Announcements

We are delighted to share that Issue 3 of Applied Biosciences (ISSN: 2813-0464) was released this December. The following is the list of articles which we believe will be of interest to you:
1. “RNAi-Based Biocontrol of Pests to Improve the Productivity and Welfare of Livestock Production”
by Pia S. Menezes, Yakun Yan, Yunjia Yang, Neena Mitter, Timothy J. Mahony and Karishma T. Mody
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(3), 229–243; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1030015
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0464/1/3/15
2. “Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNC) Liquid Crystalline State in Suspension: An Overview”
by Aref Abbasi Moud and Aliyeh Abbasi Moud
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(3), 244–278; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1030016
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0464/1/3/16
3. “The Role of Phorbol Diesters in Mediating Human Placental Aromatase Cytochrome P450 Activity”
by Chiemela S. Odoemelam, Elena Hunter, Daniela Eberl, Baptiste Busi, Zeeshan Ahmad, Samuel White and Philippe B. Wilson
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(3), 279–288; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1030017
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0464/1/3/17
4. “Boronium Salt as an Antiviral Agent against Enveloped Viruses Influenza A and SARS-CoV-2”
by Terrence J. Ravine, Jonathan O. Rayner, Rosemary W. Roberts, James H. Davis Jr. and Mohammad Soltani
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(3), 289–298; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1030018
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0464/1/3/18
5. “Microbiological Analysis of the Air in a Popular Fish Processing and Marketing Area”
by Angélica Sinaí Quintanilla-Martínez, Lizet Aguirre-Güitrón, Luis Daniel Espinosa-Chaurand, Mayra Diaz-Ramírez and Alejandro De Jesús Cortés-Sánchez
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(3), 299–314; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1030019
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0464/1/3/19
6. “Habituation and Behavioural Response of Confinement-Induced Anxiety Conditions in a Zebrafish Model”
by Carlton Ranjith Wilson Alphonse and Rajesh Kannan Rajaretinam
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(3), 315–323; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1030020
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0464/1/3/20
We would like to thank all of the research groups that authored these exceptional papers for their contribution.

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!

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.

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!

We are delighted to share that Issue 2 of Applied Biosciences (ISSN: 2813-0464) was released this September. The following is the list of articles within it, which we believe will be of interest to you:

1. “Multifilm Mass Transfer and Time Constants for Mass Transfer in Food Digestion: Application to Gut-on-Chip Models”
by Timothy A. G. Langrish
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(2), 101-112; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1020007

2. “Progress in Plant Genome Sequencing”
by Robert J. Henry
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(2), 113-128; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1020008

3. “Ruthenium Complexes, an Emerging Class of Leishmanicidal Drug Candidates”
by Susana Santos Braga
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(2), 129-142; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1020009

4. “In Silico Ligand Docking Approaches to Characterise the Binding of Known Allosteric Modulators to the Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Receptor and Prediction of ADME/Tox Properties”
by Chiemela S. Odoemelam et al.
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(2), 143-162; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1020010

5. “Enhancing the Thermal and Kinetic Stability of Ketol-Acid Reductoisomerase, a Central Catalyst of a Cell-Free Enzyme Cascade for the Manufacture of Platform Chemicals”
by You Lv et al.
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(2), 163-178; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1020011

6. “Co-Inoculation with Phosphate-Solubilizing Microorganisms of Rock Phosphate and Phosphogypsum and Their Effect on Growth Promotion and Nutrient Uptake by Ryegrass”
by Marwa Amri et al.
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(2), 179-197; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1020012

7. “Bioencapsulation of Microbial Inoculants: Mechanisms, Formulation Types and Application Techniques”
by Blanca Rojas-Sánchez et al.
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(2), 198-220; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1020013

8. “Bacterial Community Analysis of Biofilm Formed on Metal Joint”
by Hironaga Akita et al.
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(2), 221-228; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1020014

We would like to thank all of the research groups that authored these exceptional papers for their contributions.

