Announcements

International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), observed annually on 23 June, is a global initiative that celebrates the outstanding achievements of women in engineering while inspiring more young women to pursue engineering careers. Aligned with the 2026 theme, "Engineering Intelligence", and Goal 5 (Gender Equality) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), MDPI highlights the innovative contributions of women engineers who are shaping the future through creativity, collaboration, and technological advancement. Together, we can foster a more inclusive engineering landscape and empower the next generation of women in STEM.

Join us in celebrating International Women in Engineering Day and supporting initiatives that empower women in STEM. This webinar will showcase not only the technical contributions of women engineers, but also the personal journeys, challenges, and achievements that have shaped their careers and inspired others to pursue paths in engineering and innovation.

Session 1:
Keywords: women in engineering; female engineers; innovation; STEM
Date: 12:00 p.m. CEST | 6:00 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 856 2639 9832
Webinar page: https://sciforum.net/event/INWED2026-1?subscribe

Register now for free!

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email on how to join the webinar.

Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.

Unable to attend? Register anyway and we will let you know when the recording is available to view.

Webinar Keynote Speakers:

• Dr. Maria Konstantaki, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Greece;
• Dr. Gabriella Gaias, Politecnico di Milano, Italy;
• Dr. Sara Casaccia, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy;
• Dr. Marilena De Simone, University of Calabria, Italy.

Session 2:
Keywords: women in engineering; female engineers; innovation; STEM
Date: 4:00 p.m. CEST | 10:00 a.m. EDT| 10:00 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 833 7384 9123
Webinar page: https://sciforum.net/event/INWED2026-2

Register now for free!

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email on how to join the webinar. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.

Unable to attend? Register anyway and we will let you know when the recording is available to view.

Webinar Keynote Speakers:

• Dr. Najmeh Bazmohammadi, Aalborg University, Denmark;
• Prof. Dr. Kristen Fichthorn, Pennsylvania State University, USA;
• Dr. Encarna Micó-Amigo, Heriot-Watt University, UK;
• Prof. Dr. Yuliya Semenova, Technological University Dublin, Ireland;
• Prof. Dr. Sabina Merlo, University of Pavia, Italy.

International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), led by the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and observed annually on 23 June, is a global initiative that celebrates the outstanding achievements of women in engineering while inspiring more young women to pursue engineering careers. Under the 2026 theme “Engineering Intelligence”, INWED celebrates its 13th anniversary, highlighting the expertise, creativity, and leadership that women bring to the engineering profession.

Echoing this mission, MDPI’s established engineering journals serve as platforms for scientific communication. Through webinars, award, Special Issues, and research articles, MDPI aims to celebrate the achievements of women engineers, inspire future generations, and help shape a more inclusive future for engineering worldwide.

We are pleased to announce that the 2nd edition of the Young Women in Engineering Award is now open for nominations. This award was established to recognize the achievements of young women researchers in the field of engineering and to inspire more young women to pursue research and careers in engineering.

Nomination deadline: 30 November 2026.

Prize:

• CHF 1000;
• An electronic certificate;
• A voucher to waive the article processing charges (APCs) for one submission to a journal within the field of engineering (subject to peer review)—valid for one year.

Number of winners: 4.

For more details about the award, please visit here. Please feel free to send the nomination letter to ywe-award@mdpi.com.

We are honored to interview several outstanding female scholars in engineering field to share their research journey and your insight into being a female engineer.

	Name: Dr. Miriam Filippi Affiliation: Soft Robotics Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Winner of the inaugural Young Women in Engineering Award “The most transformative research often comes from integrating perspectives across fields and pushing beyond conventional boundaries.”   Please read the full interview here.
	Name: Prof. Dr. Yang Gao Affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China “I tell my students: use AI and automation aggressively but never outsource your reasoning or your conscience.”   Please read the full interview here.
	Name: Dr. Maria Graça Rasteiro Affiliation: CERES, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal “It is important to always analyse the potential negative consequences of relying on AI for engineering decisions.”   Please read the full interview here.

