Announcements

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 journal Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395) is recruiting Reviewer Board Members. The main responsibility of the new members of the Reviewer Board is to regularly provide timely, high-quality reports on the submitted manuscripts. The responsibilities of the reviewers are available at https://www.mdpi.com/reviewers.

Agronomy is an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open access journal published monthly online by MDPI. The Spanish Society of Plant Physiology (SEFV) is affiliated with Agronomy, and their members receive a discount on the article processing charges. The Impact Factor of Agronomy recently increased to 3.417, and the journal was ranked 18/91 (Q1) in the "Agronomy" category. The aims and scope of the journal can be found here.

The benefits of joining the Reviewer Board of Agronomy are as follows:

• We will announce your entry information on the journal's reviewer board;
• We will offer you a discount code (up to CHF 100) if a comprehensive and timely report is provided. The voucher can be used for your future publications in all MDPI journals;
• You will receive a personalized reviewer certificate;
• You will have the ability to adjust your review frequency based on your schedule in our system;
• Reviewer Board Members may be presented with the possibility of joining the Editorial Board of the journal (subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief).

If you are interested in becoming a Reviewer Board Member (RBM) of Agronomy, please send your application, including a full academic CV, to the Agronomy Editorial Office (agronomy@mdpi.com).

For more information about Agronomy, please visit the website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy.

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

We are pleased to announce the Topic “Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition for Sustainable Agriculture” (https://www.mdpi.com/topics/Fertility_Nutrition_Agriculture).

This collection invites contributions on new agricultural practices that maintain or restore soil life and fertility; new methods and technologies for mineral and organic feeding and plant fertilization; new sources of, and processes for, providing healthy food without negative impacts on the soil; the use of cultivars that efficiently valorize soil resources; and the use of plant cover or crop associations. Contributions concerning biocontrol and soilborne disease are also welcome.

The relevant journals are Horticulturae, Plants, Agronomy, Agriculture, and Sustainability. The submission deadline is 31 December 2022. Contributions to the topic are welcome.

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

The 2020 citation metrics have been officially released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR)!

We are pleased to announce that 85 MDPI journals are included, of which:

• 10 journals received their first impact factor
• 96% of journals increased their impact factor from 2019
• 32 journals (38%) ranked among the top 25% of journals, in at least one category

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2021

Source: 2020 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ® (Clarivate, 2021)

Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395) is an international and cross-disciplinary scholarly journal on agronomy and agroecology published monthly online by MDPI. Agronomy is recruiting Editorial Board Members whose research interests are related to agronomy and agroecology. Please find more details at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy/sections.

We already have some highly renowned experts on our Editorial Board, and we are looking for more excellent scholars in this field to join us. If you are interested in this position or know of any potential candidates who you would like to recommend, please contact the Agronomy Editorial Office (agronomy@mdpi.com). We look forward to hearing from you.

The main responsibilities of Editorial Board Members are as follows: 

• Pre-screening submissions and making decisions on whether a manuscript should be accepted or rejected for processing, as well as suggesting additional reviewers if necessary;
• Acting as Guest Editor of a Special Issue in your particular field of expertise, or recommending potential topics and Guest Editors;
• Promoting Agronomy and increasing its visibility at related academic conferences;
• Advising on the journal’s development. 

Agronomy Editorial Office

We welcome the following 68 recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Agronomy:

Prof. Dr. Guang-Wei Ding, Northern State University, Aberdeen, SD, USA
Prof. Dr. Cherubino Leonardi, University of Catania, Unict, Italy
Dr. Ping An, Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, Japan
Dr. Xian Xue, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Dr. Catherine Picon-Cochard, French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRAE), Université Clermont Auvergne (UCA), France
Prof. Dr. Carmen Galan, University of Cordoba, Spain
Prof. Dr. Susana Redondo-Gómez, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
Dr. Sanja Cavar Zeljkovic, Crop Research Institute & Crop Research Institute, Šlechtitelů 29, 78371 Olomouc, Czech Republic , Czech Republic
Dr. Hamid Ashrafi, North Carolina State University, USA
Dr. Jiafa Luo, Land & Environment, AgResearch, Hamilton, New Zealand
Prof. Dr. Martin Gierus, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Austria
Dr. Agnes van den Pol-van Dasselaar, Aeres University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Dr. Rajko Vidrih, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Dr. Zengming Chen, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Dr. Maria Arlene Adviento-Borbe, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, USA
Prof. Dr. Shahjahan Khan, University of Southern Queensland, Australia
Prof. Pedro Palencia, Oviedo University, Spain
Dr. Massimiliano Probo, Grazing System - Animal Production Systems and Animal Health - Agroscope (CH), Switzerland
Dr. Baohua Zhang, Agricultural University, China
Dr. Frédéric Marsolais, London Research and Development Centre, Canada
Prof. Dr. Wei Zhang, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Prof. Dr. Murat Kacira, The University of Arizonadisabled, USA
Dr. Miguel-Ángel Muñoz-García, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Dr. Francesca Taranto, Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources (CNR-IBBR), Italy
Prof. Dr. Jesús Martín-Gil, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Dr. Francesca Valerio, Institute of Sciences of Food Production, Bari, Italy
Dr. Chenggen Chu, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Washington, DC, USA
Prof. Dr. C.B. Rajashekar, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66503, USA
Dr. Víctor Manuel Rodríguez, CSIC - Mision Biologica de Galicia, Pontevedra, Spain
Dr. Baskaran Stephen Inbaraj, Catholic University, Hsinchuang, Taiwan
Dr. Sanghamitra Majumdar, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Little Rock, AR, USA
Dr. Zalmen Henkin, Agricultural Research Organization of Israel, Bet Dagan, Israel
Dr. Zhigang Li, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA
Prof. Dr. Stephen J. Novak, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725, USA
Dr. Michael O'Donovan, Animal and Grassland Innovation Centre, Ireland
Prof. Dr. Helena Freitas, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Prof. Dr. Marjana Regvar, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Dr. José Luis Santiago Blanco, CSIC, Spain
Dr. Shuyu Liu, Texas A&M University/AgriLife Research, USA
Dr. Susana Pascual, Plant Protection Department Spanish National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), Spain
Prof. Dr. Pedro Talhinhas, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, Portugal
Dr. Xiangchao Gan, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany
Dr. Marta Francisco, Spanish National Research Council-Misión Biológica de Galicia, Spain
Dr. Arno Rosemarin, Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Dr. Eliseu José Guedes Pereira, Federal University of Viçosa, 36570-900 Viçosa, MG, Brazil
Dr. Maria Céu Lavado da Silva, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Oeiras, Portugal
Dr. Ivo Toševski, CABI, Switzerland
Dr. Sergio Molinari, Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, National Research Council of Italy (IPSP-CNR), Bari, Italy
Dr. Michel Lecoq, CIRAD, France
Dr. Robert Lascano, USDA ARS Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center, USA
Prof. Dr. Mario Cunha, University of Porto (FCUP), Portugal
Prof. Dr. Zhi Min Yang, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
Prof. Dr. Fabio Francesco Nocito, Università degli Studi du Milano, 20122 Milano, Italy
Dr. Rebekah Oliver, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA
Dr. Ricardo Bressan-Smith, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, Brazil

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

Agronomy Editorial Office

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Christos Athanassiou has been appointed as Section Editor-in-Chief of " Pest and Disease Management” in Agronomy.

We are also pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Pedro Javier Zapata has been appointed as Section Editor-in-Chief of "Agricultural Engineering" in Agronomy.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Christos Athanassiou and Prof. Dr. Pedro Javier Zapata in taking up their roles as Section Editors-in-Chief and look forward to them leading Agronomy to achieve many more milestones.