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 order to specifically develop different research areas and attract more high-quality papers, we are pleased to announce the addition of the following four new Sections in Applied Sciences to cover all the disciplines of natural and applied science:

• Transportation and Future Mobility;
• Biomedical Engineering;
• Neurosciences;
• Fluid.

We are now recruiting Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for these Sections. If you are an active researcher in one of the aforementioned fields and are passionate about publishing cutting-edge research, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]). Alternatively, you may wish to submit your work directly via the following link: https://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload/?journal=applsci.

Applied Sciences is an international, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, and open access journal published quarterly online by MDPI. The journal covers all aspects of applied physics, applied chemistry, engineering, environmental and earth sciences, and applied biology.

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.

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)

In order to specifically develop different research areas and attract more high-quality papers, we are pleased to announce the addition of the following four new sections in Applied Sciences to cover all the disciplines of natural and applied science:

• Applied Adhesion;
• Applied Thermal Engineering;
• Agricultural Engineering;
• Additive Manufacturing Technologies.

We are now recruiting Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for these sections. If you are an active researcher in one of the aforementioned fields and are passionate about publishing cutting-edge research, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]). Alternatively, you may wish to submit your work directly via the following link: https://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload/f316fed2fcf2df49bac3cf6c3323ec06?journal=applsci.

Applied Sciences is an international, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, and open access journal published quarterly online by MDPI. The journal covers all aspects of applied physics, applied chemistry, engineering, environmental and earth sciences, and applied biology.

In 2020, Applied Sciences received 23,516 articles and published 8176 articles with 25,976 authors，and 18,662 researchers who reviewed a manuscript for us. Applied Sciences articles were cited an estimated 34,182 times in 2020. All submitted manuscripts are peer-reviewed and time from submission to publication is approximately 35 days.

Applied Sciences received the 2019 impact factor (2.474) and established six new sections in 2020 on “Membrane Science and Technology", "Robotics and Automation", "Aerospace Science and Engineering", "Marine Engineering", "Applied Microbiology", and "Applied Micromedicine”. 

High Altmetric Papers

• Effect of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Tubes Filled with Recycled Materials and Concrete on Structural Capacity of Pile Foundations
  Visar Farhangi et al.
  Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(5), 1554; doi: 10.3390/app10051554

• A Novel Transfer-Learning-Based Approach for Pneumonia Detection in Chest X-ray Images
  Vikash Chouhan et al.
  Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(2), 559; doi: 10.3390/app10020559

• Debonding Detection of Reinforced Concrete (RC) Beam with Near-Surface Mounted (NSM) Pre-Stressed Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) Plates Using Embedded Piezoceramic Smart Aggregates (SAs)
  Yang Liu et al.
  Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(1), 50; doi: 10.3390/app10010050

• Control and Backbone Identification for the Resilient Recovery of a Supply Network Utilizing Outer Synchronization
  Liang Geng et al.
  Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(1), 313; doi: 10.3390/app10010313

• Effect of Micropiles on Clean Sand Liquefaction Risk Based on CPT and SPT
  Visar Farhangi et al.
  Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(9), 3111; doi: 10.3390/app10093111

Collections/Special Issues

Applied Sciences runs Special Issues to create collections of papers on specific topics. The aim is to build a community of authors and readers to discuss the latest research and develop new ideas and research directions. Special Issues are led by Guest Editors who are experts in the subject, who oversee the editorial process for papers. Papers published in a Special Issue will be collected together on a dedicated page of the journal website. High-quality Collections/Special Issues will be printed as books. The book can be made available on Amazon, eBookMall, Apple books, etc.

Top Downloaded Topics:

• Machine Learning
• Biomechanics
• Structural Engineering
• Image Processing
• Diagnostics

Open Calls:

• New Achievements in Structural Dynamics Analysis
  edited by Marek Krawczuk and Magdalena Palacz
  submission deadline: 30 June 2021

• Optical Design and Engineering
  edited by Pin Han, Chun Hung Lai, Yi Chin Fang and Ye Zhi Ting
  topical collection

• Topological Optimization in Engineering Design
  edited by Boyan Stefanov Lazarov
  submission deadline: 30 October 2021

Read full list of call for papers at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues.

On behalf of the editorial team, we would like to express our gratitude to the Editor-in-Chief of Applied Sciences, all Section Editors-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members, as well as to the Guest Editors of Special Issues, Topic Board Members, and Reviewer Board Members, all of whom have ensured the continued success of the journal through their hard work and diligence!

In 2021, Applied Sciences will continue to contribute to academic exchange and sharing of knowledge.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Travel Awards, sponsored by MDPI and Applied Sciences. The awards were granted to nine outstanding young researchers working in thematic areas:

This has been a difficult decision given the collection of high-quality applications received for the awards. We would like to thank all the applicants for submitting such a range of diverse and fascinating research topics and congratulate the winners on their accomplishment.

For more information about Applied Science awards, please visit here.

MDPI is proud to adopt the principles of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) to support building equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications.

The C4DISC represents organizations and individuals working in scholarly communications and is focused on addressing issues of diversity and inclusion within the publishing industry.

MDPI’s Managing Editors encourage the Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors to appoint diverse expert Editorial Boards. This is also reflective in our multi-national and inclusive workplace. We are proud to create equal opportunities without regard to gender, ethnicity, geographic location, sexual orientation, age, disability, political beliefs, religion, or socio-economic status. There is no place for discrimination in our workplace and editors of MDPI journals are to uphold these principles in high regard.

Representatives from C4DISC meet monthly, and have started to implement initiatives to shed light and improve on the lack of diversity in scholarly communications. Some of the initiatives include developing a joint statement of principles; conducting market research; providing training resources, best practices, toolkits, and documentation for our collective memberships; and establishing outreach programs, curricula, events, and publications.

The Coalition is committed to:

• eliminating barriers to participation, extending equitable opportunities across all stakeholders, and ensuring that our practices and policies promote equitable treatment and do not allow, condone, or result in discrimination;
• creating and maintaining an environment that respects diverse traditions, heritages, and experiences;
• promoting diversity in all staff, volunteers, and audiences, including full participation in programs, policy formulation, and decision-making;
• raising awareness about career opportunities in our industries to groups who are currently underrepresented in the workforce;
• supporting our members in achieving diversity and inclusion within their organizations.

At MDPI we have slightly revised the layout for articles to be published in the 2021 Volume, starting at the end of December 2020. As of today, the article templates available for download on ‘Instructions for Authors’ pages have been updated.

The most noticeable change can be found on the first page of the article, where a left-hand column has been created to include the following front matter elements: (i) the recommended citation style for the article, (ii) the publishing history, (iii) as well as the Creative Commons Attribution license used (iv) a standard note regarding affiliations. At the same time, the extra spacing on the left means the authors’ affiliations are now more clearly set apart than before. Other front matter key elements such as journal logo, article type, article title, authors, abstract and keywords remain unchanged.

The blank column on the left runs through all pages in an article; as a result, the main text is slightly more condensed, which improve reader friendliness for smaller screens. Small figures/tables are aligned on the left with standard indenture, while large figures/tables are centered and covering the full width of the page. The revised layout was applied in the article pictured below, to serve as an example:

1) Information is displayed in the left information bar.

2) In the main text, there is a blank column on the left.

3) Small tables/figures are aligned on the left, large tables/figures are centered.

We are pleased to acknowledge that many academic editors who have made an impact on MDPI journals as editorial board members, editors-in-chief, or section editors, are recognized as 2020 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate.

Highly Cited Researchers highlights the top 1% of researchers, by citations, in one or more of the 22 fields used in Clarivate Analytics Essential Science Indicators. We offer our congratulations to 279 academic editors of MDPI journals who were recognized as the most influential scholars in their fields in 2020.

The full list of 2020 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed on https://recognition.webofsciencegroup.com/awards/highly-cited/2020/

--- Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) is a Clarivate product.

In order to better categorize papers published within the journal, the section “Applied Microbiology” has recently been established. We are now recruiting Editorial Board members for this new section.

If you are an active researcher in the field and are passionate about participating in cutting-edge research publications, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]). As an Editorial Board member, you will have the following responsibilities:

• To make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted, or not, based on the reports we collect;
• To serve as Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;
• To review some manuscripts in your area of interest and when you are available;
• To recommend timely topics or appropriate conferences;
• To promote Applied Sciences and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

In order to better categorize papers published within the journal, the section “Applied Micromedicine” has recently been established. We are now recruiting Editorial Board members for this new section.

If you are an active researcher in the field and are passionate about participating in cutting-edge research publications, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]). As an Editorial Board member, you will have the following responsibilities:

• To make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted, or not, based on the reports we collect;
• To serve as Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;
• To review some manuscripts in your area of interest and when you are available;
• To recommend timely topics or appropriate conferences;
• To promote Applied Sciences and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

Nowadays, more than ever, new strategies need to be developed and implemented to reduce the environmental burden of extraction techniques that are intensively used across all sectors of the (bio)economy and analytical laboratories. The ongoing works towards alternative greenest extraction methodologies, and consequently those contributing to an imperative World Sustainable Development, need to be disseminated to expand the acquired knowledge to other fields and to provide the needed impetus for overcoming the existent limitations.

Thus, the goal of the webinar “Recent Advances in the Development and Application of Green Extraction Techniques” is to share experiences and promote discussion on novel (experimental or theoretical) challenges, advances, and outlooks concerning the development and/or applications of Green Extraction Methodologies. You are all invited to participate!

Date: 13 November 2020

Time: 02:00 pm (CEST)丨2:00 am (EDT)丨10:00 pm (CST ASIA)

Webinar ID: 830 4635 8756

Register for Free Here: https://applsci-1.sciforum.net/

Chair:

	Prof. Dr. Simone Morais Editorial Board Member of Applied Sciences
	Interests: environmental chemistry; green chemistry; new methodologies for (electro)analysis; (bio)sensors; application of functional nanostructured materials

Speakers:

	Associate Prof. Anastasia Detsi
	Presentation: " Exploring Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents as Green Extraction Media of Bioactive Phytochemicals”
	Associate Prof. Dimitris P. Makris
	Presentation: " Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents & their Applications in Polyphenol Extraction – Overview, Challenges, Prospects”
	Associate Prof. Jeongmi Lee
	Presentation: " Application of Deep Eutectic Solvents as Green Extraction Solvents for Natural Bioactive Compounds”

For any questions about the webinar, please send an email to [email protected]

We are pleased to announce that the 1st Electronic Conference on Applied Sciences, chaired by Prof. Dr. Takayoshi Kobayashi from The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan will be held from 10 to 30 November 2020 at Sciforum (https://sciforum.net/conference/ASEC2020). All proceedings will be held online.

These are some of the topics that we expect to cover:

• Optics and Lasers
• Nanotechnology and Applied Nanosciences
• Energy
• Materials
• Chemistry
• Acoustics and Vibrations
• Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering
• Environmental and Sustainable Science and Technology
• Applied Physics
• Computing and Artificial Intelligence
• Applied Dentistry

The conference will be completely free of charge—both to attend, and for scholars to upload and present their latest work on the conference platform. There will also be the possibility to submit selected extended papers to the Special Issue of the conference entitled. For information about the procedure for submission, peer review, revision, and acceptance of conference proceedings papers, please refer to the section “Instructions for Authors”.

**Important Dates**:

• Abstract Submission: 28 October 2020
• Notification of Acceptance: 30 October 2020
• Paper Submission Deadline: 31 October 2020

Conference Open: 10–30 November 2020

For more information on IOCN2020, please visit the conference website (https://sciforum.net/conference/ASEC2020) or contact us by email ([email protected]).

