Announcements

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Agronomy 2019–2020 Best Cover Awards. In total, 24 cover stories published from 2019 to 2020 in Agronomy were considered for these awards.

The winners are as follows:

• Agronomy, Volume 9, Issue 8 (August 2019)“Pursuing the Potential of Heirloom Cultivars to Improve Adaptation, Nutritional, and Culinary Features of Food Crops”
  (doi: 10.3390/agronomy9080441)

• Agronomy, Volume 10, Issue 7 (July 2020)
  “Improving the Red Color and Fruit Quality of ‘Kent’ Mango Fruit by Pruning and Preharvest Spraying of Prohydrojasmon or Abscisic Acid”
  (doi: 10.3390/agronomy10070944)

The winners of the “Agronomy 2019–2020 Best Cover Awards”, in no particular order, will receive 100 CHF each.

Congratulations to the winners for their excellent research!

Agronomy Editorial Office

It is our great pleasure to announce that Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395) has received an increased CiteScore (2020 Scopus data) of 2.6 for the year 2020, which equals the rank of 119/347 (Q2) in "Agronomy and Crop Science"

We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to all the authors, reviewers, and editors who have contributed to the journal and enabled this achievement!

Agronomy Editorial Office

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.

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 you would like to recommend, please contact the Agronomy Editorial Office (agronomy@mdpi.com). 

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. 

We look forward to hearing from you.
Agronomy Editorial Office

We welcome the following 40 recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Agronomy:

Dr. Javier Terol, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias IVIA, Valencia, Spain
Prof. Dr. Xiangnan Li, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Dr. Junhua Peng, Hunan Agricultural University, China
Prof. Jianlong Li, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Dr. Chiara Corbari, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Dr. Daozhi Gong, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
Prof. Dr. Siegrid Steinkellner, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Austria
Dr. J. Antonio Cortinas Rguez, University of Vigo, 32002 Ourense, Spain
Dr. Massimo Zaccardelli, CREA Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Italy
Dr. Francesc Xavier Prenafeta Boldú, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), Spain
Dr. Yang Zhu, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Dr. Jörg Schaller, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Germany
Prof. Dr. Linchuan Fang, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Prof. Dr. Luis Hernández-Callejo, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
Dr. Rose Brodrick, CSIRO Agriculture and Food , Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Dr. Jorge Ferreira, US Salinity Laboratory, USA
Dr. Guillem Pérez-Jordà, University of Valencia, Spain
Dr. Niels P. Louwaars, Wageningen University and Plantum, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Dr. Marie France Corio-Costet, Department of Plant Health and Environment, French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), France
Prof. Michael Heinrich, UCL School of Pharmacy, UK
Dr. Carla Gentile, University of Palermo | UNIPA, Palermo, Italy
Prof. Dr. Cinzia Margherita Bertea, University of Torino, Italy
Dr. Aiming Qi, University of Hertfordshire, UK
Dr. Jorge Paz-Ferreiro, RMIT University, Australia
Dr. Longjiang Fan, Zhejiang University, China
Dr. Koki Toyota, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan
Dr. Jie Zhao, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Dr. Danilo Scordia, University of Catania, Italy
Prof. Dr. Gniewko Niedbała, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland
Dr. Ivan Francisco Garcia Tejero, Andalusian Institute of Teaching and Agricultural Researcher (IFAPA), Spain
Assoc. Prof. Magdalena Sobocińska, Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland
Prof. Dr. Rosa Maria Fanelli, University of Molise, Italy
Prof. Dr. Piotr Prus, UTP University of Science and Technology in Bydgoszcz, Poland
Dr. Antonia María Rojano-Delgado, University Cordoba, 14014 Cordoba, Spain
Dr. Marco Medici, Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
Dr. Andrea Liliana Clavijo McCormick, Massey University, New Zealand
Dr. Gianluca Allegro, University of Bologna, Italy
Dr. Xiangjun Zou, South China Agricultural University, China
Prof. Dr. Witold Grzebisz, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland
Prof. Dr. Francis Drummond, University of Maine, USA