“Design and Analysis of a Compact Self-Tuning High-Voltage Controller for MFC”
by Qiong Zhu, Qiang Zhang, Hongli Ji and Jinhao Qiu
Actuators 2026, 15(3), 169; https://doi.org/10.3390/act15030169

“Nervous System-on-Chip: Innovative Microfluidic Platform to Compartmentalize hiPSC-Derived Neural Networks”
by Rahman Sabahi-Kaviani, Antigoni Gogolou, Celine Souilhol, Mark van der Kroeg, Steven A. Kushner, Femke M. S. de Vrij, Anestis Tsakiridis and Regina Luttge
Micromachines 2026, 17(2), 199; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi17020199

“Maximizing Efficiency in a Retrofitted Battery-Powered Material Handler by Novel Control Strategies”
by Marco Ferrari, Daniele Beltrami, Vinay Partap Singh, Tatiana Minav and Stefano Uberti
Actuators 2025, 14(11), 553; https://doi.org/10.3390/act14110553

“An Internet of Things Approach to Vision-Based Livestock Monitoring: PTZ Cameras for Dairy Cow Identification”
by Niken Prasasti Martono, Ryota Tsukamoto and Hayato Ohwada
Telecom 2025, 6(4), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/telecom6040082

“Mechanisms and Control Strategies for Morphing Structures in Quadrotors: A Review and Future Prospects”
by Osman Acar, Eija Honkavaara, Ruxandra Mihaela Botez and Deniz Çınar Bayburt
Drones 2025, 9(9), 663; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9090663

“Optimizing Local Explainability in Robotic Grasp Failure Prediction”
by Cagla Acun, Ali Ashary, Dan O. Popa and Olfa Nasraoui
Electronics 2025, 14(12), 2363; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14122363

“AI-Enabled IoT for Food Computing: Challenges, Opportunities, and Future Directions”
by Zohra Dakhia, Mariateresa Russo and Massimo Merenda
Sensors 2025, 25(7), 2147; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25072147

“A Review of Time-Series Forecasting Algorithms for Industrial Manufacturing Systems”
by Syeda Sitara Wishal Fatima and Afshin Rahimi
Machines 2024, 12(6), 380; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines12060380

Special Issues:

“Medical Imaging: Artificial Intelligence, Image Recognition, and Machine Learning Techniques (2nd Edition)” Guest Editor: Dr. Ines Domingues Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026	“AI-Driven Intelligent Maintenance and Health Management for Complex Industrial Systems” Guest Editors: Prof. Dr. Dandan Peng, Dr. Xiaoxi Hu, Dr. Jipu Li and Prof. Dr. Chuanjiang Li Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2026
“Vehicle Systems and Road Infrastructure Integration for Smarter Transportation Systems” Guest Editors: Prof. Dr. Anna Granà, Prof. Dr. Elżbieta Macioszek and Dr. Maria Luisa Tumminello Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026	“Intelligent Automation: Bridging Artificial Intelligence and Automation” Guest Editors: Prof. Dr. João Miguel da Costa Sousa and Dr. Susana Vieira Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026
“Large Language Models for Intelligent Urban Digital Twins: Spatiotemporal Reasoning, Knowledge Graphs, and Simulation” Guest Editors: Dr. Xi Kuai, Prof. Dr. Biao He, Dr. Minmin Li and Dr. Haojia Lin Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2027	“Actuators and Robotic Devices for Rehabilitation and Assistance—2nd Edition” Guest Editors: Dr. Monica Tiboni, Dr. Monica Malvezzi and Dr. Maria Cristina Valigi Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2027

“A Machine Learning Framework for Crop Productivity Classification and Risk Assessment”
by João Pedro de Moraes Xavier, Kelyn Schenatto, Glauco Vieira Miranda, Claudio Leones Bazzi, Ricardo Sobjak and Marlon Rodrigues
AgriEngineering 2026, 8(6), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering8060203