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Saulius Juodkazis has been appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of the section “Optics and Lasers” of Applied Sciences. Saulius Juodkazis is Professor of nanophotonics and Director of the nanotechnology facility at Swinburne Centre for Micro-Photonics. His current research is focused on applying principles of light-field enhancement and its spectral control for applications in microoptics, sensing, solid-state lighting, and solar energy conversion.

Professor Juodkazis has contributed to the development of a three-dimensional laser printing with nano-/microscale precision using femtosecond laser for applications in optofluidics, micro-optics, optical memory, and photonic crystals. He has shown, experimentally, the creation of high-pressure density phases of materials using tightly focused ultra-short laser pulses. Currently, his research also includes nanotextured surfaces for sensing, bactericidal, and light-harvesting applications.

Professor Juodkazis received his doctorate in experimental physics and materials science jointly from Vilnius University (Lithuania) and Lyon-I University (France). He has also held previous tenured positions at the Universities of Tokushima and Hokkaido in Japan, and is the author of 320 peer-reviewed journal papers and reviews as well as numerous book chapters. He is Fellow of OSA and SPIE and ChangJiang scholar.

His research area also focuses on nanofabrication, nanophotonics, micro-optics, 3D laser fabrication (additive and subtractive), ablation, light–matter interaction, solar hydrogen, physics, and photonics.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Saulius Juodkazis as the Editor-in-Chief of the section “Optics and Lasers”, and we look forward to achieving many milestones under his leadership. For further information on the journal section, please visit the following link.

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/sections/optics

In 2020, we made interviewers with the journal section EiCs:

	"According to all the indicators, Applied Sciences is behaving well. Its content is increasing quantitatively and qualitatively every year. The remarkable everyday work of the administrative editorial staff is one of the reasons why we can be proud of this rising journal. Happy anniversary and best wishes of continuous success !" Section EiC of “Nanotechnology and Applied Nanosciences” -- Prof. Dr. Philippe Lambin
	"On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Applied Sciences, it is a great honor for me to congratulate all the colleagues of the Editorial Board, the Guest Editors and the Editorial team for their great efforts to upgrade Applied Sciences into a high standards international scientific journal. This fact, which is recognized by both Scimago and Journal Citation Reports, is importantly recognized by the scientific community since the quality of the published papers steadily increases.  Finally, I would like to thank for their continuous work that has been done during these very difficult days of COVID-19 pandemic." Section EiC of “Applied Physics”-- Prof. Dr. Nicholas Vassiliou Sarlis
	'With great pleasure we celebrate this year the 10th anniversary of Applied Science. It has been a long journey up to now with some challenges but also with huge satisfactions. In this special occasion we want to really thank all the authors who make the journal successful submitting their research papers but also the anonymous reviewers that have helped to maintain a high quality during these year. It is also worth of mentioning the strong support by top researchers that have proposed special issues on hot topics maintaining the focus of the journal very updated with respect to new research trends. All together with the same enthusiasm we can continue this successful journey trying to improve every year!' Section EiC of “Mechanical Engineering”-- Prof. Dr. Filippo Berto

The section “Optics and Lasers” includes more than 150 Editorial Board members. In order to further develop this section, we are now recruiting additional Editorial Board members for this leading section.

If you are an active researcher in the field and are passionate about participating in cutting-edge research publications, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]). As an Editorial Board member, you will have the following responsibilities:

• To make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted, or not, based on the reports we collect;
• To serve as Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;
• To review some manuscripts in your area of interest and when you are available;
• To recommend timely topics or appropriate conferences;
• To promote Applied Sciences and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

In order to better categorize papers published within the journal, the section "Aerospace Science and Engineering" has been set up recently. We are now recruiting the editorial board members for this new section.

If you are an active researcher in the field and are passionate about participating in cutting-edge research publications, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]). As an Editorial Board member, you will have the following responsibilities:

To make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted, or not, based on the reports we collect;

To serve as Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;

To review some manuscripts in your area of interest and when you are available;

To recommend timely topics or appropriate conferences;

To promote Applied Sciences and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

In order to better categorize papers published within the journal, the section “Marine Engineering” has recently been established. We are now recruiting Editorial Board members for this new section.

If you are an active researcher in the field and are passionate about participating in cutting-edge research publications, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]). As an Editorial Board member, you will have the following responsibilities:

• To make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted, or not, based on the reports we collect;
• To serve as Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;
• To review some manuscripts in your area of interest and when you are available;
• To recommend timely topics or appropriate conferences;
• To promote Applied Sciences and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

The year 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of Applied Sciences, a peer-reviewed open access journal providing an advanced forum for all aspects of applied natural sciences. Applied Sciences has published more than 15,000 papers in the form of reviews, research papers, and communications. More than 1000 of these papers have received over 10 citations. To celebrate this 10th anniversary, we are arranging a series of special content and events. We hope you will join us in celebrating this milestone of our journal and enjoy the collections below.

Collections of Excellent Works

Anniversary Special Issues

10th Anniversary of Applied Sciences: Invited Papers in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering Section
edited by Mohamed Benbouzid
submission deadline 31 Oct 2020 | 5 articles

10th Anniversary of Applied Sciences: Invited Papers in "Optics and Lasers" Section
edited by Totaro Imasaka and Takayoshi Kobayashi
submission deadline 31 Oct 2020 | 7 articles

10th Anniversary of Applied Sciences: Invited Papers in Nanotechnology and Applied Nanosciences Section
edited by Philippe Lambin and Raul Arenal
submission deadline 31 Oct 2020

10th Anniversary of Applied Sciences: Invited Papers in Applied Biosciences and Bioengineering Section
edited by Roger Narayan
submission deadline 31 Oct 2020 | 5 articles

10th Anniversary of Applied Sciences: Invited Papers in Energy Section
edited by Frede Blaabjerg, S. M. Muyeen and Tomislav Dragicevic
submission deadline 20 Dec 2020 | 5 articles

10th Anniversary of Applied Sciences: Invited Papers in Materials
edited by Alexander Chroneos
submission deadline 31 Dec 2020 | 1 article

10th Anniversary of Applied Sciences Invited Papers in Applied Dentistry Section
edited by Gianrico Spagnuolo
submission deadline 30 Jan 2021 | 1 article

We are delighted to announce the establishment of our Open Access agreement with Jisc Collections, which will allow UK institutions to benefit from access to article processing charge (APC) discounts and streamlined payment workflows.

All institutions participating in the agreement will also gain access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information for easy identification and additional transparency.

Eligible authors affiliated with the participating institutions are prompted to choose the corresponding Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) when they submit an article via our online submission system.

About Jisc

Jisc's vision is for the UK to be the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world. At its heart is the super-fast national research and education network, Janet, with built-in cyber security protection.  Jisc also provides technology solutions for its members (colleges, universities and research centres) and customers (public sector bodies), helps members save time and money by negotiating sector-wide deals and provides advice and practical assistance on digital technology. Jisc is funded by the UK higher and further education and research funding bodies and member institutions.

For more information, contact [email protected]

About MDPI

MDPI is a publisher of fully peer-reviewed, Open Access journals with a focus on thorough and rapid editorial processing. Its aim is to ensure that high-quality research is verified and made available to the research community as quickly as possible. MDPI stands at the forefront of the Open Access movement, having launched its first online journal Molecules in 1996. Today, MDPI is a leader in Open Access publishing with over 250 journals across all research disciplines, and all content published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

For any questions about this agreement, please contact the MDPI IOAP team at [email protected].

The updated citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), published by Clarivate. The recent release of the JCR includes seventy-one MDPI titles. Out of these, 18 titles are newcomers, receiving a first Journal Impact Factor which is based on citation activity in 2019: Actuators, Agriculture, Biology, Biomedicines, Biosensors, Chemosensors, Children, Healthcare, Journal of Fungi, Journal of Personalized Medicine (JPM), Land, Life, Magnetochemistry, Membranes, Pharmaceuticals, Photonics, Separations and Toxics.

• Out of the previously listed journals, a total of 72 percent boast an increased Impact Factor.
• 25 journals are ranked among the top 25% of journals in at least one of the categories they are ranked for.
• Articles published in 2019 in MDPI journals account for approximately 17 percent of of articles published in gold Open Access journals covered in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).
  
  

First Impact Factors

Updated Impact Factors

Since 1996, MDPI has been committed to supporting the research community by providing the latest research freely available and making relevant and useful research available as quickly as possible. The world is current experiencing a pandemic of COVID-19, and researchers are working extremely hard to understand it and find a cure.

The values MDPI holds strongly are particularly important at the moment, and we will continue to publish relevant, peer-reviewed research as quickly as possible in open access format. This means that it will immediately be available for researchers, health professionals, and the general public to read, distribute, and reuse. We believe that scientific advancements will be crucial to overcoming this pandemic, and will do everything we can to support researchers working looking for solutions.

COVID-19 Academic Resources Center contains a variety of information related to COVID-19 available from MDPI, including journal articles, special issues, and preprints, among others.

For more information, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/covid-19

In order to better categorize papers published within the journal, the following four new topical sections have been set up recently:

Membrane Science and Technology 

Robotics and Automation 

Marine Engineering 

Aerospace Science and Engineering 

We are now recruiting the Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for these sections. As an Editorial Board member, you have the following responsibilities:

• Make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted or not, based on the reports we collect.
• Serve as Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you.
• Review manuscripts in your area of interest and when you are available.
• Recommend topics or appropriate conferences.
• Promote Applied Sciences and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

If you are an active researcher in one of the aforementioned fields and are passionate about participating in the cutting-edge research of the corresponding field, please do not hesitate to get in touch (applsc[email protected]).

Applied Sciences Editorial Office

Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417; CODEN: ASPCC7) published its inaugural issue in 2011; it has experienced tremendous growth in terms of the number and quality of scientific publications, and has been covered by Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science) and Scopus.

Applied Sciences was started to help all scientists conduct their own research into the growth of these frontiers by breaking down barriers and connecting the many subfields to cut through this vast forest. These functions allow researchers to see these frontiers and their surrounding (or quite distant) fields and subfields, and provide them the opportunity to incubate and develop their knowledge even further with the aid of this multi-dimensional network.

MDPI will be attending 2020 IAFP Annual Meeting, held in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, 25–28 October 2020.

Each year, the International Association for Food Protection hosts an Annual Meeting, providing attendees with information on current and emerging food safety issues, the latest science, innovative solutions to new and recurring problems, and the opportunity to network with thousands of food safety professionals from around the globe. Held in various locations throughout North America, this meeting has grown over the years to become the leading food safety conference worldwide. IAFP 2020 will be held at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The IAFP Annual Meeting is attended by more than 3,800 of the top industry, academic and governmental food safety professionals from six continents. This renowned event owes its reputation and success to the quantity, quality, and diversity of each year’s program; the quality and relevance of exhibits sharing the latest in available technologies; leading experts speaking on a variety of timely topics; and special recognition of outstanding professionals and students for their contributions in the food safety field.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Foods (Leading journal)
• Microorganisms (co-leading)
• Nutrients
• Sustainability
• Safety
• Applied Sciences
• Antioxidants

If you are also attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #736). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please see the following link: http://www.foodprotection.org/annualmeeting/

As a leading Open Access publisher, MDPI is committed to fostering open scientific exchange in all forms across all disciplines. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, many researchers have to stay at home and many academic conferences have been cancelled or postponed. In light of these changes, MDPI has adopted numerous initiatives that may help accelerate scientific exchange and provide support to the academics during this period.

