-related research areas. In recent years, 3D printing has been growing rapidly and has become one of the key manufacturing technologies in the 4^th industrial revolution. It is also considered more sustainable than conventional manufacturing processes and is therefore suitable for lowering the carbon footprint of manufactured products. As one of the highly cited papers last year, we believe that our review paper on “3D Printing of Highly Pure Copper” has contributed remarkably to scientific research and technology development in additive manufacturing fields.

We would like to express our special thanks to the Editorial Office Board of Metals for selecting our paper. In addition, we are extremely grateful to those who nominated and supported us. We are also thankful to the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, our collaborators at the University of Cambridge and Texas A&M University, as well as the research team who have made incredible contributions to this paper. The teams from different universities, institutes, and countries have been working very hard to deliver such impactful work. This is a fantastic award that strengthens our team’s passion for science during this challenging period.

Third Prize (CHF 300 and a certificate)

1. “Wire and Arc Additive Manufacturing of Aluminum Components”
by Markus Köhler, Sierk Fiebig, Jonas Hensel and Klaus Dilger
Metals 2019, 9(5), 608; https://doi.org/10.3390/met9050608
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/9/5/608

Winning Article Introduction

Since their introduction, additive manufacturing (AM) processes gained growing interest for customizable fabrication of metal components in both research and industrial applications. Thereby, the wire and arc additive manufacturing provides an emerging technology for the near net-shape additive manufacturing of large structures with complex geometry as well as the customization of semi-finished components (incremental manufacturing), using cost efficient production resources such as arc welding technology and wire materials. In this context, the presented experimental study aimed to describe the basic effects of the welding process on the buildup accuracy and material properties for the wire arc additive manufacturing of aluminum components.

Experiments were carried out comparing two different aluminum alloys, Al-4047 and Al-5356. Due to the layer-by-layer material deposition, process conditions such as energy input, arc characteristics, and material composition result in a different processability during the manufacturing process and were considered within the scope of this study. Therefore, linear wall samples were manufactured under variation of the filler wire composition and analyzed in terms of surface finishing, hardness, and residual stress. Furthermore, the mechanical properties were determined in different building directions using tensile testing.

In conclusion, the results from the experimental studies have shown that the accuracy and deposition properties during WAAM depend on the material composition. Thereby, a wide solidification range of the aluminum alloy is more suitable for uniform deposition. In addition, it was found that the arc length and pulse energy result in higher dynamic forces during droplet transition, thus affecting the deposition accuracy and surface finish appearance. The mechanical properties showed dependencies on the direction of loading with regard to the deposition direction. Samples taken vertically to the deposition direction resulted in a significant loss of elongation. Furthermore, the material properties were found to be evenly distributed over the thin-walled component.

Acceptance Speech from the Authors:

We are very pleased that various researchers, contributing to the field of additive manufacturing with metals, have cited our work and that we could contribute to improving the significance of Metals.

2. “Mechanical and Microstructural Characterization of TIG Welded Dissimilar Joints between 304L Austenitic Stainless Steel and Incoloy 800HT Nickel Alloy”
by Grzegorz Rogalski, Aleksandra Świerczyńska, Michał Landowski and Dariusz Fydrych
Metals 2020, 10(5), 559; https://doi.org/10.3390/met10050559
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/10/5/559

Winning Article Introduction

This article presents the results of experimental tests on the quality of dissimilar welded joints between 304L austenitic stainless steel and 800HT nickel alloy. TIG butt welded joints of 7.47 mm tubes were subjected to non-destructive testing (visual, penetrant and radiographic), destructive testing (static tensile test, bending test, and microhardness measurements) and structure observations (macro- and microscopic examinations, SEM, element distribution characteristics). Non-destructive tests and metallographic examinations showed that the welded joints meet the acceptance criteria for B level in accordance with the EN ISO 13919–1 standard. Significant differences were found in the morphologies of the zones between the weld and the base materials: type A fusion boundary from the side of the Incoloy 800HT alloy and type B fusion boundary in the zone: weld–304L steel. These results were confirmed by image analyses obtained on a confocal microscope. During microstructural analysis no precipitates were found that could reduce the corrosion resistance of the joints. The high quality of the joints was also confirmed by the results of the destructive tests. The tensile strength of the welded joints was higher than the joined materials (Incoloy 800HT) and a 180° bending angle was obtained confirming the high plasticity of the joints. As a consequence of structural changes caused by the influence of the welding thermal cycle microhardness reached the highest values in the weld, the lowest in HAZ from the 304L austenitic stainless-steel side. The presented procedure can be used for TIG welding of 304L–800HT nickel alloy dissimilar welded joints with the use of S Ni 6082 nickel filler metal.

Acceptance Speech from the Authors:

The authors would like to thank the employees of the Secespol Sp. z o.o. from Nowy Dwór Gdański for their help in preparing materials for welding; the technical staff from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Gdańsk University of Technology for technical assistance; and Dariusz Karubin, Ryszard Buza, and Dr. Michał Dobrzyński for consultations during the analysis of the observation results at confocal microscopy. In addition, we would like to thank the editors of the Metals journal for their professionalism and for carrying out the publishing process in short time.

