Announcements

MDPI journals will be attending the 22nd China Conference on Ecology as exhibitors. This meeting will be held in Beijing, China, from 27 to 30 October 2023.

The conference is being organized by the Ecological Society of China and will be held at the China National Convention Center. Domestic and overseas experts, scholars, and outstanding young scientists who have made outstanding contributions to ecology and related fields will be invited to give academic reports.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Diversity;
• Land;
• Plants;
• Forests;
• Environments;
• Water;
• Ecologies;
• World;
• Sustainability;
• Earth.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference and our booth, please visit the following webpage: https://esc2023.scimeeting.cn/cn/web/index/17981.

MDPI will be attending the AGU Fall Meeting 2023, which will be held from 11 to 15 December 2023 in San Francisco, CA, USA.

For more than 100 years, AGU has been opening science—opening pathways to discovery, opening greater awareness to address climate change, opening greater collaborations that lead to solutions and opening the fields and professions of science to a whole new age of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging.

2023 might be the official year of Open Science, but we also see it as an opportunity to affirm AGU’s overarching values and beliefs. It is a message for all of us to carry as we come together to share, inspire, collaborate, engage and most of all rededicate ourselves as a united community grounded in wide open science.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Air;
• Atmosphere;
• Climate;
• Drones;
• Earth;
• Fire;
• Forests;
• Geomatics;
• Geosciences;
• Hydrology;
• IJERPH;
• Land;
• Meteorology;
• Minerals;
• Remote Sensing;
• Sustainability;
• Water;
• World.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth #1424 and start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://www.agu.org/fall-meeting.

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.

Conference: XVIII World Water Congress
Date: 11–15 September 2023
Location: Beijing China-Germany International Convention and Exhibition Center (Beijing Guoce International Convention and Exhibition), Beijing, China

The World Water Congress is one of the world's largest congresses linking water policy makers, researchers and policy practitioners. Since 1973, the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) has held a World Water Congress every three years in various locations around the world. This influential event has been successfully held 17 times. During the Congress, heads of international organizations, high-level government officials, experts, scholars, entrepreneurs and economists from all over the world share their knowledge, experience and practice regarding a wide range of topics related to water.

With the theme of “Water for All: Harmony between Humans and Nature”, the XVIII World Water Congress aims to promote coordination and balance between the water needs of humans and nature. The Congress will facilitate knowledge and experience sharing, focusing on investigating the relationship between water, humans and nature, identifying and reconciling all water-related factors in a coordinated manner, and making and implementing water management strategies and polices using systematic approaches.

MDPI will be attending the XVIII World Water Congress as an exhibitor (booth #C22). We welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest ideas with us.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Water;
• Land;
• Agronomy;
• Hydrology;
• Resources;
• World;
• Climate.

If you plan to attend this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth at #C22. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following link: https://www.worldwatercongress.com/.

MDPI’s Best PhD Thesis Awards are presented to recognize the young scholars who are deemed to have completed the most outstanding PhD thesis in their field of research and to encourage them to continue their outstanding work and make 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.

Atmosphere:

• “Variability of Ocean Dynamics and Associated Mechanisms Over the Tropical Indian Ocean”
  by Sartaj Khan, Harbin Engineering University, China

Energies:

• “Nanofluid Impingement Jet Heat Transfer”
  by Javad Mohammadpour, Macquarie University, Australia

Minerals:

• “Abiotic Sedimentary Dolomite Formation: from Nano- to Macro-Scale”
  by Yihang Fang, Washington University, USA

Toxics:

• “Effects of Rare Earth Elements on Aquatic Organisms under a Changing Environment”
  by Catia Figueiredo, CIIMAR—Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, Portugal

Water:

• “Green-Gray Coupled Runoff Control Infrastructure Adaptive Multi-Objective Optimization Method”
  by Zijing Liu, Tsinghua University, China

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.

The purpose of our Best Paper Awards is to promote and recognize the most impactful contributions published within MDPI journals.

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

We are honored to present the winners for the year 2022 in environmental and earth sciences, who were selected amongst the extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.

Atmosphere:

• “Covid-19 Airborne Transmission and Its Prevention: Waiting for Evidence or Applying the Precautionary Principle?”
  by Annalaura Carducci, Ileana Federigi and Marco Verani
  Atmosphere 2020, 11(7), 710; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11070710

• “The Heat Health Warning System in Germany—Application and Warnings for 2005 to 2019”
  by Andreas Matzarakis, Gudrun Laschewski and Stefan Muthers
  Atmosphere 2020, 11(2), 170; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11020170

• “Temporal Hydrological Drought Index Forecasting for New South Wales, Australia Using Machine Learning Approaches”
  by Abhirup Dikshit, Biswajeet Pradhan and Abdullah M. Alamri
  Atmosphere 2020, 11(6), 585; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11060585

Clean Technologies:

• “Lignocellulosic Biomass Mild Alkaline Fractionation and Resulting Extract Purification Processes: Conditions, Yields, and Purities”
  by Vincent Oriez, Jérôme Peydecastaing and Pierre-Yves Pontalier
  Clean Technol. 2020, 2(1), 91-115; https://doi.org/10.3390/cleantechnol2010007

• “Environmental and Economic Evaluation of Fuel Choices for Short Sea Shipping”
  by Kirsi Spoof-Tuomi and Seppo Niemi
  Clean Technol. 2020, 2(1), 34-52; https://doi.org/10.3390/cleantechnol2010004

Energies:

• “Analyzing Similarities between the European Union Countries in Terms of the Structure and Volume of Energy Production from Renewable Energy Sources”
  by Jarosław Brodny and Magdalena Tutak
  Energies 2020, 13(4), 913; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13040913

• “High Reynold’s Number Turbulent Model for Micro-Channel Cold Plate Using Reverse Engineering Approach for Water-Cooled Battery in Electric Vehicles”
  by Satyam Panchal, Krishna Gudlanarva, Manh-Kien Tran, Roydon Fraser and Michael Fowler
  Energies 2020, 13(7), 1638; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13071638
• “Investigation of Inorganic Phase Change Material for a Semi-Transparent Photovoltaic (STPV) Module”
  by Alagar Karthick, Muthu Manokar Athikesavan, Manoj Kumar Pasupathi, Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar, Shauhrat S. Chopra and Aritra Ghosh
  Energies 2020, 13(14), 3582; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13143582

• “Considerations on Potentials, Greenhouse Gas, and Energy Performance of Biofuels Based on Forest Residues for Heavy-Duty Road Transport in Sweden”
  by Shveta Soam and Pål Börjesson
  Energies 2020, 13(24), 6701; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13246701

• “Characterization of Hybrid-nano/Paraffin Organic Phase Change Material for Thermal Energy Storage Applications in Solar Thermal Systems”
  by Manoj Kumar Pasupathi, Karthick Alagar, Michael Joseph Stalin P, Matheswaran M. M and Ghosh Aritra
  Energies 2020, 13(19), 5079; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13195079

• “Snapshot of Photovoltaics—February 2020”
  by Arnulf Jäger-Waldau
  Energies 2020, 13(4), 930; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13040930

• “The Importance of Renewable Energy Sources in Poland’s Energy Mix”
  by Renata Marks-Bielska, Stanisław Bielski, Katarzyna Pik and Krystyna Kurowska
  Energies 2020, 13(18), 4624; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13184624

• “Infectious Diseases, Market Uncertainty and Oil Market Volatility”
  by Elie Bouri, Riza Demirer, Rangan Gupta and Christian Pierdzioch
  Energies 2020, 13(16), 4090; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13164090

• “Cost of Equity of Coal-Fired Power Generation Projects in Poland: Its Importance for the Management of Decision-Making Process”
  by Piotr W. Saługa, Katarzyna Szczepańska-Woszczyna, Radosław Miśkiewicz and Mateusz Chłąd
  Energies 2020, 13(18), 4833; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13184833

• “Internet of Things (IoT) and the Energy Sector”
  by Naser Hossein Motlagh, Mahsa Mohammadrezaei, Julian Hunt and Behnam Zakeri
  Energies 2020, 13(2), 494; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13020494

• “A Review on Thermoelectric Generators: Progress and Applications”
  by Mohamed Amine Zoui, Saïd Bentouba, John G. Stocholm and Mahmoud Bourouis
  Energies 2020, 13(14), 3606; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13143606

• “Contributions and Risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Building Smarter Cities: Insights from a Systematic Review of the Literature”
  by Tan Yigitcanlar, Kevin C. Desouza, Luke Butler and Farnoosh Roozkhosh
  Energies 2020, 13(6), 1473; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13061473

• “Possibilities and Challenges for the Inclusion of the Electric Vehicle (EV) to Reduce the Carbon Footprint in the Transport Sector: A Review”
  by Aritra Ghosh
  Energies 2020, 13(10), 2602; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13102602

• “Energy and Climate Policy—An Evaluation of Global Climate Change Expenditure 2011–2018”
  by Coilín ÓhAiseadha, Gerré Quinn, Ronan Connolly, Michael Connolly and Willie Soon
  Energies 2020, 13(18), 4839; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13184839
• “A Review of The Methanol Economy: The Fuel Cell Route”
  by Samuel Simon Araya, Vincenzo Liso, Xiaoti Cui, Na Li, Jimin Zhu, Simon Lennart Sahlin, Søren Højgaard Jensen, Mads Pagh Nielsen and Søren Knudsen Kær
  Energies 2020, 13(3), 596; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13030596

Environments:

• “Microplastic Contamination in Freshwater Environments: A Review, Focusing on Interactions with Sediments and Benthic Organisms”
  by Arianna Bellasi, Gilberto Binda, Andrea Pozzi, Silvia Galafassi, Pietro Volta and Roberta Bettinetti
  Environments 2020, 7(4), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7040030

• “Biogas Production from Food Residues—The Role of Trace Metals and Co-Digestion with Primary Sludge”
  by Moshe Habagil, Alexander Keucken and Ilona Sárvári Horváth
  Environments 2020, 7(6), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7060042

Forests:

• “Coastal Pine-Oak Glacial Refugia in the Mediterranean Basin: A Biogeographic Approach Based on Charcoal Analysis and Spatial Modelling”
  by Gaetano Di Pasquale, Antonio Saracino, Luciano Bosso, Danilo Russo, Adriana Moroni, Giuliano Bonanomi and Emilia Allevato
  Forests 2020, 11(6), 673; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11060673

• “A Survey in Natural Forest Ecosystems of Vietnam Reveals High Diversity of both New and Described Phytophthora Taxa including ramorum”
  by Thomas Jung, Bruno Scanu, Clive M. Brasier, Joan Webber, Ivan Milenković, Tamara Corcobado, Michal Tomšovský, Matěj Pánek, József Bakonyi, Cristiana Maia et al.
  Forests 2020, 11(1), 93; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11010093

