Announcements

Applications for editor positions are now open for Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825). The positions and their responsibilities are as follows:

• Providing occasional feedback on the journal scope and performance;
• Making decisions or giving advice on regular submissions in your field;
• Editing a Special Issue on a topic related to your research, and making final decisions for submitted papers;
• Publishing one paper per year, free of charge, in the journal.

2. Guest Editor

• Shaping the topic and composing a short introduction (rationale) of the Special Issue for website announcements;
• Soliciting contributions or suggesting potential contributors;
• Pre-checking new submissions to ascertain the suitability for the Issue;
• Making decisions regarding whether to accept or reject a paper after peer review and author revision.

If you are interested in these editor positions, please send your full academic CV and a short cover letter that details your interest and enthusiasm for the position to kacey.wang@mdpi.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal on the science and technology of actuators and control systems published monthly online by MDPI. Because it is an open access journal, published papers receive high levels of publicity. Actuators is indexed by Scopus (CiteScore 3.0), SCIE (Web of Science. IF 1.994), Inspec, and many other databases.

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.

The Annual Conference for the Society of Chinese Mechanical Engineering Biomanufacturing Division and the International Symposium on Bio-Manufacturing (ACBD-ISBM2023) will be held from 17 to 19 March 2023, in Beijing, China. The conference is organized by the Society of Chinese Mechanical Engineering Biomanufacturing Division, Beihang University, and co-organized by Tsinghua University, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, and Southeast University.

Symposia：

• Biomanufacturing and Regenerative Medicine;
• Bio-Bionic Manufacturing and Planting/Interventional Devices;
• Biosensor and Flexible Electronics Manufacturing;
• Multi-Scale Biomimetic Manufacturing;
• Micromanipulation and Minimally Invasive Instruments.
• Biological Modeling and Bio-3D Printing;
• Tissue and Organ Chip;
• Innovative Medical Devices and Biomaterials.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Bioengineering;
• Life
• Actuators;
• Applied Sciences;
• Biomimetics;
• Inventions;
• ASI;
• Machines.

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

Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825) provides an advanced forum for the science and technology of actuators and control systems. It has been covered by leading indexing services, including the SCIE (Web of Science), Scopus, etc. The 2020 Impact Factor is 1.994. The aims and scope of the journal can be found at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/actuators/about .

The Actuators editorial team is pleased to announce this open call for Special Issue proposals, which offers a group of authors the opportunity to work on an interconnected set of papers on an innovative topic. We are soliciting high-quality proposals that will be evaluated in a continuous selection process throughout the year.

Proposals for a Special Issue should have a well-articulated unifying topic and reflect, on an international level, the best work in a particular research area (either an established or an important emerging area), in which future investigations may be propelled by the publication of a set of novel research papers. Hence, an international group of Guest Editors and a few high-quality planned papers are always encouraged when it comes to proposals.

Proposals for Special Issues should be sent to the Editorial Office (actuators@mdpi.com), or be sent via the website: https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/actuators.

Information to be provided in a proposal:

• A 200–400-word summary that clearly states the significance, novelty, technical advancement, and adherence to the scope of the journal of the proposed topic;
• 6–10 keywords on the topic;
• A brief resume of the proposed Guest Editors, together with their information (title, name, email, affiliation, personal website, keywords of interests);
• A proposed submission deadline (a Special Issue will usually be open for submissions for 6–8 months);
• A list of at least 20 potential contributors or a list of 8 planned papers.

As a Guest Editor, you would be responsible for:

• Inviting papers from your peers to be published in this Special Issue and taking advantage of the high publicity of the open access, rapid, high-quality peer-review process, and immediate publication after acceptance;
• Checking the suitability of abstracts/manuscripts submitted to the Special Issue;
• Making pre-check decisions regarding whether to send a new submission to peer review;
• Making final decisions regarding whether to accept or reject a paper based on peer-review outcomes.

As a Guest Editor, you would have the following privileges:

• A recognition certificate as a Guest Editor of Actuators;
• Publishing one paper free of charge in your Special Issue;
• Inviting high-quality papers to be published in your Special Issue free of charge or with certain discounts;
• If the Special Issue is successful, with at least eight accepted manuscripts after full peer review, we can make it into a printed book.

Editorial Office’s role:

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

Please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office (actuators@mdpi.com) if you are interested and would like further details and clarifications.

We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Actuators Editorial Office

We are pleased to announce that two excellent new scholars were recently appointed Editorial Board Members for the journal Actuators (ISSN: 2076-0825):

We wish them every success in both their research and the development of the journal.

The full list of our Editorial Board Members can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/actuators/editors.

Actuators (ISSN 2076-0825) provides a specialized forum for research on the science and technology of actuators and control systems. It publishes reviews (including comprehensive assessments of complete actuator products), research papers and short notes. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible.

As an Editorial Board Member, you would be responsible for the following:

• Reviewing or making decisions on manuscripts in your research area;
• Editing a Special Issue on a topic related to your research;
• Providing your opinion on journal operations;
• Suggesting Guest Editor candidates for Special Issues and topics;
• Promoting our journal when attending conferences or workshops.

Further details about our Editorial Board can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/actuators/editors.

If you are interested in this position or have potential candidates that you would like to recommend, please contact the Actuators Editorial Office at actuators@mdpi.com.