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4 March 2024
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #9 - Romania, Research Integrity, Viruses
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
Reka Kovacs (Deputy Office Manager, MDPI), Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI), and Sandra Ana Spatariu (Office Manager, MDPI) at the MDPI office in Cluj, Romania.
MDPI’s Impact on Romania
In February, I visited our office in Cluj, Romania. I worked closely with our senior office managers and various teams, including the departments of training, marketing and conferences, as well as our journal relationship specialists, reviewing our service to the local scholarly community. During the visit, I also met with representatives from Babes-Bolyai University and the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. Our multifunctional Romanian office plays an important role in supporting our collaborations with the local market as well as helping to meet MDPI’s overall business needs.
Feedback and strategy meeting with a group of MDPI’s Journal Relationship Specialists at the MDPI office in Cluj, Romania.
With 22,436 articles, Romania ranks as a top 20 contributing country to MDPI’s total number of papers published as at 28 February 2024. This highlights the importance of our collaboration with Romanian-affiliated authors and the growing opportunity to support their publishing needs. MDPI is one of the few academic publishers with a significant presence in Romania, boasting over 360 colleagues across our offices in Bucharest and Cluj. We are also proud to hire colleagues from local institutions to launch their careers within publishing.
Romania ranks as a top 20 contributing country.
The Numbers: 2019–2023
MDPI has seen a healthy increase in submissions from Romanian authors over the past three years, from 8,439 in 2021 to 11,866 by end of 2023, with most submissions going to journals such as Sustainability, Medicina, Diagnostics, IJMS, Applied Sciences, and JCM. From 2019 to 2023, MDPI published articles from 32,145 authors affiliated with Romanian institutions. Over those years, we have worked with Romanian Guest Editors on nearly 3,000 occasions to support their Special Issue and Topical collections.
With more than 300 Editorial Board Members from Romania, 34 appear on the board of Mathematics, 27 on Materials, 19 on Polymers, 18 on Coatings, and 16 on Molecules, while three serve as Section Editors-in-Chief (SEiC) on our journals Coatings (3.4 IF, 4.6 Citescore), Magnetochemistry (2.7 IF, 3.5 Citescore), and Chemosensors (4.2 IF, 3.9 Citescore).
Institutional Open Access Programs
Our commitment to working with institutions is evident in Romania, where we have established eight Institutional Open Access Programs (IOAP) with esteemed institutions such as the University of Bucharest, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca, and most recently the National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics.
Our growth and presence in Romania are a true testament.
We also have IOAP agreements with Babes-Bolyai University and the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, where I had the opportunity to meet senior stakeholders during my visit. Below are a few photos capturing our meeting with Prof. Radu Silaghi-Dumitrescu (Head of Faculty of Chemistry, Babes-Bolyai University) at the MDPI office in Cluj, Romania, along with a photo from our meeting with Vice Deans Nicoleta Cobarzan, Nicoleta Ilies, and Hoda Gavril, from the faculty of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Cluj, Romania.
Our growth and presence in Romania are a true testament to the service we provide to the scholarly community and the relationships we foster in that region. We look forward to continuing to support Romanian scholars and institutions by providing a valuable and trusted experience with MDPI, the leader in open access publishing.
Impactful Research
MDPI Joins the STM Integrity Hub
MDPI has long been a supporter and partner of STM, with our involvement ranging from sponsoring and attending events to helping organize event programs. By joining the STM Integrity Hub, we aim to further our commitment to STM initiatives aimed at safeguarding the integrity of science.
“We are pleased to welcome MDPI as the 35th organisation participating in the Hub. This expansion is critical, as every new member enhances our capacity to prevent fraudulent submissions from entering the academic record.”
Joris van Rossum, Director of Research Integrity, STM
MDPI operates in full alignment with STM Integrity Hub's values of shared data and experiences. We strongly believe in collaboration and open exchange for the purposes of creating a holistic approach to support research integrity at MDPI itself and across the entire academic publishing industry. The Integrity Hub is an excellent example of how publishers can come together to jointly address industry-wide challenges related to research integrity, such as manuscripts that breach research integrity standards and paper-mills.
I look forward to our Research Integrity and Publication Ethics Team (RIPE) team immersing themselves in this initiative, exchanging information, best practices, and tools for the benefit of the entire scholarly ecosystem. We believe that ethical publishing standards should be implemented across the board, and we aim to be rigorous in our approach, addressing research integrity issues and improving the impact of published research.
Inside MDPI
MDPI Expands Research Integrity and Publication Ethics Team (RIPE)
In addition to external collaborations and joint initiatives aimed at further strengthening our commitment to research integrity, we are also enhancing our internal efforts. This includes improving our processes and guidelines and expanding our teams and departments to ensure quality assurance throughout our publishing process.
We are pleased to announce the expansion of our Research Integrity and Publication Ethics Team (RIPE) at MDPI. The RIPE team has recently welcomed new colleagues, each bringing unique skills and a personal commitment to prioritize ethical considerations in all our work.
The demand for research integrity and high ethical standards in academic publishing is steadily rising across our industry. Our expanded RIPE team will work to enhance and align our practices with industry best practices, ensuring excellence in research integrity and publication ethics.
Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) introduces Dr. Tim Tait-Jamieson (Research Integrity Lead, MDPI) for his presentation on MDPI’s Retraction and Approval Process to a group of Journal Relationship Specialists at the MDPI office in Cluj, Romania: “The demand for research integrity and publication ethics is steadily rising across our industry.”
Introducing our Research Integrity and Publication Ethics Team
Led by Dr. Tim Tait-Jamieson (Research Integrity Lead), the RIPE team comprises Dr. Ivana Resanovic (Research Integrity Manager), Dr. Lavinia Rogojina (Research Integrity Manager), Ms. Diana Apodaritei (Research Integrity Specialist), Dr. Zoltan Mihaly (Research Integrity Specialist), Mr. Aleksandar Đukić (Research Integrity Specialist), Ms. Ana Stankovic (Research Integrity Specialist), and Ms. Anna Pena (Publication Ethics Assistant).
Please click here to access everything that you need to know about MDPI’s Research and Publication Ethics.
With this span of complementary roles, the RIPE team collaborates directly with journal editorial teams and works closely with various departments, including our Scientific Office Board and our Journal Relationship Specialists. The team’s primary objectives are to help prevent issues regarding research integrity and publication ethics during peer review, uphold MDPI’s ethics policies, adhere to industry standards, and resolve publication ethics and research integrity issues and complaints.
Quality Updates to Special Issues Oversight
At MDPI, we are committed to reviewing policies pertaining to the quality of research. In this blog post, Shaheena Patel (Communications Associate, MDPI), outlines two recent updates to MDPI journal processes. These updates pertain to Special Issue (SI) quality guidelines, in line with criteria provided by COPE and DOAJ. Alongside the SI updates, details regarding the new minor corrections policy introduced in 2024 are provided in the blog.
The two updates we implemented include greater oversight and the verification of Guest Editor credentials. These guidelines require that Editors-in-Chief (EiCs) and Editorial Board Members (EBMs) take responsibility for overseeing SIs.
PS. Thank you, James Butcher, for featuring this up in your 67th issue of the Journalogy newsletter.
Read more:
Coming Together for Science
Viruses 2024 – A World of Viruses
I am pleased to share the success of our MDPI conference Viruses 2024 – A World of Viruses, held 14-16 February, in Barcelona. With 240 registrations, this event brought together top scientists, researchers, and industry experts from 40 countries to share their findings on the latest developments in viral pathogenesis and immune responses.
Attendees gathered for the 5th edition of the Viruses’ conference, where we hosted influential keynote speeches from Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Charles M. Rice and ‘Distinguished Senior Virologist’ Prof. Luis Enjuanes, along with 14 invited speakers, 47 selected speakers, and nine flash poster presenters, to discuss the most significant issues in virology today.
Recap on the #Viruses2024 Conference
Take a look at the key moments from MDPI’s Viruses event and please join us in commemorating a gathering for global knowledge and cooperation. A heartfelt thank-you to all attendees; their passion and engagement played a crucial role in making this event an engaging success!
Below are calls to action from the keynote speakers encouraging collaboration and communication:
“There’s never been a better time than now to really take the power that we have both in terms of basic research and also in biotech and pharma to develop antiviral agents.” - Dr. Charles M. Rice, The Rockefeller University, New York, USA
“The collaboration between labs is absolutely essential. Improving initial detection and improving communication is a must for all of us working in science.” - Prof. Dr. Luis Enjuanes, National Center of Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), Madrid, Spain
Our thanks go to our sponsors and partnering societies, our Viruses journal and editorial team, our Barcelona colleagues, and the social media, conference and other MDPI teams for making this event a memorable occasion. View the event gallery here.
Upcoming In-Person Event
24–26 April, 2024
4th MMCS – Harnessing the Power of New Drug Modalities
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Esteemed speakers at MMCS 2024 include Prof. Arun K. Ghosh, the mind behind the Darunavir molecule, and Prof. Paul Brennan, CSO of Alzheimer's Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute.
Find more upcoming MDPI events here.
Organize Your Event with MDPI’s Sciforum
Sciforum is MDPI’s platform dedicated to the organization of scientific events. In line with our mission to promote science, Sciforum supports scholars, societies, research networks, and universities at all stages of organizing in-person events, virtual events and webinars. Our platforms are efficient, user-friendly, and cost-effective. We handle all steps related to event management. Contact us for details.
Closing Thoughts
Researcher to Reader (R2R) Conference
From 20–21 February 2024, I had the pleasure of attending the Researcher to Reader (R2R) conference in London, which MDPI has proudly sponsored over the years. The conference programme offered a variety of session formats, including workshops, panel discussions, debates, interviews, presentations, and lightning talks, with opportunities to discuss relevant topics.
We take pride in supporting the scientific community, bringing researchers across the world together to network, exchange ideas and share the latest in science and publishing. In 2023, MDPI invested close to 2 million CHF in sponsoring over 2,000 scientific and publishing-related conferences worldwide.
R2R Peer Review Innovations Workshop
I found the R2R conference to be engaging, with the workshops being particularly enjoyable. My colleague Giulia Stefenelli (Chair of Scientific Office Board) and I participated in the “Peer Review Innovations” workshop, which spanned four sessions over the two days. These sessions explored the future of peer review and how we can improve the peer review process for everyone involved. Notably, the large majority of attendees expressed their opinion that peer review, as currently practiced, requires significant improvement. Together, we collaborated on potential immediate and long-term improvements and innovative processes, aiming to create an ecosystem beneficial to all stakeholders by strengthening submission systems with the aim of reducing threats and making authors more responsible for their work. We also discussed the opportunity for academic institutions to better scrutinize the quality of the work produced and submitted to journals.
Our group comprised publishers, software providers, librarians, and more, bringing diverse perspectives to the discussions. These interactions were relevant to MDPI’s ongoing conversations, providing insights to our efforts. The session also made me appreciate that MDPI is doing well, as the group discussions included the subject of various quality checks that we have already embedded in our processes, ensuring that we keep abreast of industry standards.
The need for an optimized system to incentivize the activities of editors and reviewers was also a focus of discussion, as well as the support that reviewers need from publishers via the provision of strong reports through fixed forms, questionnaires and training.
At MDPI, we are currently auditing our reviewer program to improve reviewer recognition, guidelines, and methods for identifying suitable reviewers, while maintaining our commitment to quality and timeliness.
Congratulations to Mark Carden, Conference Director, and the R2R team for organizing a productive and successful event. PS: The break times were greatly appreciated as well!
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
7 February 2024
Recruiting Editorial Board Members for Software
We are currently recruiting Editorial Board Members for Software (ISSN: 2674-113X). You can find out more about the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/software/editors.
Software is an international, open access journal that publishes papers on all aspects of software engineering. The purpose of this journal is to bring together researchers, engineers, and software developers from academia and industry to present novel ideas and solid research about the theoretical and practical aspects in the application domains of software. More information about the journal is available at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/software.
The main responsibilities of Editorial Board Members are as follows:
- Making decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted based on the collected review reports;
- Editing a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;
- Promoting the journal and increasing its visibility at related academic conferences;
- Providing advice and support for journal development.
The benefits of being an Editorial Board Member are as follows:
- The opportunity to publish one free paper per year in Software;
- A certificate in recognition of your position;
- Additional sponsorships for conferences organized by the Editorial Board Members of Software;
- Travel grants for conferences that you attend or organize.
If you are interested in becoming an Editorial Board Member or have potential candidates to recommend, please contact the Software Editorial Office. We look forward to working with you in the future.
Software Editorial Office
31 January 2024
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #8 - Altmetric and Flat Fee Agreement
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
MDPI and Digital Science Meeting
At MDPI, we are committed to providing our authors with the essential tools to publish, promote, and track their research. In line with this commitment, we have established a longstanding collaboration with Digital Science, a company specializing in research data and analytical insights for the research community. Our collaboration integrates their Altmetric tool, offering us and our authors the ability to track a variety of sources that monitor and report attention surrounding publications.
As part of our collaboration, we recently hosted Cathy Holland, Director of Global Publisher Business Development, and Helen Cooke, Managing Director of Publisher Sales, from Digital Science, at our MDPI headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.
Left to right: Facundo Santomé (Senior Marketing Manager, MDPI), Constanze Shelhorn (Indexing Manager, MDPI), Cathy Holland (Director of Global Publisher Business Development, Digital Science), Helen Cooke (Managing Director of Publisher Sales, Digital Science), and Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) in front of MDPI headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.
During our meeting, we discussed MDPI’s publishing philosophy and explored further avenues for collaboration. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Digital Science, aiming to improve our services yet further and meet the needs of our authors more closely than ever.
What is Altmetric?
You will notice that MDPI articles feature an Altmetric score, a colourful doughnut capturing the score in the upper right corner of the article page. This score represents ‘alternative metrics,’ as distinct from traditional metrics such as Impact Factor, CiteScore, and Scimago Journal Rank.
Altmetrics complement traditional citation-based metrics by capturing online discussions related to a specific research topic. By analyzing both sets of data, we can obtain a comprehensive understanding of the attention a particular research output receives and the sources in which it is mentioned.
“Almetric provides visual insights into where research is being discussed”
Sources Tracked by Altmetric
Altmetric badge showing the Altmetric score and colour-coded mention sources.
Altmetric monitors various sources, categorizing them into segments such as policy documents, peer reviews, Wikipedia, news and blogs, and social media, among other sources. Each category is identifiable by a specific colour.
The Altmetric badge provides visual insights into where the research is being discussed. A more colourful badge indicates broader mentions across multiple platforms. Such tracking enables us to gauge the extent of an article’s online dissemination, noting that increased visibility may correlate with higher citation rates.
Read more:
Impactful Research
Ten High-Altmetric Articles Published by MDPI
As at 30 January 2024, Altmetric has tracked 670,500 MDPI research outputs from MDPI, resulting in over 4.3 million mentions. This includes over 71,894 mentions in policy and patents and 294,714 mentions in news and blogs, with some achieving an Altmetric score as high as 28,754.
So, what is a good Altmetric score? There are various ways to put this score into context. You can find out more about the score in context and how to evaluate your work by this means.
Here are ten MDPI papers ranking in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric.
“Accuracy in Wrist-Worn, Sensor-Based Measurements of Heart Rate and Energy Expenditure in a Diverse Cohort” J. Pers. Med. 2017, 7(2), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm7020003 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/20477344 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 253 news stories from 209 outlets including Forbes, BBC, and Fox News. |
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“Daylight Saving Time and Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Meta-Analysis” J. Clin. Med. 2019, 8(3), 404; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8030404 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/57654628 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 295 news stories from 207 outlets including Forbes, The Atlantic, and New York Times. |
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“The Preliminary Analysis of Cave Lion Cubs Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) from the Permafrost of Siberia” Quaternary 2021, 4(3), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat4030024 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/111086701 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 182 news stories from 134 outlets including CBC News, CNN, and National Geographic. |
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“Not the Cat’s Meow? The Impact of Posing with Cats on Female Perceptions of Male Dateability” Animals 2020, 10(6), 1007; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10061007 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/83796184 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 124 news stories from 98 outlets including VICE, CNN and The Guardian. |
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“Behaviour and Welfare Impacts of Releasing Elephants from Overnight Tethers: A Zimbabwean Case Study” Animals 2022, 12(15), 1933; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12151933 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/133463915 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 192 news stories from 186 outlets. |
How do I use altmetrics?
Altmetric Explorer provides a detailed step-by-step guide and instruction video for first-time users of the tool. The guide includes useful diagrams that make it easy to get started.
Sharing Research Online
For research to be tracked across different sources, Altmetric needs a research output with a persistent identifier: a DOI, ISBN, PubMed ID, handle ID, etc. When sharing research, it is important to include a link to the original research output.
“An Update on Eukaryotic Viruses Revived from Ancient Permafrost” Viruses 2023, 15(2), 564; https://doi.org/10.3390/v15020564 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/142929875 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 250 news stories from 180 outlets including CTV, Fox News, and CNN. |
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“The Global Problem of Insufficient Sleep and Its Serious Public Health Implications” Healthcare 2019, 7(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare7010001 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/53406248 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 252 news stories from 168 outlets including BBC, Harvard Business Review, and Forbes. |
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“A Detailed Review Study on Potential Effects of Microplastics and Additives of Concern on Human Health” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(4), 1212; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041212 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/86529137 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 197 news stories from 150 outlets including BBC, The Tribune, and World Economic Forum. |
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“An Empirical Study of Chronic Diseases in the United States: A Visual Analytics Approach to Public Health” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(3), 431; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15030431 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/34714141 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 232 news stories from 149 outlets including Forbes, New York Times, and Harvard Business Review. |
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“Garden Scraps: Agonistic Interactions between Hedgehogs and Sympatric Mammals in Urban Gardens” Animals 2023, 13(4), 590; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13040590 Altmetric page: https://mdpi.altmetric.com/details/142934305 Altmetric shows that this article appeared in 172 news stories from 168 outlets including BBC. |
Inside MDPI
MDPI Annual Meeting Celebrations in China
On Thursday 25 January, over 1,300 MDPI colleagues from our two offices in Beijing gathered to kick off MDPI’s traditional ‘Annual Meetings.’ These celebrations take place in MDPI’s offices across China, including Dalian, Tianjin, Wuhan, and Nanjing.
The evenings include performances, informative talks and presentations, awards, and entertainment, providing an ideal platform to recognize our colleagues, celebrate their achievements, and set our sights on the future.
“It is essential that we stay connected and share best practices”
I sent a video congratulating everyone on their work and sharing our vision of building MDPI into the most trusted OA publisher, highlighting the roles each of us has to play in achieving that goal.
Unfortunately I could not join in person, but you may recall my recent trip, when I visited our offices in Beijing and Wuhan, which I look forward to visiting again this year.
Although our headquarters are in Basel, Switzerland, and we are expanding throughout Europe and North America, the majority of MDPI’s workforce is in China and throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including offices in Singapore, Thailand, Japan, and newly opened office in South Korea. It is essential that as a global organization, we stay connected and share best practices in order to grow collectively and continue providing the exceptional service to our authors.
The Annual Meeting is a moment to reflect and enjoy the year’s hard work and dedication.
I extend our best wishes to all for the Chinese New Year (Xīnnián kuàilè)!
Coming Together for Science
MDPI and TU Delft Adopt Flat Fee Model in Extended Partnership
We are excited to announce a renewed three-year partnership with Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. This collaboration introduces a fixed lump-sum fee, covering publishing costs from 2024 to 2026.
“This initiative reflects our dedication to transparent and inclusive publishing”
TU Delft-affiliated authors will enjoy cost-free publishing in any MDPI journal during this period, aligning with our commitment to removing barriers for open access publishing. The agreement supports Plan S compliance and facilitates a seamless publishing process for TU Delft corresponding authors. This initiative reflects our dedication to transparent and inclusive publishing, providing stability and predictability both for authors and for institutions.
For further details on our Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP), please contact us.
Benefits to MDPI’s IOAP
At MDPI we have a long tradition of partnerships, including our Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). IOAP supports institutions through simplification, access, transparency, APC discounts, and institutional repository deposits. The program simplifies administrative processes, offers central payment, and allows easy opting in and out. Participants gain free access to Susy, MDPI’s online submission system, with extensive article metadata and exportable data. APC discounts and Book Processing Charge discounts are available for affiliated authors. Automated deposits to institutional repositories and streamlined matching of papers to IOAP participants enhance the overall experience.
For further information, see our IOAP FAQ.
Closing Thoughts
Reflections on the 2024 APE Conference
MDPI was proud to co-sponsor the Academic Publishing in Europe (APE) 2024 Conference that took place in Berlin, Germany, from 9–10 January 2024.
The conference theme, ‘Keep the Conversation Going!’, explored the evolving landscape of scholarly communication. APE is one of the key conferences I make a point to attend each year. January offers a valuable opportunity to engage with new contacts, reconnect with familiar faces, and participate in impactful discussions and presentations among professionals, scholars, and practitioners in the field.
“It's fascinating to see how other publishers are leveraging AI”
Highlights
Some of the standout panels for me include: the role of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the publishing industry. It was encouraging to hear the current status quo, though I was eager also to learn about the exciting projects planned for 2024 and beyond. These will allow us to track progress in subsequent years. At MDPI, we remain committed to promoting Open–Access (OA) content on SDGs through scientific articles and books. Furthermore, we extend our commitment to sustainability by financially supporting researchers through initiatives such as the World Sustainability Award and the Emerging Sustainability Leader Award, as well as waiving the APC for feature papers on each SDG.
In recent years, discussions on AI have become increasingly prominent at such conferences. It’s fascinating to see how other publishers are leveraging AI to meet the evolving needs of their audiences while at the same time using it to safeguard the scientific process. Other engaging panels that I enjoyed included updates on transformation beyond transformative agreements, the principles of lean change, incentive structures related to research integrity, and the panel on reviewer incentives.
“We can share best practices and lessons learned”
Incorporating MDPI’s Insights into Conferences
I must confess that I sometimes feel overlooked when MDPI is not invited to participate in crucial industry discussions. As the leading open access publisher and the third-largest publisher overall, we possess extensive experience in many of these areas and can offer valuable contributions to these discussions. We can share best practices, lessons learned, and our thinking about future trajectories. For instance, in panels discussing reviewer incentives, at MDPI we offer a discount voucher to reviewers for future submissions, reflecting our commitment to fostering a robust peer review process. In 2022 alone, MDPI collected over 1.4 million peer review reports, informing the decision-making processes of our editors. Given our expertise in these areas, it would be natural to include MDPI in such discussions. I therefore extend an invitation to future conference organizers to consider MDPI for speaking engagements and collaborative opportunities.
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
2 January 2024
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #7 - Nobel Laureates Entrust MDPI with Their Research
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
Nobel Prize Laureates Entrust MDPI with Their Research
The Nobel Prize stands as a hallmark of distinction, honouring ground-breaking research across disciplines. Annually, the Nobel Prizes are awarded in six categories: Physics, Chemistry, Medicine or Physiology, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences.
Through the years, renowned scholars have entrusted MDPI with their work. As at December 2023, 26 Nobel laureates have contributed to more than 75 articles across 25 MDPI journals, including: Antibiotics, Applied Sciences, Biology, Biomedicines, Cancers, Catalysts, Cells, Crystals, Entropy, Games, IJMS, Life, Materials, Micromachines, Molecules, Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceutics, Photonics, Quantum Beam Science, Remote Sensing, Sensors, Solids, Universe, Vaccines, and Viruses.
The best of the best trust us with their work.
Nobel Prize Laureates Who Have Published with MDPI
We are proud to list the names of Pierre Agostini, Hiroshi Amano, Werner Arber, Aaron Ciechanover, Robert H. Grubbs, Oliver Hart, Gerard ‘t Hooft, Michael Houghton, Harald zur Hausen, Katalin Karikó, Jean-Marie Lehn, Gérard Mourou, Ferid Murad, Shuji Nakamura, William Nordhaus, Kostya S. Novoselov, Giorgio Parisi, Charles M. Rice, Alvin E. Roth, Donna Strickland, K. Barry Sharpless, George F. Smoot, Anne L’Huillier, Drew Weissman, Kurt Wüthrich, Ada Yonath.