Scholarly Community—Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia is an online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as providing benchmark information for researchers and the general public interested in accurate and advanced knowledge on specific topics.

Comprehensive and Free Literature Database—Scilit

Scilit is a comprehensive, free database for scientists that uses a new method to collate data and index scientific material. Our crawlers extract the latest data from CrossRef and PubMed on a daily basis. This means that newly published articles are immediately added to Scilit.

Display Academic Achievements—SciProfiles

SciProfiles is an innovative social network for researchers and scholars that is developed by MDPI. In line with our broad mission, the purpose of SciProfiles is to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and providing opportunities for academic networking.

Organize and Participate in Conferences Online—Sciforum

Sciforum is an event planning platform that supports open science by offering the opportunity to host and participate in academic conferences. It provides an environment for scholarly exchange, discussion of topics of current interest, building of networks, and establishing collaborations.

Post Early Versions of Research Outputs—Preprints

Preprints is a platform dedicated to making early versions of research outputs permanently available and citable. We post original research articles and comprehensive reviews, and papers can be updated by authors at any time. Content on Preprints is not peer-reviewed, and feedback can be received from readers.

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MDPI remains committed to open science and open data and has signed a statement, along with more than thirty scholarly publishers, showing our intention to facilitate sharing of new research findings as early on as possible. The initiative sees publishers collectively removing barriers to new research, in the face of a global healthcare crisis.

The world is currently suffering from a global pandemic of the corona virus COVID-19. MDPI expresses its sympathies for all of those affected by the virus and stands in solidarity with medical staff and researchers treating patients and searching for scientific solutions.

MDPI has previously published papers covering corona viruses in addition to new papers on the current outbreak, see all papers here. In particular, Viruses has published a number of Special Issues and papers on the topic (see here, here, and here) as well as a forthcoming Special Issue.

Alongside journal articles, MDPI has been a strong supporter of preprints, which are increasingly being used to rapidly disseminate the latest research, and we run the preprint server Preprints.org. Our database of research articles, Scilit, is free to use and covers all publishers including preprint servers. New papers are often in search results within hours of publication and users can set up alerts for new papers.

Our main priority during this period has been the health and safety of staff, and we continue to allow staff to work at home and closely monitor the situation in all locations in which we work. Despite the restrictions, we continue to provide a full publication service and, by close collaboration with our editorial boards and making use our in-house teams, ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in publishing vital research. Fast and open publication has always been at the core of MDPI values and is now more important than ever.

We hope that a solution to the current situation will emerge soon. In the meantime, we will do our best to continue communicating vital research in all fields.

MDPI will be attending SEBBM 2020, held in Barcelona, Spain, 20th–23rd July 2020.

La Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SEBBM) is committed to promoting research links, encouraging years of study, promoting the dissemination of knowledge, improving teaching, and promoting young scientists among Spanish researchers for the international development of Spanish science and to contribute to scientific aspects of the public interest.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Genes (Leading journal)
• Biomolecules (co-leading)
• Brain Sciences
• Biology
• IJMS
• Applied Sciences
• Antibiotics
• Cancers
• Cells

If you are also attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #17). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please see the following link:

The advantages of the open access model of scientific publishing are being increasingly recognized in the scientific community. It allows new scientific evidence to be accessed from the moment of publication for free by anyone around the globe, boosting the impact of new research. In response, many funders, libraries and universities have been adopting new principles to accelerate the transition to open access.

Recently, “transformative agreements” have been negotiated between traditional publishers and various institutions. While increasing the number of open access papers, these agreements lack binding commitments to a full transition to open access, their conditions vary across different regions, and access is still limited for many users.

MDPI is a co-signatory of the recent position statement raising concerns about potential downsides of transformative agreements and how they may delay a full transition to open access. The statement highlights that these models “risk perpetuating current limitations on access, transparency and market competitiveness, while simultaneously facilitating excessive charges on the public purse”.

As a pioneering open access journal publisher, MDPI is the first to promote the importance of science being made available to everyone. Our peer-reviewed journals, covering diverse academic disciplines, are fully accessible to the public free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). This is why, along with other open access publishers, MDPI is a proud signatory of the position paper and is committed to contributing to the replacement of weak transitional agreements with “agreements with publishers that are already fully committed to open science and who offer full, immediate and transparent Open Access”.

Read the position paper here

We are pleased to announce that Encyclopedia will be awarding five Outstanding Contributor Awards for researchers in 2020. The nominations and applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Encyclopedia Editorial Board.

Prize for Winners

1. An official certificate;
2. A cash award of 500 CHF or an MDPI discount voucher of 800 CHF.

Application Deadline

31 December, 2020 (Please send your application email with a list of all entries you contributed to our office before the deadline: [email protected])

Candidate Requirements

1. Have a Ph.D. degree;
2. Have more than three qualified entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020.

Evaluation Standards

1. Number of entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020;
2. Quality of entries online (including length, figure quality, and novelty);
3. Impact of entries (including the number of likes, discussion contents, views, and downloads).

If you are a researcher and have not yet contribute entries to Encyclopedia, please do not miss this chance to highlight your research results.

MDPI will be attending the CLEO Laser Science to Photonic Applictions, San Jose, California, USA, May 12-14, 2020

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics to generate quality face-time with world renowned industry leaders and help achieve your annual sales and marketing goals. Special industry offerings make this event a magnet for executives and scientific equipment users throughout the buying channel. Exhibitors will have extensive, targeted opportunities for exposure and in-depth interaction with key prospects and customers. These high-level buyers are looking to you—the leading product experts, manufacturers and service providers—for the most innovative, cost-effective solutions to support their missions.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Applied Sciences (leading journal)
• Photonics (co-leading)
• Electronics
• Fibers
• Materials

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #2607). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://www.cleoconference.org/home/.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 Travel Awards, sponsored by MDPI and Applied Sciences. The awards were granted to six outstanding young researchers working in thematic areas:

Travel Award in Earth Sciences and Geography 2020

Nicolò Giordano holds post-doc fellowship at Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) focusing on evaluation of themthermal energy storage potential for buildings and greenhouses in Nunavik, Québec; development of a methodology for oscillatory thermal response tests in borehole heat exchangers to evaluate the subsurface heat capacity; and use of near surface geophysical surveys to image permafrost, monitor the thermal plume of underground storage systems, and characterize the subsurface thermal properties.

Travel Award in Energy 2020

Alfonso González Briones holds a Ph.D. in computer engineering from the University of Salamanca. In 2018, his thesis was second place in the 1st SENSORS+CIRTI Award for the best national thesis in Smart Cities (CAEPIA 2018). Alfonso González Briones is a project manager of Industry 4.0 and Internet of Thing projects at the AIRInstitute. He is also a lecturer for Master of Industry 4.0 at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR).

Travel Award in Environmental and Sustainable Science and Technology 2020

Marco Vocciante joined University of Genoa (UniGe) as Ph.D. student in 2013. He has been involved in projects dealing with mathematical modeling, process data reconciliation and optimization, energy efficiency, and environmental protection. After his Ph.D. appointment in early 2016, he was the holder of a two-year postdoc grant on issues of environmental interest and is currently working as assistant professor at the University of Genoa. He is actively involved in teaching activities of the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry (DCCI).

Travel Award in Nanotechnology and Applied Nanosciences 2020

Daniel M. Balazs is a postdoctoral research associate from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University, U.S. He work includes understanding the growth of single-crystalline colloidal quantum dot arrays, developing scalable techniques for the formation of ordered, electronic-quality quantum dot assemblies, and managing students working on the project.

Travel Award Optics and Lasers 2020

Kayn Forbes is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Chemistry at the University of East Anglia. He obtained his M.S. degree in chemistry in 2014 and Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 2018. He began his independent research fellowship in September 2019, where he has been theoretically studying optical light–matter interactions and photonics.

Stefano Signorini is a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Trento. His research topics include: integrated nonlinear optics and quantum photonics and near- and mid-infrared heralded single photons on a silicon chip. Stefano Signorini is a scientific consultant for Indivenire srl, Trento. His projects include developing a solution to the gas nozzle dripping problem and optimization of the laser cavity of a laser welding machine.

This has certainly been a difficult decision, with such a collection of high quality applications for the awards. We would like to thank all of the applicants for submitting such a range of diverse and fascinating research topics and congratulate the winners for their accomplishment.

For more information about Applied Science awards, please see this page.

MDPI will be attending the 45th International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Barcelona, Spain, 4–8 May 2020.

ICASSP is the world's largest and most comprehensive technical conference focused on signal processing and its applications. The 2020 conference will feature world-class presentations by internationally renowned speakers, cutting-edge session topics and provide a fantastic opportunity to network with like-minded professionals from around the world.

ICASSP 2020 will feature a mix of national and international speakers, tutorials, workshops and exhibits. Featuring contemporary research, highly regarded presenters and a focus on translating research into practice the conference is sure to be an exciting event for all who attend.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Applied Sciences
• Applied System Information
• Information
• Journal of Imaging
• Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #23). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://2020.ieeeicassp.org/.

The Applied Sciences Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy given by reviewers in checking manuscripts submitted to the journal. It is thanks to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick submission to publication process are maintained. The median time to first decision is currently and impressive 15.5 days, and the median time to publication is 39 days, which is all because of you.

Please join us in congratulating the six referees below, who will receive the “Applied Sciences 2019 Outstanding Reviewer Awards” in recognition of the quantity, timeliness, and quality of their reviews in 2019. Each of them will receive 500 CHF and a certificate for their outstanding review work.

From left to right:

Prof. Gabor Sziebig
UIT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway

Prof. Hojong Choi
Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Korea

Dr. Aryan Rezaei Rad
EPFL ENAC IIC IBOIS, Switzerland

Dr. Ali Behnood
Purdue University, USA

Dr. Andreas Hoffmann
Max-Born-Institut, Berlin, Germany

Prof. Douglas O'Shaughnessy
Centre Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications, Canada

Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417; Applied Sciences-Basel in Web of Science) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal, published monthly by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland. The journal is covered by leading indexing services, including Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science) and Scopus. Its 2018 Impact Factor is 2.217, and its five-year Impact Factor is 2.287. For further details, please visit the journal website.

MDPI will be attending the IGARSS 2020, to be held in Hawaii, USA, 19–24 July 2020

Hosted by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, the 2020 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2020) will be held Sunday, 19 July through Friday, 24 July, 2020 at the Hilton Waikoloa Village in Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA. The main theme of the 2020 symposium is "Remote Sensing: Global Perspectives for Local Solutions".

GARSS 2020 is offering unique perspectives, discussions, research, solutions, and an opportunity to network in a beautiful environment.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Remote Sensing

Atmosphere

Land

Sustainability

Drones

IJGI

Sensors

Geosciences

Hydrology

Applied Sciences

In order to better categorize papers published within the journal, the following section has been set up:

Applied Physics

We are now recruiting editorial board members (EBMs) for the new section. As an Editorial Board member, you have the following responsibilities:

• Make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted or not, based on the reports we collect.
• Serve as Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you.
• Review manuscripts in your area of interest and when you are available.
• Recommend topics or appropriate conferences.
• Promote Applied Sciences and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

If you are an active researcher in one of the aforementioned fields and are passionate about participating in cutting-edge research in a corresponding field, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]).