“Mechanical Modeling of Grape Destemming in a Horizontal Centrifugal Destemmer”
by Piernicola Masella, Agnese Spadi, Ferdinando Corti, Alessandro Parenti and Giulia Angeloni
AgriEngineering 2026, 8(3), 94; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering8030094

“An Automated Modular Platform for Vascular Graft Assessment via Coronary-like Flow-Induced Stimulation”
by Elia Pederzani, Lucrezia Moro, Alessia Sofia Bolandrina, Sara Rega, Gianluca Lorenzo Perrucci, Gianfranco Beniamino Fiore and Monica Soncini
Bioengineering 2026, 13(2), 221; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering13020221

“Biomechanical Monitoring of Exercise Fatigue Using Wearable Devices: A Review”
by Yang Chen, Siqi Li, Jian Kuang, Xu Zhang, Zhijie Zhou, En-Jing Li, Xiaoli Chen and Xianmei Meng
Bioengineering 2026, 13(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering13010013

“Applying Machine Learning Algorithms to Classify Digitized Special Nuclear Material Obtained from Scintillation Detectors”
by Sai Kiran Kokkiligadda, Cathleen Barker, Emily Gunger, Jalen Johnson, Brice Turner and Andreas Enqvist
J. Nucl. Eng. 2025, 6(3), 31; https://doi.org/10.3390/jne6030031

“Reliability Analysis of Interface Oxidation for Thermal Barrier Coating Based on Proxy Model”
by Juan Ma, Anyi Wang, Philipp Junker, Anas W. Alshawawreh, Qingya Li, Haoqi Xu and Runzhuo Xue
Modelling 2025, 6(3), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/modelling6030061

“Classification of Metallic Powder Morphology Using Traditional and Automated Static Image Analysis: A Comparative Study”
by Cindy Charbonneau, Fabrice Bernier, Étienne Perrault, Roger Pelletier and Louis-Philippe Lefebvre
Powders 2025, 4(2), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/powders4020015

“Advancing Brain Tumor Analysis: Current Trends, Key Challenges, and Perspectives in Deep Learning-Based Brain MRI Tumor Diagnosis”
By Namya Musthafa, Qurban A. Memon and Mohammad M. Masud
Eng 2025, 6(5), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/eng6050082

Special Issues:

We are pleased to announce that the 2nd Young Women in Engineering Award is open for nominations. This award was established to acknowledge the achievements of young women investigators in the field of engineering and to inspire young women to consider research and careers in engineering. All the nominations will be assessed by an Award Evaluation Committee, and winners will be announced online on 8 March 2027.

For each area, the committee will select one winner for the award. The four areas are as follows:

• Electrical and Electronic Engineering;
• Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering;
• Civil and Architectural Engineering;
• Biomedical Engineering.

Prize:

• CHF 1000;
• An electronic certificate;
• A voucher to waive the article processing charges (APCs) for one submission to a journal within the field of engineering (subject to peer review)—valid for one year.

Number of winners: 4.

Eligibility and requirements:

• This award is designated for female candidates;
• Must have received their PhD on or after 1 January 2017 (i.e., within 10 years before 31 December 2026);
• Must have produced groundbreaking research and made a significant contribution to the advancement of engineering;
• Must be nominated by senior scientists.

List of documents for nomination:

• Detailed curriculum vitae, including an updated publication list and a list of the researcher’s own research grants;
• Scanned copy of doctorate certificate;
• Signed nomination letters from two established senior scientists.

Schedule:
Nomination deadline: 30 November 2026;
Winner announcement: 8 March 2027.

Nomination and contact:
Please fill in the online form to register the nomination information, and submit all the nomination materials via our official email: ywe-award@mdpi.com.