The privilege of hosting such contributors resonates deeply with our editorial teams. For instance, in this interview, the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of Universe speaks on the significance of publishing a paper by Nobel laureate Gerard ’t Hooft within the journal.
2023 Nobel Prize Winners Published by MDPI
Nobel Prize Winners, 2023: Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman, Anne L’Huillier (Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach)
Three laureates from the 2023 Nobel Prize cohort have trusted MDPI as their publishing platform. Notably, in a 2022 Pharmaceutics paper, molecular biologist Katalin Karikó and her team presented a methodology for evaluating mRNA capping efficiency, pivotal for therapeutic applications. Pharmaceutics had previously dedicated a Special Issue to “mRNA Therapeutics: A Themed Issue in Honor of Professor Katalin Karikó”, spotlighting ten articles from August 2021 to February 2022.
In the journal Vaccines, Professor Drew Weissman, collaborating with scholars from Pennsylvania University and George Mason University, contributed an influential review titled “Nanomaterial Delivery Systems for mRNA Vaccines”. His collaborative efforts spanned five papers across MDPI journals between 2021 and 2023.
Furthermore, Anne L'Huillier of Lund University, only the fifth female recipient of the Physics Prize, co-authored an article in Applied Sciences focusing on "Advanced EUV and X-Ray Optics". Similarly, Pierre Agostini, an Emeritus Professor from Ohio State University, co-authored an article featured in the special issue "Attosecond Science and Technology: Principles and Applications".
We extend heartfelt congratulations to all Nobel Prize laureates and express sincere gratitude for their confidence in MDPI as a platform for their scholarly contributions.
Read more:
Impactful Research
MDPI Journals Newly Indexed in 2023
The aim of indexing is to enhance the quality and credibility of published research, ensuring that researchers access the most credible resources available. While the principle behind citation indexing is straightforward, it remains one of the most dependable methods for tracking an idea's evolution across various scientific disciplines.
Throughout the year, MDPI works to expand the reach of our publications across premier multidisciplinary databases like Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCO, and ProQuest. This initiative is spearheaded by MDPI's Indexing team, under the leadership of Dr. Constanze Schelhorn.
In 2023, MDPI achieved 54 new acceptances in Scopus, 29 in Web of Science, 52 in EBSCO, and 83 in DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals.
The team prioritizes ensuring that our journals feature in numerous specialized databases, including PMC, PubMed, MEDLINE, Inspec, CAS, and FSTA, among others. Currently, MDPI collaborates with over 65 renowned international databases, consistently enhancing our database affiliations annually.
MDPI’s journals are indexed in all major global databases.
Furthermore, we collaborate with universities and government organizations to list our journals in country-specific ranking lists and relevant institutional repositories. This ensures compliance with requirements often set by funders or institutions for authors to publish in specific journals.
Web of Science Adds 24 MDPI Journals to Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI)
Clarivate recently analysed MDPI’s new journals, resulting in 24 journals, mainly established in 2020, being added to the ESCI in November and December 2023. Additionally, five journals passed this assessment earlier in the year. For a complete list of our journals in Web of Science, refer here. Journals in the ESCI meet 24 quality criteria, ensuring editorial rigor. They may be considered for inclusion in broader indices like the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), or the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), based on four impact criteria.
Read more:
Inside MDPI
MDPI Appoints New Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Alistair Freeland returned to MDPI and assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer in November 2023, a position he previously held from 2013 to 2019. He succeeds Dr. Yu Lin, who will remain a member of MDPI’s Board of Directors, overseeing significant financial decisions for the company. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Yu Lin for his service as COO.
Alistair brings extensive experience not only in scholarly publishing but also in technology and business management. Prior to rejoining MDPI, he was associated with SIX Group, the entity responsible for Switzerland's financial market infrastructure. There, he played a pivotal role in developing the blockchain-based platform SDX (SIX Digital Exchange), which has gained traction among major Swiss banks and the Swiss National Bank.
As COO, Alistair will collaborate with the MDPI management team to improve the practices and services we offer to scholarly communities. I am pleased to welcome Alistair back to MDPI and look forward to his contributions going forward.
Coming Together for Science
MDPI’s 2024 In-Person Academic Events Schedule
MDPI's Conference Team is dedicated to organizing and hosting in-person academic events across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America. We recognize conferences as invaluable platforms for scientific collaboration, scholarly exchange, discussions on contemporary topics, networking, and forging collaborations.
Here's a glimpse of the notable events we currently have scheduled for 2024:
14–16 February, 2024 |
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24–26 April, 2024 |
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28–31 May, 2024 |
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1–4 August, 2024 |
Upcoming events with details to be announced:
- September 2024, Materials 2024 – Basel, Switzerland
- 19–21 September 2024, International Conference on Nanomaterials Sciences 2024 – Beijing, China
- October 2024, ncRNA 2024 – Basel, Switzerland
- November 2024, Pharmaceuticals 2024 – Barcelona, Spain
- 22–26 November 2024, International Conference on Science of Electronics – Wuhan, China
- Stay tuned for more details on the Sustainable Publishing Forum 2024.
Click here for all upcoming MDPI events.
Organize Your Event with MDPI’s Sciforum
Sciforum is MDPI’s platform dedicated to the organization of scientific events. In line with our mission to promote science, Sciforum supports scholars, societies, research networks, and universities at all stages of organizing in-person events, virtual events and webinars. Our platforms are efficient, user-friendly, and cost-effective. We handle all steps related to event management. Contact us for details.
Closing Thoughts
Reflecting on 2023 and Looking Ahead to 2024
As we approach 2024, I reflect on the incredible journey we’ve had together at MDPI this year. The past 12 months have been marked by ambitious projects and initiatives to improve our internal processes, and a commitment to continue delivering top-notch services to our stakeholders. I’d like to thank each and every one of our staff members for contributing to the positive experiences our stakeholders have reported in our surveys. Your dedication to speed, efficiency, and effective communication with our stakeholders is very much recognized and appreciated.
Becoming a stronger organisation
While we have encountered challenges in 2023, it’s important to understand that these are a part of our growth process. Difficulties provide us with opportunities to reflect, address problems at their roots, and ultimately evolve into a stronger organization. Our stakeholders expect us to overcome tough times, and it’s an expectation that we have for ourselves.
I extend my sincere appreciation to every MDPI employee, from our editorial office and IT department to marketing, indexing, IOAP, societies, Scientific Office board, products, production, conferences, finance, operations, admin, and beyond. To our newest team members, a warm welcome; to our longstanding colleagues, your dedication is invaluable.
“I am committed to taking MDPI to a new level of excellence.”
Interacting with many of you during my visits to our offices and representing MDPI at external events has been a personal highlight. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Lin for entrusting me with the role of CEO of MDPI. Looking forward, I am committed to working closely with our management team to lead MDPI and take it to a new level of excellence, aiming to establish it as the most trusted publisher in open access worldwide. This is a collective endeavour, with each of us shaping MDPI’s reputation. I therefore encourage us to take pride in our work, as it represents not only our craft but also MDPI as a whole.
Accountability and communication
As we look forward to 2024, there’s a lot to be excited about. Together, we’ll navigate challenges, seize growth opportunities, and refine our practices. To solidify MDPI’s position as the premier open access publisher globally, we must bolster accountability, improve stakeholder communication, share MDPI’s best practices, champion the open access philosophy, and educate stakeholders about our mission, methodologies, and motivations.
Thank you for engaging with the CEO Letter over the past six months of 2023. I will continue to release this newsletter as a method of sharing the great work being done at MDPI. Please feel free to connect directly with any insights or questions.
Here’s to a joyous and prosperous 2024!
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
30 November 2023
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #6 - MDPI Spain Summit and ResearchGate
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
MDPI Spain Summit
Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) gives the opening speech at the MDPI Spain Summit.
On Friday 10 November 2023 I was in Barcelona, Spain, to deliver the opening presentation and participate in a panel at MDPI’s Spain Summit, a two-day event, inspired by our salon events in China.
With 16 Editors-in-Chief (EiCs) and 20 Editorial Board Members (EBMs) in attendance, the event, organized by our conference team and Barcelona office, featured presentations on open access (OA), MDPI, and publishing market trends in Spain.
The event provided a great opportunity to engage with stakeholders from various MDPI journals, including Nutrients, Vaccines, Buildings, IJMS, and others. We were able to gather feedback and have open conversations around manuscript quality, the peer-review process, and journal development, as well as accreditation agencies.
The main objective of this Summit was to bring together Editors representing MDPI journals across various disciplines within Spanish universities and research centers, primarily from the Barcelona area. The aim was to facilitate an open and fruitful discussion regarding the development of their journals, the future of OA in Spain, and to provide meaningful interactions and networking opportunities.
Connecting with Editorial Board Members
Stefan Tochev in conversation with Summit participants: "Our EBMs are passionate about the journals they serve."
Interacting with our EBMs in person provides a valuable opportunity to show how important it is to us to connect with them, hear their perspectives on their journals and learn more about their own experience collaborating with MDPI.
From my conversations, it was clear that our EBMs are passionate about the journals they serve. I know the advice they provide may sometimes involve just small tweaks, but these can lead to important improvements. As the saying goes, small hinges swing open big doors.
As at November 2023, MDPI has over 6,300 EBMs affiliated with Spanish institutions, with more than 30 of them serving as EiCs or section EiCs. Furthermore, over 68,000 Spanish scholars have contributed as reviewers in MDPI journals.
Open Access in Spain
In 2023, Spain implemented legislation mandating immediate OA for all publicly funded research, aligning with the EU’s Plan S initiative to expedite the transition to OA. The Spanish government also approved a four-year, €23.8 million annual budget for the first national OA strategy, aiming to make publicly funded research freely accessible upon publication. This strategy aims to strengthen the quality and transparency of research in Spain, and to help promote movement towards a digital, low-carbon economy.
For further details of Spain's OA policy and the history of government mandates, click here.
Spain has already seen a notable decline in subscription-only articles, decreasing by 62% over a 10-year period, while gold OA increased by 42%. Green OA slightly decreased, suggesting a shift towards publishing in gold OA journals rather than traditional subscription-based ones. Here are some statistics from Scopus.
A big thank-you to the various MDPI teams, including our conference team and the Barcelona office, for organizing this very successful event!
MDPI colleagues from various offices gathered to host and support the first MDPI Spain Summit, in Barcelona, Spain.
I think this type of gathering has the potential to become an annual event in various locations. For example, Manchester could be an option, as we have over 30 EiCs and over 3,000 EBMs in the UK, a top market for MDPI that publishes high-quality research.
Impactful Research
769 Editorial Board Members of MDPI Journals Recognized as Highly Cited Researchers in 2023
Congratulations to our 769 Editorial Board Members from 40 countries/territories who have been awarded Highly Cited Researcher status for 2023 by Clarivate. This recognition is based on their outstanding scientific research contributions and significant influence in various fields, as evidenced by Web of Science data.
Click here to view the full list of 769 Editorial Board Members.
Clarivate's Highly Cited ResearchersTM list identifies individuals with exceptional impact in scientific and social science domains over the past decade. Their papers rank in the top 1% of citations in 21 fields analysed in ‘Essential Science Indicators,’ showcasing their substantial influence.
This year, 7,125 Highly Cited Researcher 2023 designations were issued to 6,849 individuals from 67 countries, representing just 1 in 1,000 researchers worldwide.
These researchers demonstrate exceptional influence, representing a small fraction of contributors pushing the boundaries of knowledge, contributing to global well-being, sustainability, and security.
Congratulations to these scholars for their remarkable achievement: we are honoured to have them on board with our journals!
Inside MDPI
Corporate Marketing and Communications Strategy Session
Members of MDPI’s Corporate Marketing & Communications team.
For the past few years, I have led the Corporate Marketing & Communications department in our annual strategy session.
This typically involves 2–3 days of focused sessions covering key topics including budgeting, hiring targets, campaign reviews, and planning for the upcoming year, department strategy, and structure.
We are constantly exploring ways to optimize the Corporate Marketing & Communications department to support MDPI’s primary objectives and better convey the MDPI story while serving the scholarly community.
The strategy session also serves as a team-building activity, during which the team voted on bowling!
Strategy Session
In this strategy session, we looked at how to align our teams in order to better streamline our content with our campaigns, build a dedicated marketing team to strategically support our core MDPI products, expand our communications teams and functionalities to focus on company-critical campaigns and press releases, align our new brand design system with our marketing initiatives, set up a community and engagement team to support various teams with their outreach and communication efforts, and increase our use of data in the evaluation of campaign performance.
To grow in these areas, we will be hiring for various positions, including those of Public Relations Manager, Communications Manager, Internal Communications Manager, Campaign Manager, Marketing Associate, and Editorial Engagement Manager.
I am grateful for the way our Corporate Marketing & Communications department has grown and gelled over the years, and I look forward to supporting the department teams and their ideas for the future.
Coming Together for Science
ResearchGate and MDPI Partner to Boost the Visibility of Open Access Content through Journal Home
Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) and Sören Hofmayer (Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, ResearchGate) meet in Berlin, Germany to take their ongoing discussion further.
When I assumed the role of CEO at MDPI, my primary focus was to initiate the building of essential partnerships and collaborations within our industry. After all, I am a firm believer in achieving our goals by helping others achieve theirs and focusing on co-opetition wherever there is an opportunity. I first touched on the notion of co-opetition in MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #3, particularly when discussing collaborations with Elsevier.
In light of this, Sören Hofmayer (Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at ResearchGate) and I connected recently to continue a discussion that had been ongoing for months. I was quickly brought up to speed and felt there was an opportunity for MDPI journals to pilot the Journal Home service that ResearchGate had launched. This would provide a new way for MDPI to engage with authors and readers and amplify the visibility of our journals.
While I receive many offers and opportunities for discussions with vendors, I am a firm believer that timing is everything, and in this case, the time for us is now. Sören and I met in person during my recent visit to Berlin and decided to proceed with piloting ten MDPI journals with the Journal Home service.
The press release below provides further details.
Press Release: Berlin (Germany) and Basel (Switzerland), 15 November 2023
ResearchGate, the professional network for researchers, and MDPI, the largest open access publisher in the world and a pioneer in open access publishing, today announced a partnership that will see ten of MDPI’s open access journals benefit from an enhanced presence on ResearchGate through its innovative Journal Home offering.
This new partnership will expand the reach and visibility of MDPI’s participating flagship journals with ResearchGate’s highly relevant community of more than 25 million researchers globally.
Around 210,000 version-of-record articles from these 10 titles will be readily available on ResearchGate, including the full archive material and all new articles as they are published. These journals also benefit from enhanced brand visibility, with dedicated journal profiles, prominent representation on all associated article pages and all relevant touchpoints across the ResearchGate network – keeping the journals top-of-mind with their reader and author audiences. All articles covered by the new partnership will automatically be added to the authors’ publication records in ResearchGate. This not only reduces MDPI authors’ needs for direct management but also offers them valuable insights into the impact of their work, including data about readership and citations.
Closing Thoughts
November is Men’s Health Awareness Month
Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) listening to music as he writes at a coffee shop in Basel, Switzerland.
November is dedicated to raising awareness of various men’s health issues. I have been fortunate to have positive male role models in my life, and I strive to share my experiences with others.
I used to take part in Movember, growing my moustache throughout November to raise awareness and funds and to help “change the face of men’s health.” With male family and friends impacted by physical and mental health issues, I have recently become more interested in men’s overall well-being.
Men often face stigma involving the perceived need always to be strong and have things figured out. Recently, I’ve had meaningful conversations with male friends and colleagues about issues we rarely discuss, and it was a positive experience.
Various factors impact men’s health and well-being, all too easily leading to risky health behaviours including a lack of health awareness, poor health education, and negative, culturally induced, behaviour patterns in our work and personal lives. I hope we can break down these barriers in our work environment.
Healthy men help build healthy families and a healthy society
Men are less likely than women to seek help with their physical and mental health struggles. This is a reminder to prioritize your overall well-being. I hope that as men, we will continue to open up to one another, becoming vulnerable in order to share what we are going through. By sharing and by supporting each other, we can learn and grow together. You are not alone, and when you fall, you can still get up and stand tall.
From one broski to another, you are loved and appreciated. I hope this mindset carries into December and beyond.
Mindfulness
Our content team recently released a handful of articles on mindfulness, a practice that I believe provides a good opportunity for stress release and self-reflection:
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
21 November 2023
769 Editorial Board Members of MDPI Journals Achieve Highly Cited Researcher Recognition in 2023
We extend our sincere congratulations to the 769 Editorial Board Members of our journals – from 40 different countries/territories – who have been recognized as Highly Cited Researchers for the year 2023 by Clarivate. They are being recognized for their high-quality scientific research achievements and outstanding contributions to their professional fields, as indicated by Web of Science data.
Clarivate's annual list of Highly Cited ResearchersTM identifies the most highly cited scientists for the past decade who stand out for their significant and broad influence in various scientific and social science domains. Their impactful papers are among the top 1 per cent in the citation distribution of one or more of 21 fields analyzed in the "Essential Science Indicators", distinguishing them as hugely influential among their peers.
This year, 7,125 Highly Cited Researcher 2023 designations were issued to 6,849 individuals from 67 countries, representing just 1 in 1,000 researchers worldwide.
This means that these researchers have demonstrated an incredible level of significant and broad influence in their chosen field or fields over the last decade. They represent a small fraction of the researcher population whose contributions disproportionately push the boundaries of knowledge, enhancing global well-being, sustainability, and security.
Congratulations to the scholars for their noteworthy achievement – we are honored to have them on board with our journals!
Abate, Antonio |
Jaiswal, Amit K. |
Shen, Zexiang |
1 November 2023
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #5 - OA Week, UK, and Strategy
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
Open Access Week 2023 – the Global Drive to Open Continues
As the world's largest open-access (OA) publisher, we believe that unrestricted access to research findings is the cornerstone of transparency, efficiency, and quality control across scientific disciplines. At MDPI, we provide free, immediate access to scientific papers, empowering scientists to examine, validate, replicate, and build upon existing results. This minimizes redundancy, optimizes resources, and fosters innovative approaches.
International OA Week, held from 23 to 29 October 2023, provided a unique opportunity to link the global movement toward open sharing and open science with the progress of policy changes at the local level. Our mission, during OA Week and all the year round, is to offer educational resources highlighting the benefits of open-access publishing. The MDPI Blog is a valuable resource for information on open access and open science.
Core principles of OA publishing
Accessibility, transparency, and collaboration are core principles of OA publishing. OA aims to break down barriers that have traditionally restricted research access, ensuring that knowledge is available to all, regardless of financial situation or institutional affiliations. Our commitment to diverse pathways for OA publishing worldwide includes discounts for researchers. You can learn more about how MDPI supports scientific communities here.
One of the key strengths of OA publishing is its ability to facilitate interdisciplinary research. By removing paywalls and promoting knowledge-sharing across disciplines, OA encourages collaboration and innovation. Researchers from various fields can access and build upon each others’ work, fostering a holistic approach to addressing complex global challenges.
OA holds the potential to democratize knowledge, advance science, and drive positive societal change.
Policy driving change
Governments, institutions, and funding agencies have recognized the transformative potential of OA and have implemented policies to promote it. These policies often require publicly funded research to be made openly accessible, accelerating the growth of OA repositories and journals. Check out our spotlights on OA policies in the US, EU and China.
OA publishing is continuously evolving, with community-driven models and technologies shaping its future. Initiatives such as “Plan S” and “cOAlition S” promote OA publishing from the perspective of national funders, requiring grantees to publish their research openly. A new policy announced by the US administration last year mandates that, with effect from January 2026, all US federally funded research should be freely and immediately available after publication.
Additionally, preprint servers such as MDPI's Preprints.org, which allow researchers to share their findings before formal peer review, have gained popularity, enhancing the speed at which new knowledge is disseminated. The rise of blockchain technology is also being explored to ensure transparency and authenticity in scholarly publishing.
For more than two decades, OA publishing has been revolutionizing academic publishing by promoting accessibility, transparency, and collaboration. Its support for interdisciplinary research, evolving policies, and innovative practices all contribute to its growing influence in the global research community. As OA continues to expand, it holds the potential to democratize knowledge, advance science, and drive positive societal change.
MDPI is proud to lead the transition to open access.
Read more:
Impactful Research
Spotlight on Smart Cities
Smart cities will serve as a cornerstone for future human development. Their implementation will help us tackle many of the significant challenges we are facing – climate change, ageing populations, waste management, public safety, travel, and so on. Recognising the importance of this multifaceted field, MDPI launched the inaugural issue of Smart Cities in 2018 to provide an advanced forum for research into smart technology and society. Here we take a look at how this journal has developed, and its impact in this exciting field.
As at 30 October, 2023, Smart Cities has published 421 papers and has an Impact Factor of 6.4. It also has a CiteScore of 8.5, and more than one quarter of its published papers – 124 – have been cited 10 times or more.
Highly cited papers in Smart Cities
Below are several highly cited papers recently published in Smart Cities. Citation metrics are current as at 31 October 2023.
1. “Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, Resilience and Place Identity in Future Post-Pandemic Cities”
Authors: Carlos Moreno, Zaheer Allam, Didier Chabaud, Catherine Gall and Florent Pratlong
Smart Cities 2021, 4(1), 93-111; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4010006
Citations: Crossref (338), Scopus (366), Web of Science (270), Google Scholar (710)
The paper discusses the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 on cities, including increasing inequalities and rising unemployment. It introduces the concept of the "15-Minute City," a form of "chrono-urbanism," as a response to the challenges posed by the pandemic.
2. “A Review on Electric Vehicles: Technologies and Challenges”
Authors: Julio A. Sanguesa, Vicente Torres-Sanz, Piedad Garrido, Francisco J. Martinez and Johann M. Marquez-Barja
Smart Cities 2021, 4(1), 372-404; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4010022
Citations: Crossref (359), Scopus (363), Web of Science (268), Google Scholar (558)
This paper provides an overview of the progress in Electric Vehicles (EVs), focusing on battery technology, charging methods, and emerging research challenges. It also analyzes the global EV market and its future outlook.
3. “IoT in Smart Cities: A Survey of Technologies, Practices and Challenges”
Authors: Abbas Shah Syed, Daniel Sierra-Sosa, Anup Kumar and Adel Elmaghraby
Smart Cities 2021, 4(2), 429-475; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4020024
Citations: Crossref (121), Scopus (151), Web of Science (91), Google Scholar (215)
This paper gives an overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the context of Smart Cities, discussing the fundamental components, technologies, architectures, networking technologies, and artificial algorithms that underpin IoT-based Smart City systems.
4. “Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Smart Grid: A Survey”
Authors: Olufemi A. Omitaomu and Haoran Niu
Smart Cities 2021, 4(2), 548-568; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4020029
Citations: Crossref (76), Scopus (94), Web of Science (57), Google Scholar (120)
This survey paper reviews the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in the context of the smart grid. It covers various applications of AI in load forecasting, power grid stability assessment, fault detection, and security issues in the smart grid and power systems.
5. “The Metaverse as a Virtual Form of Smart Cities: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability in Urban Futures”
Authors: Zaheer Allam, Ayyoob Sharifi, Simon Elias Bibri, David Sydney Jones and John Krogstie
Smart Cities 2022, 5(3), 771-801; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5030040
Citations: Crossref (72), Scopus (75), Web of Science (43), Google Scholar (176)
This paper discusses the concept of the Metaverse, a virtual world introduced by Meta (formerly Facebook), and its potential impact on urban life. It explores how emerging technologies such as AI, Big Data, IoT, and Digital Twins could reshape urban design and services in the context of the Metaverse.