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Nicholas Vassiliou Sarlis was appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the section 'Applied Physics' in the journal Applied Sciences.

Dr. Nicholas Vassiliou Sarlis is a Professor in the Department of Physics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His research has focused on solid state physics, thermodynamics of point defects, complex systems physics, nonlinear dynamics, the physics of earthquakes, heart rate variability, and natural time analysis.

We are confident that the strong academic background and connections of the new Section Editor-in-Chief will continue to raise the prestige and quality of Applied Sciences while maintaining the efficiency of manuscript processing that Applied Sciences' authors have come to expect.

I4Future- Imaging for the Future: Novel Imaging and Characterization Methods in Bio, Medical and Environmental Research and Technology Innovations is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie action co-funded international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral doctoral programme, hosted by the University of Oulu.

I4Future network involves 17 University of Oulu research groups, 10 international partner universities, 11 private companies and 4 multidisciplinary public sector organisations. The programme brings together the complementary and supplementary expertise of internationally accredited researchers with the aim of training young researchers in an interdisciplinary manner in highly relevant sosioeconomic research areas using state-of-the-art techniques.

In October 2019, I4Future became an affiliated project to the journal Applied Sciences. As part of this collaboration, all affiliated I4Future members are now entitled to a discount on the article processing charge (APC) for articles published in Applied Sciences, to Special Issue “Imaging and Characterization of Applied Materials”.

Project: I4Future (Imaging for the Future): https://www.oulu.fi/i4future/

SI: Imaging and Characterization of Applied Materials: 
https://www.mdpi.com/si/applsci/applied_materials

MDPI will be attending the 149th TMS 2020 on minerals, metals, and materials in San Diego, CA, USA, 23–27 February 2020. An Editorial Board Member meeting of Metals will take place during this event. We warmly welcome you join and share your publishing experience with us.

TMS2020 will present more than 85 symposia planned by all five TMS technical divisions and covering a broad range of topics related to minerals, metals, and materials science and engineering. The event will draw more than 4000 attendees and feature four full days of technical programming.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Metals

Coatings

Materials

Applied Sciences

Nanomaterials

Energies

Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing

Entropy

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #726). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://www.tms.org/TMS2020.

Applied Sciences, MDPI’s open access journal on all aspects of applied natural sciences, has published more than 10,000 articles and reviews since its inception in 2011. Applied Sciences is covered in the Science Citation Index Expanded in the Web of Science and received an Impact Factor of 2.217 for 2018.

Applied Sciences' current CiteScore in Scopus is 2.52, which equals rank 41/275 (Q1) in "General Engineering". Our sincerest thanks go to the Editor-in-Chief of Applied Sciences, Prof. Dr. Takayoshi Kobayashi; to all the editorial board members; as well as to the Guest Editors of our Special Issues, who have ensured, with their hard work and diligence, the continued success of the journal.

In order to better categorize papers published within the journal, the following section has recently been set up:

Applied Dentistry

We are now recruiting editorial board members (EBMs) for the new section. As an Editorial Board member, you have the following responsibilities:

• To make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted or not, based on the reports we collect;
• To serve as Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;
• To review some manuscripts in your area of interest and when you are available;
• To recommend timely topics or appropriate conferences;
• To promote Applied Sciences and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

If you are an active researcher in one of the aforementioned fields and are passionate about participating in cutting-edge research in a corresponding field, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]).

In order to better categorize papers published within the journal, the section "Food Science and Technology" has been set up recently. We are now recruiting the editorial board members for this new section.

If you are an active researcher in the field and are passionate about participating in cutting-edge research publications, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]). As an Editorial Board member, you will have the following responsibilities:

• To make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted, or not, based on the reports we collect;
• To serve as Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;
• To review some manuscripts in your area of interest and when you are available;
• To recommend timely topics or appropriate conferences;
• To promote Applied Sciences and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of SciProfiles, its social network platform for researchers and scholars.

The purpose of SciProfiles is aligned with MDPI’s broad mission to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and to serve scholars and communities by providing opportunities for academic networking.

SciProfiles also ambitions to serve as a sustainable, transparent and community-driven research evaluation system aligned with the DORA principles (https://sfdora.org/). Through their scientific profiles, academics can highlight their contribution to research communities, and measure their impact on their field, beyond publication numbers and impact factors. SciProfiles is currently a beta version and will enrich to give researchers the possibility to highlight all of their contributions to science and their scientific communities as authors, reviewers, editors, conference organizers, conference panelists, conference keynote speakers, or even as lecturers or student mentors at their University.

The classic components of popular community social networks, including follower/following, classical metrics, endorsements and recommendations (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1690), comments (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397) are or will be very soon highlighted in SciProfiles as open science contributions.

To help increase the impact and visibility of articles and their authors to an appropriate audience, the platform offers a NewsFeed that includes recommendations of relevant content based on interests, publication history, saved searches or colleagues’ recommendations.

SciProfiles’ avatars are now being integrated on several MDPI platforms, meaning that you will directly access researchers’ profiles from any of the MDPI platforms:

MDPI's journal publishing website: www.mdpi.com
MDPI's conference hosting and management website: www.sciforum.net
MDPI's pre-print website : www.preprints.org
MDPI's knowledge sharing website : www.encyclopedia.pub
MDPI's books store: www.mdpi.com/books
MDPI's literature database : www.scilit.net

SciProfiles aims to serve scientific communities at large. It can be embedded into third-party websites and also welcomes integration of data from third-parties.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/2
Dr. Franck Vazquez: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/FranckVazquez
Dr. Martyn Rittman: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/martynrittman

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2019 MDPI Writing Prize. Entrants were asked to write on the theme "Judging research: How should research and researchers be evaluated and rewarded?" We received a large number of excellent essays from PhD students and postdocs, and the process of shortlisting and choosing winners was not an easy one. The winners demonstrated excellent writing skills alongside interesting and thought-provoking ideas.

As last year, we will begin the process of collating all entries into a book that will be available in open access format. Alongside promoting good writing skills, we see the prize as a way to promote the voices of early career researchers within broader debates and policy discussions.

Congratulations to all of the participants and especially the winners. The winners are:

1st Prize (500 CHF):
Albin Nilsson (National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw, Poland)
[Read here]

2nd Prize (250 CHF):
Qi Zhang (Shandong University, Jinan, China)
[Read here]
Igor Ogashawara (Indiana University, Indianapolis, US)
[Read here]

3rd Prize (100 CHF):
Margaret Sivapragasam (Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Perak, Malaysia)
[Read here]
Arvind Sharma (The University of Queensland, Gatton, Australia)
[Read here]
Jose Flores-Guerrero (University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands)
[Read here]

The MDPI Writing Prize is an annual award supported by MDPI Author Services, which provides services including language editing, reformatting, plagiarism checks, and image editing.

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of a new functionality giving the possibility for researchers and scholars to endorse, and formally recommend articles to their colleagues.

MDPI was an early signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (https://sfdora.org/read/) which calls for improvement in how quality and impact of scholarly research outputs are evaluated, especially in moving beyond journal-based citation metrics (journal Impact Factor, Scopus Citescore, etc.).

MDPI supports the establishment of article-level impact metrics, including citations, views, downloads, and Altmetric scores. These measures serve as an impact indicator for research articles on a case–by-case basis, assessing paper on its own merit. However, these metrics are also subjective and can give a biased picture of the article impact: they do not directly reflect the quality or the intrinsic scientific value of the article.

In our view, community engagement with publications based on community-driven metrics can help to overcome this limitation. We have therefore launched an option for scholars to endorse articles, indicating their own assessment of its content and making a recommendation to their community. This follows our implementation of the open source Hypothesis commenting tool, which has been available for all articles published by MDPI for over a year (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397). Both endorsement and commenting are available for all previously published and forthcoming MDPI articles.

In addition to potentially serving as a sustainable solution to article assessment, endorsements will help scientific communities to identify the most relevant articles, independently of the journal in which it was published.

The code for the endorsing functionality, which relies on DOIs and ORCIDs, will be made available on GitHub with an open source license.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin, President and Founder
Dr. Franck Vazquez, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Martyn Rittman, Publishing Director

We will be attending the 23rd International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (MicroTAS 2019), to be held at Congress Center Basel, in Basel, Switzerland, on 27–31 October 2019. MicroTAS 2019 represents the continuation of a series of conferences that are considered the premier forum for presenting the latest research in microfluidics, microfabrication, nanotechnology, integration, materials and surfaces, analysis and synthesis, and detection technologies for life science and chemistry. MicroTAS 2019 offers plenary talks as well as contributed oral presentations and posters from selected abstracts. The following open-access journals will be represented:

Micromachines
Biosensors
Coatings
Applied Sciences
IJMS
Sensors

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (booth #21). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit https://microtas2019.org.

Encyclopedia is a free online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as provide a comprehensive record of scientific development. If you have any suggestions or questions, please feel free to contact us via [email protected].

In June and July 2019, four societies chose to establish a cooperation with MDPI journals.

As part of this collaboration, the members of these affiliated societies will enjoy a discount on the article processing charges (APC) when submitting articles to the corresponding journals. The collaboration goes beyond the discount benefit offered to members and includes other services as well as cross-promotions.

Further information about these societies:

Spanish Society of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology (SEFIG) is a national organization that includes pharmacists and other graduates devoted to pharmaceutical R&D and pharmaceutical education related to the pharmaceutical industry, university education, and research centers or health institutions.

Spanish Society for Cellular Biology (SEBC) was founded in 1984 and it is currently formed by over 350 members. It was initially established as a scientific association to coordinate research and formative activities in the field of Cell Biology.

Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) is an innovation consortium that seeks to make Canada a global leader in low carbon smart mobility technologies across heavy-duty and light-duty platforms, including advanced transit, transportation, and integrated mobility applications. It supports the commercialization of technologies through industry-led collaborative research, development, demonstration/delivery, and integration (RDD&I) projects that bring innovative design to Canada’s low-carbon smart mobility eco-system.

Clim4Vitis (Climate Change Impact Mitigation for European Viticulture) is a three-year Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Union Research and Innovation programme. Coordinated by UTAD (Portugal), with the support of PIK (Germany), UNIFI (Italy), LIST (Luxembourg) and SPI (Portugal), the project aims to encourage S&T capacity and performance in grapevine modelling with a vision to implement methods and tools for assessing climate change impacts on European viticulture. First edition of the project Newsletter can be found here.

MDPI will be attending the 35th Annual International Conference on Soils, Sediments, Water, and Energy in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, 21-24 October 2019.

The Annual Conference on Soils, Sediments, Water and Energy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has become the preeminent national conference in this important environmental area. The conference attracts 600-800 attendees annually which includes a wide variety of representation from state and federal agencies, military, industry (including railroad, petroleum, transportation, and utilities), environmental engineering, environmental consulting, and academia.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Applied Sciences
• Climate
• Energies
• Toxics
• Sustainability
• Water

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #B34). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://www.aehsfoundation.org/Ecc-Exhibitor-Info.aspx

Applied Sciences, MDPI’s open access journal on all aspects of applied natural sciences, has published more than 8,000 articles and reviews since its inception in 2011. Applied Sciences is now covered in the Science Citation Index Expanded in Web of Science and received an Impact Factor of 2.217 for 2018.

We are pleased to announce that Preprints has passed the milestone of 10,000 posted preprints. We are delighted to have reached this after just over three years of operation. Our congratulations and thanks go to our authors and advisory board who have supported growth of the platform and been crucial to its operation.