• “Living in Drylands: Functional Adaptations of Trees and Shrubs to Cope with High Temperatures and Water Scarcity”
  by José Javier Peguero-Pina, Alberto Vilagrosa, David Alonso-Forn, Juan Pedro Ferrio, Domingo Sancho-Knapik and Eustaquio Gil-Pelegrín
  Forests 2020, 11(10), 1028; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11101028

• “Advances and Promises of Epigenetics for Forest Trees”
  by Joana Amaral, Zoé Ribeyre, Julien Vigneaud, Mamadou Dia Sow, Régis Fichot, Christian Messier, Gloria Pinto, Philippe Nolet and Stéphane Maury
  Forests 2020, 11(9), 976; https://doi.org/10.3390/f11090976

IJGI:

• “Cartographic Vandalism in the Era of Location-Based Games—The Case of OpenStreetMap and Pokémon GO”
  by Levente Juhász, Tessio Novack, Hartwig H. Hochmair and Sen Qiao
  ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2020, 9(4), 197; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi9040197

Minerals:

• “A Comprehensive Review of Rare Earth Elements Recovery from Coal-Related Materials”
  by Wencai Zhang, Aaron Noble, Xinbo Yang and Rick Honaker
  Minerals 2020, 10(5), 451; https://doi.org/10.3390/min10050451
• “SEM-Based Automated Mineralogy and Its Application in Geo- and Material Sciences”
  by Bernhard Schulz, Dirk Sandmann and Sabine Gilbricht
  Minerals 2020, 10(11), 1004; https://doi.org/10.3390/min10111004

• “Characteristics of Precipitation of Rare Earth Elements with Various Precipitants”
  by Kenneth N. Han
  Minerals 2020, 10(2), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/min10020178

• “Lithium-Rich Claystone in the McDermitt Caldera, Nevada, USA: Geologic, Mineralogical, and Geochemical Characteristics and Possible Origin”
  by Stephen B. Castor and Christopher D. Henry
  Minerals 2020, 10(1), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/min10010068

• “Using Complementary Methods of Synchrotron Radiation Powder Diffraction and Pair Distribution Function to Refine Crystal Structures with High Quality Parameters—A Review”
  by Seungyeol Lee and Huifang Xu
  Minerals 2020, 10(2), 124; https://doi.org/10.3390/min10020124

Quaternary:

• “Erosive Response of Non-Glaciated Pyrenean Headwater Catchments to the Last Major Climate Transition and Establishing Interglacial Conditions”
  by Kurt Martin Stange, Ivar Midtkandal, Johan Petter Nystuen, Andrew Murray, Reza Sohbati, Warren Thompson, Cornelia Spiegel and Hans-Joachim Kuss
  Quaternary 2019, 2(2), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat2020017

• “Last Interglacial Climate in Northern Sweden—Insights from a Speleothem Record”
  by Martin Finné, Sakari Salonen, Norbert Frank, Karin F. Helmens, Andrea Schröder-Ritzrau, Michael Deininger and Steffen Holzkämper
  Quaternary 2019, 2(3), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat2030029

• “Climatically Controlled River Terraces in Eastern Australia”
  by James S. Daley and Tim J. Cohen
  Quaternary 2018, 1(3), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat1030023

• “Dropstones in Lacustrine Sediments as a Record of Snow Avalanches—A Validation of the Proxy by Combining Satellite Imagery and Varve Chronology at Kenai Lake (South-Central Alaska)”
  by Sien Thys, Maarten Van Daele, Nore Praet, Britta J. L. Jensen, Thomas Van Dyck, Peter J. Haeussler, Elke Vandekerkhove, Veerle Cnudde and Marc De Batist
  Quaternary 2019, 2(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat2010011

• “From Climatic to Anthropogenic Drivers: A Multi-Proxy Reconstruction of Vegetation and Peatland Development in the French Jura Mountains”
  by Emilie Gauthier, Vincent E. J. Jassey, Edward A. D. Mitchell, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Richard Payne, Frédéric Delarue, Fatima Laggoun-Defarge, Daniel Gilbert and Hervé Richard
  Quaternary 2019, 2(4), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat2040038

Remote Sensing:

• “Current Practices in UAS-based Environmental Monitoring”
  by Goran Tmušić, Salvatore Manfreda, Helge Aasen, Mike R. James, Gil Gonçalves, Eyal Ben-Dor, Anna Brook, Maria Polinova, Jose Juan Arranz, János Mészáros et al.
  Remote Sens. 2020, 12(6), 1001; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12061001

• “Change Detection Based on Artificial Intelligence: State-of-the-Art and Challenges”
  by Wenzhong Shi, Min Zhang, Rui Zhang, Shanxiong Chen and Zhao Zhan
  Remote Sens. 2020, 12(10), 1688; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12101688
• “A Spatial-Temporal Attention-Based Method and a New Dataset for Remote Sensing Image Change Detection”
  by Hao Chen and Zhenwei Shi
  Remote Sens. 2020, 12(10), 1662; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12101662

• “Mapping Landslides on EO Data: Performance of Deep Learning Models vs. Traditional Machine Learning Models”
  by Nikhil Prakash, Andrea Manconi and Simon Loew
  Remote Sens. 2020, 12(3), 346; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12030346

• “LiCSBAS: An Open-Source InSAR Time Series Analysis Package Integrated with the LiCSAR Automated Sentinel-1 InSAR Processor”
  by Yu Morishita, Milan Lazecky, Tim J. Wright, Jonathan R. Weiss, John R. Elliott and Andy Hooper
  Remote Sens. 2020, 12(3), 424; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12030424