Testimonial
“It was indeed a great and pleasant experience with MDPI regarding our recent publication. The submission process was very straightforward and less time-consuming than the norm. The review process was very fast compared to many other open access journals, which is praiseworthy. The support from the Editorial Office during the revision process was highly useful as well. We look forward to publishing with MDPI in the future, and I will most definitely recommend MDPI to my colleagues and collaborators.” – Dr. Luís Rosa, University of Minho
Article in Smart Cities: Mobile Networks and Internet of Things Infrastructures to Characterize Smart Human Mobility
Inside MDPI
MDPI Manchester office, UK Visit
Allie Shi (Editorial Director, MDPI), Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI), Jamie Anderson (Manchester Office Manager, MDPI), Michael O’Sullivan (Senior Scientific Officer, MDPI), Hushneara Akhtar, and Becky Castellon (IOAP Team Lead, MDPI), dining out in Manchester, UK.
In October, I visited MDPI’s new office in Manchester. During the visit, I connected with our English Editing (EE) managers, Scientific Officer, members of the Editorial team, the Marketing team, and IOAP Team Lead.
Our Manchester office focuses primarily on EE services and provides local support for the UK market. Additionally, we regularly visit Editorial Board members and participate in local conferences.
I would like to thank Jamie Anderson, Manchester Office Manager, and her team, for their deep commitment to our Manchester staff and to MDPI’s impact on the UK market.
The UK by numbers
The UK is a hub for the world’s top universities, making it a key market for MDPI and the publishing world in general. It is home to two of the top-five-ranked universities globally, 11 in the top 100, and 15 in the top 200.
As a result, the UK plays a key role in MDPI’s global market. As at October 2023, it ranks as the seventh-largest contributor to the total number of papers published by MDPI. We have 3,500 Editorial Board members affiliated with UK institutions, including 34 serving as Editors-in-Chief (EiCs). Our commitment to collaboration with institutions is evident in the UK, where we have successfully established some 60 Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) agreements with esteemed institutions, such as the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, the University of Edinburgh, and more.
According to InCites Dataset + ESCI for the period 2018–2022, as at October 2023, nearly 65% of UK papers are now published as OA. Just over 10% of total OA publications are by UK authors. UK papers are known for their high quality, with an average of 11 citations per paper. Furthermore, 2.16% of UK papers are in the top 1% of cited papers, and 14.61% are in the top 10% of cited papers, showcasing their impact.
We are currently hiring EEs in various locations worldwide.
English Editing at MDPI
Our English Editing (EE) department consists of two main branches, Quality Control and Learning and Development, reflecting our priorities. We are continuously enhancing the quality of our English Editing services and have raised the relevant standards, which now extend to company-wide communications. English editors participate in international interviews, conduct English assessments, and provide colleagues with presentations on ways to improve their use of written and spoken English.
While expanding, the EE department has proactively refocused its efforts on the quality of our work and how the English Editing department can benefit the company more broadly. We currently have approximately 140 full-time English Editors based across five offices worldwide, supplemented by over 700 freelance English editors.
Our Manchester office serves as the hub for the EE Department, with EE Managers situated there, except for Kurtis Jackson, who serves as the Head of EE and is located in our Basel office. Manchester EEs play a critical role in establishing and developing EE teams in our other offices, overseeing management and recruitment. The EE department plays a vital role in MDPI’s operations, as it is the department that touches every published paper. If this work interests you, I encourage you to explore our available EE positions, whether you are seeking full-time or freelance opportunities.
Testimonials
“MDPI provides an excellent service compared to any other previously used services. It delivers fast and high-quality results but at an affordable price.” – Ardha Apriyanto, University of Potsdam
“In my role as a professor, I consider that MDPI Author Services offer an excellent quality in the editing of Western academic writing while maintaining the required standards of clarity, precision and rigor. Additionally, delivery times are fast compared to other available services.” – Jesus Insuasti, University of Nariño
Read more:
Coming Together for Science
STM and Frankfurt Book Fair
Attending STM
MDPI has been a proud sponsor of the STM Conference for several years. The STM Conference is a dynamic event featuring interactive sessions, expert panellists, idea-sharing, and ample networking opportunities. On 16 October, the event kicked off with arrival drinks, sponsored by MDPI, followed by a welcoming dinner, providing a great chance to connect and network with industry professionals. The following day was filled with speakers, sessions, and further opportunities to connect. STM exemplifies the collaborative spirit of the scientific community, with session topics including achieving open, visible, and impactful research at scale; maintaining research integrity in a rapidly changing world; and exploring the impact of ever-evolving technology in the scholarly community.
Meeting with Web of Science
On a personal note, one of the highlights of STM was a candid and productive conversation with Nandita Quaderi, Editor-in-Chief and SVP at Web of Science. During our discussion, we talked about MDPI, Web of Science, the IJERPH delisting, and ways of moving forward. This open conversation aimed at fostering better collaboration for the future.
“We discussed ways to improve our communication and collaboration.”
I appreciated our frank discussion and felt that Nandita wholeheartedly supports open access. She also expressed her appreciation for the monthly CEO Letter, which she sees as a way to add personality to the MDPI brand and provide insight into the great work we do at MDPI. While we highlighted the positives, we also discussed ways to improve our communication and collaboration moving forward. This meeting alone made the trip worthwhile, and I hope Nandita doesn’t mind my sharing that she found our chat to be “the most honest and constructive discussion” she’s had with someone from MDPI in recent years.
75th Frankfurt Book Fair
Jelena Milojevic (Book Editor, MDPI), Jovana Dubajic (Book Editor, MDPI), Evan Escamilla (Project Manager, MDPI), Laura Wagner (Head of Books, MDPI), and Jenny Knowles (Commissioning Editor, MDPI), at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
For the 75th time, the Frankfurter Buchmesse opened its doors in October to celebrate exciting stories and their authors. If you haven’t yet had the chance to visit the Frankfurt Book Fair, I highly recommend it. It’s the largest book fair in the world, attracting thousands of visitors from around the globe. This is the place to gain valuable industry insights from top-class publishing professionals, connect with publishers directly, and learn about the latest trends in publishing.
MDPI Books
Our Books team was also present at the Frankfurt Book Fair, networking and learning from various panels. Did you know that our MDPI Books department publishes OA Books?
The book publishing program includes monographs, book series, edited books and reprints of special issues and topical collections, among other book types.
If you have a book proposal you would like to discuss, please feel free to contact our Books team to understand the benefits and methods of publishing your next book with the OA model.
Closing Thoughts
MDPI Strategy Meeting
As the newly appointed CEO, this is my first year leading the MDPI Senior Management Strategy session. I saw it as an opportunity to explore what MDPI has the potential to become in the next five years. Guided by the vision of its founder and President, Dr. Shu-kun Lin, the company has accomplished remarkable feats over the past 27 years and currently holds the position as the world’s third-largest academic publisher, following Springer Nature and Elsevier.
Our primary objective is to build upon the milestones of the past decades and consolidate MDPI’s position as well-established publishing brand. The two-day meeting emphasized the importance of communicating MDPI’s values more actively via its brand and adopting a straightforward yet impactful approach to managing MDPI as a mature academic publisher.
“Our primary objective is to consolidate MDPI’s position as well-established publishing brand”
As the world’s number one open-access publisher, MDPI has long been a game-changer in the scholarly community, serving millions of authors. The challenge in being a trailblazer is the need to continuously improve and at the same time explore the next blue-ocean strategy, while also maintaining the smooth operation of the business. Our collection model, featuring guest-curated thematic topics in the form of Special Issues, has disrupted the industry. Other publishers closely study us and attempt to replicate our models. The future of this collection model is something we are actively addressing – while, of course, looking ahead to what comes next!
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
19 October 2023
Open Access Week 2023 – the Global Drive to Open Continues
MDPI has been a strong proponent of the open access publishing model right from the beginning. As one of the pioneering fully open access publishers, we firmly believe that unrestricted access to research findings forms the foundation for better transparency, efficiency, and quality control across all scientific disciplines.
In December 2022, we reached a significant milestone by surpassing one million articles published. That is one million articles freely available to all, to circulate and build upon!
Offering free and immediate access to scientific papers empowers scientists to examine, validate, replicate, and expand upon existing results. This not only helps prevent redundancy and optimizes how resources are used but also paves the way for innovative new approaches.
The International Open Access Week takes place from 23 to 29 October 2023, providing a unique opportunity to connect the global movement towards open sharing and open science with the progress of policy transformations at the local level.
Our goal, during Open Access Week as well as throughout the year, is to offer resources for educating people about the benefits of open access publishing. The MDPI Blog offers a wealth of information around open access and open science.
Promoting the values of accessibility, transparency, and collaboration
Open access publishing embodies the fundamental values of democratizing knowledge and fostering global accessibility. It aims to break down barriers that have traditionally limited access to scholarly work, ensuring that knowledge is available to all, regardless of their financial or institutional affiliations.
Discounts are part of our commitment to ensuring there are diverse pathways to Open Access publishing for researchers worldwide. MDPI supports scientific communities in several different ways.
One of the key strengths of open access publishing lies in its ability to facilitate interdisciplinary research. By removing paywalls and promoting the sharing of knowledge across disciplines, OA encourages collaboration and innovation. Researchers from diverse fields can access and build upon each other's work, fostering a holistic approach to addressing complex global challenges.
Funders' policies are getting aligned with open science
Governments, institutions, and funding agencies have recognized the transformative potential of open access and have implemented policies to promote it. These policies often mandate that publicly funded research should be made openly accessible. Such initiatives have accelerated the growth of open access repositories and journals, reinforcing the commitment to open access principles. Check our spotlights on OA policies in the US, EU and China.
Open access publishing is continually evolving, with innovative and community-driven models and technologies shaping its future. Initiatives like "Plan S" and "cOAlition S" promote the adoption of OA publishing from the national funders’ perspective by requiring grantees to publish their research openly. A new policy announced by the US administration last year requires that, as of January 2026, all US federally funded research be made freely and immediately available after publication.
Additionally, preprint servers such as MDPI's Preprints.org, which allow researchers to share their findings before formal peer review, have gained popularity, enhancing the speed at which new knowledge is disseminated. The rise of blockchain technology is also being explored to ensure transparency and authenticity in scholarly publishing.
For more than twenty years, open access scholarly publishing has been revolutionizing academia by promoting the values of accessibility, transparency, and collaboration. Its support for interdisciplinary research, evolving policies, and innovative practices all contribute to its growing influence in the global research community. As open access continues to expand, it holds the potential to democratize knowledge, advance science, and drive positive societal change.
MDPI is proud to be a leader in the transition to open access.
2 October 2023
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #4 - MDPI Presence in China
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
Open Access in China
It is Saturday, 23 September, and I have just returned from an unforgettable 12-day trip to China, visiting our main offices in Beijing and Wuhan. In the wake of a packed and very enjoyable agenda of internal and external meetings, I would like to use this edition of the CEO Letter to showcase how MDPI supports the scholarly community in China.
Coincidentally, Jack McKenna, Communications Associate from MDPI’s corporate content team, has just released a blog article discussing China’s open access (OA) policy. It is a timely read, providing a concise overview of the development of the OA movement in China and reflecting on its future. I shall draw some content from Jack’s piece and use this edition of the CEO Letter to highlight the various ways in which MDPI is involved in this market. And it would be remiss of me not to include some pictures and highlights from my travels!
Open Access Policy in China
As per Jack’s post, in 2020, China became the world’s leading producer of research articles. Today, China is experiencing a “substantial growth rate in OA [Open Access] publication”. This growth is supported by the State’s commitment to research & development and its policy “requiring the promotion of open science”.
Over the past two decades, there have been gradual developments in China’s OA framework, with repositories and platforms being developed in a consistent manner. Currently, key institutions across China – including the National Science Library, the National Science and Technology Library, and the Natural Science Foundation of China – support OA. The State aims to establish consistent policies across government agencies – a framework for a more encompassing embrace of OA across institutions.
In China, the number of subscription-only articles decreased by nearly 30% over the 10-year period of 2011–2021, while gold OA increased by 22%. Between 2017 and 2020 alone, China published 800,921 academic papers in an OA format.
In 2023, as the leading publisher of academic research, China is pursuing “self-reliance”. Therefore, the State will be establishing consistent policies across government agencies, including those related to OA. Additionally, it will want to ensure that Chinese people can access the research that is supported by Chinese funding and produced by Chinese academics. For this reason, “Open Access is a matter of priority in China”.
MDPI Offices in China
While the history of MDPI begins in Basel, Switzerland, the story of MDPI’s founder is very much rooted in China. Dr. Shu-kun Lin, Founder and President of MDPI, graduated with a BSc from Wuhan University in 1982. He also studied physical chemistry at the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (1982–1986; MSc in 1985), and at the University of Louisville, USA (1987–1989). Dr. Lin completed his doctorate in organic chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zürich) in 1992.
Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) at MDPI’s Wuhan office.
In 2002, MDPI’s Basel headquarters moved to Matthäusstrasse 11, 4052 Basel, and Dr. Lin opened an editorial office in Qingdao, China, which launched the journal Marine Drugs in the following year. Below is a list of MDPI’s current offices in China and their respective dates of inauguration:
- 2008: Beijing (Tongzhou, Haidian)
- 2013: Wuhan (Hankou, Guanggu)
- 2019: Tianjin
- 2021: Dalian
- 2021: Nanjing
Our Strength is in Our People
With over 6,000 MDPI staff, across 20 offices in 11 countries, MDPI is able to offer authors responsive and efficient round-the-clock support, enabling a rapid publication process.
In my experience, stakeholders are genuinely surprised when they realize the extent of our global operations. My response is to reiterate that our people are our strength. This is why we have fast and efficient processes and top-notch responsiveness. Our global presence ensures that your manuscript is constantly attended to, rather than sitting on someone’s desk. We prioritize our authors’ needs and act quickly to move things through the various stages of publication. MDPI is built on speed, convenience, and competence, which I believe are core pillars for success in any industry. We continually strive to improve our systems and processes on the basis of these core strengths. We literally have over 6,000 staff worldwide dedicated to serving your needs. It’s not magic: it’s people; it’s real.
Impactful Research
MDPI Awards
To support the academic community, and especially young researchers, and also to enhance communication among scientists, MDPI journals offer various awards in specific fields. We serve the scientific community by funding research to facilitate the development of sustainable global solutions through our annual World Sustainability Award and Emerging Sustainability Leader Award.
In 2022, MDPI made awards totalling over US$1 million in recognition and support of researchers worldwide.
Across our journal catalogue, we have granted over 2,000 awards to recognize and support researchers from all disciplines. Since 2016, these awards have served as a source of recognition, acknowledging the impact of research by heightening the influence of talented individuals. The award types mainly include the Young Investigator Award, the Best PhD Thesis Award, the Best Paper Award, and the Outstanding Reviewer Award.
To learn more about MDPI Awards and to find out which are currently available, please click here.
MDPI Awards to Scholars from China
Since 2021, there have been 23 Best Paper Awards granted to authors affiliated with Chinese institutions, identifying their papers as having high-quality scientific impact. A total of 45 Chinese scholars have received awards such as the Young Investigator Award, the Best PhD Thesis Award, the Outstanding Reviewer Award, and the Tu Youyou Award, among others. Prizes for these awards include MDPI grants for paid publications, totalling over CHF 70,000 for scholars affiliated with Chinese institutions.
MDPI’s Tu Youyou Award
Prof. Tu Youyou (left), Dr. Shu-Kun Lin (President, MDPI).
In 2015, Professor Tu Youyou was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.” In order to commemorate Professor Tu’s contributions to human health and to promote the passion and spirit conveyed by her experiences, MDPI in 2016 established the ‘Tu Youyou Award’, which runs biennially to recognize outstanding scholars dedicated to the research of natural products and medicinal chemistry.
The 2022 Tu Youyou Award was granted to Prof. Dr. Xiaoguang Lei of Peking University. Click here to access the interview with the winner.
2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine Awarded to Professor Youyou Tu
Professor Tu’s work was celebrated in a Special Issue from Molecules on the occasion of her 80th birthday. The Special Issue: 'Artemisinin (Qinghaosu): Commemorative Issue in Honor of Professor Youyou Tu on the Occasion of her 80th Anniversary” was created five years before she won the Nobel Prize, highlighting the visibility MDPI provides researchers and their work.
Highly Cited Articles by Chinese Scholars Published in MDPI
Click here to access the most cited MDPI papers published by scholars affiliated with Chinese institutions. This list presents the most influential research from the more than 287,000 MDPI papers published by Chinese scholars. With over 9 million total citations, I encourage you to maximize your visibility and impact by publishing with MDPI, the number one most cited open access publisher.
Read more:
- Tu Youyou Award
- World Sustainability Awards
- Available Awards
Inside MDPI
Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) with the Beijing Marketing team.
Marketing Department in China
During my visit to our offices in Beijing and Wuhan, I had the opportunity to meet with, and to present to, our local marketing teams. These teams are responsible for various journal-related and corporate promotional activities, including newsletters, conferences, seminars, author training, journal awards, content creation, digital marketing, and social media.
I was pleased by the ambition and curiosity of our marketing colleagues. They showed a strong desire to collaborate and acquire knowledge and tactics to effectively market and promote MDPI-journal-related activities. I presented some of the principles and objectives that we apply in the Corporate Marketing and Communications department, and used the opportunity to strengthen our collaborative communications across offices.
Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI) with the Wuhan Marketing team.
Coming Together for Science
Collaborations, Scholarships and Meetings
MDPI maintains partnerships with nearly 190 learned societies and over 800 institutions and consortia, helping to facilitate the transition to OA publishing. Our commitment to working with institutions is evident in China, where we have successfully established over 35 Institutional Open Access Programs (IOAP) with esteemed institutions such as the Tsinghua University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Our institutional partnerships, waiver programs, and article processing cost discounts create diverse pathways to OA publishing for researchers worldwide.
Scholarships in China
Since 2021, several MDPI journals (Sensors, Photonics, Coatings, Materials, Energies, and Journal of Fungi) have funded full scholarships for four Master’s and five Ph.D. projects in China. These scholarships align with Tianjin University, Wuhan University of Technology, Central South University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the China University of Petroleum (Beijing).
Meeting with the Society of Chinese University Journals (CUJS)
Prof. Tieming Zhang (President of CUJS, centre) and MDPI colleagues at CUJS office.
I am pleased to have participated in some highly productive meetings during my visit to China, including one with the Society of Chinese University Journals (CUJS). The meeting involved Prof. Tieming Zhang (President of CUJS), Assoc. Prof. Xin Zhang (Vice President and Secretary General), and Dr. Fei Gao (Executive Member of CUJS). Alongside my colleagues Dr. Guoshi Liu, Dr. Giulia Stefenelli, and Anita Sun, I represented MDPI and held an open discussion to address any questions regarding OA and MDPI.
We discussed several methods for collaboration, including a workshop on the future of peer review, MDPI sponsoring a funding grant for early-career researchers, and transitioning journals from diamond to gold OA. I am thankful for the opportunity to have met our colleagues at CUJS in person and feel very confident about our future collaborations in support of OA publishing in China.
MDPI hosts free academic seminars, author training sessions, and academic conferences as part of its commitment to enrich and support the scholarly community. CUJS often stages academic events (e.g., conferences, editor training, and editor competitions), and I believe there are great opportunities for CUJS and MDPI to collaborate accordingly.
Meeting with National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NSLC)
Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI), Dr. Giulia Stefenelli (Chair of Scientific Officers, MDPI), Anita Sun (PR Manager, MDPI) and Dr. Guoshi Liu (Managing Director, MDPI) at the National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
We also visited the NSLC Director, Xiwen Liu, and colleagues Ying Jin, Zhesi Shen, and Sichao Tong. Following our introductions, we gave a presentation on the history and editorial process at MDPI, discussing specific details related to MDPI’s business and data. We highlighted the status of our IOAP collaborations in China and the makeup of our author base, specifically in China, and drew attention to the fact that MDPI has published research by authors from every country in the world. We then discussed the design indicators, calculation methods and implementation purposes of the ‘Early Warning Journal List’ and how we can have open communication to provide any data regarding MDPI journals. I am pleased to report that we reached a consensus on future communications, and am grateful to NSLC for hosting us in their offices.
In-person meetings with stakeholders provide an invaluable opportunity to communicate what MDPI is about and the various ways in which we serve the scholarly community. While digital marketing and online communication are essential, they are no replacement for the understanding and trust that come about through in-person interactions.
The Numbers
As at September 2023, China holds the largest position in MDPI’s global market, ranking as the largest contributor to the total number of papers published by MDPI.
At this point in time, there were more than 847,000 China mainland scholars who have published with MDPI, 51 of whom are Section-Editors-in-Chief (SEiC) of MDPI journals, with seven serving as Editors-in-Chief (EiCs) for journals such as Air, Big Data and Cognitive Computing, Blockchains, Future, Nanoenergy Advances, and Targets.
Our growth and presence in China are a true testament to the service we provide to the scholarly community, and to the relationships we foster through collaborative activities. We look forward to continuing to support the growth of the scholarly community in China, providing a valuable and trusted experience with MDPI.
Closing Thoughts
Final Reflections on our MDPI Offices in Beijing and Wuhan
Stefan Tochev (CEO, MDPI), Dr. Constanze Schelhorn (Indexing Manager, MDPI), Jiale Shang (Admin, Tongzhou, MDPI) at Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing.
I spent approximately two weeks visiting some of our offices in China, and the first word that comes to mind when describing my experience is ‘hospitality.’ My colleagues and I were met with enthusiasm and delight at the airport by the Tongzhou Admin team (thank you, Jiale Shang, and thank you, Eric Wang, for keeping us organized on this trip!) and were taken care of with great attention. From hotels to transportation, dinners, and meetings, our stay was catered for perfectly.
Perhaps this is where MDPI’s focus on customers and service originates. At our core, we are a service company that provides a publishing platform for its authors. It’s therefore no surprise that authors consistently rate their experience with MDPI very highly.
95% of submitting authors rate their overall experience with the MDPI publication process as Excellent or Good (Springer Nature report 90%).
91% of submitting authors rate their overall experience with the MDPI peer review process as Excellent or Good.
Speed/Efficiency and Editorial Relationship are two key reasons underlying this high satisfaction score. ‘Editorial Relationship’ can be further explored, but in the past month, the most commonly noted aspects were the professionalism, kindness, availability, communicativeness, and personalized assistance provided by our editorial staff throughout the process. These attributes are at the core of our work across all our offices and continents.
Hospitality and Service
Just as our Chinese colleagues strove to keep us engaged by showing us the city sights (thank you, Thea Pan, and Jason Wu from the Wuhan Marketing team!) and sharing a variety of wonderful meals, our editorial staff are committed to serving our authors throughout their publishing journey. Our aim is to place the author at the centre of everything we do, eager to welcome our ‘guests’ and provide them with a pleasant publishing experience.
I asked my colleague Francis Wu (Senior Publisher, Wuhan office) where this hospitality originates. He responded that it is part of Chinese culture. I reflected long and deep on this answer. China is a vast country, and when visitors arrive, hosts want to ensure they feel welcomed and taken care of in order to maximize their time and visit. I can’t think of a better analogy for how I would want our authors to feel when they visit MDPI for their publishing needs. A company culture that prioritizes service, something that goes beyond products and productivity, and focuses on the overall experience. Over 6,000 people, across all MDPI offices, are ready, willing and able to go the extra mile for their colleagues and their customers. This is something I am truly proud of.
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
6 September 2023
Recap of Awards Granted to Scholars in 2022
MDPI is committed to supporting the academic community, nurturing talent and advancing science. Awards are an important part of the research landscape and play a vital role in helping academics gain recognition, especially young researchers as they embark on new research avenues.
In 2022, our journals presented a total number of 394 Awards, including Travel Awards, Young Investigator Awards, Best PhD Thesis Awards, Best Paper Awards, and Outstanding Reviewer Awards, with several winners announced for some of the awards. The total prize sum amounted to just under 580,000 Swiss francs (CHF), or approximately 650,000 US dollars. Overall, more than 720 scholars were awarded.
The majority of the awards were dedicated to young researchers in relatively early stages of their careers. This encompassed 66 of the afore-mentioned Travel Awards, 60 Young Investigator Awards, supporting research projects and conference attendance, as well as 51 Best PhD Thesis Awards. Additionally, 113 Best Paper Awards were given by our journals. The selection committees were entrusted with identifying the most impactful and novel research and review articles published in their journal within a given year.