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

The editorial team would like to congratulate the winners of the Agronomy 10th Anniversary Best Paper Award, who were chosen by a Selection Committee chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Peter Langridge. Following a review process by the Evaluation Committee, six winners were selected. The winners of the “Agronomy 10th Anniversary Best Paper Award” are as follows:

Article:

The First Award: (800 CHF + a certificate)

Long-Term Effects of Biochar-Based Organic Amendments on Soil Microbial Parameters
Martin Brtnicky, Tereza Dokulilova, Jiri Holatko, Vaclav Pecina, Antonin Kintl, Oldrich Latal, Tomas Vyhnanek, Jitka Prichystalova and Rahul Datta
Agronomy 2019, 9(11), 747; doi:10.3390/agronomy9110747
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/9/11/747
“It was a very pleasant experience to publish the present work with the cooperation of Agronomy. I appreciate being able to work with a high-quality professional team at Agronomy, who rapidly moved us through the review and proof correction process. I hope more and more influential articles will be published in Agronomy in the future.”

The Second Award: (600 CHF + a certificate)

Effect of Gibberellic Acid on Growth, Yield, and Quality of Leaf Lettuce and Rocket Grown in a Floating System
Alessandro Miceli, Alessandra Moncada, Leo Sabatino and Filippo Vetrano
Agronomy 2019, 9(7), 382; doi:10.3390/agronomy9070382
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/9/7/382
“I’m very honored to accept The Second Award of Agronomy 10th Anniversary Best Paper Awards.  I accept this award on behalf of the co-authors who helped in preparing the paper. I would like to thank the colleagues of SAAF department of the University of Palermo who supported the efforts for developing this research, the Editors and the reviewers of Agronomy for their suggestions that helped to improve the article, all the readers of Agronomy who have spent their time in reading this article and, of course, my family.”

The Third Award: (300 CHF + a certificate)

Biomass Prediction of Heterogeneous Temperate Grasslands Using an SfM Approach Based on UAV Imaging
Esther Grüner, Thomas Astor and Michael Wachendorf
Agronomy 2019, 9(2), 54; doi:10.3390/agronomy9020054
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/9/2/54

“Thank you very much for selecting our paper for the „The Third Award of Agronomy 10th Anniversary Best Paper Awards“. I feel very honored and would also like to thank those who have supported my collegues and me to achieve this goal. It means a lot to us that the innovative topic of remote sensing is becoming increasingly important in agriculture and that we have been able to make our contribution.”

Review:

The First Award: (800 CHF + a certificate)

Plant Biostimulants: Importance of the Quality and Yield of Horticultural Crops and the Improvement of Plant Tolerance to Abiotic Stress—A Review
Magdalena Drobek, Magdalena Frąc and Justyna Cybulska
Agronomy 2019, 9(6), 335; doi:10.3390/agronomy9060335
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/9/6/335
“It is a big honor to obtain such eminent distinction. We are very grateful to Agronomy Editorial Office for selection our review article from between other excellent publications. I believe that our work will make a contribution to the broad recognizability of Agronomy journal. We also hope that our review about the influence of biostimulants on the quality of fruit and vegetables will help in spreading knowledge about scientific evidences of advantageous features of such agents and application of biostimulants will becoming popular between fruit and vegetable planters.”

The Second Award: (600 CHF + a certificate)

Increasing Sustainability of Growing Media Constituents and Stand-Alone Substrates in Soilless Culture Systems
Nazim S. Gruda
Agronomy 2019, 9(6), 298; doi:10.3390/agronomy9060298
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/9/6/298
"This award is a recognition for soilless culture and shows us how vital such systems in today horticulture are. Soilless culture is the key component of more intensive yet sustainable agriculture. We need research in crucial areas such as precision cultivation of high-quality products, and novel, environmental-friendly and climate-smart growing media to realise its potential. The interaction with well-qualified, independent reviewers within the fast track of the journal is appreciated. Hopefully, more papers on this topic will be published in Agronomy in the future."