Safety:

• “A Novel Method for Safety Analysis of Cyber-Physical Systems—Application to a Ship Exhaust Gas Scrubber System”
  by Victor Bolbot, Gerasimos Theotokatos, Evangelos Boulougouris, George Psarros and Rainer Hamann
  Safety 2020, 6(2), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/safety6020026

• “Characteristics of Commuters’ Single-Bicycle Crashes in Insurance Data”
  by Roni Utriainen
  Safety 2020, 6(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/safety6010013 

• “Effect of Road Markings and Traffic Signs Presence on Young Driver Stress Level, Eye Movement and Behaviour in Night-Time Conditions: A Driving Simulator Study”
  by Darko Babić, Dario Babić, Hrvoje Cajner, Ana Sruk and Mario Fiolić
  Safety 2020, 6(2), 24; https://doi.org/10.3390/safety6020024

Sustainability:

• “COVID-19 Could Leverage a Sustainable Built Environment”
  by Manuel Duarte Pinheiro and Nuno Cardoso Luís
  Sustainability 2020, 12(14), 5863; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145863

• “Mapping the Sustainable Development Goals Relationships”
  by Luis Miguel Fonseca, José Pedro Domingues and Alina Mihaela Dima
  Sustainability 2020, 12(8), 3359; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083359

• “The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Resilience of Sustainable Mobility in Sicily”
  by Tiziana Campisi, Socrates Basbas, Anastasios Skoufas, Nurten Akgün, Dario Ticali and Giovanni Tesoriere
  Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 8829; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218829

• “Artificial Intelligence in the Agri-Food System: Rethinking Sustainable Business Models in the COVID-19 Scenario”
  by Assunta Di Vaio, Flavio Boccia, Loris Landriani and Rosa Palladino
  Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 4851; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124851

Toxics:

• “Interaction of Environmental Pollutants with Microplastics: A Critical Review of Sorption Factors, Bioaccumulation and Ecotoxicological Effects”
  by Albert Menéndez-Pedriza and Joaquim Jaumot
  Toxics 2020, 8(2), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics8020040

• “Analysis of Cannabinoid-Containing Fluids in Illicit Vaping Cartridges Recovered from Pulmonary Injury Patients: Identification of Vitamin E Acetate as a Major Diluent”
  by Bryan Duffy, Lingyun Li, Shijun Lu, Lorie Durocher, Mark Dittmar, Emily Delaney-Baldwin, Deepika Panawennage, David LeMaster, Kristen Navarette and David Spink
  Toxics 2020, 8(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics8010008

Water:

• “Assessing the Benefits of Forested Riparian Zones: A Qualitative Index of Riparian Integrity Is Positively Associated with Ecological Status in European Streams”
  by Francis J. Burdon, Ellinor Ramberg, Jasmina Sargac, Marie Anne Eurie Forio, Nancy de Saeyer, Petra Thea Mutinova, Therese Fosholt Moe, Mihaela Oprina Pavelescu, Valentin Dinu, Constantin Cazacu et al.
  Water 2020, 12(4), 1178; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12041178

• “Worldwide Regulations and Guidelines for Agricultural Water Reuse: A Critical Review”
  by Farshid Shoushtarian and Masoud Negahban-Azar
  Water 2020, 12(4), 971; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12040971

• “Adsorption of Methylene Blue in Water onto Activated Carbon by Surfactant Modification”
  by Yu Kuang, Xiaoping Zhang and Shaoqi Zhou
  Water 2020, 12(2), 587; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020587

• “Antimicrobials and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria: A Risk to the Environment and to Public Health”
  by Liliana Serwecińska
  Water 2020, 12(12), 3313; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12123313

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.

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 environmental and earth sciences. The winners were selected by the journals’ Award Evaluation Committee.

We warmly congratulate the awarded young investigators for their outstanding contributions. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Atmosphere:

• Jianhuai Ye, Southern University of Science and Technology, China

Energies:

• Saeed Golestan, Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark

IJERPH:

• Michael Bertram, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden

Minerals:

• Shaunna M. Morrison, Carnegie Institution for Science, USA

Remote Sensing:

• Danfeng Hong, Qingdao University, China

Sustainability:

• Xiaolei Yuan, Aalto University, Finland

Toxics:

• Minjian Chen, Nanjing Medical University, China

Water:

• Sergi Garcia-Segura, Arizona State 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.

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2022 Travel Awards in environmental and earth sciences for their outstanding presentations and to present them with the prize.

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.

Climate:

• Pavani Misra, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India

Energies:

• Runxia Cai, North Carolina State University, USA
• Lukasz Niedzwiecki, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Poland

Environments:

• Michael Eze, ¹Macquarie University, Australia; ²University of Goettingen, Germany
• Murillo Vetroni Barros, Federal University of Technology—Paraná, Brazil

Fire:

• Ana Novo, University of Vigo, Spain

Forests:

• Eko Setio Wibowo, Kyungpook National University, Republic of Korea

Hydrology:

• Esmaiil Mokarighahroodi, Texas A&M University, USA

IJERPH:

• Roseane F. De Fátima Guimarães, Université de Montréal, Canada
• Phillips E. Obasohan, University of Sheffield, UK
• Katarina Baralić, University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Xianglong Xu, Monash University, Australia

IJGI:

• Jianwei Huang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
• Sevim Sezi Karayazi, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

Land:

• Rocky Talchabhadel, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, USA
• Leah Renwick, University of Chile, Chile

Remote Sensing:

• Ana Novo, University of Vigo, Spain
• Renée Mie Fredensborg Hansen, ¹Technical University of Denmark; ²Norwegian University of Science and Technology (in collaboration with The University Centre in Svalbard), Norway

Resources:

• Aida Hosseinian, Oulu University, Finland

Sustainability:

• Morteza Nazari-Heris, Pennsylvania State University, USA
• Domenico Mazzeo, University of Calabria, Italy
• Yuan Chen, The University of Sydney, Australia
• Sonia Khadija Maïté Gueroun, Tecnologia e Inovação (ARDITI), Portugal
• Konstantina Tsigkou, University of Patras, Greece

Water:

• Sabolc Pap, University of the Highlands and Islands, UK
• Xuexiu Jia, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Angelos Alamanos, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland

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.