You can find further details at https://www.preprints.org/announcement/show/37.

Last week, the DeepGreen initiative in Germany started into an advanced test phase with the publishing partners S. Karger AG, SAGE Publishing, MDPI, Frontiers and De Gruyter, as well as 27 universities from all over Germany, from Hamburg University of Applied Sciences to University of Konstanz.

DeepGreen aims at lowering the barriers for open access publishing by automatically delivering metadata and full text publications from participating publishers to authorized repositories at German universities.

In preparation for a later live operation, the advanced test phase serves to gain experience with extensive data deliveries from publishers and also handling different repository software (including OPUS4, DSpace, EPrints, MyCoRe). DeepGreen thereby acts as a sophisticated platform, receiving articles published by authors affiliated with German universities and depositing these articles to respective university repositories, based on the affiliation metadata. For more information about DeepGreen: https://deepgreen.kobv.de

Karger AG has been a close cooperation partner of the DeepGreen consortium since 2016. S. Karger has more than 80 subscription-based and around 20 open access journals covering a wide spectrum in health science. DeepGreen will assign S. Karger articles to authorized institutions on the legal basis of German alliance and national licenses.

SAGE Publishing  was founded by Sara Miller McCune in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE publishes more than 1,000 journals and over 600 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. Our growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company’s continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. SAGE Publishing has been a close cooperation partner of DeepGreen since 2016.

MDPI  is a scientific open access publisher and has been a partner of DeepGreen since 2017. MDPI comprises 205 peer-reviewed journals of various disciplines. All articles are published under a CC-BY license and are freely available without embargo period.

Frontiers  is a scientific open access publisher with 61 journals of over 600 academic disciplines. All articles are peer-reviewed and published freely available under CC-BY license.

De Gruyter  is an academic publisher with more than 700 subscription-based and open access journals of 29 disciplines. Articles provided by De Gruyter will be assigned to institutions with German alliance and national licenses.

There is promising communication with other publishers.

DeepGreen is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the consortium comprises six institutions: the Cooperative Library Network Berlin-Brandenburg, Bavarian State Library, Bavarian Library Network, University Library of the Technische Universität Berlin, University Library of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Helmholtz Open Science Coordination Office at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

Clim4Vitis (Climate Change Impact Mitigation for European Viticulture) is a three-year Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Union Research and Innovation programme. Coordinated by UTAD (Portugal), with the support of PIK (Germany), UNIFI (Italy), LIST (Luxembourg) and SPI (Portugal), the project aims to encourage S&T capacity and performance in grapevine modelling with a vision to implement methods and tools for assessing climate change impacts on European viticulture. First edition of the project Newsletter can be found here.

In July 2019, Clim4Vitis became an affiliated project to the journal Applied Sciences. As part of this collaboration, all affiliated Clim4Vitis members are now entitled to a discount on the article processing charge (APC) for articles published in Applied Sciences, to Special Issue “Climate Change Impact on Viticulture and Potential Adaptation Strategies”.

Project: Clim4Vitis (Climate Change Impact Mitigation for European Viticulture): https://clim4vitis.eu/

SI: Climate Change Impact on Viticulture and Potential Adaptation Strategies: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/Climate_Viticulture

The University of Basel and the MDPI Sustainability Foundation are organizing the First Basel Sustainable Publishing Forum on 9th September 2019.

The aim of this event is to provide background and perspectives on Plan S to Learned Societies, which have to make well-informed decisions to transition their journals to Open Access (OA).

The BSPF will bring together several representatives of Learned societies, Plan S architects as well as representatives from various publishers and publishing platforms. After getting the big picture from cOAlition S, panel discussions will allow to better understand the diverse challenges that Learned societies are facing to transition their journals to OA as well as to identify sustainable, implementable and scalable solutions for successful Open Access transition.

For program details and registration, please follow the link below:
https://sciforum.net/conference/SustainableSolutionsToOpenAccess

The European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference series are international, technical and scientific conferences, focused on ocean renewable energy. EWTEC series are widely respected for their commitment to maintaining high standards in the quality of academic and industrial contributions to their proceedings.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

Sustainability

Water

Energies

Applied Sciences

Electronics

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #13). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: http://www.ewtec.org/conferences/ewtec-2019/.

We are pleased to inform that Applied Sciences received an updated Journal Impact Factor of 2.217 in the recent release of the Journal Citation Reports®. The journal's 5-Year Impact Factor is 2.287. Applied Sciences now ranks 151/293 (Q3) in the category 'Materials Sciences, Multidisciplinary', 67/148 (Q2) in the category 'Physics, Applied' and 89/172 (Q2) in the category 'Chemistry, Multidisciplinary'.

Evolution of Impact Factor, Citations and Publications for Applied Sciences:

Source: data according to Journal Citation Reports®, 2018 release, a Clarivate Analytics product; and Scopus journal metrics.

MDPI will be attending the 45th International Conference on Micro & Nano Engineering (MNE 2019), to be held in Rhodes Island, Greece, 23 - 26 September 2019.

MNE is the core international conference focusing on: micro/ nanofabrication and manufacturing techniques, and application of the fabricated micro/nanostructures, devices and microsystems into electronics, photonics, energy, environment, chemistry and life sciences.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Nanomaterials

Micromachines

Safety

Coatings

Biosensors

Applied Sciences

Chemosensors

Electronics

Energies

Materials

Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #3). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: http://www.cleoeurope.org/.

MDPI will be attending the CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2019, to be held in Munich, Germany, 23–27 June 2019.

CLEO/Europe-EQEC 2019 will be offering an expanded short course programme covering a wide range of exciting topics in photonics and laser technology. Short courses participants are generally targeted individuals who wish to learn about a topic outside their main area of expertise. They are intended for engineers and scientists.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Applied Sciences
• Materials
• Fibers
• Photonics

The journal Section Editor in Chief, Dibyendu Sarkar, has been selected as the 2019 SSSA (Soil Science Society of America) Fellow Award recipient. He will be recognized during the 2019 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, USA.

The SSSA Fellow is the highest recognition bestowed by the Soil Science Society of America. Members of the Society nominate worthy colleagues based on their professional achievements and meritorious service. Up to 0.3 percent of the Society’s active and emeritus members may be elected Fellow.

We want to sincerely congratulate Prof. Dr. Dibyendu Sarkar on this excellent achievement.  

MDPI will attend WHTC 2019 in Tokyo, Japan from 2–7 June 2019.

The World Hydrogen Technologies Convention, consisting of an exhibition and various sessions, is one of the most authoritative international conferences related to hydrogen technologies. WHTC 2019 aims to provide a forum for scientific, industrial, governmental, and general audiences from all over the world to gather together and present their most recent research findings, and to offer a stimulating atmosphere to discuss and exchange ideas on frontier research topics and future possibilities in hydrogen energy technologies through oral / poster presentations and technology exhibitions. This conference will be a place for the sharing and exchange of information on hydrogen-related technologies and policies and also for deepening international cooperation while discussing the future of a low carbon society.

Our representatives will be exhibiting the open access journals Energies, Catalysts, Processes, Safety, Metals, Applied Sciences, and ChemEngineering.

If you will also be in attendance, please stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and to answering any questions you may have regarding open access publishing or our journals. For more information about this conference, please visit http://whtc2019.jp/index.html.

People rely on optics every day. By utilizing the knowledge of how light behaves under different conditions, scientists and engineers develop remarkable technologies that improve our world. In expanding our offerings to the field of optics, MDPI will be launching a broad-interest and high-quality journal, Optics, an open access journal that seeks full research articles in all areas of optics and related interdisciplinary areas. Optics will also act as a medium for exchanging ideas and thoughts regarding the impacts of optical research.

Optics is an international, peer-reviewed open access journal which aims to present cutting edge research related to all aspects of optics. We are now seeking a founding Editor-in-Chief to develop Optics into a leading flagship journal in this field.

The main responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief include the following:

• Setting the scope and direction of the journal;
• Advising on the strategic development of the journal;
• Ensuring the quality of the published content;
• Coordinating the Editorial Board and stimulating their contributions to the journal;
• Promoting the journal at scientific conferences and through other venues.

We also welcome scientists in the field of optics to join our Editorial Board.

A full application for evaluation should include these items:

• An up-to-date CV;
• A description of the candidate’s vision for Optics.

Applications are due by 20 June 2019. Please send your application or any questions to the Optics Editorial Office ([email protected]).

In order to better categorize papers published within the journal, the following three new topical sections have been set up recently:

Earth Sciences and Geography

Civil Engineering

Applied Industrial Technologies

We are now recruiting the Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for these sections. If you are an active researcher in one of the aforementioned fields and are passionate about participating in the cutting-edge research of the corresponding field, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected]).

Applied Sciences Editorial Office

Applied Sciences, MDPI’s open access journal on all aspects of applied natural sciences, has published more than 6000 articles and reviews since its inception in 2011. Applied Sciences is now covered in the Science Citation Index Expanded in Web of Science and received an Impact Factor of 1.689 for 2017.

Applied Sciences’ current CiteScore in Scopus is 1.98. The CiteScore is a ratio between the number of citations in 2017 to papers published in 2014–2016 in the numerator and the number of papers published in 2014–2016 in the denominator, drawn from Scopus data.

Our sincerest thanks go to the Editor-in-Chief of Applied Sciences, Prof. Dr. Takayoshi Kobayashi; to all the editorial board members; as well as to the Guest Editors of our Special Issues, who have ensured, with their hard work and diligence, the continued success of the journal.

We are pleased to welcome more universities from Poland, Italy, Germany, Brazil and other parts of the world to MDPI's Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). A warm welcome to the institutions listed below, who have joined the Program in February and March this year.

Authors affiliated with these institutions can now enjoy a discount on the APC for papers accepted for publication in any MDPI journal. If you would like to learn more about our program, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap or email us at [email protected].

We are delighted to announce our participation in Jisc’s Publication Router project, as of March 2019.

Publications Router is a Jisc service that automatically sends notifications about research articles to institutions' systems such as their repositories or CRISs, since May 2015. Through this agreement, MDPI will provide Jisc with daily feeds and information regarding published articles, which will be gathered by their system and delivered to institutions also registered to this service. Nearly all of our articles are published within 15 days of acceptance, so institutions will receive them quite promptly.

The feed will include the full text of the published version of record, with no embargo, so the articles can be exposed immediately for public view. They are accompanied by rich metadata, including confirmation of the immediate CC BY licence, minimising the need for any manual intervention or checking.

For more information about Publications Router, you may contact Jisc’s central helpdesk at [email protected]. For any queries about MDPI’s institutional agreements and collaborations, you may get in touch with MDPI’s Institutional Engagement team at [email protected], which would be very happy to hear from further UK institutions.

The editorial office is pleased to announce the winners of the Applied Sciences 2018 Young Investigator Award in “Biosciences and Bioengineering” and “Environmental and Sustainable” Fields.

They have been granted to: Dr. Thanh Duc Nguyen, an assistant Professor in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, USA; and Dr. José Marcos Ortega, who is now an Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Alicante, Spain.

Dr. Thanh Duc Nguyen was nominated by Prof. Cato T. Laurencin (Chief Executive Officer, Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science). Dr. Nguyen is a very impressive and innovative young investigator with outstanding research works focused on biodegradable polymers and technologies of transforming materials into “smart” structures at small scales without compromising their excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability for significant applications in vaccine delivery and medical devices.