The Third Award: (300 CHF + a certificate)

Microalgal Biostimulants and Biofertilisers in Crop Productions
Domenico Ronga, Elisa Biazzi, Katia Parati, Domenico Carminati, Elio Carminati and Aldo Tava
Agronomy 2019, 9(4), 192; doi:10.3390/agronomy9040192
Available Online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/9/4/192
“I am extremely honoured to be receiving this important award ‘The Third Award of Agronomy 10th Anniversary Best Paper Awards’. I am earnestly grateful for the recognition I have received for my work, regarding the valorisation and the use of microalgae as biostimulants and biofertilisers in crop productions.”

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the Agronomy 10th Anniversary Best Paper Award. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for their continued support of Agronomy.

Editor-in-Chief,
Prof. Dr. Peter Langridge, Agronomy

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)

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Agronomy 10th Anniversary Outstanding Reviewer Award. The Agronomy Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by reviewers in checking the manuscripts submitted to Agronomy. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround are maintained.

“I greatly appreciate your decision to grant me with your prestigious award of “Agronomy 10th Anniversary Outstanding Reviewer Award”. It is a great pleasure to review manuscripts for the journal of Agronomy (MDPI). I will do my best to review manuscripts for Agronomy in the future too. I also hope that my work as a reviewer will increase further the scientific value of Agronomy.”

“I am especially appreciative and pleased to have been selected to receive the “Agronomy 10th Anniversary Outstanding Reviewer Award”. It is an honor for me that my work in reviewing has been recognized in this way by the Agronomy Award Committee, and I promise that I will continue my efforts.”

“I want to thank you for giving me the award as a reviewer of Agronomy on the 10^th anniversary of this journal. It is an important distinction and a great honor for me considering the high renown Agronomy has. I am glad, that my work as a reviewer caused the increase of published papers quality and could be an indication for young scientist preparing and submitting manuscripts to the Agronomy. I suppose these aspects gained recognition among participants of Award Committee. At the end, I would like to wish you many valuable and interesting papers and keeping the high rank of Agronomy in the future, as well as health and further success for whole Redactors team in the 2021.”

“When I first joined the Reviewer Board of Agronomy back in March 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus (or COVID-19 as it is widely known) had already landed on the shores of the US and we were all puzzled and rather worried to a certain extent, based on the news from Europe and elsewhere, for the development and advancement of the disease in the society. Despite the overall unrest and challenges of everyday life since then, I was fortunate to receive invitations for reviewing manuscripts for the Agronomy and other MDPI journals that enabled me to stay focused and positive, whilst expanding my knowledge in the broader area of crop improvement and agriculture, in general. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the journal Award Committee for this unanticipated recognition, as well as the editors that I communicated with the past few months. I hope that 2021 will be a better year for all of us. Until then, stay safe and stay healthy!”

The above awardees have been selected by the Editor-in-Chief of Agronomy, Prof. Dr. Peter Langridge. Each of them will receive 500 CHF, an offer to publish a paper free of charge in Agronomy before 31 June 2021, and a certificate to recognize their outstanding work.

Kind regards,
Prof. Dr. Peter Langridge
Editor-in-Chief, Agronomy

To expand our contribution and impact on the fields of agronomy and agroecology, we are recruiting scientists to join our Editorial Board. We encourage applications from researchers with a background in a wide range of subject areas (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy/sections).

Should you decide to serve on the Agronomy Editorial Board, you would be responsible for some of the following tasks depending on your availability:

1. Helping review 6–10 manuscripts per year, include making pre-check decision, first decision, and final decision;
2. You may choose to help edit a Special Issue on a topic related to your research;
3. Promoting Agronomy and published papers at conferences that you attend or organize.

Benefits for Agronomy Editorial Board Members include the following:

1. You can publish one paper per year free of charge;
2. A recognition certificate as an Editorial Board Member of Agronomy;
3. We may apply travel grants for conferences that you attend or organize;
4. Additional sponsorships are offered by Agronomy for conferences that you organize.

Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395; CODEN: ABSGGL) is an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open access journal published monthly online by MDPI. Its impact factor is 2.603 (2019), and it has been indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)-Web of Science, Scopus, and other databases. For more information about Agronomy, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy.

To apply or request further information, please contact the Agronomy Editorial Office (agronomy@mdpi.com).