MDPI will continue its support and recognition for the academic community moving forward, sponsoring new awards across disciplines. To learn more about all the awardees and their research projects in your field of study, please visit the following pages:
To explore more MDPI awards, please click here.
30 August 2023
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #3 - Sustainability and Co-opetition
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
Our Commitment to Sustainability
As a pioneer in academic open access publishing since 1996, MDPI has always been dedicated to facilitating scientific exchange across all disciplines. Our approach to open science is guided by principles such as Open Access (OA), Timeliness and Efficiency, Simplicity, High-Quality Service, Flexibility, and a commitment to Sustainability. This commitment involves preserving published papers for the long term and supporting the future of science through partnerships, sponsorships, and awards.
In this edition of the CEO Letter, I will delve into MDPI’s various sustainability initiatives. As a leader in OA publishing, we are able to provide the public with a significant amount of environment-related content at no cost.
MDPI and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
In 2020, the SDG Publishers Compact was launched to accelerate implementation of the SDGs by promoting content that informs, develops, and inspires action. MDPI joined this initiative in 2021 and subsequently launched the MDPI SDG Hub in 2022, offering free access to recent research within the scope of each of the 17 SDGs. We also support authors from underrepresented communities by waiving publication charges for selected SDG-related papers. Detailed sustainability practices and supported publications are available in the report under each Goal page.
“More than 80% of MDPI articles and reviews published in 2022 relate to the Sustainable Development Goals.” [source: InCites, Accessed on 21.08.2023]
As at August 2023, MDPI boasts 14 journals dedicated to sustainability-related topics. Our first journal in this area, Sustainability, has published over 29,000 articles on the SDGs, accumulating over 240,000 citations (source: InCites, as at 1 January 2023). These journals serve as vital platforms for researchers to share insights and address environmental challenges. In addition:
MDPI journals specializing in sustainability-related topics:
- 2009: Sustainability
- 2012: Resources
- 2013: Climate
- 2014: Environments
- 2016: Recycling
- 2019: Clean Technologies
- 2020: Sustainable Chemistry
- 2021: Wind, Biomass, Conservation, Pollutants, Solar
- 2022: Waste, Microplastics
Read more:
Impactful Research
Highly Cited Articles in Sustainability
In 2022, content published in Sustainability and indexed in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) received nearly 190,000 citations. This highlights the fact that Sustainability publishes highly cited research articles related to environmental sciences and SDG-related topics such as climate action.
We are pleased to share that Sustainability received a 2022 CiteScore of 5.8, marking a 16% increase from the 2021 metric. Specifically, the CiteScore positions Sustainability as follows: Q1 (27 out of 163) in the “Environmental Science (miscellaneous)” category, and Q1 (101 out of 779) in the “Geography Planning and Development” category. For additional journal statistics, please visit here.
“Sustainability received a 2022 CiteScore of 5.8”
While MDPI journals such as Climate and Atmosphere have a distinct focus on atmosphere pollution and its impact on climate processes, journals like Sustainability, Environments, Water, Remote Sensing, and IJERPH publish content related to climate change. These journals have published over 32,300 articles related to SDG 13: Climate Action.
Highly Cited Papers in Sustainability
Below are several highly cited papers published in Sustainability over the past three years. Citation metrics are current as at 15 August 2023.
1. “A Global Assessment: Can Renewable Energy Replace Fossil Fuels by 2050?”Authors: Jerry L. Holechek, Hatim M. E. Geli, Mohammed N. Sawalhah, and Raul Valdez
Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4792; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084792
Citations: Crossref (97), Scopus (91), Web of Science (82), Google Scholar (125)
This paper addresses one of the most significant challenges of climate change – achieving Net Zero Carbon by 2050. The meta-analysis suggests that while difficult, this transition is possible through the concerted application of pathways, lifestyle changes, and global cooperation.
2. “Anxiety and the Ecological Crisis: An Analysis of Eco-Anxiety and Climate Anxiety”Author: Panu Pihkala
Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 7836; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197836
Citations: Crossref (144), Scopus (121), Web of Science (159), Google Scholar (382)
This paper has received substantial media attention, including coverage by The Guardian, BBC, Vice, and CNBC. An interview with Dr. Panu Pihkala, a leading interdisciplinary researcher on the topic, can be found on MDPI’s podcast: Insight Faster, Episode 1.
3. “Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture and Its Mitigation Strategies: A Review”Authors: Gurdeep Singh Malhi, Manpreet Kaur, and Prashant Kaushik
Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1318; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031318
Citations: Crossref (207), Scopus (221), Web of Science (186), Google Scholar (355)
This paper reviews literature on climate change, addressing its causes, future projections, impact on agriculture, including plant physiology, growth, productivity, pest infestation, and the economic implications of mitigation strategies.
4. “Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Ecosystem Services, Sustainable Development Goals, and Need to Focus on Circular Economy and Policy Interventions”Authors: Rakesh Kumar, Anurag Verma, Arkajyoti Shome, Rama Sinha, Srishti Sinha, Prakash Kumar Jha, Ritesh Kumar, Pawan Kumar, Shubham, Shreyas Das, Prabhakar Sharma, and P. V. Vara Prasad
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9963; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179963
Citations: Crossref (134), Scopus (136), Web of Science (113), Google Scholar (184)
This review aims to assess the adverse effects of plastic pollution on ecosystems, link the management of plastic with the SDGs, and propose policy measures using transdisciplinary approaches. Empowering communities to reduce plastic use is crucial. Addressing global plastic pollution is a priority.
Sustainability is an international, cross-disciplinary, open access journal that explores environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability of human beings. It provides a forward-looking platform for research on sustainability and sustainable development, and is published semi-monthly online by MDPI. Sustainability is affiliated with The Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) and The International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB).
Read more:
- Testimonials: See what our editors and authors say about Sustainability.
Inside MDPI
President of Ireland Authors Editorial in MDPI Journal Sustainability
It’s a very special occasion when the president of a country takes the initiative to write an editorial for a journal. Michael D. Higgins, President of the Republic of Ireland, has contributed his insights to a forthcoming Special Issue in Sustainability:
This Special Issue, focusing on “making sustainable development happen” at grassroots levels, allows for perspectives from, and on, the major world faiths, exploring how challenges have been conceptualised and addressed, in addition to case studies of faith-based sustainability initiatives in practice.
The experience of faith institutions and communities in translating theological and moral commitments to sustainable development into action is now a topic we must examine with urgency; one on which I am so glad this Special Issue focuses.
As President of Ireland, I very much support this Special Issue of Sustainability. It is my great hope that the contents of the papers contained herein will assist in making sustainable development happen at grassroots levels across the world so that we can cooperate together, people of faith and of none, to ensure a just, inclusive and sustainable future for all on our fragile planet.
Read the completed editorial here:
Special Issue “Faith and Sustainable Development: Exploring Practice, Progress and Challenges among Faith Communities and Institutions”: Foreword by the President of Ireland
Author: Michael D. Higgins
Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9683; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129683
Coming Together for Science
The World Sustainability Forum 2023
The World Sustainability Forum (WSF) is a biennial MDPI event focused on sustainability. WSF 2023 marks the tenth anniversary of the conference series, taking place on 14 September. For the first time, the event will be hosted as a 24-hour conference across three locations – Singapore, Basel in Switzerland, and Toronto in Canada – alongside virtual streaming.
This unique format allows us to span three time zones, providing live coverage of critical sustainability-related topics throughout the day:
- The Singapore Hub, chaired by Professor Horn Mun Cheah and Associate Professor Renee Tan, will explore “Sustainability for Social and Community Impact”.
- The Basel Hub, chaired by Prof. Dr. Anet Režek Jambrak and Dr. Lela Mélon, will delve into “Sustainability in the industry, and at university and corporate settings”.
- The Toronto Hub, led by Dr. Umberto Berardi, will discuss “The Sustainable Built Environment”.
MDPI Sustainability Foundation: Recognizing Excellence in Sustainability Research
The MDPI Sustainability Foundation supports researchers through two sustainability-focused awards:
- The World Sustainability Award, amounting to USD 100,000, is given to senior researchers.
- The Emerging Sustainability Leader Award, valued at USD 20,000, sponsored by the journal Sustainability, is presented to early-career researchers.
The winners of the Sustainability Foundation will be formally awarded during the WSF2023 on 14 September. Interviews with the award winners and finalists are available below.
2023 World Sustainability Award Winners
Interviews with 2023 Emerging Sustainability Leader Award Finalists
- Dr. Bahareh Kamranzad
- Dr. Youjin Kim
- Dr. Julia Lohmann
As a hybrid event, WSF23 provides scholars with the option to attend in person at one of the conference sites or, for a more sustainable approach, virtually. All sessions will be recorded and archived for future access. Registration is open until 3 September 2023, with in-person and virtual tickets available here.
Read more:
Closing Thoughts
“Co-opetition”: Collaboration Plus Healthy Competition – A Visit to Elsevier
I firmly believe in fostering collaboration and at the same time promoting healthy competition within the academic publishing industry. The market offers ample room for publishers and related companies to provide valuable services and products that enrich the academic community. While MDPI is recognized for its efficient and streamlined processes –thanks to our over 6,000 colleagues, in-house tools, and initiatives that support the author journey – our ethos has always involved learning from and collaborating with other organizations.
MDPI’s Interaction with Elsevier
In January 2023, I had a brief conversation with Judy Verses, President of Global Academic and Government Markets at Elsevier, following her participation in a panel discussion at the Academic Publishers Europe event in Berlin. One of the highlights for me was Judy’s insight into the impact of research, particularly her emphasis on the role of collaboration, including policy and showing the impact of research to influence on funding decisions.
“Such collaborations drive forward-looking strategies to elevate our support for the scholarly community”
Judy and I resumed our discussion in August, when I visited Elsevier's office to review current projects, such as our recent agreement with Science Direct and the continued indexing of MDPI journals in Scopus (indexing database owned by Elsevier). We also explored possible opportunities for the future, including a potential collaboration to expand MDPI’s Scilit data infrastructure. This endeavour aims to aggregate and provide access to scholarly metadata encompassing journal articles, conference papers, books, preprints, and more. While these discussions are ongoing, the underlying principle remains that such collaborations drive forward-looking strategies to elevate our services and support for the scholarly community.
It was great that Judy and I acknowledged the merits of 'co-opetition,' a concept based of the belief that fostering cooperation alongside healthy competition can lead to shared advancements for both individual companies and the industry at large.
‘Fully OA’ Organizations Dedicated to Open Access
MDPI proudly aligns with the ‘Fully OA’ group, a collaborative initiative comprising nine organizations dedicated to Open Access. Our monthly meetings, including an OASPA representative, serve as platforms to share non-confidential information, resources, and projects. These gatherings also facilitate discussions on topics relevant to fully OA organizations. Occasionally, joint actions spring from these interactions, such as collaborative blog posts on pertinent subjects and joint statements, such as a recent response to the House Appropriations Committee.
This display of cooperation among competing entities forms a strategic alliance focused on nurturing the best interests of the OA publishing model.
As I wrap up this third edition of the CEO Letter, I encourage you to seize opportunities for collaboration and contribute to advancing our shared academic culture. As the African proverb has it, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
16 August 2023
MDPI’s 2022 Young Investigator Awards in Engineering—Winners Announced
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 2022 in the engineering category. The winners were selected by the journals’ Award Evaluation Committee.
We warmly congratulate the following young investigators for their outstanding contributions. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.
- Yi Zhang, University of Electronic Science and Technology, China
- Lin Ma, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA
- Stefano Cinti, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
- Umberto Berardi, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
- Benedetto Nastasi, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
- Do Kyun Kim, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
- Fernando Bento, University of Beira Interior, Portugal
- Goshtasp Cheraghian, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
- Roman Mykhailyshyn, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
- Pingan Zhu, City University of Hong Kong, China
- Viknesh Andiappan, the Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Malaysia
- Wenzhuo Wu, Purdue University, USA
About MDPI Awards:
In order to reward the academic community, especially young researchers and enhance communication among scientists, MDPI journals regularly offer various awards to researchers in specific fields. These awards, serving as a source of inspiration and recognition, help raise the influence of talented individuals who have been credited with outstanding achievements and are making a significant contribution to the advancement of their fields.
To explore more MDPI awards, please click here.
16 August 2023
MDPI’s 2022 Travel Awards in Engineering—Winners Announced
We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2022 Travel Awards in the engineering category for their outstanding presentations.
MDPI journals regularly offer travel awards to encourage 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 the 2022 Travel Awards and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors. MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.
- Dmitry Kireev, University of Texas at Austin, USA
- Danilo D’Angela, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
- Jungsub Kim, Texas A&M University, USA
About MDPI Awards:
In order to reward the academic community, especially young researchers and enhance communication among scientists, MDPI journals regularly offer various awards to researchers in specific fields. These awards, serving as a source of inspiration and recognition, help raise the influence of talented individuals who have been credited with outstanding achievements and are making a significant contribution to the advancement of their fields.
To explore more MDPI awards, please click here.
16 August 2023
MDPI’s 2022 Outstanding Reviewer Awards in Engineering—Winners Announced
In order to acknowledge our reviewers, who demonstrate diligence, professionalism, and timeliness when generously dedicating their time to reviewing papers, 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 2022 in the engineering category for their outstanding contributions by presenting them with an Outstanding Reviewer Award.
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the winners on their achievements. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.
- Chongjing Cao, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), China
- Roman Mykhailyshyn, University of Texas at Austin, USA
- Chiranjibi Sitaula, Monash University, Australia
- Davide Forcellini, 1University of Auckland, New Zealand; 2University of San Marino, San Marino
- Giuseppe Ciaburro, Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy
- Yang Song, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
- Xiaoming Liu, Beijing Institute of Technology, China
- Carlos Torres-Torres, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico
- Paolo Blecich, University of Rijeka, Croatia
- Łukasz Ścislo, Cracow University of Technology, Poland
- Giorgio Sonnino, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium
- Luiz Antonio Alcântara Pereira, Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI), Brazil
- Cagatay Iris, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Chiemela Victor Amaechi, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
- Denis Istrati, University of Nevada, USA
- Mai The Vu, Sejong University, Korea
- Mina Tadros, University of Lisbon, Portugal
- Chao Fu, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China
- Eduardo Suárez, Universidade de Vigo, Spain
- Jordi-Roger Riba, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
- Catalin Ianasi, Institute of Chemistry “Coriolan Dragulescu”, Romania
- Daniel Ferrández, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain
- Kamil Krzysztof Roman, Institute of Technology and Life Sciences in Warsaw, Poland
- Marcin Dębowski, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland
- Mariusz Szymanek, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Poland
- Agustin L. Herrera-May, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico
- Chiachung Chen, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
- Jae-Myung Ryu, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Republic of Korea
- Sebastian Głowiński, Koszalin Technical University, Poland
- Wei Zhou, University of Waterloo, Canada
About MDPI Awards:
In order to reward the academic community, especially young researchers and enhance communication among scientists, MDPI journals regularly offer various awards to researchers in specific fields. These awards, serving as a source of inspiration and recognition, help raise the influence of talented individuals who have been credited with outstanding achievements and are making a significant contribution to the advancement of their fields.
To explore more MDPI awards, please click here.
16 August 2023
MDPI’s 2022 Best PhD Thesis Awards in Engineering—Winners Announced
MDPI’s Best PhD Thesis Awards are presented to recognize the young scholars who are judged to have completed the most outstanding PhD thesis in their field of research and to encourage them to continue their excellent work and further contributions to their field.
We would like to warmly congratulate the winners of the 2022 Best PhD Thesis Awards and wish them success with their future research endeavors. MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.
JMSE:
- “Mathematical Modelling of Wave-Induced Motions and Loads on Moored Offshore Structures”
by Changqing Jiang, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
- “Experimental Characterization of Frictional Hysteresis for Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis of Jointed Structures”
by Alfredo Fantetti, Imperial College London, UK
- “Sustainable Cultivation of Microalgae Biomass for Bioenergy Production”
by Angela Paul Peter, Xiamen University Malaysia, Malaysia
- “Studying Protein Function with Fluorescent Nanoantennas”
by Scott G. Harroun, Université de Montréal, Canada
About MDPI Awards:
In order to reward the academic community, especially young researchers and enhance communication among scientists, MDPI journals regularly offer various awards to researchers in specific fields. These awards, serving as a source of inspiration and recognition, help raise the influence of talented individuals who have been credited with outstanding achievements and are making a significant contribution to the advancement of their fields.
To explore more MDPI awards, please click here.
16 August 2023
MDPI’s Best Paper Awards in Engineering—Winners in 2022 Announced
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 scientific merit, overall impact, and the quality of presentation of the papers published in the journal.
We are honored to present the winners announced for the year 2022 in the engineering category, who were selected from extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.
- “Two-Way and Multiple-Way Shape Memory Polymers for Soft Robotics: An Overview”
by Giulia Scalet
Actuators 2020, 9(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/act9010010
- “Low-Cost, Open-Source Mechanical Ventilator with Pulmonary Monitoring for COVID-19 Patients”
by Leonardo Acho, Alessandro N. Vargas and Gisela Pujol-Vázquez
Actuators 2020, 9(3), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/act9030084
- “Styrenic-Rubber Dielectric Elastomer Actuator with Inherent Stiffness Compensation”
by Giacomo Moretti, Luca Sarina, Lorenzo Agostini, Rocco Vertechy, Giovanni Berselli and Marco Fontana
Actuators 2020, 9(2), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/act9020044
- “Chromium(III) Removal from Wastewater by Chitosan Flakes”
by Loris Pietrelli, Iolanda Francolini, Antonella Piozzi, Maria Sighicelli, Ilaria Silvestro and Marco Vocciante
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(6), 1925; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10061925
- “Unravelling the Environmental Application of Biochar as Low-Cost Biosorbent: A Review”
by Antía Fdez-Sanromán, Marta Pazos, Emilio Rosales and María Angeles Sanromán
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(21), 7810; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10217810
- “Observation of Potential Contaminants in Processed Biomass Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy”
by Jingshun Zhuang, Mi Li, Yunqiao Pu, Arthur Jonas Ragauskas and Chang Geun Yoo
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(12), 4345; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10124345
- “Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis 2020: Where We Stand”
by Angelo Iacobino, Lanfranco Fattorini and Federico Giannoni
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(6), 2153; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10062153
- “Real-Time Remote Maintenance Support Based on Augmented Reality (AR)”
by Dimitris Mourtzis, Vasileios Siatras and John Angelopoulos
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(5), 1855; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10051855
- “Dielectric Elastomer Actuator for Soft Robotics Applications and Challenges”
by Jung-Hwan Youn, Seung Mo Jeong, Geonwoo Hwang, Hyunwoo Kim, Kyujin Hyeon, Jihwan Park and Ki-Uk Kyung
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(2), 640; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10020640
- “Low-Cost Biochar Adsorbents for Water Purification Including Microplastics Removal”
by Virpi Siipola, Stephan Pflugmacher, Henrik Romar, Laura Wendling and Pertti Koukkari
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(3), 788; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10030788
- “Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of AISI 316L Produced by Directed Energy Deposition-Based Additive Manufacturing: A Review”
by Abdollah Saboori, Alberta Aversa, Giulio Marchese, Sara Biamino, Mariangela Lombardi and Paolo Fino
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(9), 3310; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10093310
- “Humans-as-a-Sensor for Buildings—Intensive Longitudinal Indoor Comfort Models”
by Prageeth Jayathissa, Matias Quintana, Mahmoud Abdelrahman and Clayton Miller
Buildings 2020, 10(10), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10100174
- “Circular Building Design: An Analysis of Barriers and Drivers for a Circular Building Sector”
by Jouri Kanters
Buildings 2020, 10(4), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10040077
- “Building Information Modelling (BIM) to Enhance Occupational Safety in Construction Activities: Research Trends Emerging from One Decade of Studies”
by Mario Fargnoli and Mara Lombardi
Buildings 2020, 10(6), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10060098
- “A SWOT Analysis of the Use of BIM Technology in the Polish Construction Industry”
by Krzysztof Zima, Edyta Plebankiewicz and Damian Wieczorek
Buildings 2020, 10(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10010016
- “Durability and Climate Change—Implications for Service Life Prediction and the Maintainability of Buildings”
by Michael A. Lacasse, Abhishek Gaur and Travis V. Moore
Buildings 2020, 10(3), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10030053
- “Worker 4.0: The Future of Sensored Construction Sites”
by Diego Calvetti, Pedro Mêda, Miguel Chichorro Gonçalves and Hipólito Sousa
Buildings 2020, 10(10), 169; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10100169
- “A Review of Topology Optimisation for Fluid-Based Problems”
by Joe Alexandersen and Casper Schousboe Andreasen
Fluids 2020, 5(1), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5010029
- “On the Deterministic Prediction of Water Waves”
by Marco Klein, Matthias Dudek, Günther F. Clauss, Sören Ehlers, Jasper Behrendt, Norbert Hoffman and Miguel Onorato
Fluids 2020, 5(1), 9; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5010009
- “On the Effect of Block Roughness in Ogee Spillways with Flip Buckets”
by Rasoul Daneshfaraz, Amir Ghaderi, Aliakbar Akhtari, Silvia Di Francesco
Fluids 2020, 5(4), 182; https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids5040182
- “Marine Application of Fiber Reinforced Composites: A Review”
by Felice Rubino, Antonio Nisticò, Fausto Tucci and Pierpaolo Carlone
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(1), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8010026
- “Numerical Simulation of Large Wave Heights from Super Typhoon Nepartak (2016) in the Eastern Waters of Taiwan”
by Shih-Chun Hsiao, Hongey Chen, Han-Lun Wu, Wei-Bo Chen, Chih-Hsin Chang, Wen-Dar Guo, Yung-Ming Chen and Lee-Yaw Lin
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(3), 217; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8030217
- “Development of Deterministic Artificial Intelligence for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV)”
by Timothy Sands
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(8), 578; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8080578
- “Effective Application of Solid Lubricants in Spacecraft Mechanisms”
by Jeffrey R. Lince
Lubricants 2020, 8(7), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/lubricants8070074
- “High-Rate Laser Surface Texturing for Advanced Tribological Functionality”
by Jörg Schille, Lutz Schneider, Stefan Mauersberger, Sylvia Szokup, Sören Höhn, Johannes Pötschke, Friedemann Reiß, Erhard Leidich and Udo Löschner
Lubricants 2020, 8(3), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/lubricants8030033
- “Size Sorting of Exosomes by Tuning the Thicknesses of the Electric Double Layers on a Micro-Nanofluidic Device”
by Satoko Fujiwara, Kyojiro Morikawa, Tatsuro Endo, Hideaki Hisamoto and Kenji Sueyoshi
Micromachines 2020, 11(5), 458; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11050458
- “Additive Manufacturing of Sub-Micron to Sub-mm Metal Structures with Hollow AFM Cantilevers”
by Giorgio Ercolano, Cathelijn van Nisselroy, Thibaut Merle, János Vörös, Dmitry Momotenko, Wabe W. Koelmans and Tomaso Zambelli
Micromachines 2020, 11(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11010006
- “A Robotic Biopsy Endoscope with Magnetic 5-DOF Locomotion and a Retractable Biopsy Punch”
by Manh Cuong Hoang, Viet Ha Le, Kim Tien Nguyen, Van Du Nguyen, Jayoung Kim, Eunpyo Choi, Seungmin Bang, Byungjeon Kang, Jong-Oh Park and Chang-Sei Kim
Micromachines 2020, 11(1), 98; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11010098
- “Development of Fully Flexible Tactile Pressure Sensor with Bilayer Interlaced Bumps for Robotic Grasping Applications”
by Lingfeng Zhu, Yancheng Wang, Deqing Mei and Chengpeng Jiang
Micromachines 2020, 11(8), 770; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11080770
- “A mm-Sized Free-Floating Wireless Implantable Opto-Electro Stimulation Device”
by Yaoyao Jia, Yan Gong, Arthur Weber, Wen Li and Maysam Ghovanloo
Micromachines 2020, 11(6), 621; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11060621
- “Advanced Bioethanol Production: From Novel Raw Materials to Integrated Biorefineries”
by Aleta Duque, Cristina Álvarez, Pablo Doménech, Paloma Manzanares and Antonio D. Moreno
Processes 2021, 9(2), 206; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9020206
- “An Overview on Fault Diagnosis, Prognosis and Resilient Control for Wind Turbine Systems”
by Zhiwei Gao and Xiaoxu Liu
Processes 2021, 9(2), 300; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9020300
- “Role of Microalgae in the Recovery of Nutrients from Pig Manure”
by Ana Sánchez-Zurano, Martina Ciardi, Tomás Lafarga, José María Fernández-Sevilla, Ruperto Bermejo and Emilio Molina-Grima
Processes 2021, 9(2), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9020203
- “Applying Lean Six Sigma Methodology to a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility: A Case Study”
by Brian Byrne, Olivia McDermott and John Noonan
Processes 2021, 9(3), 550; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9030550
- “YOLO-Tomato: A Robust Algorithm for Tomato Detection Based on YOLOv3”
by Guoxu Liu, Joseph Christian Nouaze, Philippe Lyonel Touko Mbouembe and Jae Ho Kim
Sensors 2020, 20(7), 2145; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20072145
- “Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting Solutions: A Review”
by Corina Covaci and Aurel Gontean
Sensors 2020, 20(12), 3512; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20123512
- “Applications of Graphene Quantum Dots in Biomedical Sensors”
by Bhargav D. Mansuriya and Zeynep Altintas
Sensors 2020, 20(4), 1072; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20041072
WEVJ:
- “Beyond the State of the Art of Electric Vehicles: A Fact-Based Paper of the Current and Prospective Electric Vehicle Technologies”
by Joeri Van Mierlo, Maitane Berecibar, Mohamed El Baghdadi, Cedric De Cauwer, Maarten Messagie, Thierry Coosemans, Valéry Ann Jacobs and Omar Hegazy
World Electr. Veh. J. 2021, 12(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/wevj12010020
- “An Overview of Parameter and Cost for Battery Electric Vehicles”
by Adrian König, Lorenzo Nicoletti, Daniel Schröder, Sebastian Wolff, Adam Waclaw and Markus Lienkamp
World Electr. Veh. J. 2021, 12(1), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/wevj12010021
About MDPI Awards:
In order to reward the academic community, especially young researchers and enhance communication among scientists, MDPI journals regularly offer various awards to researchers in specific fields. These awards, serving as a source of inspiration and recognition, help raise the influence of talented individuals who have been credited with outstanding achievements and are making a significant contribution to the advancement of their fields.