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 2022 in environmental and earth sciences for their outstanding contributions among the extensive competition by presenting them with an Outstanding Reviewer Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners on their achievements. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Atmosphere:

• Stanislav Juráň, Global Change Research Institute CAS, Czech Republic
• Sandro W. Lubis, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), USA

Climate:

• Eliza Kalbarczyk, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland

Energies:

• Raffaele Carli, Polytechnic of Bari, Italy
• Marcos Tostado-Véliz, University of Jaén, Spain
• Andrea Mariscotti, University of Genova, Italy
• Xuejun Qian, Morgan State University, USA
• Dominik Zimon, Rzeszow University of Technology, Poland

Forests:

• Petr Pyszko, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
• Narayan Bhusal, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
• Vasiliki Kamperidou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
• Muhammad Adnan Akram, Lanzhou University, China

Fuels:

• Jelena T. Petrović, Institute for Technology of Nuclear and Other Mineral Raw Materials, Serbia

Geosciences:

• Martina Zucchi, University of Bari, Italy
• Theodore M. Present, California Institute of Technology, United States

IJERPH:

• Anuli Njoku, Southern Connecticut State University, USA
• Álvaro Francisco Lopes De Sousa, Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Portugal
• Carol Nash, University of Toronto, Canada
• Geovani Lopez-Ortiz, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
• Jorge Velázquez Saornil, Universidad Católica de Ávila, Spain
• Naser Alsharairi, Menzies Health Institute Qld- Griffith University, Australia
• Salvador Baena-Morales, University of Alicante, Spain
• Shirley Wyver, Macquarie University, Australia
• Akihiko Katayama, Shikoku Gakuin University, Japan
• Alessandro Sapienza, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC - CNR), Italy
• Alexandr Ceasovschih, “St. Spiridon” Emergency Hospital, Romania
• Alina Cernasev, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, USA
• Amelia Beata Staszowska, Lublin University of Technology, Poland
• Andreia Lima, Fernando Pessoa University, Portugal
• Anna Lipert, Medical University of Lodz, Poland
• Anson Kai Chun Chau, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
• Bianca Hanganu, “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iasi, Romania
• Bocong Yuan, Sun Yat-sen University, China
• Chee-Seng Tan, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia
• Christine Manlai Kwan,The University of Hong Kong, China
• Cristina Mendoza-Holgado, University of Extremadura, Spain
• Denise Dillon, James Cook University, Singapore
• Hiroyuki Noda, Graduate School of Medicine, Japan
• Isaac Rampedi, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
• Jan Domaradzki, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poland
• Joel Nitzkin, JLN, MD Associates, L.L.C., USA
• Kyung-Hyun Suh, Sahmyook University, Republic of Korea
• Lorenzo Gianquintieri, Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy
• Mariusz Duplaga, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Poland
• Matteo Riccò, Unità Operativa di Prevenzione e Sicurezza degli Ambienti di Lavoro, Italy
• Olga Czerwińska-Ledwig, University of Physical Education in Kraków, Poland
• Petra Marková, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia
• Piyapong Janmaimool, Kochi University of Technology, Japan
• Rafał Gerymski, Opole University, Poland
• Rasa Jankauskiene, Lithuanian Sports University, Lithuania
• Ruben Lopez-Bueno, University of Zaragoza, Spain
• Siu Shing Man, City University of Hong Kong, China
• Tomasz Sobierajski, University of Warsaw, Poland
• Wang-Kin Oscar Chiu, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China
• Yang Wu, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China

IJGI:

• Fernando P. Fonseca, Universidade do Minho, Portugal
• Polina Lemenkova, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
• Alexandre B. Gonçalves, University of Lisbon, Portugal
• Marcin Kulawiak, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland
• Dennis Edler, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

Land:

• Concetta Cardillo, Center for Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy, Italy
• Elisabetta Maria Venco, University of Pavia, Italy
• Małgorzata Dudzińska, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland

Resources:

• Lubomir Strba, Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia

Solar:

• Naresh Duvva, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA

Sustainability:

• Aleksandra Jezierska-Thöle, Kazimierz Wielki University, Poland
• Piotr Borowski, Vistula University, Poland
• Elżbieta Szaruga, University of Szczecin, Poland
• Raffaele Carli, Polytechnic of Bari, Italy
• Joana Costa, University of Szczecin, Portugal
• Silvia Puiu, University of Craiova, Romania
• Miguel Afonso Sellitto, School of Unisinos, Brazil
• Tiago F. A. C. Sigahi, University of São Paulo, Brazil
• Abdalwali Lutfi, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia
• Jarosław Uglis, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland
• Ágnes Csiszárik-Kocsir, Óbuda University, Hungary
• Jianwan Ji, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, China
• Aldona Zawojska, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
• Jianwei Qian, Hangzhou Normal University, China
• Ali Saleh Alshebami, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia
• José Belda-Medina, University of Alicante, Spain
• Ana Dias, University of Aveiro, Portugal
• Krzysztof Rząsa, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn Poland, Poland
• Andreea-Ionela Puiu, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
• Krzysztof Skrzypkowski, AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland
• Andrés Velástegui-Montoya, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL), Ecuador
• Louis S. H. Lee, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• Anita Silvana Ilak Peršurić, Institute of Agriculture and Tourism, Croatia
• Marek Gaworski, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
• Brett Bligh, Lancaster University, UK
• Meike Rombach, Lincoln University, New Zealand
• Catarina Fernandes, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Portugal
• Ming-Lang Tseng, Asia University, Taiwan
• Charitha Dias, Qatar University, Qatar
• Nicoleta Dospinescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Romania
• Daniel Badulescu, University of Oradea, Romania
• Roman Trach, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
• Darko Božanić, University of Defense in Belgrade, Serbia
• Romina D’Ascanio, Roma Tre University, Italy
• Donatella Privitera, University of Catania, Italy
• Sol García-Germán, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
• Eleonora Santos, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal
• Valentina Vasile, Romanian Academy, Romania
• Francis Boadu, Kumasi Technical University, Ghana
• Yir-Hueih Luh, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Toxics:

• Chris Douvris, New York Institute of Technology, USA

Water:

• Meysam Vadiati, University of California, USA
• Carmine Apollaro, University of Calabria (UniCAL), Italy
• Giacomo Medici, University of Guelph, Canada
• Katarzyna Pietrucha-Urbanik, Rzeszow University of Technology, Poland
• Dobrochna Ginter-Kramarczyk, Poznan University of Technology, Poland
• Vladimir Dvoretsky, Murmansk Marine Biological Institute, Russia
• Chengcheng Xia, University of Padova, Italy
• Aristeidis Kastridis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
• Majid Niazkar, University of Milan, Italy
• Yuliia Trach, Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego w Warszawie, Poland

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 serve as a source of inspiration and recognition, and help promote the influence of talented individuals who have been credited with outstanding achievements and who are making a significant contributions to the advancement of their field.

To explore more MDPI awards, please click here.

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.

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.

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MDPI's Preprints Platform – Preprints.org

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

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

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

For more information, please visit Preprints.org.

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

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

The mentee’s responsibilities include:

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

The mentor’s responsibilities include:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Thanks a Million" to all the contributors!

We are pleased to announce 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.

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!

MDPI will be attending the AGU Fall Meeting 2022 (AGU22), held in Chicago and online, from 12 to 16 December 2022. The AGU Fall Meeting is the most influential event in the world dedicated to the advancement of Earth and space sciences. The conference unites the Earth and space science community to share findings, connect like-minded scientists from around the world, and advance our profession and shared passion for the impact of science. Researchers, scientists, educators, students, policymakers, enthusiasts, journalists, and communicators attend the AGU Fall Meeting to better understand our planet and environment, and our role in preserving its future.

During this conference, MDPI (at booth #1452) will welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest views and research with us.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Water (leading journal);
• Remote Sensing (leading journal);
• Geosciences;
• Climate;
• Hydrology;
• Land;
• Drones;
• Environments;
• Sustainability;
• IJERPH;
• Earth;
• Fire;
• GeoHazards;
• Oceans;
• World.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth at #1452. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have.

For more information about the conference, please see the following link: https://igs.org/event/agu22/.

A range of MDPI journals will be attending INTECOL 2022 as exhibitors. This meeting will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 28 August to 2 September 2022.

“Frontiers in Ecology – Science and Society” is the general theme of the conference. With an estimated number of 1500 participants coming to Geneva, and as many following the conference from a distance, the conference aims to bring the state-of-the-art expertise in ecology to the forefront of societal challenges.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Diversity (leading);
• Sustainability;
• Forests;
• Ecologies;
• Environments;
• Plants;
• Animals;
• World;
• Quaternary;
• Earth;
• Resources;
• Applied Sciences;
• Birds;
• Climate;
• Water;
• Fishes.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us at our booth #03. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit http://intecol2021.org/, or contact the Diversity Editorial Office at diversity@mdpi.com.

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 “Environmental & Earth Sciences” category. The winners were selected by the journals’ editors.

We warmly congratulate the awarded young investigators for their outstanding contributions. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Atmosphere:

• Shaojie Song, Harvard University, USA

Clean Technologies:

• Francesco Galiano, Institute on Membrane Technology of the National Research Council, Italy

Energies:

• Qilin Wang, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
• Christopher H. T. Lee, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health:

• Grace Vincent, Central Queensland University, Australia

Minerals:

• Antony Burnham, Australian National University, Australia

Remote Sensing:

• Celso Henrique Leite Silva Junior, National Institute for Space Research – INPE, Brasil; Agricultural Engineering Department of the State University of Maranhão – UEMA, Brazil

Sustainability:

• Baojie He, Chongqing University, China

Water:

• Stefanos Giannakis, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain

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 winners for the year 2021 in the “Environmental & Earth Sciences” 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 the winners on their achievement. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Atmosphere:

• Hristo Chervenkov, National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, Bulgaria
• Jouni Räisänen, University of Helsinki, Finland

Climate:

• Piotr F. Borowski, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland

Energies:

• Elena Lucchi, Institute for Renewable Energy, Italy
• Marcin Dębowski, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland
• Miroslav Variny, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia
• Piotr F. Borowski, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland
• Vedran Mrzljak, University of Rijeka, Croatia