Dr. José Marcos Ortega was nominated by the Head of the research group “Durability of materials and constructions in Engineering and Architecture” of the University of Alicante, Professor Miguel Ángel Climent Llorca. Dr. Ortega has continued working in the “Durability of materials and constructions in Engineering and Architecture” research group of the University of Alicante. Recently, he attained a position as an associate professor at the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Alicante, where he is also the secretary of the PhD program “Materials, Structures and Soil Engineering: Sustainable Construction”.

It was a difficult decision with such high-quality applications for the awards, and we would like to thank all applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. On behalf of the assessment committee, we congratulate the winners for their accomplishments. We are proud to support these young scientists and wish them further success in their careers.

The editorial office would like to announce the winners of the Applied Sciences Travel Awards in Nanosciences and Optics fields for 2019.

They have been granted to: Dr. Giuseppe Cavallaro from the University of Palermo, who has demonstrated mobility in the field of Nanotechnology and Applied Nanosciences; and Dr. Juan Sebastian Totero Gongora, a Helena Normanton Research Fellow in Quantum Technology, University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

It was a difficult decision with such high-quality applications for the awards, and we would like to thank all applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. On behalf of the assessment committee, I congratulate the winners for their accomplishments. We are proud to support these young scientists and wish them further success in their careers.

Dr. Juan Sebastian Totero Gongora, winner in Optics field (left); Dr. Giuseppe Cavallaro, winner in Nanosciences field (right).

Rigorous peer-review is the cornerstone of high quality academic publishing. Over 97,000 scholars served as reviewers for MDPI journals in 2018. 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 all reviewers’ names to express our gratitude. In addition, this year the “MDPI Top Reviewer Awards” are announced, to recognize the very best reviewers for their expertise, dedication, high quality, and timely review reports. We are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2018 MDPI Top Reviewer Awards:

• Ali Behnood
• Andrea Pezzuolo
• Angela Gorgoglione
• Anna D'Auria
• Antonio D'Andrea
• Azhar Abbas
• Bogdan Zagajewski
• Chunhui Chen
• Dominika Głąbska
• Dominika Guzek
• Dragan Pamucar
• Francisco J. G. Silva
• Frank Li
• Gianluca Serafini
• Gyorgy Szekely
• Haozhi Pan
• Helvi Heinonen-Tanski
• José Manuel Gómez-Soberón
• Kathy Lewis
• Klara Kosova
• Luis N. López De Lacalle
• M. Z. Naser
• Malwina Tytła
• Masoume Amirkhani
• Matteo Ghidelli
• Moretti Laura
• Petra Schneider
• Roberto Cerchione
• Spyros Papaefthymiou
• Ştefan Cristian Gherghina

Since 2010, MDPI has run its own online submission system. More recently, we have made the software, with accompanying publishing services, available to other publishers as JAMS (Journal and Article Management System). We are now delighted to announce the launch of JAMS Journals, a standardized platform for operating open access journals at low cost.

JAMS Journals provides a comprehensive service, including a shared submission website, journal websites hosted at a URL provided by the publisher, and a full production service. There is a small setup fee and the cost for each published paper is just a few hundred Swiss francs.

The platform demonstrates that running an open access journal can be straightforward and affordable. The JAMS Journals platform is suitable for

• small publishers or groups of scholars looking to launch their own journal;
• existing publishers or societies seeking to explore open access options;
• publishers looking to convert an existing subscription journal to open access.

JAMS journals launches with two journals from Canadian-based publisher Etcetera Publications:

• Canadian Journal of Pesticides & Pest Management (http://www.cjppm.ca)
• Nanotechnology in Agriculture, Food & Environment (http://www.nanoafe.ca)

Dr AJ Al-Rajab (President of Etcetera Publications) comments:

“In the past few months, we were working on our project to launch new open access scientific journals in the field of agricultural and environmental sciences. We decided to go with JAMS for this venture because of the high quality of their services, reasonable prices, professionalism and easy communication. Our portfolio is expected to grow rapidly during 2019 to include more titles covering different areas in agriculture and environment. MDPI earned already our complete satisfaction and we are looking for a long term cooperation.”

Alongside the new platform, we continue to provide flexible, tailored journal management solutions for existing publishers. For any questions or to request a quotation, contact Dr. Constanze Schelhorn ([email protected]).

2018 was a great year for preprints, with increasing numbers of authors looking to make their papers available online before peer review. Along with other preprint servers, our platform Preprints.org  saw an increase in the uptake from authors, and more than double the number of announced papers compared to 2017. In fact, we recently passed two important milestones: 8000 preprints online and 30,000 authors. 

We believe that the whole research community has the opportunity to benefit from work being available online as early as possible. We thank and congratulate our authors for supporting us to make this goal a reality.

In 2019, we will be looking carefully at how to provide better value for authors, maintain efficiency while growing in size, and make sure we remain well-connected with the research community. 

If you want to participate, you can consider screening preprints or joining our advisory board. And, of course, posting your own work.

We are delighted to announce the establishment of our national Open Access agreement with the Austrian Academic Library Consortium (KEMÖ) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Through this national agreement, the Austrian institutions listed below as well as FWF will cover the Article Processing Charges (APC) of manuscripts published by eligible corresponding or funded authors in MDPI journals as long as central funds are available.

All participating institutions have gained access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information as well as Funder and Grant ID details for easy identification and additional transparency. At the same time eligible authors are benefited from an APC discount which comes at no cost for the institutions.

Eligible corresponding authors affiliated with the participating institutions are prompted to choose the corresponding Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) when they submit an article via our online submission system. The program will be selected automatically if authors submit their papers using their institutional email address. To claim their discount, FWF funded authors should choose the particular funder and add their Grant ID upon online submission of their manuscript. The institutions will then crosscheck the information and confirm the APC funding.

Eligible authors that have their APC covered by their institution or funder are advised to include the following sentence in their acknowledgments: "Open Access Funding by the [name of the institution/funder]".

The full text of the agreement is openly available online at: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2536007

For any questions about the agreement, please contact the KEMÖ Consortium at [email protected], FWF at [email protected], or the MDPI IOAP team at [email protected]

The Austrian institutions participating in this agreement are:

• Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
• University for Continuing Education Krems
• University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna
• University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria
• University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien
• Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences
• International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
• Institute of Science and Technology Austria
• MCI Management Center Innsbruck
• University of Graz
• University of Linz
• University of Salzburg
• Graz University of Technology
• TU Wien
• University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
• University of Vienna

This is our first collective agreement with a national library consortium, while the individual institutions around the world participating in our IOAP are now more than 500 - see details here: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap. We would be mostly interested in discussing about possible collaborations with other consortia, funders, and institutions in our mutual efforts to accelerate Open Access.

We are pleased to announce the new platform Encyclopedia, which is an online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as providing benchmark information for researchers and the general public interested in accurate and advanced knowledge on specific topics.

We encourage authors of review articles to quote and adapt the content of their published papers to create Encyclopedia entries. You can create completely new entries on topics in which you have knowledge and expertise. There is no limit on the topics or research fields. All of science and the humanities are included. Each entry will be published directly after submission.

We also have prepared a DOI application function in Encyclopedia. Once a DOI application is approved, the entry website will announce the DOI number and a pdf version with DOI information will be automatically created.

We look forward to your contributions and hope you will make use of this service. Find more about the service at: https://encyclopedia.pub/

We will attend the 32nd International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS 2019). It will be held in Seoul, Korea, 27–31 January 2019, and it will be organized by the society of Micro and Nano Systems (SMNS). MEMS 2019 is one of the premier annual events reporting research results on every aspect of microsystems technology. This conference reflects from the rapid proliferation of the commitment and success of the microsystems research community. In recent years, the IEEE MEMS Conference has attracted more than 700 participants and 800+ abstract submissions and has created a forum to present over 200 select papers in podium and poster/oral sessions. Representatives of the following open-access journals will attend:

Micromachines

Technologies

Chemosensors

Energies

Applied Sciences

Sensors

Fluids

J – Journal of Multidisciplinary Science

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (booth #40). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit http://mems19.org/html/main.php.

Our colleagues and editors will be attending the TMS 2019 Annual Meeting and Exhibition, to be held in San Antonio, TX, USA, 10–14 March 2019. The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Metals

Materials

Coatings

Applied Sciences

Nanomaterials

Micromachines

Journal of Composites Science

Energies

QuBS

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (#137). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you may have.

Our editors and colleagues are attending the 22nd International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (µTAS 2018). The conference is being held at the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from 11 to 15 November 2018, organized by the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society (CBMS).

µTAS 2018 continues a series of Conferences that are the premier forum for reporting research results in microfluidics, microfabrication, nanotechnology, integration, materials and surfaces, analysis and synthesis, and detection technologies for life science and chemistry. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Micromachines

Applied Sciences

International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS)

Sensors

Biosensors

Technologies

Diagnostics

Journal of Multidisciplinary Science (J)

If you're attending the conference too, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #350). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://cbmsociety.org/conferences/microtas2018/

We are delighted to announce that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is now a participant of our Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). Authors funded by the BMGF can enjoy discounts on the APC, while the funder covers the costs of eligible articles centrally. BMGF also has access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information as well as Grant ID details for easy identification and additional transparency.

We hope that funded authors find the programme beneficial and we are happy to offer our IOAP to other funders that need a streamlined workflow of compliance checking and APC coverage. 

To claim their discount, BMGF funded authors should choose the particular funder and add their Grant ID upon online submission of their manuscript.

For any questions about the BMGF agreement, please contact the funder at [email protected] or the MDPI IOAP team at [email protected].

We congratulate Donna Strickland (University of Waterloo, Canada) on receiving the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with fellow physicist Gérard Mourou, for inventing a method for generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses which can be utilized in a variety of applications in science and technology (e.g., advanced material 3D micro-/nano-processing and micro-machining).

One of Dr. Donna Strickland's studies was published in Applied Sciences: Effect of Two-Photon Stark Shift on the Multi-Frequency Raman Spectra Appl. Sci. 2014, 4(3), 390–401. The paper described how linear Raman scattering from two-photon dressed states can lead to the generation of these extra peaks on the low-frequency side of the Raman orders.

The MRG spectra are shown for two positively chirped pump pulses, with total energy of 1.5 mJ as a function of time delay between the two pulses (figure adapted from Appl. Sci. 2014, 4(3), 390–401).

Recently, it was announced that a group of European funders supported 10 principles that will help to expand open access, known as Plan S. MDPI warmly welcomes this move as a step towards achieving more open and accessible communication of research across all disciplines. Some aspects remain to be clarified, however the details given so far match the aims and values that MDPI has held over the past two decades.

We believe that open access publishers should be active participants in discussions around Plan S, particularly regarding potential new business models and practical aspects of implementation. MDPI supports APCs as a transparent unit of payment for article publishing, however we are committed to exploring other measures and recently signed the Jussieu Call. Sustainability is a key value for MDPI, and future funding models should have at their heart the sustainability of knowledge and research dissemination. Plan S provides an opportunity for funders and publishers to directly discuss funding of open access journals in ways that are beneficial to all parties involved.

We are happy to announce the establishment of an Open Access (OA) agreement with Qatar National Library (QNL). QNL is committed to supporting and helping Qatar authors publish OA at no cost. Through this national agreement, QNL will cover the Article Processing Charges (APC) of manuscripts published by Qatar-based corresponding authors in MDPI journals.