Online nomination form: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/Cc4ppJrENa.

In the email subject, please specify the primary engineering area under which you wish the candidate to be evaluated. (Example: Young Women in Engineering Award Nomination- Electrical and Electronic Engineering- Nominee's Name).

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to receiving your nominations.

Young Women in Engineering Award Team

International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), brought to the global engineering community by the Women's Engineering Society (WES), will be celebrated on 23 June 2026. This year, under the theme #EngineeringIntelligence, we are sincerely honored to interview the Editorial Board Member of Aerospace (ISSN: 2226-4310), Prof. Dr. Yang Gao.

1. Could you share the story of your journey into engineering?

My journey began not with a single spark but with a persistent curiosity about how machines could perceive and act in environments too dangerous for humans. I earned my B.Eng. (First Class Honors) and PhD from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where I discovered my passion for intelligent robotic systems. After receiving the Singapore Millennium Fellowship on intelligent and autonomous vehicles, I moved to the UK in 2004. That began an over 20-year chapter as a space roboticist during which I founded and led the Space Technology for Autonomous & Robotic systems Laboratory (STAR‑LAB) first at the University of Surrey, and later became Professor of Robotics, heading the Centre for Robotics Research at King’s College London. In mid-2025, I joined HKUST and started to lead the first Hong Kong lunar surface rover project and industry-funded orbital robotic arm project. What drove me through was the desire to solve real, extreme-environment problems, from formation flying satellites to planetary rovers, using engineering intelligence. I never saw robotics as just hardware and code; I saw it as enabling humans to reach beyond our physical limits.

2. Who or what has been the most important source of support, mentorship, or inspiration in your engineering journey?

My family has been a constant pillar of support, especially by never suggesting that engineering was not for me. Professionally, I was fortunate to work alongside dedicated colleagues and students who shared a passion for space robotics. Over the years, I have also drawn inspiration from the resilience of the teams I led on major missions like ESA ExoMars, Proba3, and CNSA Chang’E‑3 and ‑8. Beyond individuals, I am inspired by the purpose of our work—knowing that a perception algorithm we develop might help a spacecraft safely navigate on the lunar south pole. That sense of responsibility, shared across my research groups in Surrey, London, and now Hong Kong, has been my most consistent motivation.

3. The INWED 2026 theme is #EngineeringIntelligence. What does “Engineering Intelligence” mean to you in the context of your own work?

To me, #EngineeringIntelligence is not just about AI or optimization—it is the synergy between robust sensing, reconfigurable autonomy, and bio-inspired design. In my own work on visual GNC (guidance, navigation and control) for space missions, intelligence means a system that can create accurate 3D maps in real time with low computational power, reason about its own hardware and software state, and make safe decisions, such as guiding a spacecraft to fly in formation or a rover to navigate challenging extra-terrestrial terrains, without waiting for Earth commands. It also means learning from nature, as with our “wasp drill” (Dual Reciprocating Drilling technology) for low‑gravity environments. Engineering intelligence is resilience embedded in hardware and algorithms, designed for extreme environments where few second chances exist.

4. As AI, data-driven tools, automation, and digital technologies become more visible in engineering, what human qualities remain essential for responsible engineering?

Despite rapid advances, human qualities remain irreplaceable:

• Ethical accountability: An AI optimizes a metric; an engineer decides which metric matters for safety;
• Physical intuition: In space or nuclear environments, data is sparse and often misleading. An engineer’s deep understanding of physics catches what a neural network might miss;
• Responsible risk-taking: Knowing when to trust an autonomous system—and when to override it—requires human judgment;
• Empathy for end-users: Designing for astronauts, mission controllers, or nuclear decommissioning teams means understanding their constraints and fears;

I tell my students: use AI and automation aggressively but never outsource your reasoning or your conscience.

5. Could you share one project, discovery, design, publication, or collaboration that best demonstrates intelligent engineering in action?