Forests:

• Tomasz Oszako, Forest Research Institute, Poland
• Stelian Alexandru Borz, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania
• Maricar Aguilos, North Carolina State University, USA
• Narayan Bhusal, Seoul National University, South Korea

Geosciences:

• Dave Waters, University of Oxford, UK

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health:

• Anuli Njoku, Southern Connecticut State University, USA
• Haruna Musa Moda, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
• Jesús Molina-Mula, University of BalearicIsland, Spain
• Katharina Diehl, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
• Katarzyna Tomaszek, Pedagogical University of Kracow, Poland
• Matteo Nioi, University of Cagliari, Italy
• Pablo A. Cantero-Garlito, Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, Spain
• Seoyong Kim, Ajou University, South Korea
• Andrzej Adamski, University of Information Technology and Management, Poland
• Adrian Curto, Faculty of Medicine, University of Salamanca, Spain
• Arkaitz Castañeda Babarro, University of Deusto, Spain
• Álvaro Francisco Lopes De Sousa, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
• Agata Gabryelska, Medical University of Lodz, Poland
• Ana Reyes Menéndez, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain
• Bartosz Dalewski, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, Poland
• Chong Chen, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan
• Carla Maria Batista Ferreira Pires, CBIOS-Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias-Escola de Ciências e Tecnologias da Saúde, Portugal
• Claudia Pisanu, University of Cagliari, Italy
• Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, USA
• Faisal F. Hakeem, King’s College London, UK
• Francisco Javier Fernández Carrasco, Punta de Europa Hospital, Spain
• Haewon Byeon, Inje University, South Korea
• HuiJun Chih, Curtin University, Australia
• Jerónimo Aragón Vela, University of Granada, Spain
• Joana Costa, University of Aveiro, Portugal,
• Joanne Lloyd, University of Wolverhampton, UK
• José Luis Romero-Bejar, University of Granada, Spain
• Laura Nathans, Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State Scranton, USA
• Mateusz Jankowski, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Poland
• Matteo Riccò, Azienda USL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, Italy
• Nicola Döring, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany
• Nora Suleiman-Martos, University of Granada, Spain
• Russell Kabir, Anglia Ruskin University, UK
• Roy McConkey, University of Ulster, UK
• Sunhee Kim, Ajou University, South Korea
• Sol García-Germán, Centro de Estudios e Investigación para la Gestión de Riesgos Agrarios y Medioambientalesdisabled, Spain
• Sebastian Rutkowski, Opole University of Technology, Poland
• Tamás Berki, University of Szeged, Hungary
• Terence Moriarty, University of Northern Iowa, USA
• Pedro Antonio Martín Cervantes, University of Almería, La Cañada de San Urbano, Spain

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information:

• Lemenkova Polina, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
• Andrew Newton, Nottingham Trent University, UK
• Dennis Edler, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany
• Lukáš Herman, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
• Marcela Bindzarova Gergelova, Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia

Land:

• Rahul Datta, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic
• Dirk H.R. Spennemann, Charles Sturt University, Australia
• Raimundo Jimenez-Ballesta, (Retired recently) Autonoma University of Madrid, Spain

Remote Sensing:

• Veraldo Liesenberg, Santa Catarina State University, Brazil
• Yady Tatiana Solano-Correa, University of Cauca, Colombia
• Francesco Marinello, University of Padova, Italy
• Pedro Melo-Pinto, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal
• Ignacio Bosch, Universitat Politènica de València, Spain
• Juan Soria, University of Valencia, Spain
• Chiman Kwan, Signal Processing, Inc., USA
• Benoit Vozel, University of Rennes, France
• Giuseppe Casula, National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Unit of Bologna, Italy
• Simone Cosoli, The University of Western Australia, Australia

Resources:

• Maria Economou-Eliopoulos, University of Athens, Greece

Toxics:

• Cynthia Rider, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, USA

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the “Environmental & Earth Sciences” 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 Travel Awards winners for the year 2021 and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors. MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.

Atmosphere:

• Charbel Harb, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, USA
• Jibran Khan, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark

Climate:

• Agostino Niyonkuru Meroni, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• Platon Patlakas, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Energies:

• Nnaemeka Vincent Emodi, University of Tasmania, Australia
• Irene Poza-Casado, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain

Forests:

• Pipiet Larasatie, Oregon State University, USA
• Tania L. Maxwell, French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), France

Hydrology:

• Georgia Papacharalampous, Roma Tre University, Italy
• Mattei Alexandra, University of Corsica, France

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health:

• Danila Azzolina, University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy
• Kelvin Fong, Yale University, USA
• Levi Frehlich, University of Calgary, Canada‎
• Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, Imperial College London, UK

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information:

• Junghwan Kim, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
• Xuke Hu, Institute of Data Science, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Land:

• Álvaro Castilla Beltrán, University of La Laguna, Spain
• Lauren Nerfa, University of Hawaiʻi, USA

Remote Sensing:

• Amen Al-Yaari, Sorbonne University, France
• Meng Lu, Utrecht University, Netherlands

Resources:

• Alessandro Lenci, University of Bologna, Italy
• Evangelia Georgantzia, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

Sustainability:

• Sayyed Rasoul Khayyam Nekouei, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia
• Georgia A. Papacharalampous, Roma Tre University, Italy
• Raquel Filipa da Costa Viveiros, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
• Rajesh Pathak, South Dakota State University, USA

Water:

• Nnanake-Abasi Okon Offiong, University of Uyo, Nigeria
• Tonni Agustiono Kurniawan, Polytechnic of Health, Indonesia
• Shawna Andrea Foo, Arizona State University, USA

The purpose of our Best Paper Awards is to promote and recognize the most impactful contributions published within MDPI journals.