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 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.

Recently, Clarivate™ revealed its 2022 list of Highly Cited Researchers™—individuals at universities, research institutes and commercial organizations.

The scientists who were selected into this year’s list of Highly Cited Researchers have published highly cited papers in the 11-year period from January 2011 to December 2021, with citation frequency in the top 1% of academic subjects and the same year of publication in the Web of Science^TM database. Based on Web of Science Citation data, 6,938 researchers from across the globe who have demonstrated a disproportionate level of significant and broad influence in their chosen field or fields over the last decade have been awarded Highly Cited Researcher 2022 designations. The list is truly global, spanning 69 countries or regions and spread across a diverse range of research sciences and social sciences.

According to statistics, 5 members of the Editorial Board of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) have been selected into the list of Highly Cited Researchers of Clarivate in 2022. They are being recognized for their high-quality scientific research achievements and outstanding contributions to professional fields. The Metals journal office sincerely congratulates all elected Editorial Board Members and hopes that they continue to have an academically productive relationship with the journal.

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!

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Ronald W. Armstrong has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Crystallography and Applications of Metallic Materials” in Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701).

Name: Prof. Dr. Ronald W. Armstrong
Affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Interests: dislocation mechanics; constitutive equations; Hall–Petch relations; Zerilli–Armstrong equations; microstructural stereology; high-rate metal deformations; ductile–brittle transition behaviors; X-ray diffraction imaging

We would like to wish him a warm welcome, and we look forward to our Section reaching more milestones under his leadership.

In order to specifically develop different research areas and attract more high-quality papers, we are pleased to announce the addition of the new Section “Metallic Functional Materials” to Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701), which intends to cover all of the disciplines of the field of materials science.

The new Section “Metallic Functional Materials” is recruiting Editorial Board Members.

The main responsibilities of Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting the Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements to the journal.

For more information about this Section, or publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/metallic_functional_materials.

To apply for joining the Section Editorial Board, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact the Metals Editorial Office at metals@mdpi.com, or Ms. Josie Li at josie.li@mdpi.com.

Taking under consideration the Section Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Yong Zhang’s proposal for Section development, the Section “Transition Metals and Rare Metals” will henceforth be known as “Entropic Alloys and Meta-Metals”. For more details, please click here.

Name: Prof. Dr. Yong Zhang
Affiliation: Beijing Advanced Innovation Center of Materials Genome Engineering, State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 30 XueyuanRoad, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: High-entropy and amorphous alloys; serration and noise in materials; metamaterials

We look forward to Section reaching more milestones under his leadership.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jianqiang Wang has been appointed Associate Editor of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701).

Name: Dr. Jianqiang Wang
Position: Associate Editor
Affiliation: Inst Met Res, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Interests: Metallic glasses; coatings; powder metallurgy; additive manufacturing; corrosion; mechanical properties

For the full list of Metal’s Editorial Board Members visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/editors.

We would like to wish him a warm welcome and we look forward to his contribution to the continued success of Metals.

In order to further develop different research areas and manage the journal more professionally, we are pleased to announce that our journal Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) has established the following two sections:

• “Metal Matrix Composites” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/metal_matrix_composites);
• “Crystallography and Applications of Metallic Materials” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/crystallography_applications_metallic_materials).

Additionally, we are currently seeking Section Editorial Board Members and accepting applications for editorial positions for these two Sections, with the opportunity to be promoted to Section Editor-in-Chief.

The main responsibilities of Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Pre-screening and making decisions on new submissions related to the journal Section;
• Helping to edit a Special Issue on a topic related to the Section (or supervising Special Issues related to your research field);
• Providing input or feedback regarding journal policies;
• Helping to promote the journal among peers or at conferences;
• Attending Board Meetings to suggest journal development strategies:
• Reviewing manuscripts.

Please send your application, or any questions, to the Metals Editorial Office (metals@mdpi.com).

Conference: International Conference of Non-Ferrous Materials 2022
Date: 15–17 July 2022
Place: Nanning, China
Booth: #A5

Materials (ISSN: 1996-1944) and Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) will be attending the International Conference of Non-Ferrous Materials 2022 as exhibitors from 15 to 17 July in Nanning, China.

The International Conference of Non-Ferrous Materials is an important academic conference in the field of non-ferrous materials, sponsored by the Nonferrous Metals Society of China and co-organized by universities, research institutes, and enterprises engaged in the non-ferrous metal industry. It is held once a year. The meeting objectives are for China to be engaged in non-ferrous metal materials science research, the development and industrialization of experts, scholars, professors, and scientific as well as technical workers, the management of the relevant government department leaders, entrepreneurs, and other relevant personnel to build a communication platform, share the latest research results of materials, achieve the purpose of promoting each other, improving together, and, additionally, to improve the status and role of new materials in China's national economy and social development.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Materials;
• Metals;
• Technologies;
• QuBS;
• JMMP;
• Alloys.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you plan on attending this conference. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you might have.