One example I am particularly proud of is our Dual Reciprocating Drilling (DRD) technology, also known as the “wasp drill.” Inspired by how a wasp’s ovipositor drills into wood, we developed a low‑mass, energy‑efficient drilling mechanism that allows deep sampling in low‑gravity environments with flexible deployment. It won the COSPAR Outstanding Paper Award in 2016 and was a finalist for the IEEE/ASME AIM Best Paper Award in 2019. The knowledge accumulated through this technological development has been applied in ESA’s Lunar Polar Sample Return mission as well as transferred to the utility sector on Earth for trenchless deployment of fiber cables. To me, this is engineering intelligence at its best: a bio‑inspired solution that solves a hard constraint (low mass, low power, uncertain terrain) through clever mechanical design and autonomous control—not brute force.

6. What distinctive strengths do female engineers bring to academic research, and what strategies would you recommend for leveraging these advantages in career development?

From my experience leading large research centers and mentoring UN’s Space4Women program, female engineers often bring systematic risk assessment, inclusive leadership, and a tendency to ask “what could go wrong?” early and thoroughly—which is essential in safety‑critical fields like space robotics. Strategies I recommend:

• Own your risk‑awareness as a technical strength. Put it front and center in design reviews and funding proposals;
• Build peer networks across institutions—women are still under‑represented in some technical committees. Create your own “shadow” board of trusted reviewers;
• Seek mentorship from multiple sources—including male colleagues. My own career benefited from support across genders and institutions.

7. What concrete actions could academic publishers like MDPI take to better support and amplify the work of women in STEM fields?

Publishers have significant leverage. As an Editor-in-Chief of a major journal myself, I recommend:

• Double‑blind peer review as a default—reduces unconscious bias, especially for early‑career female authors;
• Actively recruit women into editorial boards as decision‑makers, not tokens. Track and publish gender representation data transparently;
• Celebrate technical excellence in newsletters and social media—focus on the science, not the gender. Feature female‑led research prominently but on merit;
• Provide flexible review deadlines and childcare grants for major conference‑journal collaborations—many female researchers carry disproportionate care responsibilities;
• Invite women to write editorials, perspective pieces, and reviews not just as authors but as thought leaders shaping the journal’s direction;
• Ensure diverse speaker line‑ups at publisher‑sponsored webinars and events.

Impact Factors measure how often articles in scientific journals are cited—specifically, the average number of citations received in a given year by articles published in that journal over the previous two years, as tracked in the Web of Science. For researchers, the number answers a practical question: how often is work published in this journal being picked up and built upon?

The metric is assigned to the journal as a whole, not to individual articles. A high Impact Factor tells you something useful about a journal's place in its field; it tells you less about any single paper within it.

For a complementary, article-level view, MDPI lists an Altmetric score on each article page. Where the Impact Factor tracks academic citations, the Altmetric score captures broader online attention: how an article is being shared, discussed, and referenced beyond the journal literature. Together, they offer two different ways of asking the same question: is this research reaching people?

With 2025 CiteScores from Scopus published a few weeks ago, Clarivate has now released this year's Journal Impact Factors in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR).

254 MDPI Journals Saw a Rise in Impact Factor

This year's JCR include 330 MDPI journals across a wide range of disciplines. Of these, 231 journals are placed in the top 50% (Q1 or Q2) of their respective subject categories, a result that spans fields as different as materials science, public health, environmental studies, and mathematics. 78 journals hold a top-quartile position (Q1), and 33 journals have a JIF of 5.0 or above.

• 330 journals earned a Journal Impact Factor (JIF)
• 29 journals earned a first JIF
• 254 journals had an increase in JIF
• 71% of ranked journals are in Q1 or Q2

For the full metrics on any MDPI journal, visit our Web of Science journals overview page or a journal's individual statistics page.