Eligible corresponding authors affiliated with Qatar research centers and universities are prompted to choose QNL as part of our Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) when they submit an article via our online submission system. The program will be selected automatically if authors submit their papers using their institutional email and/or a computer registered with the institution’s IP range. QNL will then crosscheck the information and confirm the APC funding.

Qatar authors that have their APC covered by QNL are advised to include the following sentence in their acknowledgments: "The publication of this article was funded by Qatar National Library".

For more information, please visit Open Access at QNL or email the QNL Open Access team at [email protected].

Our editorial team will be attending the XXVI Ibero-American Catalysis Congress (CICat 2018) in Coimbra, Portugal, 9–14 September 2018

As a result of the biannual meetings held since 1968, the Ibero-American Federation of Catalysis Societies (FISoCat), the Portuguese Society of Chemistry (SPQ) and the University of Coimbra, have the pleasure of organizing the XXVI Ibero-American Catalysis Congress (CICat 2018).

As in previous editions, this event aims to be a meeting point for the Ibero-American community working in Catalysis and in all its different areas of scientific knowledge. The 2018 CICat has a symbolic historical importance, for reaching 50 years since the beginning of this series of Encounters. Participants of CICat 2018 are also invited to visit the city of Coimbra, as well as its historic center and the University of Coimbra (UNESCO World Heritage Site).

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Catalysts
Processes
Energies
Symmetry
Applied Sciences
Sustainability
Materials

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth near the Lobby Coffee Break). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: http://cicat2018.eventos.chemistry.pt/?setLn=es.

We are pleased to inform that Applied Sciences received an updated Journal Impact Factor of 1.689 in the June 2018 release of the Journal Citation Reports®. The journal's 5-Year Impact Factor is 1.855. Applied Sciences now ranks 170/285 (Q3) in the category 'Materials Science, Multidisciplinary', 98/171 (Q3) in 'Chemistry, Multidisciplinary' and 77/146 (Q3) in 'Applied Physics.'

Overview of Citation Metrics:

• Journal Impact Factor, 2 yrs (2017): 1.689
• 5-Year Impact Factor (2017):  1.855
• CiteScore, 3 yrs (Scopus):  1.90
• SJR Scimago Journal Rank 2017 (SJR):  0.303
• Source Normalized Impact 2017 (SNIP):  0.801

Evolution of Impact Factor, Citations and Publications for Applied Sciences:

We are pleased to report Applied Sciences received a CiteScore of 1.90 for 2017. The metric reflects citation activity in 2017 in Scopus for papers published in the period 2014‒2016.

For the full details in the current CiteScore release, please see the journal's Source profile. To check the full list of MDPI journals receiving CiteScores, please see here.

The 2017 CiteScore™ data is available now, based on citation data in the Scopus® database. The current CiteScore reflects citation activity in 2017 for articles published in 2014‒2016. Please note that the list below includes journals assigned a CiteScore in this year’s release. For a full list of journals indexed in Scopus, please see our journal list.

Thirteen of our journals received a CiteScore which is in the top 10% of the distribution in at least one of the categories (marked with * in the table below), while a further 32 journals exhibit scores that are in the first quartile of the respective categories.

To access the full data for MDPI journals, please see here. More data can also be found in SJR Scimago Journal & Country Rank.

Unlike CiteScores and the widely used Journal Impact Factors, the Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) metrics are normalized in order to correct for differences in citation practices between scientific fields. Therefore, the SNIP allows direct comparison between journals specialized in different fields.

According to 2017 data, MDPI publishes six journals with an average citation impact, or SNIP, in excess of 1.500. These journals are Biomolecules, Cancers, Journal of Clinical Medicine (JCM), Marine Drugs, Remote Sensing and Sensors (see the last column in the table below).

CiteScore Data for MDPI Journals

MDPI will be attending the 69th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, to be held in Bologna, Italy, 2–7 September 2018.

To mark the continuity between academic culture and technological progress, the scientific theme of the meeting is Electrochemistry from Knowledge to Innovation. Fundamental aspects of analytical, molecular, physical and bioelectrochemistry will be discussed, as well as their applications to (nano)materials science, energy, environment and biomedicine.

The following MDPI journals will be represented at the Meeting:

• Coatings
• Metals
• Applied Science
• Catalysts
• Materials
• Chemosensors
• Biosensors

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #9). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: http://annual69.ise-online.org/.

We are pleased to announce the results of the first MDPI Writing Prize. We received a large number of entries from across the globe on the theme of “The Global Benefits of Open Research”. It was a pleasure to read so many original, well-researched and well-presented ideas, and the final choice was not an easy one. We are pleased to announce that the winners are as follows:

1st prize (500 CHF, Swiss knife and certificate)

Edmond Sanganyado, Shantou University, China

2nd prizes (250 CHF, Swiss knife and certificate)

Kamala T. Rajahgopal, Asia e University, Malaysia
Yin Zhixuan, Qingdao University of Technology, China

3rd prizes (100 CHF, Swiss knife and certificate)

Alexandra Ticea, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Romania
Ankur Sarker, University of Virginia, USA
Daniel Attoye, United Arab Emirates University, UAE

Congratulations to all of them! The winning entries can be downloaded by clicking on the names above. A compilation of all entries will soon be available as an open access book.

The writing prize is sponsored by the MDPI English editing service.

At MDPI, we always want to keep you up to date. Even for already published articles, some corrections or minor changes may occur. To prevent you from missing any updates, from now on you will be able to access the latest version of any manuscript by clicking on the “check for updates” logo that you can find in the PDF file, even if you have saved the file on your computer.

We are proud to announce that MDPI is now a member of UKSG, the UK´s largest scholarly communications community. Through UKSG, different stakeholders share their knowledge and experience in order to improve the knowledge and information environment for researchers. UKSG´s members include universities, publishers, content providers, intermediaries, and other similar organisations. Members participate in discussions and events on issues around scholarly communications.

The UKSG Annual Conference and Exhibition is a flagship initiative from the UKSG and one of the most stimulating events in the scholarly communications calendar. It is held annually and attracts a large number of delegates. More information is available at https://www.uksg.org/events/annualconference

MDPI is delighted to be a part of this active community and we look forward to making our own contribution. We will continue to support organisations and initiatives that boost collaboration and vision within scholarly communication.

More information about UKSG can be found at https://www.uksg.org/. The full membership list is available at: https://www.uksg.org/members.

MDPI will be attending the 2018 E-MRS Spring Meeting and Exhibit. The conference is a plenary session to provide an international forum for discussing recent advances in the field of materials science. It will consist of 29 parallel symposia with invited speakers, oral and poster presentations. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Applied Sciences
Biomimetics
Clean Technologies
Coatings
Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing (JMMP)
Materials
Metals
Nanomaterials
Polymers
Processes
Quantum Beam Science (QuBS)

We will be attending the 20th annual Nanotech 2018 Conference & Expo (NANOTECH 2018), co-located with the TechConnect World Innovation Conference, Defense TechConnect Summit and Spring SBIR/STTR Conference. The event will attract more than 350 featured exhibitors and an expected crowd of more than 4000 attendees, including business executives, venture capitalists, politicians, s cientists and researchers from over 70 countries. Nanotech contains 38 symposiums and brings together specialists from a wide range of scientific fields, technology and business.

Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Sensors
Materials
Nanomaterials
Journal of Functional Biomaterials (JFB)
Journal of Imaging
Sustainability
Fluids
Photonics
Electronics
Catalysts
Applied Sciences
Inventions
Diagnostics
Cancers
Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications (JLPEA)
Designs
Pharmaceuticals
C
Inorganics
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)
Machines
Pharmaceutics
Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing (JMMP)
Actuators
Robotics
Energies
Biosensors
Chemosensors
Membranes
Coatings
Micromachines

If you will also attend this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth # 317). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit:

https://www.techconnectworld.com/Nanotech2018/

Conference Location:
Anaheim Convention Center,
800 W Katella Avenue
Anaheim CA 92802
USA

The DORA initiative addresses the need for advanced approaches in the evaluation and measurement of the quality of scientific research outputs. It is a worldwide initiative covering all scholarly disciplines. MDPI proudly joins a list of more than 400 organizations around the world which support DORA’s recommendations for improving the way the quality of research results is evaluated.

More info can be found at http://www.ascb.org/dora/

We will be attending the 255th ACS National Meeting & Exposition. It is an interdisciplinary forum open to anyone with an interest in Chemistry and the related disciplines. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Agronomy
Applied Sciences
Beverages
Biomimetics
Biosensors
C
Catalysts
ChemEngineering
Chemosensors
Coatings
Energies
Environments
Fibers
Foods
Gels
Inorganics
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (JMSE)
Lubricants
Materials
Mathematics
Metals
Molecules
Nanomaterials
Polymers
Processes
Resources
Safety
Sensors
Separations
Sustainability
Symmetry
Toxins
Water

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #640). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/national-meeting.html?sc=home_meetings_170818_mtg_NO18_od

Sensors are vital components of smart manufacturing, artificial Intelligence, Cyber–Physical System (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT) for industry 4.0. For more advanced creations, biologists, engineers, physicists and chemists are all endeavoring to provide innovative technical sensors. In 2018, the journal Sensors is going to hold an international conference in Kenting, which is located in the south of Taiwan; the conference is taking place in Asia for the first time.

I3S embraces all professionals from industry, academia and government to discuss the latest developments and breakthroughs of sensor technology and related subjects. During the conference, attendees, from a range of research areas, will all gather together to share different aspects and establish new mutually beneficial collaborations across different fields.

Conference scope: Physical Sensors; Sensor Networks; Sensors Application; Biosensors; Chemical Sensors; IOT sensor and application.

We sincerely look forward to your participation in I3S2018.

The competition is still open until end of March! Please check out the banner for more details: https://res.mdpi.com/data/english-prize.pdf

We are delighted to announce that UCL Press has adopted MDPI's Journal Article & Management System, JAMS, including production services. JAMS is a modular, integrated editorial platform for academic publishers. It offers flexibility, ease-of-use, and is a fully integrated solution for the end-to-end management of scholarly journals. JAMS is based on the software used to publish MDPI’s portfolio of journals. 

Ian Caswell, UCL Press Journals Manager, says he is "excited to see UCL Press and MDPI partner together to implement the JAMS submission system for all UCL Press journals. The system offered a flexible, efficient and straightforward solution for our processes from author submission to ready for publication. I am grateful for the valuable experience and support MDPI have offered and look forward to developing our programme with an effective submission system in place.” Dr Martyn Rittman, MDPI’s Publishing Services Manager, adds, “We are proud to support one of the UK’s premier university presses in their publishing operation. This is an excellent way for us at MDPI to share our experience and knowledge, and benefit the research community beyond our own journals.”

JAMS combines services that are kept separate for many publishers. The entire editorial process, production and invoicing (e.g. for open access article processing charges) are fully integrated into a single platform. This allows for efficient, fast manuscript processing. For further information about JAMS, see https://www.mdpi.com/publishing_services. 

We will be attending the 147th TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition, which will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, March 11–15, 2018, representing the following open access journals:

Metals
Materials
Coatings
Applied Sciences
Energies
Minerals
Fibers
JFB

Please come along to our booth (#322) to talk with our delegates about online publishing and our journals. We look forward to meeting you in person in Phoenix!

For more information on the conference, please visit:
http://www.tms.org/tms2018

We are pleased to welcome new participants to MDPI's Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP), designed to help institutions manage the transition to the Open Access publishing model. Researchers affiliated with participating universites benefit from a 10% discount on the Article Processing Charges (APC) for any paper published in an MDPI journal, while the participating library or university incurs no basic fee for participating in the program.