For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://www.huiyi-123.com/article/278-179.html.

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)

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 “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category. The winners 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.

Coatings:

• Marta Mohedano, Complutense University of Madrid-UCM, Spain

Materials:

• Edoardo Baldini, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Magnetochemistry:

• Mauro Perfetti, University of Florence, Italy

Membranes:

• Xu Hou, Xiamen University, China

Molecules:

• Biplab Maji, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India

Nanomaterials:

• Andres Castellanos-Gomez, Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de Madrid, Spain
• Takuya Isono, Hokkaido University, Japan
• Panbo Liu, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China

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 “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with the Outstanding Reviewer Award.

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

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

Catalysts:

• Rahat Javaid, Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, Japan
• Georgios Bampos, University of Patras, Greece
• Esmail Doustkhah, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan
• Pawan Kumar, University of Alberta, Canada

Magnetochemistry:

• Lorenzo Sorace, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy

Materials:

• Khaled Giasin, University of Portsmouth, UK
• Oldrich Sucharda, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
• Danil Pimenov, South Ural State University, Russia
• Marián Palcut, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia

Metals:

• Khaled Giasin, University of Portsmouth, UK
• Catalin Pruncu, University of Strathclyde, UK
• Jacek Tomków, Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland
• Alexander Yu Churyumov, National University of Science and Technology (MISiS), Russia
• Hesam Pouraliakbar, Chungnam National University, South Korea

Nanomaterials:

• George Kenanakis, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Greece
• Goshtasp Cheraghian, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
• Oana Cadar, Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation, Romania

Polymers:

• Sawsan A. Zaitone, Suez Canal University, Saudi Arabia
• Lucia Baldino, University of Salerno Via Giovanni Paolo II, Fisciano (SA) Italy
• Gyorgy Szekely, University of Manchester, UK
• Bin Jiang, Northeast Agricultural University, China
• Haibao Lu, Harbin Institute of Technology, China

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 criteria such as the scientific merit, overall impact, and the quality of presentation of the papers published in the journal last year.

We are honored to present the winners in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category, who were selected amongst the extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.

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

C — Journal of Carbon Research：

• “Activated Carbons Derived from High-Temperature Pyrolysis of Lignocellulosic Biomass”
  by Cristian I. Contescu, Shiba P. Adhikari, Nidia C. Gallego, Neal D. Evans and Bryan E. Biss
  C 2018, 4(3), 51; doi:10.3390/c4030051

Catalysts:

• “Hydrogen Oxidation on Ni-Based Electrocatalysts: The Effect of Metal Doping”
  by Elena S. Davydova, Jérémie Zaffran, Kapil Dhaka, Maytal Caspary Toroker and Dario R. Dekel
  Catalysts 2018, 8(10), 454; doi:10.3390/catal8100454
• “Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production: Role of Sacrificial Reagents on the Activity of Oxide, Carbon, and Sulfide Catalysts”
  by Vignesh Kumaravel, Muhammad Danyal Imam, Ahmed Badreldin, Rama Krishna Chava, Jeong Yeon Do, Misook Kang and Ahmed Abdel-Wahab
  Catalysts 2019, 9(3), 276; doi:10.3390/catal9030276
• “A General Overview of Support Materials for Enzyme Immobilization: Characteristics, Properties, Practical Utility”
  by Jakub Zdarta, Anne S. Meyer, Teofil Jesionowski and Manuel Pinelo
  Catalysts 2018, 8(2), 92; doi:10.3390/catal8020092
• “Mechanistic Insights into Photodegradation of Organic Dyes Using Heterostructure Photocatalysts”
  by Yi-Hsuan Chiu, Tso-Fu Mark Chang, Chun-Yi Chen, Masato Sone and Yung-Jung Hsu
  Catalysts 2019, 9(5), 430; doi:10.3390/catal9050430

Ceramics:

• “Chemical Preparation Routes and Lowering the Sintering Temperature of Ceramics”
  by Philippe Colomban
  Ceramics 2020, 3(3), 312–339; doi:10.3390/ceramics3030029

Coatings:

• “State of the Art in Directed Energy Deposition: From Additive Manufacturing to Materials Design”
  by Adrita Dass and Atieh Moridi
  Coatings 2019, 9(7), 418; doi:10.3390/coatings9070418
• “Encapsulation of Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells: A Review”
  by Ashraf Uddin, Mushfika Baishakhi Upama, Haimang Yi and Leiping Duan
  Coatings 2019, 9(2), 65; doi:10.3390/coatings9020065
• “Poly (Lactic Acid)/Thermoplastic Starch Films: Effect of Cardoon Seed Epoxidized Oil on Their Chemicophysical, Mechanical, and Barrier Properties”
  by Rosa Turco, Rodrigo Ortega-Toro, Riccardo Tesser, Salvatore Mallardo, Sofia Collazo-Bigliardi, Amparo Chiralt Boix, Mario Malinconico, Massimo Rippa, Martino Di Serio and Gabriella Santagata
  Coatings 2019, 9(9), 574; doi:10.3390/coatings9090574
• “Physical and Morphological Characterization of Chitosan/Montmorillonite Films Incorporated with Ginger Essential Oil”
  by Victor Gomes Lauriano Souza, João Ricardo Afonso Pires, Carolina Rodrigues, Patricia Freitas Rodrigues, Andréia Lopes, Rui Jorge Silva, Jorge Caldeira, Maria Paula Duarte, Francisco Braz Fernandes, Isabel Maria Coelhoso and Ana Luisa Fernando
  Coatings 2019, 9(11), 700; doi:10.3390/coatings9110700
• “Application and Evaluation of a Pectin-Based Edible Coating Process for Quality Change Kinetics and Shelf-Life Extension of Lime Fruit (Citrus aurantifolium)”
  by Neda Maftoonazad and Hosahalli S. Ramaswamy
  Coatings 2019, 9(5), 285; doi:10.3390/coatings9050285

Crystals:

• “Crystal and Magnetic Structures in Layered, Transition Metal Dihalides and Trihalides”
  by Michael A. McGuire
  Crystals 2017, 7(5), 121; doi:10.3390/cryst7050121
• “σ-Hole Interactions: Perspectives and Misconceptions”
  by Peter Politzer and Jane S. Murray
  Crystals 2017, 7(7), 212; doi:10.3390/cryst7070212
• “σ-Hole Interactions of Covalently-Bonded Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Arsenic: A Survey of Crystal Structures”
  by Peter Politzer, Jane S. Murray, Goran V. Janjić and Snežana D. Zarić 
  Crystals 2014, 4(1), 12-31; doi:10.3390/cryst4010012
• “Epitaxial Graphene on SiC: A Review of Growth and Characterization”
  by Gholam Reza Yazdi, Tihomir Iakimov and Rositsa Yakimova
  Crystals 2016, 6(5), 53; doi:10.3390/cryst6050053

Magnetochemistry:

• “A Clock Transition in the Cr₇Mn Molecular Nanomagnet”
  by Charles A. Collett, Kai-Isaak Ellers, Nicholas Russo, Kevin R. Kittilstved, Grigore A. Timco, Richard E. P. Winpenny and Jonathan R. Friedman
  Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(1), 4; doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5010004
• “A Series of Field-Induced Single-Ion Magnets Based on the Seven-Coordinate Co(II) Complexes with the Pentadentate (N₃O₂) H₂dapsc Ligand”
  by Vyacheslav A. Kopotkov, Denis V. Korchagin, Valentina D. Sasnovskaya, Ildar F. Gilmutdinov and Eduard B. Yagubskii
  Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(4), 58; doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5040058
• “Magnetic Janus Particles for Static and Dynamic (Bio)Sensing”
  by Susana Campuzano, Maria Gamella, Verónica Serafín, María Pedrero, Paloma Yáñez-Sedeño and José Manuel Pingarrón
  Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(3), 47; doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5030047

Membranes:

• “Composite Membranes for High Temperature PEM Fuel Cells and Electrolysers: A Critical Review”
  by Xinwei Sun, Stian Christopher Simonsen, Truls Norby and Athanasios Chatzitakis
  Membranes 2019, 9(7), 83; doi:10.3390/membranes9070083

• “Transport Characteristics of Fujifilm Ion-Exchange Membranes as Compared to Homogeneous Membranes AMX and CMX and to Heterogeneous Membranes MK-40 and MA-41”
  by Veronika Sarapulova, Inna Shkorkina, Semyon Mareev, Natalia Pismenskaya, Natalia Kononenko, Christian Larchet, Lasaad Dammak and Victor Nikonenko
  Membranes 2019, 9(7), 84; doi:10.3390/membranes9070084

Nanomaterials:

• “Nanomaterials for the Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater”
  by Jinyue Yang, Baohong Hou, Jingkang Wang, Beiqian Tian, Jingtao Bi, Na Wang, Xin Li and Xin Huang
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(3), 424; doi:10.3390/nano9030424
• “Injectable Alginate-Peptide Composite Hydrogel as a Scaffold for Bone Tissue Regeneration”
  Moumita Ghosh, Michal Halperin-Sternfeld, Itzhak Grinberg and Lihi Adler-Abramovich
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(4), 497; doi:10.3390/nano9040497
• “Carbon Dots and Graphene Quantum Dots in Electrochemical Biosensing”
  by Susana Campuzano, Paloma Yáñez-Sedeño and José M. Pingarrón
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(4), 634; doi:10.3390/nano9040634
• “A Smart Nanovector for Cancer Targeted Drug Delivery Based on Graphene Quantum Dots”
  by Daniela Iannazzo, Alessandro Pistone, Consuelo Celesti, Claudia Triolo, Salvatore Patané, Salvatore V. Giofré, Roberto Romeo, Ida Ziccarelli, Raffaella Mancuso, Bartolo Gabriele, Giuseppa Visalli, Alessio Facciolà and Angela Di Pietro
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(2), 282; doi:10.3390/nano9020282
• “Evolution of Wearable Devices with Real-Time Disease Monitoring for Personalized Healthcare”
  by Kyeonghye Guk, Gaon Han, Jaewoo Lim, Keunwon Jeong, Taejoon Kang, Eun-Kyung Lim and Juyeon Jung
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(6), 813; doi:10.3390/nano9060813
• “An Ultra-High-Energy Density Supercapacitor; Fabrication Based on Thiolfunctionalized Graphene”
  by Janardhanan. R. Rani, Ranjith Thangavel, Se-I Oh, Yun Sung Lee and Jae-Hyung Jang
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(2), 148; doi:10.3390/nano9020148

Polymers:

• “The Relationships between the Working Fluids, Process Characteristics and Products from the Modified Coaxial Electrospinning of Zein”
  by Menglong Wang, Tao Hai, Zhangbin Feng, Deng-Guang Yu, Yaoyao Yang and SW Annie Bligh 
  Polymers 2019, 11(8), 1287; doi:10.3390/polym11081287
• “Design of Controlled Release System for Paracetamol Based on Modified Lignin”
  by Mahboubeh Pishnamazi, Hamid Hafizi, Saeed Shirazian, Mario Culebras, Gavin M. Walker and Maurice N. Collins 
  Polymers 2019, 11(6), 1059; doi:10.3390/polym11061059
• “Additive Manufacturing of PLA-Based Composites Using Fused Filament Fabrication: Effect of Graphene Nanoplatelet Reinforcement on Mechanical Properties, Dimensional Accuracy and Texture”
  by Miguel Ángel Caminero, Jesús Miguel Chacón, Eustaquio García-Plaza, Pedro José Núñez, José María Reverte and Jean Paul Becar
  Polymers 2019, 11(5), 799; doi:10.3390/polym11050799
• “Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites: Manufacturing, Properties, and Applications”
  by Miguel Ángel Caminero, Jesús Miguel Chacón, ,Eustaquio García-Plaza, Pedro José Núñez, José María Reverte and Jean Paul Becar
  Polymers 2019, 11(10), 1667; doi:10.3390/polym11101667 

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category for their outstanding presentations.

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.

Crystals:

• Gaojun Mao, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland
• Lidia Bofill Herrera, University of Barcelona, Spain

Gels:

• Demetra Giuri, University of Bologna, Italy
• Martina Genta, Imperial College London, UK

Journal of Functional Biomaterials:

• Anushree Seth, Washington University, USA

Magnetochemistry:

• Fabio Ferreira, University of Coimbra, Portugal
• Giulia Serrano, University of Florence, Italy

Materials：

• Giulia Fredi, University of Trento, Italy
• Mattia Biesuz, Czech Academy of Science, Czech Republic

Metals:

• Adriana Eres-Castellanos, Spanish National Center for Metallurgical Research, Spain
• Pavel Shurkin, National University of Science and Technology, Russia

Nanomaterials:

• Aleksandrs Leitis, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, France
• Ekaterina Kolesova, ITMO, Russia

Separations:

• Christoph Gstoettner, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands

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)

We are pleased to announce a new development project of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701)—Special Issue Mentor Program.

We seek cooperating opportunities with early career scientists to help them to develop Special Issues, experience the role of an academic editor, and establish more academic interactions under the mentorship of mature or renowned scientists.

We will provide the following services for this new development project:

• A Special Issue in your field of expertise in Metals and a Guest Editor certificate;
• Guidance from experienced scientists from Metals;
• More editorial experience in an SCIE journal to enrich your research career;
• A platform to collect papers on the topic of your interest;
• A platform for in-depth exchange and interaction between young scientists and their global peers;
• Promotional opportunities to expand your academic influence via webinars to publicize your latest scientific research activities and achievements;
• Opportunities for excellent young scientists to join our Topical Advisory Panel Board and Editorial Board and grow together with Metals.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Metals Editorial Office (metals@mdpi.com) or submit the proposal at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/metals. We will then discuss our potential collaboration and how the process works in detail.

In addition, Metals continues to welcome Special Issue proposals based on hot and advanced research topics.

The “Transition Metals and Rare Metals” Section of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/transition_metals_rare_metals.

The main responsibilities of the Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting the Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements to the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the field of transition and rare metal extraction, purification, deformation, physical and mechanical behaviors, characterization, shaping, modeling, materials design, and medium and high entropy alloys. The “Transition Metals and Rare Metals” Section of Metals aims to foster a better understanding of microstructural design and control, including the opportunities that the nanoscale field offers, allowing competition with other forming technologies in the development of high-performance materials for applications where extreme conditions are expected. High-entropy or strong-entropy materials containing transition metals and rare metals are considered, as well as metal matrix composites, hard metals, and tailored microstructural materials. Full-density metals, porous metals, foams, powders (0-D), fibers (1-D), films and coatings (2-D), and bulk (3-D) metal-containing materials are also considered.