To explore more MDPI awards, please click here.
27 July 2023
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #2 - Open Peer-Review and IJERPH
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
Open Peer Review Reports
Continuing the topic of openness from my inaugural monthly CEO letter, in these Opening Thoughts, I highlight the growth and importance of open peer-review reports at MDPI. Open peer reports align with the principles of open science, making the publishing process more transparent and facilitating rigorous peer review.
MDPI journals operate an open peer-review option by default, allowing authors to publish review reports and author responses (often referred to as open reports) together with the published paper. Publishing the reviewer reports and author responses together with the article provides greater transparency and trust for readers, as this allows them to track the editorial decision-making process. Open peer-review also encourages reviewers and editors to provide high-quality comments, as these will be made public if the article is accepted for publication.
Start and Growth of Open Peer Review at MDPI
The MDPI journal Life was a pioneer in offering this opportunity to its authors in 2014. The first MDPI article with peer-review reports openly published was a review by the Nobel Laureate Werner Arber, in which the review reports were published as supplementary material. By 2018, open peer-review was available across all MDPI journals. As such, MDPI authors have embraced the open peer-review model, providing a steady increase in the number of MDPI articles. As of 2023, approximately one-third (34.0%) of MDPI articles were published with open review reports.
As at July 2023, the percentage of MDPI articles published with open peer review has increased to 36.2% of the total papers published in 2023 so far, indicating ongoing growth in adoption.
Open peer review continues to play a critical role in the assessment of the peer-review process in Life. For further insights, please see the recent editorial by Dr. Pabulo Henrique Rampelotto, the former Editor-in-Chief of Life, who spearheaded the implementation of the open peer-review process.
Benefits of Open Peer Review
The benefits of open peer review include increased transparency, trust and constructive feedback. To promote open communication further and increase the robustness of the peer-review process, we encourage reviewers to sign their reports so that their name appears on the review report (this process is referred to as open identity). The default option is for reviewers to remain anonymous; however, by signing the reports, reviewers receive direct credit for their contribution to the peer-review process and show their commitment towards open science.
As the leading open access publisher, MDPI remains committed to promoting open peer-review and encourages authors to choose this approach. Our goal is to provide a rigorous and transparent peer-review process that benefits the scientific community, and we believe that open peer-review is a vital step in fostering openness and collaboration in scientific communication.
Impactful Research
MDPI Papers Cited in the News – IJERPH edition
Every month, our corporate marketing team compiles data from Altmetrics to create a list of MDPI papers that have been cited in the news. This list continues to grow as renowned news outlets regularly reference research published by MDPI in their articles.
During 2022, a total of 111,965 MDPI research papers were mentioned in prominent news outlets such as National Geographic, The Washington Post, Forbes, The Guardian, the BBC, CNN, Time, and Harvard Business Review.
Highly Cited Journal Publications
IJERPH, known for publishing impactful research, received the most news mentions among all MDPI journals in 2022, based on Altmetrics data:
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: 3509 mentions
- Nutrients: 2698 mentions
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences: 1701 mentions
- Journal of Clinical Medicine: 1131 mentions
- Viruses: 1111 mentions
These numbers show the recognition and impact of the articles published in IJERPH. For a more detailed view of the journal’s most cited and viewed papers, you can visit here. In total, IJERPH has garnered over 28,000 mentions in prominent news outlets, and as at July 2023, an impressive count of over 17,000 papers cited 10 times or more. These figures highlight the impactful contribution of IJERPH publications to the scientific community.
Example of Recent Mentions
During May and June 2023, a noteworthy selection of articles from IJERPH was cited in news articles, including:
The Washington Post: “Bringing nature inside can improve your health. Here’s how to do it.”
IJERPH paper: “Physiological Benefits of Viewing Nature: A Systematic Review of Indoor Experiments”
Harvard Business Review: “How to Take Better Breaks at Work, According to Research”
IJERPH paper: “Canine-Assisted Therapy Improves Well-Being in Nurses”
National Geographic: “Lyme disease is spreading fast—but a vaccine may be on the way”
IJERPH paper: “Range Expansion of Tick Disease Vectors in North America: Implications for Spread of Tick-Borne Disease”
Inside MDPI
MDPI Develops an Artificial Intelligence Tool to Enhance the Peer-Review Process
At MDPI, we believe that rigorous peer-review is the corner-stone of high-quality academic publishing. We are grateful to the scholars who generously dedicate their time to peer-review articles submitted to MDPI journals. Their contributions are invaluable to the advancement of science.
Peer-review is a critical part of the publication process, ensuring that MDPI upholds the highest quality standards for the papers we publish. Every manuscript submitted to our journals undergoes a comprehensive peer-review process conducted by subject-matter experts.
To further enhance our peer-review process, our Data Analytics team has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool designed to support the selection of reviewers. This proprietary tool utilizes Natural Language Processing (NLP), a specially designed AI language model, to extract information from the title and abstract of submitted papers. It then searches our database for similar manuscripts and suggests potential reviewers based on this analysis. Integrated with MDPI's submission system (SuSy), the AI tool cross-references the suggested candidates with our reviewer database to verify their invitation status and availability.
The goal of this tool is to provide better targeted peer-review invitations, reducing the number of emails sent for each paper and increasing the efficiency of our editorial staff.
In the near future, our Data Analytics team plans to deploy similar AI projects to improve other critical aspects of our services, offering an enhanced experience to our authors and readers.
Click here to learn about MDPI’s review process, including procedures, responsibilities, and benefits.
Read more:
Coming Together for Science
The Future of IJERPH
On 5 July 2023, Prof. Dr. Paul B. Tchounwou, the founding Editor-in-Chief of IJERPH, along with five Section Editors in Chief (Prof. Dr. Germán Vicente-Rodríguez, Prof. Dr. Karl Goodkin, Prof. Dr. William A. Toscano, Prof. Dr. Jimmy T. Efird, and Prof. Dr. William Douglas Evans), gathered in Basel to discuss the future of the journal. The meeting provided an opportunity to address the recent decision by The Web of Science to delist IJERPH due to the journal failing the Content Relevance criterion, and propose best strategies that will ensure high scientific rigor as well as a clear scope and aim of IJERPH, going forward.
While the delisting is disappointing for IJERPH, as well as for our authors, academic editors, and the entire scientific community supporting our journal, we see it as an opportunity to reflect and prepare for the future direction of the journal.
Since its launch in 2004, IJERPH’s vision and mission have evolved to be more complete and comprehensive in engaging scientific communities. In light of this, we will refresh the journal’s aims and scope, ensuring they align with the organic expansion of IJERPH. Additionally, we will restructure the journal sections into broader categories, encouraging collaborative research and transdisciplinary approaches for authors. This is designed to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange among diverse fields, contributing to a holistic understanding of health promotion and disease prevention. We are confident that these next steps will enhance the scientific strength and societal impact of our journal.
Journal Achievements
In addition to the productive discussions, we took the time to celebrate some of the remarkable achievements of IJERPH, which I highlight below:
- Founded by Prof. Dr. Paul B. Tchounwou in 2004
- Indexed in PubMed in 2008
- Received its first Impact Factor in 2012
- Published its 5000th paper in 2017
- Over 60,000 papers published as at June 30, 2023
- 131,628,173 paper views in 2018–2022
- Over 28,000 mentions in prominent news outlets
- 17,000 papers cited 10 times or more as at June 30, 2023
- No.1 journal in the 2022 Google Scholar Metrics in the category of Public Health
- Awarded several editions of Young Investigator Awards, Travel Awards, and Outstanding Reviewer Awards since 2018.
These achievements showcase the journal’s significant contributions to the field and its impact on global health. We are proud of the exceptional work accomplished by the IJERPH team and look forward to building upon this success in the years to come.
Closing Thoughts
MDPI’s Impact in Spain
During the past month, I had the opportunity to visit our new office building in Barcelona, where I met with our local colleagues to discuss the ways we serve the scholarly community, particularly in Spain. The multi-functional office plays a vital role in supporting various business needs, including editorial, design, conference management, data analytics, journal relationship management, publishing partnerships, and collaborations with societies.
Spain holds a significant position in MDPI’s global market, ranking as the fourth-largest contributor to the total number of papers published by MDPI as at July 2023, ranking next to Italy, the USA, and China, with Germany completing the top five.
The Numbers
Out of the 1,680,000 total MDPI articles published as at 25 July, almost 80,000 articles are contributed by Spanish authors, representing nearly 40,000 unique authors affiliated with Spanish institutions. Remarkably, over 6,300 of these authors hold editorial board member (EBM) positions within MDPI journals, with 30 of them serving as Editors-in-Chief (EiCs).
Our commitment to working with institutions is very evident in Spain, where we have successfully established over 40 Institutional Open Access Programs (IOAP) with esteemed institutions such as the University of Barcelona, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Pompeu Fabra University, the University of Navarre, and Complutense University of Madrid.
Over the past five years, we have successfully organized eight in-person conferences in Barcelona, attracting over 1,150 registrations, with two forthcoming events scheduled for 2024. Barcelona's excellent connectivity to international airports makes it easily accessible to participants from around the world. Its welcoming atmosphere provides us with the perfect environment for knowledge-sharing, networking, and contributing to the local economy.
Our growth and presence in Spain are a true testament to the incredible service we provide to the scholarly community and the relationships we foster through responsive and collaborative communication. We look forward to continuing to support Spanish scholars, providing them a valuable and trusted experience with MDPI, the leader in open access publishing.
Testimonials
I close this letter as I did in the first edition, by sharing testimonials from our stakeholders. Here are a few IJERPH testimonials from a Spanish guest editor and an author:
Guest Editor
“I want to thank the kindness, attention and professionalism of the MDPI team throughout the editorial process of the Special Issue. I believe that it is a very professional and quality editorial process.”
- Professor Víctor Arufe-Giráldez, University of A Coruña
Special Issue in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: Physical Activity in Childhood and Adolescence
Special Issue in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: Physical Education: Present and Future
__
Author
“I want to thank the rigor of the revisions made to the manuscripts to improve their quality, the support to the authors for the editor assignment system they have and the follow-up they carry out, for the speed in answering and in carrying out the entire process of the revision, and for doing all this at an affordable price.”
- Dr. María Paz García-Caro, University of Granada
Article in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: Factors Associated with Suicide Attempts and Suicides in the General Population of Andalusia (Spain)
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
11 July 2023
MDPI’s Newly Launched Journals in June 2023
With the first issue released in June 2023, five new MDPI journals disseminating multi-disciplinary science are due to launch, which will cover the subjects of medicine & pharmacology, biology and physical sciences.
The newly launched journals will be overseen by professional Editorial Board Members and Editors to ensure an accurate and rapid publication, rigorous peer review and broad visibility.
Please feel free to browse and discover more about the new journals below.
Journal | Founding Editor-in-Chief | Journal topics (selected) |
Prof. Dr. Jun Ma, Peking University, China| Editorial | view inaugural issue | growth and development; diet and nutrients; school health promotion policies and practices; child health and care; adolescent health and wellbeing | view journal scope | submit an article |
|
Prof. Dr. Bernd Rehm, Griffith University, Australia | Editorial | view inaugural issue | DNA and gene synthesis; synthetic transcription factors; protein engineering; viral engineering; metabolic engineering | view journal scope | submit an article | |
Prof. Dr. Varsha Gandhi, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue | lymphatics; cancers associated with lymphocytes and lymphoblasts; lymphatic tissues; lymphoma; lymphoid leukemia | view journal scope | submit an article | |
Dr. Bradley Turner, University of Melbourne, Australia | Editorial | view inaugural issue | multiple sclerosis; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; primary lateral sclerosis; atherosclerosis; systemic sclerosis | view journal scope | submit an article | |
Prof. Dr. Clemens Burda, Case Western Reserve University, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue | Gamma ray, X-ray, and UV–Vis spectroscopies; NIR/mid-infrared/Raman spectroscopy; microwave and THz spectroscopy; high-resolution gas-phase atomic, molecular, and cluster spectroscopy; MS, NMR, and EPR spectroscopy | view journal scope | submit an article |
We wish to thank everyone who has supported the development of open access publishing. You are welcome to submit an application to the New Journal Committee (newjournal-committee@mdpi.com) if you would like to create more new journals.
3 July 2023
MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter #1 - Open Access and Impactful Research
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
The Future is Open, and MDPI is Leading the Way
I strongly believe in a future that embraces openness, where open source, open information, and open access (OA) take center stage. This belief that led me to join MDPI in 2020, and I am honored to have recently been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In this capacity, and operating in close liaison with Dr. Lin and MDPI’s senior management, I shall work to build on Dr. Lin’s achievements of the past quarter-century. In this role, I will focus on communication initiatives to promote MDPI's remarkable work and continue to build our company as a trusted leader in OA publishing. For over two decades, MDPI has been at the forefront of reshaping the academic publishing landscape, with OA surpassing subscription-based publishing in 2020. This trajectory is deeply rooted in our history and reflects our unwavering commitment and vision for an open future.
1 Million Published Articles
2023 began with a remarkable achievement for MDPI, as we became the first OA publisher to reach the milestone of 1 million published articles. This represents 2.7 million unique authors who have trusted us with their work, or about a third of all researchers worldwide. As the world's most cited OA publisher, we are proud in sharing these significant milestones.
Our mission remains unchanged: to make science open and accessible to all. We understand the importance of knowledge access, empowering researchers to stay at the forefront of a rapidly changing world. Our diverse range of journals covers a wide spectrum of disciplines, offering cutting-edge insights, trusted tools, and crucial knowledge to address global challenges.
Liberating Science
As the world’s leading OA publisher, MDPI is actively liberating science. We are committed to eliminating the frustrations researchers and the general public face when accessing information, ensuring it is not locked behind paywalls. We firmly believe that everyone has a right to information, and our commitment to open access publishing drives our work.
In this inaugural edition of Insights: The CEO's Letter, I draw inspiration from the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Berlin Declaration on Open Access. Its stated mission reminds us that true impact is achieved when knowledge is widely and readily available to society:
"Our mission of disseminating knowledge is only half complete if the information is not made widely and readily available to society”
Impactful Research
MDPI Publishes Impactful Research: Recognized by Leading Indexing Databases
MDPI journals are indexed in every single top database in the world.
As of June 2023, we have 214 journals indexed within Web of Science, 223 indexed within Scopus, 87 indexed within PubMed and PMC, and 17 indexed within MEDLINE, and these numbers increase every month. We constantly strive to expand the coverage of our journals within leading multi-disciplinary and scope-specific databases, resulting in an incredibly broad range of journals that are indexed within a variety of databases. MDPI has active relationships with approximately 65 well-known databases around the world, and we continue to expand our portfolio every year so that your work can be found, cited, and referenced with ease.
Continued Growth of MDPI Journals
The 2022 Scopus and Web of Science journal citation metrics were officially released in June, and I am pleased to report that 31 MDPI journals received their first CiteScore, taking the total number of journals with a CiteScore to 216. The number of MDPI journals receiving an Impact Factor (IF) also continues to grow with 111 receiving their first, by being covered in the ESCI, bringing our total number of journals with an IF to 208 of which 41 journals received an IF above 4.0. Looking at 2022 CiteScores in the Scopus database, 80% of MDPI journals have a score that ranks them in Q1 or Q2 in at least one subject category.
Publishing impactful science would not be possible without all of our authors, editors and reviewers. Thank you for your contribution and continued support! Together we share the latest scientific insights faster and ensure that your work is accessible to all.
Read more
Inside MDPI
Preprints.org: Clarivate adds the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science
At MDPI, we are dedicated to driving the advancement of science. Through our initiative, Preprints.org, researchers can publish their work and gain valuable feedback from the broader research community, ensuring rapid progress in their respective fields. This is particularly crucial during times of health and climate challenges, where timely dissemination of findings is essential.
Increased Visibility for Preprints
I am pleased to share that Clarivate recognizes the significance of preprints and has taken a crucial step to enhance their visibility. Clarivate has added the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science, encompassing preprints published not only on Preprints.org but also on other reputable repositories.
Looking ahead, the future of preprints appears promising, bolstered by the recent indexing announcement from the Web of Science. As a result, preprints will receive increased visibility, serving as a valuable resource for staying informed about the latest research developments.
Read more
What are Preprints?
The Pros and Cons of Preprints
Preprints and COVID-19
Preprints—The Future of Open Access Publishing?
Coming Together for Science
The First International Conference on Antioxidants: Sources, Methods, Health Benefits and Industrial Applications
In this edition of ‘Coming Together for Science,’ I am pleased to highlight the First International Conference on Antioxidants organized by our conference team in the beautiful city of Barcelona, Spain. The conference attracted over 130 attendees, who engaged in 42 talks, and 89 poster presentations spread across several sessions.
Working Together
Under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Alessandra Napolitano (Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples ‘Federico II’, Naples, Italy) and Prof. Dr. Rosa M. Lamuela Raventos (Department of Nutrition, Food Sciences and Gastronomy, University of Barcelona, Spain) as chairs, and supported by the committee members, 10 invited keynote speakers, poster presenters, and all the attendees, this dedicated group of academics came together to discuss the natural sources, methodologies, health benefits, and industrial applications of antioxidants.
Especially noteworthy is the positive feedback received from attendees, with 94% rating the overall organization of the conference as good or excellent. I particularly love the picture above, capturing the gathering of some of the participants. You can browse through more photos in the event gallery located here.
Managing Events With Sciforum
If you are considering hosting your own academic event, I highly recommend checking out Sciforum, MDPI's event management platform. Sciforum simplifies the entire process, making it easy to host your own event by allowing you to focus on what really matters: Science!
Read more
Closing Thoughts
Stefan Tochev, Dr. Shu-Kun Lin, Dr. Eric O. Freed, Peter Roth, Wynne Wang, Allison Yang
Viruses and Editorial Quality: Acknowledging the Dedication of our Viruses Journal Team
During a June meeting with Dr. Eric O. Freed, the founding and current Editor-in-Chief of our journal Viruses, I was reminded of the exceptional dedication of our editorial board. Meeting with Eric is a pleasure, as he has a strong commitment and clear vision for the journal. Over the course of two days, we gained a deep understanding of the journal’s expectations and focus on strategic growth, editorial board representation, and engagement.
I am pleased to share that Viruses holds a CiteScore of 7.1 (an increase of 7.57% versus the 2021 metric) and an Impact Factor of 4.7. You can view the journal statistics here. Viruses publishes highly cited papers, and is indexed in renowned databases such as Scopus, SCIE (Web of Science), PubMed, and others, and maintains affiliations with prestigious societies. Moreover, the Viruses team has recently announced an exciting upcoming event titled ‘Viruses 2024 – A World of Viruses,’ scheduled to take place in Barcelona, Spain, from 14–16 February 2024.
Testimonials
If you notice my enthusiasm regarding our editorial service, it’s because the surveys and testimonials we receive speak volumes about the experiences of our authors, reviewers, and guest editors who collaborate with MDPI. The purpose of these letters is to highlight the exceptional work that we do and the experiences we create for the scholars – thus, let me end with this testimonial from an author:
“It was a great pleasure to publish in Viruses Special Issue [Emerging Viruses in Aquaculture]. The submission process was easy. Guest editors were very helpful and provided all the guidance and support as needed. The handling of the manuscript by the Editorial Team was very fast, efficient, and professional. The reviewer’s comments were insightful, and the publication processes were remarkably rapid.”
– Ms. Magdalena Stachnik, Państwowy Instytut Weterynaryjny | PIWet
Article in Viruses: Emerging Viral Pathogens in Sturgeon Aquaculture in Poland: Focus on Herpesviruses and Mimivirus Detection
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
28 June 2023
2022 Impact Factors for MDPI Journals
The 2022 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:
We are thrilled to announce that 90% of our ranked MDPI journals, specifically 86 out of 96 (captured in the table below), are performing above average in Q1 or Q2. This year, Clarivate has expanded its Impact Factor (IF) awards to include journals in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), providing greater transparency for the full set of journals indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. As a result, 111 of MDPI journals have received their first IF in 2023, with 37 journals surpassing an IF of 3.0. In total, 208 MDPI journals have been honored with an IF.
Clarivate explains that by "expanding the coverage but holding to highly selective standards, the [Impact Factor] is now a reliable indicator of trustworthiness, as well as a measure of scholarly impact, at the journal level."
Please visit our blog post where we discuss the release of the latest citation metrics with our Indexing Manager, Dr. Constanze Schelhorn, to find out what's different this time around and how to make use of different metrics available.
