Announcements

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.

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!

Recently, Clarivate^TM revealed its 2022 list of Highly Cited Researchers™—individuals at universities, research institutes and commercial organizations.

The scientists who were selected into this year’s list of Highly Cited Researchers have published highly cited papers in the 11-year period from January 2011 to December 2021, with citation frequency in the top 1% of academic subjects and the same year of publication in the Web of Science^TM database. Based on Web of Science Citation data, 6,938 researchers from across the globe who have demonstrated a disproportionate level of significant and broad influence in their chosen field or fields over the last decade have been awarded Highly Cited Researcher 2022 designations. The list is truly global, spanning 69 countries or regions and spread across a diverse range of research sciences and social sciences.

According to statistics, two members of the Editorial Board of Animals (ISSN: 2076-2615) have been selected into the list of Highly Cited Researchers of Clarivate in 2022. They are being recognized for their high-quality scientific research achievements and outstanding contributions to professional fields. The Animals journal office sincerely congratulates all elected Editorial Board Members and hopes that they continue to have an academically productive relationship with the journal.

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.

Stanford University has 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 117 Editorial Board Members from MDPI’s Animals (ISSN: 2076-2615) were featured in Stanford University’s list of World’s Top 2% Scientists 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 Animals.

Date: 30 November 2022
Time: 8:00 a.m. CET | 2:00 a.m. EST | 3:00 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 890 0959 3390
Language: English
Register for free here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2016673793464/WN_PI6T-qhdSOqWGPrWbg-yLg

Chairs:

Dr. Tiffani Howell is a senior research fellow at the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University. She has extensive research experience in researching the fields of animal welfare, dog–owner relationships, and assistance dogs. Her methods include surveys, focus groups, and behavioral studies. She recently completed a four-year trial, funded by the Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs, researching the effectiveness of assistance dogs as an adjunct to treatment for veterans with PTSD.

Prof. Pauleen Bennett is head of the Department of Psychology and Counseling at La Trobe University. She focuses on human–companion animal relationships. She leads the Anthrozoology Research Group, serves on the board of the International Society for Anthrozoology, acts as Associate Editor for the journal Anthrozoos, and co-supervises higher degree students enrolled at several Australian Universities. She has published over 175 peer-reviewed publications.

Invited Speakers:

Prof. Lynette Hart is a professor of Anthrozoology and Animal Behavior at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. She spearheads anthrozoology on campus, teaching courses, leading research, and mentoring students. She has published over 150 papers, and co-authored books on the behavior profiles of dog breeds and cat breeds, behavior therapy, use of research animals, and dissection. Her work has particularly focused on assistance dogs, optimizing people’s relationships with dogs or cats, pet loss, and self-care for animal caregivers. Additionally, she co-led a 10-year study on the effects of age of spay–neuter for 35 breeds and 5 weight classes of dogs. She is a founding member and fellow of the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ), and she was selected as the first ISAZ Distinguished Anthrozoologist in 2017.

Prof. Chiara Mariti graduated in veterinary medicine in 2003 from the University of Pisa, where she also obtained a master’s degree in veterinary behavioural medicine and a Ph.D. in horse behavior. At present, she is an associate professor at the University of Pisa, where she focuses the majority of her research on pets’ behavior and welfare and anthrozoology. She is a diplomate of the ECAWBM, with a subspecialty in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law.

Prof. Miki Kakinuma is a professor of Comparative Developmental Psychology at Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University. She has extensive experience in research on human–animal bonding, including in conducting surveys and behavioral studies. She is the president of the Asian Society of Animal-Assisted Education and Therapy. She is interested in promoting scientific views from Asian perspectives.

We look forward to your participation in this event.

Animals Editorial Office

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!

MDPI will be attending the 2022 Joint Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, from 13 to 16 November 2022.

The 2022 Joint Annual Meeting will be hosted by the Entomological Society of America (ESA), Entomological Society of Canada (ESC), and the Entomological Society of British Columbia (ESBC). The theme for the Joint Meeting is “Entomology as Inspiration: Insects through Art, Science, and Culture”.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Agriculture (leading journal);
• Insects (leading journal);
• Crops;
• Agronomy;
• Animals;
• Biology;
• JZBG.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us at our booth: #616. 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 https://www.entsoc.org/events/annual-meeting, or contact the Insects Editorial Office at insects@mdpi.com.

Date: 3 October 2022
Time: 9:00 a.m. CEST | 3:00 a.m. EDT | 3:00 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 890 7732 0421
Language: English
Register for free here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4416617624655/WN_kELjJkJHTgCOCCAoH5R2mg

Chair

Dr. Roy Kirkwood is a native of the UK and completed his Ph.D. in gilt management in Leeds (UK). Following that, he conducted sow research in New Zealand (2 years) and then Canada (15 years), during which period he went to vet school, graduating in 1995. After a 4-year period, he returned to the UK for 3 years (Royal Vet College) before moving to the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine. After 10 years in the USA, he moved with his family to his current position as Associate Professor in Intensive Production (pigs) at the University of Adelaide, Australia, where he is heavily involved in teaching and research. He became a Diplomate of the European College of Animal Reproduction in 2000. His research interests to date have been to improve sow herd reproductive performance, but more recently, he is becoming increasingly involved in dry sow housing and neonatal piglet health management.

Speakers

Dr. Kate Plush is the Science, Technology and Adoption Manager at SunPork, Australia’s largest fully integrated pork business. The group conducts research across all areas of production from genetics all the way through to meat quality. Dr. Plush is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the University of Queensland, and a reproductive physiologist whose scientific interest largely lies in the transition period, when the sow moves from gestation to lactation, and how this influences piglet neonatal survival. She began her research career as a Pork CRC-funded Postdoctoral fellow with the University of Adelaide in confinement-free housing options for sows and piglets, before progressing to the South Australian Research and Development Institute as a Pig Reproduction Scientist. She especially enjoys the translation of scientific outcomes to industry.

Dr. Pieter Langendijk graduated from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, in 2001 with a Ph.D. in animal science. He has worked as a research scientist at various universities and research institutes in Europe and Australia, with a focus on pig reproduction and nutrition. Pieter joined Trouw Nutrition R&D in 2014. Based on 25 years of research in pig reproduction, his expertise covers insemination strategies, embryo development and survival, ovarian physiology and follicle development, gestation and lactation, and interactions with nutrition. Dr. Langendijk has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal papers and conference papers.

We look forward to your participation in this event.

Animals Editorial Office

MDPI will be attending the 25th Annual ESDAR Conference 2022, held in Thessaloniki, Greece, from 28 September to 2 October 2022.

The annual ESDAR conference aims to bring together scientists from around the world with the objective of presenting and discussing recent advances in the field of reproductive biology, in addition to exchanging breakthrough ideas related to biotechnology and physiology, traditional veterinary medicine, and the physiology and pathology of animals’ reproduction.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Animals (leading journal);
• Cells;
• Biology;
• Veterinary Sciences;
• Agriculture.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us at our booth: #04. 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 https://esdar2022.org/, or contact the Animals Editorial Office at animals@mdpi.com.