We are delighted to share that the first issue of Applied Biosciences (ISSN: 2813-0464) was released this June. The following is the list of articles which we believe will be of interest to you:

1. “Cellulose through the Lens of Microfluidics: A Review”
by Aref Abbasi Moud
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(1), 1–37; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1010001

2. “Applied Biosciences: Application of Biological Science and Technology”
by Robert J. Henry
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(1), 38–39; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1010002

3. “Early Detection of Phototrophic Biofilms in the Polychrome Panel, El Castillo Cave, Spain”
by Valme Jurado et al.
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(1), 40–63; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1010003

4. “Expedient Access to Type II Kinase Inhibitor Chemotypes by Microwave-Assisted Suzuki Coupling”
by Lorenza Destro et al.
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(1), 64–72; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1010004

5. “Anti-Tumour Activities from Secondary Metabolites and Their Derivatives in Bryophytes: A Brief Review”
by Piergiorgio Cianciullo et al.
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(1), 73–94; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1010005

6. “Does Intestine Morphology Still Have Secrets to Reveal? A Proposal about the “Ghost” Layer of the Bowel”
by Francesco Cappello et al.
Appl. Biosci. 2022, 1(1), 95–100; https://doi.org/10.3390/applbiosci1010006

We would like to thank all of the research groups that authored these exceptional papers for their contribution. We sincerely hope you find these articles of Applied Biosciences useful and attractive to the community.

The 2021 citation metrics have been officially released in Scopus!

We are pleased to announce that 182 MDPI journals are included, of which:

● 21 journals received their first CiteScore.
● 85% of journals increased their CiteScore from 2020.
● 155 journals (85%) ranked above average, in at least one category.

The following 65 MDPI journals (36%) ranked among the top 25% of journals, in at least one category:

Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Robert Henry has been appointed as the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Applied Biosciences (ISSN 2813-0464).

Prof. Dr. Robert Henry conducts research on the development of new products from plants. He is a professor of Innovation in Agriculture at the University of Queensland and was the Foundation Director of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), a research institute of the University of Queensland that was established in collaboration with the Queensland Government. Professor Henry’s specialty research area is the study of agricultural crops using molecular tools. He is particularly interested in plants of economic and social importance and research into genome sequencing to capture novel genetic resources for the diversification of crops to deliver improved food and energy products. He was previously the Director of the Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics at Southern Cross University, the Research Director of the Grain Foods Cooperative Research Centre, and the Research Program Leader at the Queensland Agricultural Biotechnology Centre. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in Australia.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Robert Henry, who shared with us his vision for the journal and his views of the research area and open access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as its Founding Editor-in-Chief?

I see bioscience as the key area of science supporting advances in modern societies.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

My vision is for Applied Biosciences to facilitate the rapid dissemination of important advances in the application of technologies with major impacts.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

Biosciences will increasingly draw upon advances in all areas of sciences to feed, fuel, and heal the world.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?

Open access is the logical endpoint of the process that started with the internet, allowing the scientific publication to move from print to online distribution and the associated enablement of Open Access.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Robert Henry to his new role as Founding Editor-in-Chief, and we look forward to his guidance in helping Applied Biosciences reach new milestones.

Applied Biosciences (ISSN: 2813-0464) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal on all aspects of applied biosciences. It aims to publish research findings, techniques, and advances in biological technologies and engineering that sustain, restore, and improve the quality of life for humans, plants, and animals around our world.

The Applied Biosciences editorial team is pleased to announce an open call for Special Issue proposals. This Special Issue will offer a group of authors the opportunity to work on an interconnected set of papers on an innovative topic. We welcome high-quality proposals that will be evaluated in a continuous selection process throughout the year.

In order to ensure that the topic of your proposal is within the scope of Applied Biosciences, please read the aim and scope of Applied Biosciences at the following website:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applbiosci/about.

Proposals for Special Issues should be sent to the Editorial Office (applbiosci@mdpi.com) or submitted via the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/applbiosci.

The following information should be provided in a proposal:

• A 150–200-word summary that clearly states the significance, novelty, technical advancement, and adherence to the scope of the journal of the proposed topic;
• A list of 5–10 keywords relating to 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 your peers to submit papers to be published in your Special Issue. These papers will be able to take advantage of the high publicity offered by our open access publishing, our rapid and 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 certificate of recognition as a Guest Editor of Applied Biosciences;
• Publishing one paper free of charge in your Special Issue;
• Inviting authors to submit high-quality papers to be published in your Special Issue free of charge or with certain discounts;
• If the Special Issue is successful and features at least 10 manuscripts accepted after full peer review, we can organize it into a printed book and send you a free copy as a gift.

Editorial Office’s role:

The Editorial Office will set up the Special Issue website; arrange the promotional material; assist with invitations for paper contributions; 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 (applbiosci@mdpi.com) if you are interested and would like further details or clarification.

We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Applied Biosciences Editorial Office