Announcements

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.

1. “6G Cognitive Information Theory: A Mailbox Perspective”
by Yixue Hao, Yiming Miao, Min Chen, Hamid Gharavi and Victor C. M. Leung
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(4), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5040056
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/4/56

2. “AI Based Emotion Detection for Textual Big Data: Techniques and Contribution”
by Sheetal Kusal, Shruti Patil, Ketan Kotecha, Rajanikanth Aluvalu and Vijayakumar Varadarajan
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(3), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5030043
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/3/43

3. “Forecasting Plant and Crop Disease: An Explorative Study on Current Algorithms”
by Gianni Fenu and Francesca Maridina Malloci
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5010002
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/1/2

4. “Assessment of Cybersecurity Awareness among Students of Majmaah University”
by Talal Alharbi and Asifa Tassaddiq
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(2), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5020023
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/2/23

5. “IoT Technologies for Livestock Management: A Review of Present Status, Opportunities, and Future Trends”
by Bernard Ijesunor Akhigbe, Kamran Munir, Olugbenga Akinade, Lukman Akanbi and Lukumon O. Oyedele
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5010010
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/1/10

6. “Big Data and Personalisation for Non-Intrusive Smart Home Automation”
by Suriya Priya R. Asaithambi, Sitalakshmi Venkatraman and Ramanathan Venkatraman
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5010006
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/1/6

7. “A Study on Singapore’s Ageing Population in the Context of Eldercare Initiatives Using Machine Learning Algorithms”
by Easwaramoorthy Rangaswamy, Girija Periyasamy and Nishad Nawaz
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(4), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5040051
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/4/51

8. “Big Data and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) at a Glance”
by Hossein Hassani, Xu Huang, Steve MacFeely and Mohammad Reza Entezarian
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(3), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5030028
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/3/28

9. “ParlTech: Transformation Framework for the Digital Parliament”
by Dimitris Koryzis, Apostolos Dalas, Dimitris Spiliotopoulos and Fotios Fitsilis
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(1), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5010015
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/1/15

10. “Processing Big Data with Apache Hadoop in the Current Challenging Era of COVID-19”
by Otmane Azeroual and Renaud Fabre
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(1), 12; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5010012
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/1/12

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.

1. “A Complete VADER-Based Sentiment Analysis of Bitcoin (BTC) Tweets during the Era of COVID-19”
by Toni Pano and Rasha Kashef
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2020, 4(4), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4040033
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/4/4/33

2. “A Review of Blockchain in Internet of Things and AI”
by Hany F. Atlam, Muhammad Ajmal Azad, Ahmed G. Alzahrani and Gary Wills
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2020, 4(4), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4040028
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/4/4/28

3. “Text Mining in Big Data Analytics”
by Hossein Hassani, Christina Beneki, Stephan Unger, Maedeh Taj Mazinani and Mohammad Reza Yeganegi
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2020, 4(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4010001
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/4/1/1

4. “A Review of Local Outlier Factor Algorithms for Outlier Detection in Big Data Streams”
by Omar Alghushairy, Raed Alsini, Terence Soule and Xiaogang Ma
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2021, 5(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc5010001
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/5/1/1

5. “Big Data Analytics for Search Engine Optimization”
by Ioannis C. Drivas, Damianos P. Sakas, Georgios A. Giannakopoulos and Daphne Kyriaki-Manessi
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2020, 4(2), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4020005
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/4/2/5

6. “Big Data and Its Applications in Smart Real Estate and the Disaster Management Life Cycle: A Systematic Analysis”
by Hafiz Suliman Munawar, Siddra Qayyum, Fahim Ullah and Samad Sepasgozar
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2020, 4(2), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4020004
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/4/2/4

7. “Ticket Sales Prediction and Dynamic Pricing Strategies in Public Transport”
by Francesco Branda, Fabrizio Marozzo and Domenico Talia
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2020, 4(4), 36; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4040036
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/4/4/36

8. “MOBDA: Microservice-Oriented Big Data Architecture for Smart City Transport Systems”
by Suriya Priya R. Asaithambi, Ramanathan Venkatraman and Sitalakshmi Venkatraman
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2020, 4(3), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4030017
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/4/3/17

9. “An Adaptable Big Data Value Chain Framework for End-to-End Big Data Monetization”
by Abou Zakaria Faroukhi, Imane El Alaoui, Youssef Gahi and Aouatif Amine
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2020, 4(4), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4040034
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/4/4/34

10. “Hybrid Siamese Network for Unconstrained Face Verification and Clustering under Limited Resources”
by Nehal K. Ahmed, Elsayed E. Hemayed and Magda B. Fayek
Big Data Cogn. Comput. 2020, 4(3), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4030019
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-2289/4/3/19

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 currently recruiting Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for MDPI journals indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) in Web of Science. In particular, we are looking for experts who are interested in aiding in the development of our journals and safeguarding the scientific quality of the published findings.

Journals currently listed in the ESCI will receive an Impact Factor in June 2023, according to the changes announced by Web of Science (Clarivate). Therefore, this is an excellent time to become an Editorial Board Member for one of these fast-developing journals.

If you are interested in sharing your expertise in one of the journals listed below, please send us an application using this link.

The Editorial Office of the journal will contact you once the application has been approved.
Editorial Board Members are responsible for academic decisions on manuscripts in their field of expertise, will edit Special Issues, and may be invited to review manuscripts. The initial term lasts for two years, after which it can be renewed, and entails the following:

• Prescreening and making decisions on new submissions related to your research interests;
• Setting up at least one Special Issue during your term on a topic related to your research interests (or supervising Special Issues related to your research field);
• Providing input or feedback regarding journal policies;
• Helping to promote the journal among your peers or at conferences;
• Attending Board meetings to suggest journal development strategies;
• Reviewing manuscripts.

Editorial Board Members are entitled to a full waiver on one publication per year in the journal that they serve and need to be experts in their fields.

The list of ESCI journals can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/about/journals/esci.

Please find the list of ESCI journals, categorized by subject, for which we are recruiting Editorial Board Members below.

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.

Scientists at Stanford University have recently published an update of the list of the top 2% most widely cited scientists—The World’s Top 2% Scientists.

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

We are pleased to share that 14 Editorial Board Members from MDPI’s Big Data and Cognitive Computing (ISSN: 2504-2289) were featured in the World’s Top 2% Scientists list in 2022.

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

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

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

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

We invite you to view the event recording:

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

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

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

You can find the Podcast here.

We hope you enjoy the contents!

We are excited to announce that the Big Data and Cognitive Computing journal (BDCC, ISSN: 2504-2289) will receive an Impact Factor in June 2023.

We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to all the authors, reviewers, and editors who contributed to this journal and helped to accomplish this achievement.

For more journal statistics, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/BDCC/stats.