Journal | Impact Factor | Rank Quartile | Category |
Vaccines | 7.8 | Q1 | Immunology |
Medicine, Research & Experimental | |||
Antioxidants | 7.0 | Q1 | Food Science & Technology |
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | |||
Chemistry, Medicinal | |||
Cells | 6.0 | Q2 | Cell Biology |
Nutrients | 5.9 | Q1 | Nutrition & Dietetics |
International Journal of Molecular Sciences | 5.6 | Q1 | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology |
Q2 | Chemistry, Multidisciplinary | ||
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research | 5.6 | Q2 | Business |
Biomolecules | 5.5 | Q1 | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology |
Biosensors | 5.4 | Q1 | Chemistry, Analytical |
Instruments & Instrumentation | |||
Q2 | Nanoscience & Nanotechnology | ||
Fractal and Fractional | 5.4 | Q1 | Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications |
Marine Drugs | 5.4 | Q1 | Chemistry, Medicinal |
Pharmacology & Pharmacy | |||
Pharmaceutics | 5.4 | Q1 | Pharmacology & Pharmacy |
Nanomaterials | 5.3 | Q1 | Physics, Applied |
Q2 | Chemistry, Multidisciplinary | ||
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary | |||
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology | |||
Cancers | 5.2 | Q2 | Oncology |
Foods | 5.2 | Q1 | Food Science & Technology |
Polymers | 5.0 | Q1 | Polymer Science |
Remote Sensing | 5.0 | Q1 | Geosciences, Multidisciplinary |
Q2 | Remote Sensing | ||
Imaging Science & Photographic Technology | |||
Environmental Sciences | |||
Antibiotics | 4.8 | Q1 | Pharmacology & Pharmacy |
Q2 | Infectious Diseases | ||
Drones | 4.8 | Q2 | Remote Sensing |
Journal of Functional Biomaterials | 4.8 | Q2 | Engineering, Biomedical |
Materials Science, Biomaterials | |||
Biomedicines | 4.7 | Q1 | Pharmacology & Pharmacy |
Q2 | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | ||
Medicine, Research & Experimental | |||
Journal of Fungi | 4.7 | Q2 | Mycology |
Microbiology | |||
Viruses | 4.7 | Q2 | Virology |
Bioengineering | 4.6 | Q2 | Engineering, Biomedical |
Gels | 4.6 | Q1 | Polymer Science |
Molecules | 4.6 | Q2 | Chemistry, Multidisciplinary |
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | |||
Pharmaceuticals | 4.6 | Q2 | Pharmacology & Pharmacy |
Chemistry, Medicinal | |||
Toxics | 4.6 | Q1 | Toxicology |
Q2 | Environmental Sciences | ||
Biomimetics | 4.5 | Q1 | Engineering, Multidisciplinary |
Q2 | Materials Science, Biomaterials | ||
Microorganisms | 4.5 | Q2 | Microbiology |
Plants | 4.5 | Q1 | Plant Sciences |
Biology | 4.2 | Q2 | Biology |
Chemosensors | 4.2 | Q2 | Instruments & Instrumentation |
Chemistry, Analytical | |||
Electrochemistry | |||
Membranes | 4.2 | Q2 | Engineering, Chemical |
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary | |||
Chemistry, Physical | |||
Polymer Science | |||
Toxins | 4.2 | Q1 | Toxicology |
Q2 | Food Science & Technology | ||
Metabolites | 4.2 | Q2 | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology |
Batteries | 4.0 | Q2 | Electrochemistry |
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary | |||
Q3 | Energy & Fuels | ||
Catalysts | 3.9 | Q2 | Chemistry, Physical |
Journal of Clinical Medicine | 3.9 | Q2 | Medicine, General & Internal |
Land | 3.9 | Q2 | Environmental Studies |
Sensors | 3.9 | Q2 | Instruments & Instrumentation |
Chemistry, Analytical | |||
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic | |||
Sustainability | 3.9 | Q2 | Environmental Sciences (SCIE) |
Environmental Studies (SSCI) | |||
Q3 | Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (SCIE) | ||
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (SSCI) | |||
Buildings | 3.8 | Q2 | Construction & Building Technology |
Engineering, Civil | |||
Agronomy | 3.7 | Q1 | Agronomy |
Q2 | Plant Sciences | ||
Fermentation | 3.7 | Q2 | Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology |
Pathogens | 3.7 | Q2 | Microbiology |
Agriculture | 3.6 | Q1 | Agronomy |
Diagnostics | 3.6 | Q2 | Medicine, General & Internal |
Genes | 3.5 | Q2 | Genetics & Heredity |
Journal of Intelligence | 3.5 | Q2 | Psychology, Multidisciplinary |
Lubricants | 3.5 | Q2 | Engineering, Mechanical |
Processes | 3.5 | Q2 | Engineering, Chemical |
Coatings | 3.4 | Q2 | Materials Science, Coatings & Films |
Physics, Applied | |||
Q3 | Materials Science, Multidisciplinary | ||
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information | 3.4 | Q2 | Geography, Physical |
Q3 | Computer Science, Information Systems | ||
Remote Sensing | |||
Materials | 3.4 | Q2 | Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering |
Physics, Applied | |||
Physics, Condensed Matter | |||
Q3 | Materials Science, Multidisciplinary | ||
Chemistry, Physical | |||
Micromachines | 3.4 | Q2 | Instruments & Instrumentation |
Physics, Applied | |||
Chemistry, Analytical | |||
Q3 | Nanoscience & Nanotechnology | ||
Water | 3.4 | Q2 | Water Resources |
Environmental Sciences | |||
Brain Sciences | 3.3 | Q3 | Neurosciences |
Energies | 3.2 | Q3 | Energy & Fuels |
Fire | 3.2 | Q1 | Forestry |
Q2 | Ecology | ||
Life | 3.2 | Q2 | Biology |
Current Issues in Molecular Biology | 3.1 | Q3 | Biochemistry & Molecular Biology |
Horticulturae | 3.1 | Q1 | Horticulture |
Animals | 3.0 | Q1 | Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science |
Veterinary Sciences | |||
Insects | 3.0 | Q1 | Entomology |
Atmosphere | 2.9 | Q3 | Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences |
Environmental Sciences | |||
Electronics | 2.9 | Q2 | Engineering, Electrical & Electronic |
Physics, Applied | |||
Q3 | Computer Science, Information Systems | ||
Forests | 2.9 | Q1 | Forestry |
Inorganics | 2.9 | Q2 | Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear |
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering | 2.9 | Q1 | Engineering, Marine |
Q2 | Oceanography | ||
Engineering, Ocean | |||
Metals | 2.9 | Q2 | Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering |
Q3 | Materials Science, Multidisciplinary | ||
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease | 2.9 | Q2 | Tropical Medicine |
Parasitology | |||
Q3 | Infectious Diseases | ||
Universe | 2.9 | Q2 | Astronomy & Astrophysics |
Physics, Particles & Fields | |||
Healthcare | 2.8 | Q2 | Health Policy & Services (SSCI) |
Q3 | Health Care Sciences & Services (SCIE) | ||
Applied Sciences | 2.7 | Q2 | Engineering, Multidisciplinary |
Physics, Applied | |||
Q3 | Chemistry, Multidisciplinary | ||
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary | |||
Crystals | 2.7 | Q2 | Crystallography |
Q3 | Materials Science, Multidisciplinary | ||
Entropy | 2.7 | Q2 | Physics, Multidisciplinary |
Magnetochemistry | 2.7 | Q2 | Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear |
Q3 | Chemistry, Physical | ||
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary | |||
Symmetry | 2.7 | Q2 | Multidisciplinary Sciences |
Actuators | 2.6 | Q2 | Instruments & Instrumentation |
Engineering, Mechanical | |||
Aerospace | 2.6 | Q1 | Engineering, Aerospace |
Behavioral Sciences | 2.6 | Q2 | Psychology, Multidisciplinary |
Current Oncology | 2.6 | Q3 | Oncology |
Machines | 2.6 | Q2 | Engineering, Mechanical |
Q3 | Engineering, Electrical & Electronic | ||
Medicina | 2.6 | Q3 | Medicine, General & Internal |
Separations | 2.6 | Q3 | Chemistry, Analytical |
Minerals | 2.5 | Q2 | Mining & Mineral Processing |
Mineralogy | |||
Geochemistry & Geophysics | |||
Children | 2.4 | Q2 | Pediatrics |
Diversity | 2.4 | Q2 | Biodiversity Conservation |
Q3 | Ecology | ||
Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease | 2.4 | Q3 | Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems |
Mathematics | 2.4 | Q1 | Mathematics |
Photonics | 2.4 | Q3 | Optics |
Veterinary Sciences | 2.4 | Q1 | Veterinary Sciences |
Fishes | 2.3 | Q2 | Marine & Freshwater Biology |
Fisheries | |||
Axioms | 2.0 | Q2 | Mathematics, Applied |
Systems | 1.9 | Q2 | Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary |
Tomography | 1.9 | Q3 | Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging |
Note: The Journal of Personalized Medicine's Impact Factor was omitted in the original release and will be assigned separately. Please find the data on the journal webpage in due course.
Source: 2022 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports TM (Clarivate, 2023)
13 March 2023
MDPI’s Newly Launched Journals in December 2022
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.
Journal |
Founding Editor-in-Chief |
Journal Topics (Selected) |
Prof. Dr. Fabio Gresta, University of Messina, Italy| Editorial | view inaugural issue |
grass/forage/turf production; grassland management; pasture monitoring; grazing and livestock; grass agro-ecosystems| view journal scope | submit an article |
|
Prof. Dr. Christos G. Athanassiou, University of Thessaly, Greece| Editorial | view inaugural issue |
pesticides; fungicides; herbicides; fertilizers; soil conditioners| view journal scope | submit an article |
|
Prof. Dr. Stephen H. Safe, Texas A&M University, USA| Editorial | view inaugural issue |
receptor structure; receptor function; receptor signaling; receptor expression and regulation; receptor interactions with drugs| view journal scope | submit an article |
|
Dr. Jean Jacques Vanden Eynde, University of Mons-UMONS, Belgium| Editorial | view inaugural issue |
drug discovery; medicinal chemistry; preclinical and clinical research; marketed drugs; intellectual property and regulatory affairs| view journal scope | submit an article |
|
Prof. Dr. Heather Kanuka, University of Alberta, Canada| Editorial | view inaugural issue |
higher education; tertiary education; policy and practice in higher education; educational leadership in higher education; educational administration and management in higher education| view journal scope | submit an article |
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.
7 March 2023
Displaying Co-Authors’ Email Addresses on the Webpage of Published Papers
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.
16 February 2023
Increasing Visibility for Preprints.org – Clarivate adds the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science
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.
22 December 2022
Special Issue Mentor Program
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.
14 December 2022
"Thanks a Million!" – One Million Articles Published in MDPI Journals
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!
8 December 2022
MDPI Sustainability Foundation: New Look and Nominations for the 2023 Sustainability Awards Now Open
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.
28 September 2022
Peer Review Week 2022 – Research Integrity: Creating and Supporting Trust in Research
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!
11 July 2022
MDPI’s 2021 Best Paper Awards in “Engineering”—Winners Announced
The purpose of our Best Paper Awards is to promote and recognize the most impactful contributions published within MDPI journals.
The academic 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.
We are honored to present the winners in the “Engineering” category, who were selected amongst extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.
- “Position Control of Pneumatic Actuators Using Three-Mode Discrete-Valued Model Predictive Control”
by Haitao Qi, Gary M. Bone and Yile Zhang
Actuators 2019, 8(3), 56; doi: 10.3390/act8030056 - “Review of Electrothermal Actuators and Applications”
by Alissa Potekhina and Changhai Wang
Actuators 2019, 8(4), 69; doi: 10.3390/act8040069
- “Pre-Lithiation Strategies for Rechargeable Energy Storage Technologies: Concepts, Promises and Challenges”
by Florian Holtstiege, Peer Bärmann, Roman Nölle, Martin Winter and Tobias Placke
Batteries 2018, 4(1), 4; doi: 10.3390/batteries4010004 - “A Critical Review of Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Processes from a Circular Economy Perspective”
by Omar Velázquez-Martínez, Johanna Valio, Annukka Santasalo-Aarnio, Markus Reuter and Rodrigo Serna-Guerrero
Batteries 2019, 5(4), 68; doi: 10.3390/batteries5040068 - “Critical Review of the Use of Reference Electrodes in Li-Ion Batteries: A Diagnostic Perspective”
by Rinaldo Raccichini, Marco Amores and Gareth Hinds
Batteries 2019, 5(1), 12; doi: 10.3390/batteries5010012 - “Life Cycle Analysis of Lithium-Ion Batteries for Automotive Applications”
by Qiang Dai, Jarod C. Kelly, Linda Gaines and Michael Wang
Batteries 2019, 5(2), 48; doi 10.3390/batteries5020048 - “Design Strategies for High Power vs. High Energy Lithium Ion Cells”
by Michael J. Lain, James Brandon and Emma Kendrick
Batteries 2019, 5(4), 64; doi: 10.3390/batteries5040064
- “Influence of Humidity on NO2-Sensing and Selectivity of Spray-CVD Grown ZnO Thin Film above 400 °C”
by Roussin Lontio Fomekong and Bilge Saruhan
Chemosensors 2019, 7(3), 42; doi: 10.3390/chemosensors7030042 - “Low Molecular Weight Fluorescent Probes (LMFPs) to Detect the Group 12 Metal Triad”
by Ashley D. Johnson, Rose M. Curtis and Karl J. Wallace
Chemosensors 2019, 7(2), 22; doi: 10.3390/chemosensors7020022
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering:
- “Marine Application of Fiber Reinforced Composites: A Review”
by Felice Rubino, Antonio Nisticò, Fausto Tucci and Pierpaolo Carlone
Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(1), 26; doi: 10.3390/jmse8010026 - “Numerical Simulation of Large Wave Heights from Super Typhoon Nepartak (2016) in the Eastern Waters of Taiwan”
by Shih-Chun Hsiao, Hongey Chen, Han-Lun Wu, Wei-Bo Chen, Chih-Hsin Chang, Wen-Dar Guo, Yung-Ming Chen and Lee-Yaw Lin
Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(3), 217; doi: 10.3390/jmse8030217 - “Development of Deterministic Artificial Intelligence for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV)”
by Timothy Sands
Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(8), 578; doi: 10.3390/jmse8080578
- “Solid Lubrication with MoS2: A Review”
by Mohammad R. Vazirisereshk, Ashlie Martini, David A. Strubbe and Mehmet Z. Baykara
Lubricants 2019, 7(7), 57; doi:10.3390/lubricants7070057 - “Investigations of the Friction Losses of Different Engine Concepts. Part 1: A Combined Approach for Applying Subassembly-Resolved Friction Loss Analysis on a Modern Passenger-Car Diesel Engine”
by Christoph Knauder, Hannes Allmaier, David E. Sander and Theodor Sams
Lubricants 2019, 7(5), 39; doi: 10.3390/lubricants7050039 - “A Discussion on Present Theories of Rubber Friction, with Particular Reference to Different Possible Choices of Arbitrary Roughness Cutoff Parameters”
by Andrea Genovese, Flavio Farroni, Antonio Papangelo and Michele Ciavarella
Lubricants 2019, 7(10), 85; doi: 10.3390/lubricants7100085
- “4D Printing of Multi-Hydrogels Using Direct Ink Writing in a Supporting Viscous Liquid”
by Takuya Uchida and Hiroaki Onoe
Micromachines 2019, 10(7), 433; doi: 10.3390/mi10070433 - “Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance and Mechanism of Au@CaTiO3 Composites with Au Nanoparticles Assembled on CaTiO3 Nanocuboids”
by Yuxiang Yan, Hua Yang, Zao Yi, Ruishan Li and Xiangxian Wang
Micromachines 2019, 10(4), 254; doi: 10.3390/mi10040254 - “Three-Dimensionally Structured Flexible Fog Harvesting Surfaces Inspired by Namib Desert Beetles”
by Jun Kyu Park and Seok Kim
Micromachines 2019, 10(3), 201; doi: 10.3390/mi10030201
- “Accelerating Biologics Manufacturing by Modeling or: Is Approval under the QbD and PAT Approaches Demanded by Authorities Acceptable without a Digital-Twin?”
by Steffen Zobel-Roos, Axel Schmidt, Fabian Mestmäcker, Mourad Mouellef, Maximilian Huter, Lukas Uhlenbrock, Martin Kornecki, Lara Lohmann, Reinhard Ditz and Jochen Strube
Processes 2019, 7(2), 94; doi: 10.3390/pr7020094 - “Multiscale Agent-Based and Hybrid Modeling of the Tumor Immune Microenvironment”
by Kerri-Ann Norton, Chang Gong, Samira Jamalian and Aleksander S. Popel
Processes 2019, 7(1), 37; doi: 10.3390/pr7010037 - “Dynamic Flowsheet Model Development and Sensitivity Analysis of a Continuous Pharmaceutical Tablet Manufacturing Process Using the Wet Granulation Route”
by Nirupaplava Metta, Michael Ghijs, Elisabeth Schäfer, Ashish Kumar, Philippe Cappuyns, Ivo Van Assche, Ravendra Singh, Rohit Ramachandran, Thomas De Beer, Marianthi Ierapetritou and Ingmar Nopens
Processes 2019, 7(4), 234; doi: 10.3390/pr7040234
- “A Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Healthcare Blockchain for IoT”
by Ashutosh Dhar Dwivedi, Gautam Srivastava, Shalini Dhar and Rajani Singh
Sensors 2019, 19(2), 326; doi: 10.3390/s19020326 - “The Progress of Glucose Monitoring—A Review of Invasive to Minimally and Non-Invasive Techniques, Devices and Sensors”
by Wilbert Villena Gonzales, Ahmed Toaha Mobashsher and Amin Abbosh
Sensors 2019, 19(4), 800; doi: 10.3390/s19040800 - “Contact-Based Methods for Measuring Respiratory Rate”
by Carlo Massaroni, Andrea Nicolò, Daniela Lo Presti, Massimo Sacchetti, Sergio Silvestri and Emiliano Schena
Sensors 2019, 19(4), 908; doi: 10.3390/s19040908
World Electric Vehicle Journal:
- “Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer Charging Infrastructure for Future EVs: From Experimental Track to Real Circulated Roads Demonstrations”
by Stéphane Laporte, Gérard Coquery, Virginie Deniau, Alexandre De Bernardinis and Nicolas Hautière
World Electr. Veh. J. 2019, 10(4), 84; doi: 10.3390/wevj10040084
11 July 2022
MDPI’s 2021 Young Investigator Awards in “Engineering”—Winners Announced
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 “Engineering” 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.
- Amay J. Bandodkar, North Carolina State University, USA.
- Andrew S. Paluch, Miami University, USA.
- Mindy Levine, Ariel University, Israel.
- Amir H. Gandomi, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering:
- Tiago Fazeres-Ferradosa, University of Porto, Portugal.
- Chen Lv, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore;
- Ignacio Gonzalez-Prieto, University of Malaga (UMA), Spain;
- Ning Sun, Nankai University, China.
- Anton Rassõlkin, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia.
- Qammer H. Abbasi, Queen Mary University of London, UK;
- Chi Hwan Lee, Purdue University, USA.
11 July 2022
MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in “Engineering”—Winners Announced
We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the “Engineering” category for their outstanding presentations and to present them with the prize.
MDPI journals regularly offer travel awards to encourage talented junior scientists to present their latest research at academic conferences in specific fields, which helps to increase their influence.
The winners mentioned below were carefully selected by the journal editors based on an outline of their research and the work to be presented at an academic conference.
We would like to warmly congratulate the winners of this year’s Travel Awards and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors. MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.
- Matthew Wei Ming Tan, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
- Márcia de Sousa Oliveira, University of León, Spain;
- Caroline Sarah Taylor, University of Sheffield, UK;
- Raquel Viveiros, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal;
- Alfonso González Briones, University of Salamanca, Spain;
- Alen Horvat, University Carlos III Madrid, Spain;
- Marie Švecová, University of Chemistry and Technology, Czech Republic;
- Venanzio Giannella, University of Salerno, Italy;
- Michaël Lobet, University of Namur, Belgium;
- Lam Thi Ngoc Tran, National Research Council, Italy;
- Hanfei Mei, University of South Carolina, USA.
- Mert Nakip, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.
- Mengdi Bao, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA;
Yichi Su, Stanford University, USA.
- Karthik Panchabikesan, Concordia University, Canada;
- Xiaolei Yuan, Tongji University, China.
- Verónica Montes García, Université de Strasbourg & CNRS, France.
- Peng Hang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore;
- Alfonso González Briones, University of Salamanca, Spain.
- Alberto Zingaro, Politecnico di Milano, Italy;
- Sarah E. Morris, Auburn University, USA.
- Angelo Aloisio, University of L’Aquila, Italy;
- André Filipe Castanheira Alves Furtado, University of Porto, Portugal.
Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications:
- Tommaso Zanotti, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing:
- Nagalingam Arun Prasanth, Rolls-Royce@NTU Corporate Lab, Singapore.
- Muhammad Jamil, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), China;
- Mariagrazia Tristano, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.
- Michele Schlich, University of Cagliari, Italy;
- Álvaro Santana Mayor, University of La Laguna, Spain.
- Eleonora Macchia, Åbo Akademi University, Finland;
- Alfonso Gonzalez Briones, University of Salamanca, Spain;
- Saúl Vallejos Calzada, University of Burgos, Spain;
- Ana Novo, University of Vigo, Spain;
- Yalin Liu, Macau University of Science and Technology, China;
- Marilena Giglio, Politecnico of Bari, Italy;
- Yuzhi Shi, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
11 July 2022
MDPI’s 2021 Outstanding Reviewer Awards in “Engineering”—Winners Announced
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 “Engineering” category for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with an Outstanding Reviewer Award.
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the winners on their achievement. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.
- Ryszard Dindorf, Kielce University of Technology, Poland.
- Khaled Giasin, University of Portsmouth, UK;
- Jakub Krzysztof Grabski, University of Technology, Poland;
- Marcos Tostado-Véliz, University of Jaén, Spain;
- Luigi Pugliese, University of Calabria, Italy;
- Francesco Bennardo, University of Catanzaro, Italy;
- Heriberto Perez-Acebo, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain.
- Amir Hatamie, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
- Francesco Fiorito, Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy;
- Paul G. O’Brien, York University, Canada.
- Verónica Montes García, University of Strasbourg, France.
- Piotr Gierlak, Rzeszow University of Technology, Poland;
- Sebastian A. Nugroho, University of Michigan, USA;
- Viorel Paleu, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania.
- Marcin Dębowski, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland;
- Bartłomiej Zieniuk, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland;
- Zbigniew Nadolny, Poznan University of Technology, Poland;
- Attila Egedy, University of Pannonia, Hungary;
- Seok-Ho Rhi, Chungbuk National University, Korea.
- Hojong Choi, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Korea;
- Li Fu, Hangzhou Dianzi University, China;
- Leonardo De Mello Honorio, Federal University of Juiz De Fora Juiz De Fora, Brazil;
- Mario Versaci, Mediterranea University, Italy;
- Robertas Damasevicius, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania.