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

We are honored to present the winners in the subject areas of “Environmental & Earth Sciences”, who were selected amongst extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.

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

Geosciences:

• “Distinguishing between Deep-Water Sediment Facies: Turbidites, Contourites and Hemipelagites”
  by Dorrik Stow and Zeinab Smillie
  Geosciences 2020, 10(2), 68. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10020068
• “Review of Explosive Hydrovolcanism”
  by Károly Németh and Szabolcs Kósiks
  Geosciences 2020, 10(2), 44. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10020044

Remote Sensing:

• “A Review on Deep Learning Techniques for 3D Sensed Data Classification”
  by David Griffiths and Jan Boehm
  Remote Sens. 2019, 11(12), 1499. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11121499
• “Satellite Remote Sensing of Precipitation and the Terrestrial Water Cycle in a Changing Climate”
  by Vincenzo Levizzani and Elsa Cattani
  Remote Sens. 2019, 11(19), 2301. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11192301
• “Evaluation of Different Machine Learning Methods and Deep-Learning Convolutional Neural Networks for Landslide Detection”
  by Omid Ghorbanzadeh, Thomas Blaschke, Khalil Gholamnia, Sansar Raj Meena, Dirk Tiede and Jagannath Aryal
  Remote Sens. 2019, 11(2), 196. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11020196
• “An Integrated View of Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Changes Based on Models and Satellite Observations”
  by Ruth Mottram, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Synne Høyer Svendsen, Valentina R. Barletta, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Thomas Nagler, Jan Wuite, Andreas Groh, Martin Horwath, Job Rosier, Anne Solgaard, Christine S. Hvidberg and Rene Forsberg
  Remote Sens. 2019, 11(12), 1407. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11121407
• “UAV-Based High Resolution Thermal Imaging for Vegetation Monitoring, and Plant Phenotyping Using ICI 8640 P, FLIR Vue Pro R 640, and thermoMap Cameras”
  by Vasit Sagan, Maitiniyazi Maimaitijiang, Paheding Sidike, Kevin Eblimit, Kyle T. Peterson, Sean Hartling, Flavio Esposito, Kapil Khanal, Maria Newcomb, Duke Pauli, Rick Ward, Felix Fritschi, Nadia Shakoor and Todd Mockler
  Remote Sens. 2019, 11(3), 330. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11030330

Toxics:

• “A Review of Biomonitoring of Phthalate Exposures”
  by Wang, Yu, Hongkai Zhu and Kurunthachalam Kannan
  Toxics 2019, 7(2), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics7020021
• “Trace Element Uptake by Herbaceous Plants from the Soils at a Multiple Trace Element-Contaminated Site”
  by Nworie, Obinna E., Junhao Qin and Chuxia Lin
  Toxics 2019, 7(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics7010003

Water:

• “Water Quality Indices: Challenges and Application Limits in the Literature”
  by Moez Kachroud, Fabienne Trolard, Mohamed Kefi, Sihem Jebari and Guilhem Bourrié
  Water 2019, 11(2), 361. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11020361
• “A Brief Review of Random Forests for Water Scientists and Practitioners and Their Recent History in Water Resources”
  by Hristos Tyralis, Georgia Papacharalampous and Andreas Langousis
  Water 2019, 11(5), 910. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11050910
• “The Use of Non-Conventional Water Resources as a Means of Adaptation to Drought and Climate Change in Semi-Arid Regions: South-Eastern Spain”
  by Álvaro-Francisco Morote, Jorge Olcina and María Hernández
  Water 2019, 11(1), 93. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11010093
• “Hydrological Effectiveness of an Extensive Green Roof in Mediterranean Climate” 
  by Stefania Anna Palermo, Michele Turco, Francesca Principato and Patrizia Piro
  Water 2019, 11(7), 1378. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071378
• “Forecasting Groundwater Table in a Flood Prone Coastal City with Long Short-term Memory and Recurrent Neural Networks”
  by Benjamin D. Bowes, Jeffrey M. Sadler, Mohamed M. Morsy, Madhur Behl and Jonathan L. Goodall
  Water 2019, 11(5), 1098. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11051098
• “Effectiveness of Rainwater Harvesting Systems for Flood Reduction in Residential Urban Areas”
  by Gabriele Frenib and Lorena Liuzzo
  Water 2019, 11(7), 1389. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071389

The 2021 citation metrics have been officially released in Scopus!

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

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

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

Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• 29 October 2021
  Processes journal and Beijing Institute of Technology

• 29 October 2021
  Coatings journal and Wuhan University of Technology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Contact: Setsuko Nishihara, MDPI Tokyo

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

Selections

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

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

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

Special Issue Reprints

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

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

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

Why choose MDPI Books?

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

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

Contact: Laura Wagner, MDPI Books Manager (email)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Coalition is committed to:

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

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

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

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

1) Information is displayed in the left information bar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Jisc

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

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

About MDPI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scholarly Community—Encyclopedia

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

Comprehensive and Free Literature Database—Scilit

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

Display Academic Achievements—SciProfiles

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

Organize and Participate in Conferences Online—Sciforum

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

Post Early Versions of Research Outputs—Preprints

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read the position paper here

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

Prize for Winners

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

Application Deadline

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

Candidate Requirements

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

Evaluation Standards

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

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