The Section will cover any technology that can produce and tailor metallic alloys (including atomizing, mechanical alloying, granulation or agglomeration techniques, chemical processes, etc.), conventional powder metallurgy technologies, such as press and sintering, special methods of assisted sintering (liquid phase sintering, microwave sintering, field assisted sintering), metal injection molding, and technologies that provide full-density materials (hot pressing, hot isostatic pressing, powder extrusion, sinter forging, etc.). Technologies related to 0-D, 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D metals and alloys and metal-containing materials will also be covered in the Section.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/transition_metals_rare_metals.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact the Metals Editorial Office (metals@mdpi.com).

The Section “Welding and Joining” of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check out the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/welding_joining.

The main responsibilities of Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Pre-screening and making decisions on new submissions related to the journal Section;
• Helping to edit a Special Issue on a topic related to the Section (or supervising Special Issues related to your research field);
• Providing input or feedback regarding journal policies;
• Helping to promote the journal among peers or at conferences;
• Attending Board Meetings to suggest journal development strategies:
• Reviewing manuscripts.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/welding_joining.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Ms. Sunny He (sunny.he@mdpi.com) from the Metals Editorial Office.

MDPI would like to invite all recognized experts in their field to attend our Topic Workshop | Scientific Advances in STEM. The aim of this workshop is to provide a platform for scholars in disciplines related to science and engineering to discuss and contribute to the advancement of these fields.

Webinar: Topic Workshop | Scientific Advances in STEM
Date: 12/1/2022
Time: 9:30 a.m. (CET)
Register in advance for this webinar here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the workshop. The number of participants in the live session is limited, but the recording will be made available shortly afterwards. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.

Workshop Chairperson:

• Ana María Beltrán Custodio, University of Seville (US)

Dr. Ana M. Beltrán has a Ph.D. in material science and is currently an Associate Professor of Material Science at the University of Seville (Spain). Her scientific interests include the characterization of different materials, both at a macroscale (concerning the mechanical properties of biomaterials) and at a nanoscale, through transmission electron microscopy (structural and compositional analysis of bio-nanostructures, semiconductor, and catalysts) to understand their behavior. She has been the Guest Editor of Special Issues for the journal Metals, and she also contributed to MDPI’s first multidisciplinary topic involving the journals Metals, Polymers, Foods, Sustainability, and Sensors, from which a book was published. She is currently involved in the running of a second multidisciplinary topic entitled “Scientific Advances in STEM: Synergies to Achieve Success”.

Workshop Speakers:

• Frank Jörg Clemens, Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology Überlandstrasse

Dr. Frank Clemens is a Group Leader (Smart Ceramic Processing) at the Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics at Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, Switzerland. His scientific and applied research belongs to the thermoplastic processing of powder-based sensors, actuators, and structural materials. His group focuses on national and international projects in this field, and he works with physicists, chemists, material scientists, and engineers to investigate activation energies on different processing steps. In addition, he has also developed new strategies for the processing of functional ceramics and soft sensor materials and structures. Since 2003, he has been a lecturer at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), and between 2010 and 2021, he was a lecturer at ZHAW (Switzerland). He has more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and patents.

• Dr. Carlos Bengoechea, Chemical Engineering Department, University of Sevilla, Seville, Spain

Prof. Dr. Carlos Bengoechea is an Associate Professor at the University of Seville, Spain, where he teaches different courses, such as Chemical Engineering or Polymeric Materials. He has wide experience in the development of applications (e.g., plastics, emulsions) that add value to by-products of the industry (e.g., soy protein, porcine plasma). Currently, he is supervising an R&D project on green superabsorbent materials for personal care applications using different by-products.

We are pleased to provide this excellent opportunity to all the brilliant researchers to propose and develop new approaches, exchange perspectives, and encourage new lines of research.

To find out more about the speakers and the program, please visit https://sciforum.net/event/SASTEM. We hope you can join us for this event.

Shun Li
MDPI Guest Editor Club
Conference Secretariat

We would like to invite active scientific researchers to become involved in our journal Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701; IF: 2.351; ranking: 24/80 (Q2) in Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering) as an Editorial Board Member. Our Editor in Chief is Prof. Dr. Hugo F. Lopez, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA. You can see the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/editors.

If you are interested, wish to recommend potential candidates, or wish to request further information, please contact our Editorial Office (metals@mdpi.com).

It is our great pleasure to welcome the following eminent researchers, who have recently joined the Editorial Board of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701): Prof. Dr. José Luis Sánchez Llazamares, from Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Mexico, and Prof. Dr. Lin Liu, from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China.