29 MDPI Journals Received Their First Journal Impact Factor

A first Impact Factor is a confirmation for an emerging journal. It marks the point at which a journal has been publishing long enough, and cited broadly enough, to enter the formal record of scientific influence. For the research communities those journals serve, it signals that the work being published is being read and built upon.

This year, 29 MDPI journals received a Journal Impact Factor for the first time, across a range of emerging and established research areas. Each represents years of editorial development and peer review—recognized in 2026 for the first time in the JCR.

This is also part of a longer shift in how science gets indexed. When the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) launched in 2016, 24 MDPI journals were included. By 2024 that number had grown to over 200, reflecting a broader change in the visibility of open access publishing within major citation tracking systems, not just at MDPI but across the sector.

Open Access with Impact

MDPI journals have received a total of 25.2 million citations in Web of Science. That figure matters less as a measure of MDPI's reach and more as a measure of what happens when research is freely available: it gets found, read, and used. Open access is only meaningful if the work actually travels and citations are one indicator that it does.

More than 4.6 million authors have published with MDPI. That breadth, across disciplines, institutions, and geographies, is what makes open access at this scale worth doing.

Thank You to the MDPI Scholarly Community

These results belong to the people who do the actual work: the Editors-in-Chief who set the standards, the Editorial Board Members and reviewers who hold them, and the authors who choose open access for their research. The numbers in the Journal Citation Reports are the downstream effect of decisions made at the desk, in the review, and at submission. Thank you for making them.

Data: 2025 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports™ (Clarivate, 2026)

MDPI is pleased to announce our participation in the 12th European Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (EWSHM 2026), held from 7 to 10 July in Toulouse, France.

The EWSHM is the main European event dedicated to structural health monitoring (SHM), a key technology for infrastructure maintenance and integrity monitoring. This unmissable event attracts world-renowned experts from the academic and industrial sectors, as well as from research laboratories around the world, to discuss innovations and applications in this constantly evolving field.

The workshop covers a wide spectrum of key areas in Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), including damage detectability under environmental and operational variability, fiber-optic sensing solutions, digital–physical convergence, and smart damage detection across distinct structural systems. Attendees will also have the opportunity to explore advanced industrial applications, next-generation maintenance strategies, and transformative case studies—such as connected infrastructure and aerospace management—that are shaping the future of asset integrity.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Sensors;
• Applied Mechanics;
• Applied Sciences;
• Acoustics;
• Vibration;
• NDT;
• Aerospace;
• Infrastructures;
• Construction Materials;
• Buildings;
• JETA;
• CivilEng;
• Automation;
• AI Sensors.

If you plan on attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth and have 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 event, please visit the following link: https://ewshm2026.com/.

The 2025 CiteScore metrics have been officially released by Scopus, and the results confirm what has become a consistent pattern for MDPI's journal portfolio: broad recognition across disciplines, steady improvement across the majority of ranked titles, and a growing presence at the top of subject category rankings.

CiteScore, published annually by Elsevier's Scopus database, measures the average citations received by articles published in a journal over a four-year window. As a complement to the Journal Impact Factor, which uses a two-year window based on the Web of Science database, CiteScore provides an alternative, long-term perspective on citation performance.

The 365 MDPI journals in Scopus (as of May 2026) are indexed across a wide range of subject categories, ensuring that open access research remains highly discoverable to a global readership through one of the most widely used platforms in academic publishing.

Data Summary (2025 CiteScores)

• New Additions: 41 MDPI journals received a CiteScore for the first time.
• Trending Upward: 234 of 322 previously ranked journals (73%) saw an increase in their CiteScore compared to last year.
• High Visibility: 314 journals (86%) rank in Q1 or Q2 in at least one subject category.
• Elite Performance: 42 journals rank in the top 10% of their subject categories.