9 June 2022
2021 CiteScores - Released
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:
Journal |
CiteScore |
Quartile |
Category |
10.1 |
Q1 |
Genetics |
|
10.0 |
Q1 |
Biomedical Engineering |
|
8.1 |
Q1 |
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (miscellaneous) |
|
7.9 |
Q1 |
Electrical and Electronic Engineering |
|
7.9 |
Q1 |
Nutrition and Dietetics |
|
7.4 |
Q1 |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences |
|
7.2 |
Q1 |
Computer Science Applications |
|
6.9 |
Q1 |
Inorganic Chemistry |
|
6.9 |
Q1 |
Computer Networks and Communications |
|
6.7 |
Q1 |
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology |
|
6.6 |
Q1 |
General Chemical Engineering |
|
6.6 |
Q1 |
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis |
|
6.6 |
Q1 |
Infectious Diseases |
|
6.5 |
Q1 |
Food Science |
|
6.5 |
Q1 |
Civil and Structural Engineering |
|
6.4 |
Q1 |
Nature and Landscape Conservation |
|
6.4 |
Q1 |
Instrumentation |
|
6.1 |
Q1 |
Management Information Systems |
|
5.9 |
Q1 |
Chemistry (miscellaneous) |
|
5.7 |
Q1 |
Polymers and Plastics |
|
5.6 |
Q1 |
Engineering (miscellaneous) |
|
5.5 |
Q1 |
General Environmental Science |
|
5.5 |
Q1 |
Urban Studies |
|
5.4 |
Q2 |
Computer Networks and Communications |
|
5.3 |
Q1 |
Food Science |
|
5.3 |
Q1 |
Plant Science |
|
5.2 |
Q1 |
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
|
5.2 |
Q1 |
General Engineering |
|
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity |
5.1 |
Q1 |
Development |
5.0 |
Q1 |
Chemistry (miscellaneous) |
|
5.0 |
Q1 |
Control and Optimization |
|
5.0 |
Q1 |
Geography, Planning and Development |
|
5.0 |
Q1 |
Geography, Planning and Development |
|
4.9 |
Q1 |
Forestry |
|
4.9 |
Q1 |
Control and Optimization |
|
4.9 |
Q1 |
Soil Science |
|
4.8 |
Q1 |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences |
|
4.8 |
Q1 |
Mechanical Engineering |
|
4.8 |
Q1 |
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health |
|
4.8 |
Q1 |
Geography, Planning and Development |
|
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health |
4.5 |
Q1 |
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health |
4.5 |
Q1 |
Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation |
|
4.4 |
Q1 |
Mathematical Physics |
|
4.4 |
Q1 |
General Medicine |
|
4.3 |
Q1 |
General Mathematics |
|
4.2 |
Q1 |
Surgery |
|
4.1 |
Q1 |
Health Professions (miscellaneous) |
|
4.1 |
Q1 |
Plant Science |
|
4.0 |
Q1 |
General Engineering |
|
4.0 |
Q1 |
Forestry |
|
4.0 |
Q1 |
Education |
|
3.9 |
Q1 |
General Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics |
|
3.9 |
Q1 |
Applied Mathematics |
|
3.8 |
Q1 |
Development |
|
3.8 |
Q1 |
Architecture |
|
3.8 |
Q1 |
Metals and Alloys |
|
3.5 |
Q1 |
Communication |
|
3.4 |
Q1 |
General Social Sciences |
|
2.9 |
Q1 |
General Mathematics |
|
2.8 |
Q1 |
Analysis |
|
2.7 |
Q1 |
General Veterinary |
|
2.6 |
Q1 |
Algebra and Number Theory |
|
1.8 |
Q1 |
Conservation |
|
1.0 |
Q1 |
Religious Studies |
|
0.9 |
Q1 |
Philosophy |
Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)
27 April 2022
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Andrea D’Ambrogio to the Editorial Board of Software
Prof. Dr. Andrea D'Ambrogio is an Associate Professor of software and systems engineering at the Department of Enterprise Engineering of the University of Roma “Tor Vergata” (Italy).
He has formerly been an Assistant Professor of computer science at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Roma "Tor Vergata", a Research Associate at the Concurrent Engineering Research Center of West Virginia University (USA), a Member of the software engineering research staff at the Department of Computer Science, Systems and Production of the University of Roma "Tor Vergata", and a System Manager of the department's Software Laboratory. He is the Director of the postgraduate master’s degree program in "Systems Engineering", established at the University of Roma "Tor Vergata" in 2012.
Prof. Dr. Andrea D'Ambrogio's research interests are in the software and systems engineering field, specifically in the areas of systems and software performance as well as dependability engineering, model-driven systems and software engineering, business process management, and distributed simulation. In such areas he has participated in several projects at both European and overseas levels, and has authored more than 150 journal/conference papers.
He has been the General Chair of the 2019 Spring Simulation Conference (SpringSim'19), the 2018 Summer Simulation Multi-Conference (SummerSim'18), the 49th Summer Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC 2017), the SCS/ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Theory of Modeling & Simulation (TMS 2014), and the IEEE International Conference on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE 2008). He has served as a Program Chair and/or Member of the Steering and Program Committee of various international conferences, including IEEE WETICE, SCS/ACM SpringSim, SCS/ACM SummerSim, IEEE/ACM PADS, IEEE/ACM DS-RT, and the INFORMS/ACM Winter Simulation Conference. He started the IEEE International Workshop on Collaborative Modeling and Simulation (CoMetS) in 2010 and the SCS/ACM International Symposium on Model-driven Approaches for Simulation Engineering (Mod4Sim) in 2011.
Prof. Dr. Andrea D'Ambrogio is an Associate Editor of the Transactions of the Society for Modeling & Simulation International (SIMULATION), a Member of the Editorial Board of the IAENG International Journal of Computer Science (IJCS) and MDPI’s Modelling, and has been a Member of the Editorial Board of the Simulation Practice and Theory (SIMPAT). He has been a Member of the Scientific Board of the ICT COST Action on “Multi Paradigm Modelling for Cyber Physical Systems” (MPM4CPS). He is the President-Elect and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Modeling & Simulation International (SCS), and is a Member of IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, ACM, and INCOSE. He is also the Director of Academic Affairs of the Italian Association of Systems Engineering—INCOSE Italy Chapter (AISE).
We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Andrea D’Ambrogio to the Editorial Board of Software (ISSN: 2674-113X), and we look forward to his contributions to the continued success of the journal.
13 April 2022
Software Releases Its Inaugural Issue
We are pleased to announce that the journal Software (ISSN 2674-113X) has just released its inaugural issue.
Software (ISSN 2674-113X) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal on all aspects of software engineering published online quarterly by MDPI. The main subject areas include software requirements, design, architecture, development, testing, verification, security, privacy, programming languages, code assessment, software tools, software business, software platforms, etc.
You can read our aims and scope to learn more about Software. To see the full list of Editorial Board Members, please click here.
Highly Accessed Papers
- “A Framework for Rapid Robotic Application Development for Citizen Developers”
Konstantinos Panayiotou, Emmanouil Tsardoulias, Christoforos Zolotas, Andreas L. Symeonidis and Loukas Petrou
Software 2022, 1(1), 53-79; doi:10.3390/software1010004
- “The MESSIR Flexible Scientific Approach to Requirements Engineering”
Nicolas Guelfi
Software 2022, 1(1), 80-106; doi:10.3390/software1010005
- “Athlos: A Framework for Developing Scalable MMOG Backends on Commodity Clouds”
Nicos Kasenides and Nearchos Paspallis
Software 2022, 1(1), 107-145; doi:0.3390/software1010006
To access all the latest papers published in Software please see here.
Why Submit to Software?
- Open Access—Free to download, share, and reuse content;
- Rapid Publication—First decisions in 15 days and acceptance for publication in 3 days, median values for papers published in this journal in the first half of 2021;
- Recognition of Reviewers—APC discount vouchers, optional signed peer review, and reviewer names published annually in the journal;
- No Space Constraints, No Extra Space or Color Charges—No restriction on the length of the papers, number of figures, or colors.
Software Editorial Office
17 February 2022
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Tiziana Margaria to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Tiziana Margaria has joined Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) as an Editorial Board Member.
Prof. Dr. Tiziana Margaria is the Chair of Software Systems at the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of Limerick. She is the Course Director and program co-director of the brand-new Immersive Software Engineering integrated B.Sc./M.Sc. program at UL. She leads research and education in advanced software systems and explainable AI. Her work spans from formal method-based approaches for high-assurance software in Lero, to the end-to-end interoperability of heterogeneous computing systems in advanced manufacturing in Confirm, and software solutions for rigorous and explainable AI and ML in the Centre of Research Training in AI. She co-leads and applies integrated healthcare in the UL Cancer Network and the Limerick Digital Cancer Research Centre. She is a Fellow and currently the Vice President of the Irish Computer Society, Vice President of the IFIP Working Group on Design and Engineering of Electronic Systems, and past President of the European Association for Software Science and Technology.
8 February 2022
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Anna Rita Fasolino to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Anna Rita Fasolino has joined Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) as an Editorial Board Member.
Prof. Dr. Anna Rita Fasolino is an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Napoli Federico II, Italy.
Her research interests are focused on software engineering with an emphasis on software testing, GUI and mobile app testing, reverse engineering, web engineering, and embedded software engineering. She has developed and participated in numerous R&D projects and co-authored more than 100 articles published in IEEE/ACM international journals, books, proceedings of conferences, and workshops.
In recent years, Prof. Dr. Fasolino has served as a member of the program committee and collaborated in the organization of many international conferences, including IEEE ICST—International Conference on Software Testing, Verification, and Reliability, IEEE ICSE—International Conference on Software Engineering, IEEE INTUITEST, and IEEE INTUITESTBEDS. She is an Editorial Board Member of several scientific journals in this field, including the Journal of Systems and Software, Array, PeerJ Computer Science, and MDPI Computers.
Prof. Dr. Fasolino’s research and publications have received many citations in the research community, including at least 4900 Google Scholar citations and 2500 citations on Scopus. She has been granted distinguished awards at IEEE CSM 2002 and ICSM 2012 conferences for her work on web testing and automated mobile app GUI testing.
8 February 2022
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Welf Löwe to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Welf Löwe has joined Software (ISSN 2674-113X) as an Editorial Board Member.
Prof. Dr. Welf Löwe (http://welf.se/) is the head of research in Computer Science at Linnaeus University (Lnu, https://lnu.se/), Sweden.
He studied computer science at TU Dresden, Germany, and received a Ph.D. degree in computer science from TH Karlsruhe, Germany, before he became a full professor at Lnu in 2002.
His research addresses software analysis and building technologies including Big Data and AI, quality assessment of software and technical documentation, design pattern detection and architecture recovery for software comprehension, context-aware composition and parallelization for software optimization, and garbage collection and pointer analysis as foundations.
He is the founder and director of the Linnaeus university center for “Data Intensive Sciences and Applications” (DISA, https://lnu.se/en/disa), a research excellence center at Lnu. It focuses on research related to multidisciplinary Big Data and AI in engineering, sciences, and the humanities. He also directs an affiliated industry graduate school (DIA, https://lnu.se/en/dia) for applied research in these fields.
He is a member and currently the secretary of the IFIP working group 2.4 "Software Implementation Technology".
He is a co-founder of several companies that commercialize relevant research results including Softwerk (https://softwerk.se/) building advanced software systems and compilers, DueDive (https://duedive.com/) analyzing IT companies and their software, and Aimo (https://aimo-fit.com/) applying computer-vision-based movement analyses.
30 January 2022
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Manuel Mazzara to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Manuel Mazzara has joined Software (ISSN 2674-113X) as an Editorial Board Member.
Prof. Dr. Manuel Mazzara is a professor of Computer Science at Innopolis University (Russia) with a research background in Software Engineering, Service-Oriented Architecture, concurrency theory, formal methods, and software verification. He published many relevant and highly cited papers, in particular in the field of Service Engineering and Software Architectures. Manuel received a Ph.D. in computing science from the University of Bologna, Italy, and has collaborated with European and US industries, plus governmental and inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations, always at the edge between science and software production. The work conducted by Dr. Mazzara and his team in recent years focuses on the development of theories, methods, tools, and programs covering the two major aspects of Software Engineering: the process side, related to how we develop software, and the product side, concerning the results of this process.
Currently, Dr. Mazzara is the director of the Institute of Software Development and Engineering and the Head of the International Cooperation Office at Innopolis University.
30 January 2022
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Kari Smolander to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Kari Smolander has joined Software as an Editorial Board Member.
Kari Smolander is a Professor of Software Engineering at the School of Engineering Science, LUT University, Finland, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Finland. He is the Head of the Software Engineering Department at LUT University, which is a major research and education unit of Software Engineering in Finland, with 60 researchers in the area. He has a Ph.D. (2003) in Computer Science from LUT University and a Licentiate (1993) from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He has also worked in the Finnish software industry and has built software products for the global market.
Kari Smolander has published more than 200 refereed research papers in international journals and conferences, with more than 5200 citations in Google Scholar. He has served as a program chair in various workshops and conferences, such as EuroSPI, ICSOB and IWSIB, and a committee member in tens of different conferences. He has supervised 17 doctors in Software Engineering and related areas. In addition, he has received five best paper awards from conferences and journals.
Kari Smolander’s current research interests include change in software and systems development practices and organizations. He is especially interested in how people work together to understand and build extremely complex artifacts, such as software and information systems. His recent research projects have concentrated on software-based platforms, ecosystems and integrations between systems and platforms. He has specialized in qualitative research in Software Engineering.
30 January 2022
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Claus Pahl to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Claus Pahl has joined Software as an Editorial Board Member.
Claus Pahl is a Full Professor of software engineering at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, and the Dean of the Faculty. He received an M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from the Technical University of Braunschweig and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Dortmund. He has held academic positions at Dublin City University, the University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin and the Technical University of Denmark before taking up his position in Bolzano. He has been a visiting researcher and guest professor at universities in Oldenburg (Germany), Edinburgh (UK) and Shenyang (China).
From 2013 to 2016, he was the Principal Investigator and Cloud Architecture Area Leader of the Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and Commerce IC4, a National Technology Centre that is operated between 3 universities and works together with more than 40 industry members. He has been involved as a member of the Executive Board for Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre (a National Research Centre with more than 150 researchers working across 7 universities) and acted as Director of the CloudCORE Cloud Computing Research Centre.
His research interests lie in the software engineering field, specifically focusing on software architecture. Service engineering and cloud/IoT architectures have served as a specific application context for his architecture research—looking into migration, architecture specification, dynamic quality and performance engineering. Currently, he works on the H2020 project 5G-CARMEN, where he investigates performance engineering aspects for edge cloud architectures.
He has published more than 300 journal and conference papers including all top cloud publications; has an h-index of 50 (according to Google Scholar) with more than 8000 citations; has chaired many international conferences in the software engineering and cloud technologies context, such as IEEE ECOWS, ICSOC, SOFSEM or CLOSER; and has been on seven journal editorial boards. He has been awarded more than EUR 5.5 million in research funding from national and international sources, involving both industry and academia. He has participated in the conference organisation of more than 150 events and has reviewed more than 35 journals. He has been an evaluator for research and innovation projects in nine countries across Europe, North America and Asia, and has reviewed many FP7 and H2020 projects for more than a decade. He has been an invited speaker and a panellist at events such as CLOSER, NC4, SE-CLOUD, WEBIST, ESOCC and HEANEt.
27 January 2022
Welcoming Dr. Hongyu Zhang to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Hongyu Zhang has joined Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) as an Editorial Board Member.
Hongyu Zhang is currently an Associate Professor at The University of Newcastle, Australia. Previously, he was the Lead Researcher at Microsoft Research Asia and Associate Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He received his Ph.D. degree from the National University of Singapore in 2003. His research is in the area of Software Engineering, in particular, intelligent software engineering, software analytics, maintenance, and reuse. The main theme of his research is to improve software quality and developer productivity by mining software data. He has published more than 180 research papers in reputable international journals and conferences and received four ACM Distinguished Paper awards. He has served as a program committee member/track chair for more than 80 software engineering conferences. He is general co-chair of ICSME 2020 and Associate Editor of the journal Automated Software Engineering. He was recognized as one of the world’s top 20 most prolific Software Engineering researchers (2013–2020) according to an independent Elsevier bibliometric assessment. He is a Distinguished Member of ACM, a Distinguished Member of CCF, a senior member of IEEE, and a Fellow of Engineers Australia (FIEAust). More information about him can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/hongyujohn.
26 January 2022
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Tadashi Dohi to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Tadashi Dohi has joined Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) as an Editorial Board Member.
Dr. Tadashi Dohi has served as a Full Professor at Hiroshima University, Japan, since 2002. He is currently appointed as Dean of School of Informatics and Data Science and Associate Dean of Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University. He received a Doctor of Engineering degree from Hiroshima University in 1995.
His research interests include Software Reliability, Dependable Computing, Performance Evaluation, Operations Research. To date, his research has led to 260 journal papers, 320 peer-reviewed conference papers, 25 book editions, and 40 book chapters in the above research fields. Dr. Dohi is a Regular Member of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineering (IEICE), Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), Reliability Engineering Association of Japan (REAJ), a Fellow Member of the Operations Research Society of Japan (ORSJ), and a Senior Member of IEEE (Computer Society and Reliability Society). He was acting President of REAJ in 2018 and 2019.
He has served as the General Chair of 15 international conferences, including ISSRE 2011, ATC 2012, DASC 2019, and ICECCS 2022. Of note, he was a founding member of the International Symposium on Advanced Reliability and Maintenance Modeling (APARM) and International Workshop on Software Aging and Rejuvenation (WoSAR). He has been a steering committee member in AIWARM/APARM, ISSRE, DASC, DSA. He has worked as a program committee member in several international premier conferences such as DSN, ISSRE, COMPSAC, SRDS, QRS, EDCC, PRDC, HASE, SAC, ICPE, among numerous others. He is an Associate Editor/Editorial Board Member of over 20 international journals, including IEEE Transactions on Reliability, Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research, and Journal of Risk and Reliability.
13 January 2022
Prof. Dr. Pekka Abrahamsson and Prof. Dr. Tommi Mikkonen Appointed Founding Editors-in-Chief of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Pekka Abrahamsson and Prof. Dr. Tommi Mikkonen have been appointed founding Editors-in-Chief of the new journal Software (ISSN 2674-113X, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/software).
Name: Prof. Dr. Pekka Abrahamsson |
Prof. Dr. Pekka Abrahamsson works as a full professor of information systems and software engineering at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. He received his Ph.D. in software engineering in 2002 from the University of Oulu. Prior to his current position, he worked as a full professor at the Free University of Bozen Bolzano (Italy) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway). His research interests are in empirical software engineering, software startups, emerging software technologies, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. He is widely recognized for his academic achievements. He is a pioneer in research on agile software engineering methods and processes. Prof. Dr. Abrahamsson is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. Arnetminer named him among the 100 most influential software engineering scientists in the world in 2016. Prof. Dr. Abrahamsson was awarded the Nokia Foundation Award 2007. He is also the co-founder of the Software Startup Research Network (SSRN).
Name: Prof. Dr. Tommi Mikkonen |
Prof. Dr. Tommi Mikkonen is a full professor of software engineering at the University of Jyväskylä and a full professor of software systems at the University of Helsinki, both located in Finland. He received his Dr. Tech. in information technology in 1999 from Tampere University of Technology, Finland. In addition to his academic positions, he has been a principal scientist at Nokia and a visiting professor at Sun Microsystems Research and at Mozilla. His research interests include the IoT, software development methods, multi-device programming, and software engineering for AI. Prof. Dr. Mikkonen is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, and he has acted as a board member of the Finnish Information Processing Association. He is the year 2017 Open World Hero, nominated by the Center of Open Source Software in Finland.
We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Pekka Abrahamsson and Prof. Dr. Tommi Mikkonen as the founding Editors-in-Chief of Software and look forward to Software achieving many milestones under their leadership. For further information on the journal’s aim and scope, please visit https://www.mdpi.com/journal/software/about.
10 January 2022
Recruiting Topical Advisory Panel Members for Software
We are currently recruiting Topical Advisory Panel Members for the journal Software (ISSN 2674-113X). The main responsibility of these individuals is to regularly provide support to Guest Editors, Reviewer Board Members, and Editorial Board Members (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/software/editors).
Software is a peer-reviewed, open access journal containing research on software engineering, published quarterly online by MDPI. The aims and scope of the journal can be found on the following website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/software/about.
The benefits of becoming a Topical Advisory Panel Member (TAP) include the following:
- Opportunity to publish one paper, with a certain discount, per year in Software, as well as potential discounts for additional papers you invite;
- Receiving a certificate in recognition of becoming a Topical Advisory Panel Member of Software;
- Software will offer additional sponsorships for conferences organized by Topical Advisory Panel Members;
- Travel grants of CHF 300–500 per year for conferences that you attend or organize.
The main responsibilities of the Topical Advisory Panel Members include the following:
- Providing regular reviews of manuscripts;
- Setting up at least one Special Issue (SI) in partnership with a senior researcher within two years of being appointed the role, and proposing a detailed strategy plan for the SI; the topic of the proposal is expected to be within the scope of the journal. The scope of the Special Issue should be broad enough to attract a reasonable number of submissions, but narrow enough to provide a cohesive collection of articles. The Special Issue should only cover a specific part of the scope of the journal;
- Providing a detailed strategy plan for the SI, including assisting in preparing the Special Issue/Topic titles, aim & scope, summary, and keywords; soliciting papers; promoting the SI;
- Providing support for the Special Issues/Topics related to your expertise when the Guest Editor(s) is/are not available. This includes SI promotion via social media and providing advice on some scientific cases;
- Promoting the journal at conferences (adding 1–2 slides into your presentation, distributing flyers, recommending the journal to your colleagues, etc.), on social media, and on other relevant platforms;
- Collaborating with the Editorial Board Members or the Editorial Office to promote high-quality/featured papers (for example, writing a summary or highlights of the Editor's selected papers).
To qualify as Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must:
- Have expertise and experience in a field related to the journal;
- Be within approximately 10 years of receiving a Ph.D.;
- Have at least 6–8 published papers in the last 5 years, as a first author or corresponding author;
- Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute.
If you are interested in this position, please apply via the following link to apply: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/software/topical_advisory_panel_application, or send an email to software@mdpi.com with your academic CV. We look forward to hearing from you!
4 January 2022
Welcoming Dr. Li Li to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Li Li has joined Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) as an Editorial Board Member.
Dr. Li Li is currently a Senior Lecturer and Australia Research Council's Early Career Research (ARC DECRA) Fellow at Monash University, Australia. He received his Ph.D. in computer science and information technology in November 2016 under the supervision of Prof. Yves Le Traon (IEEE Fellow) from the University of Luxembourg.
His research interests include Mobile Software Engineering (MSE), Intelligent Software Engineering (ISE), and Software Security. To date, his research has led to 100+ publications in mostly top-tier SE journals, such as ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), and conferences, including IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE), and IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE). His publications have received in total 3800+ citations, with an H-index and H10-index at 28 and 60, respectively. His ICSE 2015 publication has received over 600 citations, being one of the most cited papers appearing in ICSE 2015. He has received multiple Best Paper Awards, including an ACM SIGPLAN Distinguished Paper Award in 2021, a Best Student Paper Award at The Web Conference in 2020, an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award in 2018, an MSR FOSS (Free, Open-Source Software) Impact Paper Award in 2018, and a Best Paper Award at SANER-ERA 2016. He has been ranked as the top-5 most impactful early-stage SE researchers in the world by two continuous bibliometric assessments of SE scholars concerning papers published from 2010 to 2017 and from 2013 to 2020, respectively.
He is an active member of the Software Engineering community and has contributed to (1) organizing many international conferences, such as Program Co-chair for the Doctoral Symposium Track of IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2021), Program Co-chair for the ERA Track of International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER 2020), Sponsorship Chair for IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2020), Social Media Co-chair for IEEE/ACM International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2020), etc., and (2) guest-editing journal Special Issues, such as the "Automated Software Engineering for Mobile Applications" issue at the Automated Software Engineering Journal, (3) reviewing original submissions for journals, such as ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), and (4) participating in the program committee of premier conferences, including IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME), and IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE).
For more details, please refer to Dr. Li Li's personal homepage: http://lilicoding.github.io/.
29 December 2021
Welcoming Dr. Eduardo Figueiredo to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Eduardo Figueiredo has joined Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) as an Editorial Board Member.
Dr. Eduardo Figueiredo has been an Associate Professor since 2010 and he is the head of the Software Engineering Laboratory (LabSoft) at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. He received his Ph.D. in software engineering at Lancaster University (UK) in 2009 and was a visiting researcher at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in 2017. Eduardo also holds a B.Sc. degree (2004) in computer science from the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) and an M.Sc. degree (2006) in software engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil.
His research interests include software reuse, configurable software systems, empirical software engineering, and source code analysis. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research papers in international journals and conferences, including IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), and the Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE). He has also led numerous funded research projects in software design, software reuse, and the quality of configurable and adaptable software systems.
Dr. Eduardo Figueiredo has co-organised several conferences and workshops in software engineering-related areas, including the Ibero-American Conference of Software Engineering (CIbSE) in 2020, Brazilian Congress on Software (CBSoft) in 2015, two editions of the Workshop on Empirical Evaluation of Software Composition Techniques (ESCOT) in 2010 and 2011, and two editions of the Workshop on Assessment of Contemporary Modularization Techniques (ACoM) in 2007 and 2008. He has also served as a journal referee and program committee member of international venues, such as for ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), the International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC), and the International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE).
You can contact him at figueiredo@dcc.ufmg.br and http://www.dcc.ufmg.br/~figueiredo.
28 December 2021
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Daniela S. Cruzes to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Daniela S. Cruzes has joined Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) as an Editorial Board Member.