In addition, Prof. Dr. Chunsheng Wang from the University of Maryland, MD, USA, who was previously an Editorial Board Member of Metals, has been promoted to the position of an Advisory Board Member.

We look forward to our future collaboration!

Metals Editorial Board Member Prof. Dr. Weihong Zhang was elected as an academician after the "Announcement on the Announcement of the List of Elected Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2021", made by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Name: Prof. Dr. Weihong Zhang

Affiliation: State IJR Center of Aerospace Design and Additive Manufacturing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China

Interests: optimization; advanced manufacturing; smart materials and structures

On behalf of all academic editors, the Metals Editorial Office would like to extend our congratulations to him!

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.

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

We are excited to welcome the following recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Metals:

Prof. Dr. Junpin Lin;

Prof. Dr. Huijun Li;

Prof. Dr. Zhijian Peng;

Prof. Dr. Salima Bouvier;

Prof. Dr. Alexios P. Douvalis;

Prof. Dr. Namhyun Kang;

Dr. Caterina Zanella;

Prof. Dr. Anil Mahapatro;

Dr. Liangfeng Huang;

Prof. Dr. Jianghua Chen;

Dr. Cuiwei Du;

Prof. Dr. Yong Yang;

Prof. Dr. Angelo Fernando Padilha;

Prof. Dr. Ruslan Z. Valiev;

Prof. Dr. Chang Woo Lee;

Prof. Dr. Xiangdong Gao;

Prof. Dr. Andre Paulo Tschiptschin;

Prof. Dr. Sean R. Agnew;

Dr. Ruslan R. Balokhonov;

Dr. Frank Stein;

Prof. Dr. Guosong Wu;

Dr. Michael Störmer;

Dr. Xiangyuan (Carl) Cui;

Prof. Dr. Peng Wang;

Prof. Dr. Sungmo Moon.

The Section “Computation and Simulation on Metals” of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) is recruiting Editorial Board Members. The Section Editor-in-Chief is Prof. Dr. Xing-Qiu Chen from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. You can check out the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/computation_simulation_metals.

The main responsibilities of the Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/computation_simulation_metals.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Mr. Humphrey Wu (humphrey.wu@mdpi.com) from the Metals Editorial Office.

The Section “Additive Manufacturing” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check out the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/additive_manufacturing.

The main responsibilities of the Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the field of additive manufacturing, focusing on the innovative nature of additive manufacturing and its broad applications. The scope of this Section covers the following aspects:

• Metals and alloys additive manufacturing;
• Thermal and mechanical modeling related to additive manufacturing;
• Additive manufacturing processes;
• Effects of additive manufacturing leading to metals/alloys and metallic objects;
• Applications of additive manufacturing.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/additive_manufacturing.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Ms. Maggie Guo (maggie.guo@mdpi.com), the Section Managing Editor.

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

The Section “Biobased and Biodegradable Metals” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check out the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/biobased_biodegradable_metals.

The main responsibilities of the Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the broad field of biomaterials, focusing on recent biomedical materials, to provide a summary of the latest results in the development and production of modern biomedical materials used in contemporary medicine and dentistry. Biomedical alloys are designed to take a form that can direct, through interactions with living systems, the course of any therapeutic or diagnostic procedure. Metals are currently used for medical devices, and over 70% of medical implants consist of metals, of which over 90% are orthopedic implants. Despite many metallic medical devices being in use today, they are predominantly made up of only a few metals. In this sense, in recent decades, metallic alloys have been used in the biomedical field due to their low elastic modulus, good fatigue strength and formability, and corrosion resistance. In this Section of Metals, we intend to gather the main research results from various areas related to the development, processing, and use of metallic alloys for biomedical applications. Topics of interest comprise the design and processing of biomedical alloys, titanium-based alloys, zirconium-based alloys, biodegradable alloys, porous alloys, mechanical properties of biomedical alloys, corrosion resistance of biomedical alloys, the biocompatibility of biomedical alloys, and characterization techniques.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/biobased_biodegradable_metals.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Mr. Humphrey Wu (humphrey.wu@mdpi.com) at the Metals Editorial Office.

The Section “Powder Metallurgy” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/powder_metallurgy.

The main responsibilities of the Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the field of powder metallurgy, focusing on a wider understanding of powder development, characterization, shaping, modeling, and powder metallurgy materials. Powder metallurgy allows for a better microstructural design and control, including the opportunities that the nanoscale field offers, allowing competition with other forming technologies in the development of high-performance materials for applications where extreme conditions can be expected. All metallic materials are considered, as well as metal matrix composites, hard metals, and tailored microstructural materials. Full-density materials, porous materials, and foams developed through specific routes of powder metallurgy are also considered.

The Section will cover any technology that can produce and tailor metallic powders (including atomizing, mechanical alloying, granulation or agglomeration techniques, chemical processes, etc.), conventional powder metallurgy technologies, such as press and sintering, special methods of assisted sintering (liquid phase sintering, microwave sintering, field assisted sintering), metal injection molding, and technologies that provide full-density materials (hot pressing, hot isostatic pressing, powder extrusion, sinter forging, etc.). Powder-based methods for developing materials by additive manufacturing will also be covered in the Section.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/powder_metallurgy.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Ms. Lyra Xing (lyra.xing@mdpi.com), the Section Managing Editor.