Portfolio Performance

Among the 322 journals that held a CiteScore in 2024, 234 saw an increase this year. Quartile improvements outnumbered declines across the portfolio, with 52 journals moving to a higher quartile and only 20 seeing a decline. Furthermore, no previously ranked journals were removed. The 42 journals now ranked in the top 10% of their subject categories are drawn from a strong foundation of 178 journals holding a Q1 position.

With the large majority of our indexed portfolio ranked in the top half of research fields, researchers can confidently choose MDPI to meet funder mandates for high-quality, fully compliant Open Access publishing.

Exceptional Achievements for Foods and Life

Notably, both Foods and Life achieved a 99th percentile ranking in their respective subject categories for the 2025 CiteScores. This outstanding placement positions them as leading journals in their fields and highlights the high visibility and global impact of the open access research they publish.

Journal Metrics and Beyond

Journal-level metrics describe outlets, not individual articles. An increasing number of funders and institutions—including signatories of DORA and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment—now explicitly encourage evaluation at the article level rather than by the journal in which research appears. MDPI supports this direction: we report CiteScore alongside the Journal Impact Factor, Journal Citation Indicator, and article-level usage data because no single number captures the full reach and contribution of published research.

Thank You

These results reflect the sustained effort of thousands of editors-in-chief, editorial board members, reviewers, and authors across every field MDPI serves. The metrics are the outcome; the work is yours.

We are thrilled to share the Exceptional Reviewers List for 2026. This program was designed to recognize and honor scholars who have delivered consistently exceptional review reports for our journal. Committed to fostering rigorous research and promoting knowledge exchange, Aerospace (ISSN: 2226-4310) recognizes the significant role that our reviewers play in maintaining the quality and integrity of the articles we publish.

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all the reviewers who have generously volunteered their time and expertise to assist in Aerospace’s peer-review process. Their dedication and attention to detail in evaluating manuscripts, offering valuable feedback, and contributing to academic rigor are truly commendable.

The Exceptional Reviewers List was introduced in September 2024. Each quarter, we will be selecting a group of outstanding reviewers and will introduce them here.

Q1:

Name: Prof. Dr. Alan Smith
Affiliation: Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
“As a reviewer for Aerospace I have seen some excellent papers on diverse topics. My inputs have always been responded to and so I feel they have been of value and that I've made a useful contribution.”

Name: Dr. Maurizio Arena
Affiliation: Engineering and Innovation Technology, Magnaghi Aerospace of MA Group Company, Via Galileo Ferraris 76, 80146 Napoli, NA, Italy

Name: Dr. Pei Zhu
Affiliation: College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China

Name: Dr. Giulio Campiti
Affiliation: Optoelectronics Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Information Engineering (DEI), Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Italy

Name: Prof. Dr. Yves Gourinat
Affiliation: Department of Mechanics, Structures and Materials, ISAE-SUPAERO, l’Institut supérieur de l’aéronautique et de l’espace, Toulouse, France

MDPI will attend the ICAST 2026, which will take place in Hongkong, from 1 to 3 June 2026.

Smart and adaptive structures have attracted growing attention from both academia and industry due to their transformative potential across engineering, materials science, and intelligent systems. As a long-standing and internationally recognized conference series, ICAST continues to bring together researchers, engineers, and innovators advancing the frontiers of adaptive structures, smart materials, vibration control, energy harvesting, and related technologies. Building on over three decades of successful conferences held across North America, Asia, and Europe, the 35th International Conference on Adaptive Structures and Technologies (ICAST 2026), hosted by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, offers a valuable platform for interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration. Held in the dynamic and innovation-driven city of Hong Kong, the conference provides participants with the opportunity to engage with leading experts and explore the latest developments shaping the future of smart and sustainable technologies.

The following MDPI journals will be represented at the conference:

• Applied Sciences;
• Micromachines;
• Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Analyses (JETA);
• Aerospace;
• Wind;
• Acoustics;
• Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications (JLPEA).

If you are planning on attending this conference, please do not hesitate to stop by our booth 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://icast2026.hkust.edu.hk/.