Dr. Daniela S. Cruzes is a Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). In addition, she holds a part-time position in VISMA as Lead Security Researcher. Previously, she worked as a senior research scientist at SINTEF in Norway. She has also been a researcher fellow at the University of Maryland and Fraunhofer Center for Experimental Software Engineering-Maryland. Prof. Dr. Daniela Cruzes received her Ph.D. in experimental software engineering at the University of Campinas—UNICAMP in Brazil, in 2007.
Prof. Dr. Cruzes has published more than 100 research papers and book chapters. Her research interests are empirical software engineering, research methods and theory development, synthesis of SE studies, software security, software testing, agile software development processes, and DevOps.
We wish her every success in her new position, and we look forward to her contributions to the journal.
27 December 2021
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Paulo Ferreira to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Paulo Ferreira has joined Software as an Editorial Board Member.
Prof. Dr. Paulo Ferreira holds a Ph.D. from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (1996) in Systemes Informatiques with equivalence from the Technical University of Lisbon in Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (1997). His M.Sc. (1992) and B.Sc. (1988) are both from Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical University of Lisbon) in Electrotechnical Engineering. He has held the Habilitation from the same University since November 2009.
He is currently a Full Professor at the University of Oslo, where he supervises four Ph.D. students and several M.Sc. students and teaches two master-level courses (Fog Computing and Programming for Ubiquitous Things). Previously, he was with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Lisbon, where he taught courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels, including Operating Systems, Mobile Computing, Middleware for Distributed Internet Applications, and Advanced Distributed Systems.
He led the Distributed Systems Group at INESC ID from 1999 to 2010 (and in alternating biennia since 2010). His interests and research work belong to the scientific area of operating systems and distributed systems, with an emphasis on middleware, large-scale, and mobile computing; and he has supervised 14 Ph.D. students and more than 70 M.Sc. students.
He coordinated and participated in many national and international projects (having been the EU coordinator of the H2020 TRACE project): Comandos, Harness, Broadcast, Flash, PerDIS, Timbus, C4E, TRACE, MoTiV (funded by European Union), OBIWAN, DGG-Rotor, Haddock-FS (funded by Microsoft Research), Mnemosyne, MobileTrans, Electronic Democracy, UbiRep, and novaVM (funded by the Portuguese science and technology foundation), etc. Prof. Dr. Ferreira has also served in many consultancy projects for private and public institutions (national and international) in the area of distributed systems (e.g., Java virtual machine, security).
Prof. Dr. Paulo Ferreira was Pro-Rector at the Technical University of Lisbon (UTL) between 2007 and 2010, responsible for the analysis and evaluation of existing information and communication systems.
He is the author or co-author of more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific communications, 1 book on operating systems (edited both in Portugal and Brazil), 1 book in distributed context-aware systems (edited by Springer), and has received 2 ACM/IFIP Middleware best paper awards. He has served on various program committees of top-level international conferences, and performed reviews for several international journals. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Springer Journal of Internet Services and Applications, and he served as an expert to the European Union for the assessment of projects proposals under the 7th Framework Program. In addition, he was PC-Chair (with Liuba Shrira) of ACM/IFIP/Usenix Middleware 2018. He was one of the founders of EuroSys (ACM - European Chapter of the Special Interest Group on Operating Systems) and one of the officers and a member of the Steering Committee. Currently, he is a member of the Steering Committees of EuroSys, ACM/IFIP/Usenix Middleware (from 2011 to 2014 and since 2017), and a member of ACM/IFIP/Usenix Adaptive and Reflective Middleware (since 2014).
He was awarded the mention of “excellent teaching” four times, he is a senior member of ACM and IEEE, and he has received two Best Paper Awards at international events (ACM/IFIP/Usenix Middleware Conference).
24 December 2021
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Paolino Di Felice to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Paolino Di Felice has joined Software as an Editorial Board Member.
Prof. Dr. Paolino Di Felice has been a Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics of the University of L'Aquila, Italy, since 1999.
He has (co-)authored about 120 articles appearing in (IEEE, ACM, and Elsevier) journals, books, and international conference proceedings. The main research topics investigated concerned geographical databases and software engineering. A relevant research topic belonging to the domain of geographical databases concerned the study of 2D spatial relations between spatial objects. Spatial relations constitute the kernel of spatial SQL running on top of the currently available DataBase Management Systems (e.g., Oracle, IBM-DB2, and PostgreSQL/PostGIS). His research work has been included in the Open Geospatial Consortium standards for the definition of 2D vector data types and topological operators.
His research in the domain of software engineering started in the mid 1980s. Topics studied concerned mathematical software, programming methodologies, code reusability, software indexing, and class library for geographic applications. More recently, his research focus has moved to code generation of MVC web applications using the model-driven architecture and the assessment of the quality of the generated code. Currently, his group is developing a software tool supporting the automatic feeding of the Metadata Repository about UML Class Diagrams.
Prof. Dr. Di Felice has carried out a consistent activity of technological transfer in collaboration with several Italian IT firms. His research has been funded by national and international institutions and carried out in collaboration with researchers of several countries (Italy, Holland, Germany, Canada, and the USA). He has served regularly within national and international committees.
Prof. Dr. Di-Felice’s research and publications have received many citations in the research community. His Scopus data are the following: h-index 16, number of citations 1720 (https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=35613348600); while the Google Scholar citation results are above 4000 (https://scholar.google.it/citations?&user=GP6_bRUAAAAJ).
22 December 2021
Welcoming Dr. Andreas L. Symeonidis to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Andreas L. Symeonidis has joined Software as an Editorial Board Member.
Dr. Andreas L. Symeonidis is an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and the Chief Research Officer at Cyclopt.com. His research interests include software engineering processes, model-driven engineering, software quality and software analytics, middleware robotics, and knowledge extraction from big data repositories. Dr. Symeonidis’ work has been published in over 150 journal articles, book chapters, and conference publications. He is co-author of the books “Agent Intelligence through Data Mining” (Springer publishing), “Mining Software Engineering Data for Software Reuse” (Springer publishing), and “Practical Machine Learning in R” (Leanpub publishing). He is currently coordinating more than 10 contract R&D projects, while serving occasionally as an R&D project evaluator and reviewer for the European Commission.
You can see more at: http://users.auth.gr/symeonid.
21 December 2021
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Francisco José García-Peñalvo to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Francisco José García-Peñalvo has joined Software as an Editorial Board Member.
Prof. Dr. Francisco José García-Peñalvo is a Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Automation at the University of Salamanca (USAL), with three six-year periods of research, one six-year period of transferring and innovation, and four five-year periods of recognized teaching. He received the Gloria Begué award for teaching excellence in 2019. He was also a Distinguished Professor at the School of Humanities and Education at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, and a Researcher of International Impact at the Universidad Nacional San Agustín, Arequipa, Peru. Since 2006 he has been the head of the Research Group Recognized by the USAL GRIAL (research GRoup on InterAction and eLearning), a group that is a Consolidated Research Unit of the Junta de Castilla y León Government (UIC 81). He was included in the University of de Stanford’s World's Top 2% Scientists list (2021) https://doi.org/10.17632/btchxktzyw.3. He was the Vice-Dean of Innovation and New Technologies of the Faculty of Sciences of the USAL between 2004 and 2007 and the Vice-Rector of Technological Innovation of this University between 2007 and 2009. He is currently the Rector's Delegate for Virtual Teaching and the Coordinator of the Doctorate Program in Education in the Knowledge Society at USAL. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journals Education in the Knowledge Society and Journal of the Information Technology Research, and Associate Editor of many journals, with a special mention to the journal Computers in Human Behavior Reports. He has published more than 100 research papers in JCR-indexed journals (53 Q1).
For more detailed information on his publications, these are the public links to his profiles in Google Scholar (http://goo.gl/sDwrr0), Publons (https://bit.ly/2u2FN5l) and ORCID (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9987-5584).
17 December 2021
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Ricardo Colomo-Palacios to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Ricardo Colomo-Palacios has joined Software as a new Editorial Board Member.
Prof. Dr. Ricardo Colomo-Palacios is a professor at the Department of Computer Science and Communication at Østfold University College. He is currently the director of the Information Systems and Software Engineering research group. He acquired his Ph.D. in computer science at the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid (2005). He also holds an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa (2002). He has been working in the industry for ten years as a software engineer, project manager, and software engineering consultant in several companies, including being a Spanish IT leader at INDRA. After that, he joined full time academia, firstly at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain, and from 2014 at Østfold University College, Norway.
His works have been published in top journals of the discipline and he has also published more than 30 Special Issues in journals such as Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, Software Quality Journal, Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Science of Computer Programming, and Future Generation Computer Systems or Computer Standards & Interfaces, to name some of them. This editorial service is also tangible in his role as associate editor in IEEE Software, Computer Standards & Interfaces or IEEE Access. Prof. Dr. Colomo-Palacios is also engaged in the organization of many international conferences and workshops in the software arena.
His current research areas include software engineering management, people in software projects, software project management, business software, software and services process improvement, securing software, and cyber security. His works have been cited on a regular basis and, for instance, his citation results in Google Scholar are above 7300, and his h-index is 48.
In 2018, he received the Research Prize granted by Østfold University College as the most distinguished scholar of that year. He received several recognitions as an author of papers in journals and conferences, citing the award for Best Paper published in IET software in 2014 as one of his most important recognitions.
14 December 2021
Software | Call for Special Issue Proposals
Software (ISSN: 2674-113X) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of software engineering. It publishes reviews, regular research papers, and communications. Our aim is to publish timely experimental and theoretical research results in a rapid and readily accessible manner.
The Software editorial team is pleased to announce an open call for Special Issue proposals. This Special Issue will offer a group of authors the opportunity to work on an interconnected set of papers on an innovative topic. We welcome high-quality proposals that will be evaluated in a continuous selection process throughout the year.
In order to ensure that the topic of your proposal is within the scope of Software, please read the aim and scope of Software at the following website:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/software/about.
Proposals for Special Issues should be sent to the Editorial Office (software@mdpi.com) or submitted via the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/software.
The following information should be provided in a proposal:
- A 150–200-word summary that clearly states the significance, novelty, technical advancement, and adherence to the scope of the journal of the proposed topic;
- A list of 5–10 keywords relating to the topic;
- A brief resume of the proposed Guest Editors, together with their information (title, name, email, affiliation, personal website, keywords of interests);
- A proposed submission deadline (a Special Issue will usually be open for submissions for 6–8 months);
- A list of at least 20 potential contributors or a list of 8 planned papers.
As a Guest Editor, you would be responsible for:
- Inviting your peers to submit papers to be published in your Special Issue. These papers will be able to take advantage of the high publicity offered by our open access publishing, our rapid and high-quality peer-review process, and immediate publication after acceptance;
- Checking the suitability of abstracts/manuscripts submitted to the Special Issue;
- Making pre-check decisions regarding whether to send a new submission to peer review;
- Making final decisions regarding whether to accept or reject a paper based on peer-review outcomes.
As a Guest Editor, you would have the following privileges:
- A certificate of recognition as a Guest Editor of Software;
- Publishing one paper free of charge in your Special Issue;
- Inviting authors to submit high-quality papers to be published in your Special Issue free of charge or with certain discounts;
- If the Special Issue is successful and features at least 10 manuscripts accepted after full peer review, we can organize it into a printed book and send you a free copy as a gift.
Editorial Office’s role:
The Editorial Office will set up the Special Issue website, arrange the promotional material, assist with invitations for paper contributions, and take care of the administrative tasks associated with peer review, including inviting reviewers, collating reports, contacting authors, and arranging professional production before publication.
Please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office (software@mdpi.com) if you are interested and would like further details or clarification.
We look forward to receiving your proposals.
Software Editorial Office
14 December 2021
Welcoming Prof. Hironori Washizaki to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that Prof. Hironori Washizaki, has joined Software as a new Editorial Board Member.
Hironori Washizaki is a Professor and the Associate Dean of the Research Promotion Division at Waseda University in Tokyo and a Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Informatics. He also works in the industry as an Outside Director of SYSTEM INFORMATION and eXmotion.
He received his Ph.D. in information and computer science from Waseda University in 2003. His research interests include systems and software engineering. He has published more than 150 research papers in refereed international journals and conferences, including Computer, TETC, IoT-J, EMSE, SCICO, ICSE, and ASE. He has led numerous academic-industry joint research and funded projects in software requirements, software design, software reuse, and patterns, software quality assurance, software development process and management, AI/machine learning software engineering, and ICT/programming education. Since 2017, he has led a large-scale grant at MEXT, called enPiT-Pro SmartSE, which encompasses recurrent professional education in IoT, AI, software engineering, and business.
He has been the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) Vice President for Professional and Educational Activities since 2021 and IEEE-CS Board of Governors (BoG) member. He is spearheading the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) evolution project. He has also served as Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing (TETC), Steering Committee Member of the IEEE Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), Editor of the International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (IJSEKE), Editorial Board Member of Education Sciences, Editorial Board Member of Software, Associate Editor of Frontiers in Computer Science, and Advisory Committee Member of the IEEE-CS flagship conference COMPSAC. He is a Professional Member of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu. He has served as the general and program chair of major conferences, including ICST, CSEE&T, APSEC, AsianPLoP, and COMPSAC SIoT.
Since 2015, he has been the Convener of ISO/IEC/JTC1 SC7/WG20 to standardize bodies of knowledge and professional certifications, including the development of the ISO/IEC 24773 series. Furthermore, he has contributed to software engineering and the general computing professional community in Japan, Asia, and globally. He has served as Chair of the IEEE-CS Japan Chapter. He has served as a Steering Committee Member for the Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC). He has served as an Asia Liaison at SEKE since 2010. He is also active in the Information Processing Society of Japan (IPSJ), where he has served as the Editor of its journal and Chair of the Special Interest Group of Software Engineering (SIGSE).
You can contact him at washizaki@waseda.jp and http://www.washi.cs.waseda.ac.jp/.
22 November 2021
722 MDPI Editorial Board Members Receiving "2021 Highly Cited Researchers" Distinction
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 ResearchersTM 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.
Abate, Antonio Abatzoglou, John T. Abbaszadeh, Mostafa Acharya, U. Rajendra Acharya, Viral V. Agarwal, Ravi P. Ahn, Myung-Ju Airoldi, Laura Ali, Imran Allakhverdiev, Suleyman I. Aluko, Rotimi E. Anasori, Babak Andersson, Dan I. Andes, David Anker, Stefan D. Apergis, Nicholas Ariga, Katsuhiko Arqub, Omar Abu Aschner, Michael Assaraf, Yehuda G. Astruc, Didier Atala, Anthony Atanasov, Atanas G. Atangana, Abdon Bahram, Mohammad Bakris, George L. Balandin, Alexander A. Baleanu, Dumitru Balsamo, Gianpaolo Bando, Yoshio Banks, William A. Bansal-Travers, Maansi Barba, Francisco J. Barros, Lillian Basit, Abdul W. Baskonus, Haci Mehmet Bassetti, Matteo Battino, Maurizio Bell, Jordana T. Bellomo, Nicola Benediktsson, Jon Atli Benelli, Giovanni Benjakul, Soottawat Bhatnagar, Amit Biddle, Stuart J. H. Biondi, Antonio Biondi-Zoccai, Giuseppe Bjarnsholt, Thomas Blaabjerg, Frede Blaschke, Thomas Blay, Jean-Yves Blumwald, Eduardo Blunt, John W. Boffetta, Paolo Bogers, Marcel Bonomo, Robert A. Bowman, David M.J.S. Boyer, Cyrille Brestic, Marian Brevik, Eric C. Buhalis, Dimitrios Burdick, Jason A. Byrd, John C. Cabeza, Luisa F. Cai, Xingjuan Cai, Jianchao Calhoun, Vince D. Calin, George Cao, Jinde Cao, Guozhong Carvalho, Andre F. Castellanos-Gomez, Andres Cerqueira, Miguel Ângelo Parente Ribeiro Chang, Jo-Shu Chang, Chih-Hao Chastin, Sebastien Chau, Kwok-wing Chemat, Farid Chen, Xiaobo Chen, YangQuan Chen, Jianmin Chen, Chaoji Chen, Min Chen, Qi Chen, Jun Chen, Xi Chen, Peng Chen, Yulin Chen, Bo Chen, Chen Chen, Zhi-Gang Chen, Wei-Hsin Chen, Gang Chen, Yongsheng Chen, Xiang Chen, Yimin Chen, Runsheng Chen, Lidong Chen, Shaowei Chen, Qian Chen, Yu Chen, Shuangming Chiclana, Francisco Cho, Sun Young Choi, Wonyong Chowdhary, Anuradha Choyke, Peter L. Cichocki, Andrzej Corella, Dolores Corma, Avelino Cortes, Javier Cortes, Jorge Costanza, Robert Crommie, Michael F. Cui, Yi Cui, Haiying Cui, Qinghua Cummings, Kenneth Michael Dai, Shifeng Dai, Sheng Daiber, Andreas Davis, Steven J. Dawson, Ted M. de la Fuente-Nunez, Cesar Decker, Eric Andrew Dekel, Avishai Demaria, Marco Deng, Yong Deng, Xiangzheng DePinho, Ronald A. Desneux, Nicolas Dimopoulos, Meletios-Athanasios Ding, Aijun Dionysiou, Dionysios D. Dokmeci, Mehmet Remzi Dolgui, Alexandre Dong, Fan Dou, Shi Xue Dou, Letian Du, Qian Du, Bo Dube, Shanta Rishi Dufresne, Alain Dummer, Reinhard Dupont, Didier Edwards, David Elaissari, Abdelhamid Elhoseny, Mohamed Ellahi, Rahmat Ellis, Erle C. ElMasry, Gamal Esteller, Manel Estévez, Mario Fabbro, Doriano Facchetti, Antonio Fan, Zhanxi Fang, Chuanglin Fasano, Alessio Fečkan, Michal Felser, Claudia Feng, Liangzhu Fensholt, Rasmus Ferdinandy, Péter Fernandez-Lafuente, Roberto Ferreira, Isabel C. F. R. Filippi, Massimo Fisher, Helen Fortino, Giancarlo Fosso Wamba, Samuel Franceschi, Claudio Fujita, Hamido Fujita, Masayuki Gai, Francesco Gaisford, Simon Galanakis, Charis M. Galluzzi, Lorenzo Galvano, Fabio Gan, Ren-You Gan, Lihua Gandomi, Amir H. Gao, Bin Gao, Feng Gao, Minrui Gao, Huijun Gao, Wei Gao, Huile Garbe, Claus Garcia, Hermenegildo Gasbarrini, Antonio Gasco, Laura Gautret, Philippe Geng, Yong Gerdts, Gunnar Geschwind, Daniel H. Ghadimi, Noradin Ghaffari, Roozbeh Ghamisi, Pedram Giampieri, Francesca Glick, Bernard R. Gnant, Michael Goel, Ajay Gogotsi, Yury Goldewijk, Kees Klein Gong, Jinlong Gong, Yongji Govindan, Kannan Granato, Daniel Grancini, Giulia Green, Douglas R. Grosso, Giuseppe Gu, Ke Guan, Cao Guastella, Adam J. Guerrero, Josep M. Gui, Guan Guizani, Mohsen Guo, Zaiping Gupta, Rangan Gutzmer, Ralf Haase, Dagmar Habibi-Yangjeh, Aziz Hagemann, Stefan Hagger, Martin Hamblin, Michael R. Hammoudeh, Shawkat Han, Heesup Hanes, Justin Harrison, Roy M. Hartung, Hans-Peter Hasanuzzaman, Mirza He, Jr-Hau He, Hongwen He, Jiaqing He, Debiao Henseler, Jörg Herrera, Francisco Herrera-Viedma, Enrique Hetz, Claudio Ho Kim, Jung Holmes, Elaine Hossain, Ekram Hsueh, Po-Ren Hu, Xiaosong Hu, Wenbin Huang, Jianping Huang, Hongwei Huang, Yu Huang, Jianying Huang, Peng Huang, Baibiao Huang, Shaoming Hubacek, Klaus |
Iqbal, Hafiz M. N. |
Saad, Fred |
The full list of 2021 Highly Cited Researchers can be accessed at the following webpage in the Web of ScienceTM https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2021/.
--- Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) is a Clarivate product.
19 November 2021
Meet Us at DCCS 2022: The 1st International Workshop on Dependable Computing for Complex Systems, Hiroshima City, Japan, 26–30 March 2022
DCCS 2022 seeks to provide an international venue to discuss the advanced discoveries and emerging trends related to the dependability of complex systems in both the academic society and the industrial world. This workshop will not only explore how we can apply the emerging dependability theories and techniques to model and evaluate the complex systems, but also the methods or tools for localizing and fixing the system vulnerabilities to improve the system dependability. We are excited about your joining!
Topics addressed in the workshop include, but are not limited to:
- Software and hardware reliability;
- Software aging and rejuvenation;
- Software testing, verification, and validation;
- Techniques and approaches for safety-critical systems;
- Dependability measurement, modeling, evaluation, and tools;
- Dependability techniques and methodologies for complex systems;
- Dependable systems design;
- Self-healing, self-protecting, and self-adaptive systems;
- Fault-tolerant techniques;
- Quality assurance in server systems, cyber-physical systems, learning-based systems, etc;
- Internet of things (IoT) architectures, protocols, security and privacy;
- Modeling and simulation of complex systems;
- Analysis of software faults/bugs, errors, and failures;
- Fault localization for complex bugs;
- Repairing and re-engineering for complex systems;
- Studies on non-deterministic bugs, aging-related bugs, etc.;
- Analytical, empirical, and experimental studies of any of the above topics.
For further information, please visit the conference website: https://www.dccs2022.com/.
Related Special Issue is open for submissions:
Special Issue "Dependable Computing and Security for Software Systems"
Workshop information is available at the website: https://www.dccs2022.com/. If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please do not hesitate to contact us by email (jzheng@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp).
16 November 2021
Welcoming Prof. Dr. Jerry Zeyu Gao to the Editorial Board of Software
We are pleased to announce that the new Editorial Board Member, Prof. Dr. Jerry Zeyu Gao, has recently joined Software.
Prof. Dr. Jerry Zeyu Gao is a professor at the Department of Computer Engineering at San Jose State University. He is currently the director of the SJSU Research Center on Smart Technology, Computing, and Complex Systems. He has had over 24 years of academic research and teaching experience and over 10 years of industry working and management experience in software engineering and IT development applications. He has published three technical books and over a hundred (280) publications in IEEE/ACM journals, magazines, international conferences, and workshops. In the last 10 years, Prof. Dr. Gao has played a major role in organizing many international conferences and workshops as a conference co-chair, program co-chair, and workshop co-chair, including IEEEAI Test, IEEE Smart World Congress, IEEE Smart City Innovation 2017, SEKE, IEEE Mobile Cloud, IEEE Big Data Service, and IEEE SOSE. In 2021, Prof. Dr. Gao served as the steering committee board chair for the IEEE International Congress on Intelligent Service-Oriented Systems Engineering (IEEECISOSE) and the Steering Committee Board Members for IEEE Smart World Congress.
His current research areas include cyber-physical systems for smart cities, smart agriculture, and wildfires, intelligent test automation and quality assurance services, mobile cloud computing and services, and software engineering. Prof. Dr. Gao’s research and publications have received many citations in the research community, for example, his Google Scholar citation results are above 7400, and his ResearchGate reading reaches over 227,000.
In 2010, Prof. Dr. Jerry Zeyu Gao was recognized by the University of Texas at Arlington as a distinguished alumnus for the College of Engineering on its 50th anniversary. In 2011, he was awarded a KSI Fellowship in SEKE2011. In 2013, Prof. Dr. Gao received the College of Engineering Faculty Award for Excellence Scholarship. Recently, Prof. Dr. Gao has been recommended and listed as Marquis’s American Who's Who 2020-2021, and Marquis’s Industry Leaders in 2021.
16 November 2021
Topical Advisory Panel Established to Support Editorial Board
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.
25 October 2021
Open Access Week 2021 | It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity, 25–31 October
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.
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.
23 September 2021
2020 MDPI Top Reviewer Award—Winners Announced
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.
22 September 2021
MDPI Joins SDG Publishers Compact
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
3 August 2021
Announcement on Japanese Consumption Tax (JCT)
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