The Section “Corrosion and Protection” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/corrosion_protection.

The main responsibilities of the Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the degradation of materials via corrosion and the methods and mechanisms to protect them. It focuses on the corrosion phenomenon, including advanced mechanisms, efficient testing techniques and the main influencing factors, and finding the most suitable procedures to avoid or slow down its propagation, such as coatings, inhibitors or cathodic protection, among others.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/corrosion_protection.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Ms. Betty Jin (betty.jin@mdpi.com) from the Metals Editorial Office.

The Section “Extractive Metallurgy” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/hydrometallurgy_pyrometallurgy.

The main responsibilities of the Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Taking decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the broad field of metal production and focuses on a deeper understanding of the routes and mechanisms for the extraction of metals from primary raw materials (concentrates, mining, and mineral processing waste) and the recovery of metals from secondary raw materials (scrap, end-of-life products, industrial waste, intermediates) through recycling. The Section also covers not only processes based on reaction chemistries but also processes from the field of special metallurgy, e.g., physical refining.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/hydrometallurgy_pyrometallurgy.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Mr. Toliver Guo (toliver.guo@mdpi.com) at the Metals Editorial Office.

The Section “Metal Failure Analysis” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/metal_failure_analysis.

The main responsibilities of the Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Provide scientific supervision for the Section;
• Invite distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggest hot topics for Special Issues;
• Make decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promote this Section, recommend international conference cooperation, and assist in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Provide feedback and suggest improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the broad field of failure processes. The main focus of this Section is related to the correlation of failure with the structure and the microstructure of metals and metal welds with their properties.

For more information about this Section, or publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/metal_failure_analysis.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Mrs. Sammi Meng (sammi.meng@mdpi.com) from the Metals Editorial Office.

The 2020 citation metrics have been officially released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR)!

We are pleased to announce that 85 MDPI journals are included, of which:

• 10 journals received their first impact factor
• 96% of journals increased their impact factor from 2019
• 32 journals (38%) ranked among the top 25% of journals, in at least one category

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2021

Source: 2020 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ® (Clarivate, 2021)

We are excited to welcome the following recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Metals:

Dr. Steffen Neumeier;

Prof. Dr. Yulong Li;

Prof. Dr. Qiuming Peng;

Prof. Dr. Daniela Sachs;

Dr. Kazunori Sato;

Prof. Dr. Russell Goodall;

Prof. Dr. Liang Huang;

Dr. Jong-Taek Yeom;

Prof. Dr. Ilya Okulov;

Dr. Alexander Kauffmann;

Prof. Dr. Svea Mayer;

Prof. Dr. Zhang Erlin;

Dr. Atef Saad Hamada;

Dr. Leandro Bolzoni;

Prof. Dr. Fahe Cao;

Dr. Sebastian Feliú Jr.;

Prof. Dr. Helmi Attia;

Prof. Dr. Rességuier Thibaut;

Prof. Dr. Rodolphe Bolot;

Prof. Dr. Kenta Yamanaka;

Prof. Igor Yadroitsev;

Prof. Dr. Alfonso Paoletti;

Prof. Dr. Jer-Ren Yang;

Dr. Huaiyu Shao;

Prof. Dr. Noel Jakse;

Prof. Dr. Ehsan Toyserkani;

Dr. Juan Creus;

Dr. Karsten Kunze;

Prof. Dr. Shoujin Sun;

Prof. Dr. Varvara Romanova;

Prof. Dr. Sergey N. Grigoriev;

Prof. Dr. Janez Grum;

Prof. Dr. Alberto Moreira Jorge Junior;

Prof. Dr. Biao Chen;

Dr. Frank Czerwinski;

Prof. Dong-Woo Suh;

Prof. Dr. Andrea Di Schino;

Prof. Dr. Hardy Mohrbacher;

Prof. Dr. Antoni Roca;

Prof. Dr. João Pedro Oliveira;

Prof. Dr. Frank Liou;

Prof. Dr. Frantisek Chmelik;

Dr. Thorsten Michler;

Dr. Norbert Hort;

Prof. Dr. Xudong Qian;

Prof. Dr. Noé Cheung;

Dr. Thorsten Michler;

Prof. Dr. Ruidi Li;

Prof. Dr. Lucien Veleva;

Dr. Lingfeng He;

Prof. Dr. Tomáš Prošek;

Prof. Dr. Alexander L. Kalamkarov;

Prof. Dr. Hauke Springer;

Prof. Dr. Fumihiro Ashida;

Prof. Dr. Mohsen Asle Zaeem;

Prof. Young-Rae Cho.

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.

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)

We are excited to welcome the following recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Metals:

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.