• No fee for participants and no obligation to prolong after the initial 12 months. The participants may withdraw from the programme at any time, and we will also keep it free for the library for as long as they continue in the programme.
• Authors affiliated with the university will receive a 10% discount on the APC.
• The institution is granted free access to the MDPI submission system and can receive free alerts of new submissions to our journals.
• By default, authors from the institution will continue to be invoiced directly unless the institution opts for central billing.
• Auto-archiving of papers into the institutions´ repository as long as it supports SWORD 1.3.

More details about the programme and a list of our current participant institutions can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap

Institutions which are interested to participate may do so online at: https://www.mdpi.com/ioap-form

The following North American universities have signed up to the IOAP program recently:

Connecticut College, USA
Emory University, USA
Florida International University, USA
Johns Hopkins University, USA
Mississippi State University, USA
Northeastern University, USA
Rice University, USA
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada
University of Rhode Island, USA
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA
University of Toronto, Canada
University of Windsor, Canada
University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA
Wellesley College, USA
West Virginia University, USA

Many prestigious institutions from Europe and Asia have joined as well:

Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation, Malaysia
Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
Gdansk University of Technology, Poland
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
Newcastle University, UK
Northumbria University, UK
Southwest University, China
Technical University of Crete, Greece
University Malaya, Malaysia
University of Antwerp, Belgium
University of Cyprus, Cyprus
University of Manchester, UK
University of Reading, UK
University of Sussex, UK
University of Warwick, UK
West Pomeranian University of Technology Szczecin, Poland

We offer a warm welcome to the new participants!

In order to reward the academic community, especially young researchers, and enhance communication among scientists, MDPI journals regularly offer various awards to researchers in specific fields, for example, Young Investigator Awards, Travel Awards, Best Paper Awards, and Best Poster Awards, etc. The awardees range from PhD students to junior scientists.

Currently, the following 44 awards given by MDPI journals are accepting applications. Please click on the award title below to check whether you are eligible for it and start the application process.

We are pleased to announce that Professor Andrea Prati has been appointed as Section Editor-in-Chief of “Computer Science and Electrical Engineering” in Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). His term started at the beginning of November 2017.

Andrea Prati graduated with honors in Computer Engineering in 1998 and received his PhD in Information Engineering from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2001. He was a visiting scholar for 9 months at the University of California, San Diego in 2001. From 2005 to 2011, he was a researcher at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. In 2013, he was promoted to full professorship.

His research interests encompass different themes, from embedded devices for sensor networks in computer vision applications, to robotic vision, to multimedia, to performance analysis for multimedia computers. However, his main research activity is in video-surveillance topics: object tracking in distributed, multi-camera environments; analysis and removal of shadows; behavior analysis through trajectory classification. He recently started to research mobile vision, i.e., the application of sophisticated computer vision techniques on mobile phones.

He is the author of more than 150 papers, including 30 journals and five book chapters (list of publications can be found here. He has been an invited speaker and reviewer for many international journals. He is also Area Editor of Elsevier CVIU journal, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, Eurasip JIVP, SPIE Optical Engineering and IOS Press JAISE. In 2017, he was appointed as Section Editor-in-Chief for the Section “Computer Science, Electrical and Electronic Engineering” for Applied Sciences.

He has also organized several Special Issues in international journals. He was the PC of ICIAP 2007. He was the PC of ACM/IEEE ICDSC in 2011, 2012, and 2013 and General Chair for the 2014 edition in Venice, Italy. He was also the local chair for International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) 2017, a leading conference in computer vision with more than 3200 attendees. He is a senior member of IEEE, and a member of ACM and GIRPR, and fellow of IAPR.

We would like to warmly welcome Professor Andrea Prati as Section Editor-in-Chief and look forward to developing the Section “Computer Science and Electrical Engineering” under his leadership.

The Jussieu Call aims to develop and implement alternative models to meet the aims of open science while promoting bibliodiversity. In particular it wishes to promote new business models for funding open access publication. It was drafted on the Jussieu campus in Paris by a group of French researchers and scientific publishing professionals.

MDPI supports scholarly communities and initiatives that innovate and further promote Open Access publishing. There is a need to explore different frameworks to fund open access in ways that ensure that excessive funds are not diverted from research towards publishing. Many fair funding models already exist, and they can be further developed and extended. These include institutional support, library contributions or subsidies, premium services, participatory funding, etc. For this reason, MDPI has signed up to the Jussieu call and welcomes its aims.

More information can be found at http://jussieucall.org/ (archived here)

The Society for Scholarly Publishing’s popular blog about topics in academic publishing, Scholarly Kitchen, recently interviewed MDPI’s CEO, Dr. Franck Vazquez. He shared some thoughts and information on the past and future of MDPI and open access publishing in general:

“In the long run, we aim to anchor MDPI in research communities. We recently developed and launched the preprint platform Preprints, revamped our free-to-use conference hosting platform Sciforum, and are working on other projects, such as Scilit, our bibliographic database.”

Read the full interview here.

We will be attending the MicroTAS 2017, a series of Conferences that are the premier forum for reporting research results in microfluidics, microfabrication, nanotechnology, integration, materials and surfaces, analysis and synthesis, and detection technologies for life science and chemistry. It will be held at the Savannah International Trade and Conference Center in Savannah, Georgia, USA from October 22–26, 2017, representing the following MDPI open access journals:

Micromachines
Sensors
Diagnostics
Biosensors
Technologies
Applied Sciences

Please visit our stand ((booth number: #6) to chat about our journals with our delegates. We look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: http://www.microtas2017.org.

Conference Location

Savannah International Trade & Convention Center
1 International Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31402
USA

Once over 10 papers are received for this Special Issue, one of the published papers will be selected to receive a SI Best Paper Award by an Evaluation Committee.

Criteria:

From papers submitted to this Special Issue, the award nominees will be assessed on their originality, quality, and contribution to the field.

Award:

A SI Best paper Award consisting of 300 CHF, a certificate and the opportunity to publish one’s next submission free of charge in Applied Sciences will be given to the authors of the winning best paper of the Special Issue.

We will be attending the 2017 MRS Fall Meeting which will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, from November 26–December 1, 2017, and representing the following open access journals:

Materials
Nanomaterials
Energies
Metals
Applied Sciences
Crystals
Minerals
Journal of Functional Biomaterials
Coatings
Robotics
Biosensors
Chemosensors
Polymers
Bioengineering

Please come along to our booth (booth number: #122) to chat with our delegates about our journals and hear about our travel awards offered to Postdocs and PhD students. Our delegates will also answer any questions about online publishing and our journals. We look forward to meeting you in person in Boston!

For more information on the conference, please visit:
www.mrs.org/fall2017

We are delighted to have welcomed 24 new participants to our Institutional Open Access Programme (IOAP) since the beginning of September this year. These are University libraries and Research Institutions located around the world; from the USA and Canada to the UK, and from Norway and Spain to Greece. Well respected Universities, such as the University of Denver, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Arizona in the US, have signed up, while their researchers can now benefit from a 10% discount on the Article Processing Charges (APC) for any papers they publish in MDPI journals, at no cost for the library or the University.

We are more than happy to see the Open Access movement growing stronger and wider every day and we appreciate the vital role which librarians, repository managers, and other scholarly communications professionals play in the field. Our communication with and service to this community is, therefore, one of our principal priorities. The IOAP is our way to support academic and scientific Institutions as well as their scholars in managing, administrating, and publishing research in an Open Access world.

The IOAP set of free services, provided by MDPI to institutions that sign up, include:

• No fee for participants and no obligation to prolong after the initial 12 months. The participants may withdraw from the programme at any time, and we will also keep it free for the library for as long as they continue in the programme.
• Authors affiliated with the university will receive a discount on the article processing charge (APC).
• The institution is granted free access to the MDPI submission system and can receive free alerts of new submissions to our journals.
• By default, authors from the institution will continue to be invoiced directly unless the institution opts for central billing.
• Auto-archiving of papers into the institutions´ repository as long as it supports SWORD 1.3.

More details about the programme and a list of our current participant institutions can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap

Institutions which are interested to participate may do so online at: https://www.mdpi.com/ioap-form

 The full list of the Institutions that signed up in September is as follows:

1. University of Denver, USA
2. University of Colorado Boulder, USA
3. University of Arizona, USA
4. Institute of Metrology of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
5. Middlebury College, USA
6. Touro College, USA
7. University of New Orleans, USA
8. University of Leicester, UK
9. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA
10. University of Strathclyde, UK
11. Cranfield University, UK
12. Hope College, USA
13. Oregon State University, USA
14. Drew University, USA
15. Swansea University, UK
16. University of South Florida, USA
17. University of Georgia, USA
18. Arizona State University, USA
19. University of Southern Mississippi, USA
20. Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Canada
21. Grinnell College, USA
22. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
23. University of Patras, Greece
24. Public University of Navarre, Spain

Congratulations to the authors Javier Monroy and Javier Gonzalez-Jimenez from Universidad de Malaga, Spain, Victor Hernandez-Bennets, Han Fan and Achim Lilienthal from Örebro University, Sweden for publishing the 100,000th peer-reviewed article.

The article is published in the Chemical Sensors section of Sensors.

GADEN: A 3D Gas Dispersion Simulator for Mobile Robot Olfaction in Realistic Environments

Evermore pressing environmental concerns have led global actors and decision-makers to search for stricter emission monitoring approaches. As part of novel monitoring systems, robots with gas and environmental sensors are a promising solution. However, validation of such robotic inspectors is expensive, time consuming, and plagued by repeatability issues. In this article, we present GADEN (the short form for Gas Dispersion Simulator for Mobile Robot Olfaction in Realistic Environments), which combines gas dispersion and robotics simulation in a common framework. Developed under the widely used Robot Operating System (ROS), GADEN enables validation of sensing strategies with gas dispersion being simulated using computational fluid dynamics and filament dispersion theory. GADEN allows simulating complex, realistic, 3D environments for reproducible testing of robotic gas sensing algorithms. Through qualitative and quantitative evaluations, we show that GADEN is a versatile and user-friendly evaluation tool and emphasize its enormous potential for the mobile robot olfaction community.

Read the full article here: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/7/1479/htm

Evolution of Impact Factor, Citations and Publications for Applied Sciences:

We will be attending the World of Photonic Congress 2017, which takes place June 25-29, 2017, representing the following open access journals:

Applied Sciences
Materials
Technologies
Photonics
Micromachines

Please come along to our stand, to have a chat about our journals with our delegates about our journals andor to learn more about our travel awards that offered to Postdocs and PhD students by the representeding journals offering to Postdocs and PhD students.

Conference address:
World of Photonic Congress 2017
International Congress Center, Munich, Germany

Conference date:
June 25–-29 2017

For more information on the conference, please visit:
http://www.cleoeurope.org/world-of-photonics-congress

The CiteScore, the new citation metric for journals covered in the Scopus® database, was released on 1 June 2017, reflecting the citation activity in 2016 for articles published during the three previous years. Please note that the list below does not contain all MDPI journals covered in Scopus. For the CiteScore to serve as a reliable metric at least three volumes of articles need to be indexed in Scopus; journals which have not met this criterion have been omitted here.

Ten MDPI journals received a CiteScore which is in the Top 10% of scores in at least one of the categories, while a further 21 journals exhibit scores that are in the first quartile of the respective categories.

CiteScore Data for MDPI Journals