Announcements

Editor’s Choice Articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

We are pleased to present the Editor’s Choice Articles published in Biology (ISSN 2079-7737), and we hope that these papers can help and provide a reference for your academic research. A carefully curated list of high-quality articles can be found below.

1. “Butterfly Wing Color Pattern Modification Inducers May Act on Chitin in the Apical Extracellular Site: Implications in Morphogenic Signals for Color Pattern Determination”
by Joji M. Otaki and Yugo Nakazato
Biology 2022, 11(11), 1620; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11111620
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/11/1620

2. “Visual Monitoring Strategies of Sentinels in a Cooperative Breeder”
by Guy Beauchamp and Reed Bowman
Biology 2022, 11(12), 1769; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11121769
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/12/1769

3. “Endophytic Pseudomonas sp. from Agave palmeri Participate in the Rhizophagy Cycle and Act as Biostimulants in Crop Plants”
by Qiuwei Zhang, Kathryn L. Kingsley and James F. White
Biology 2022, 11(12), 1790; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11121790
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/12/1790

4. “Linoleate-Enrichment of Mitochondrial Cardiolipin Molecular Species Is Developmentally Regulated and a Determinant of Metabolic Phenotype”
by Genevieve C. Sparagna, Raleigh L. Jonscher, Sydney R. Shuff, Elisabeth K. Phillips, Cortney E. Wilson, Kathleen C. Woulfe, Anastacia M. Garcia, Brian L. Stauffer and Kathryn C. Chatfield
Biology 2023, 12(1), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12010032
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/12/1/32 

5. “An Overview of D7 Protein Structure and Physiological Roles in Blood-Feeding Nematocera”
by Patricia H. Alvarenga and John F. Andersen
Biology 2023, 12(1), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12010039
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/12/1/39

6. “Rapid Response to Experimental Warming of a Microbial Community Inhabiting High Arctic Patterned Ground Soil”
by Kevin K. Newsham, Birgitte Kortegaard Danielsen, Elisabeth Machteld Biersma, Bo Elberling, Guy Hillyard, Priyanka Kumari, Anders Priemé, Cheolwoon Woo and Naomichi Yamamoto
Biology 2022, 11(12), 1819; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11121819
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/12/1819

7. “A Biomarker Approach as Responses of Bioindicator Commercial Fish Species to Microplastic Ingestion: Assessing Tissue and Biochemical Relationships”
by Xavier Capó, Merce Morató, Carme Alomar, Beatriz Rios-Fuster, Maria Valls, Montserrat Compa and Salud Deudero
Biology 2022, 11(11), 1634; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11111634
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/11/1634

8. “Brain-Derived Estrogen and Neurological Disorders”
by Darrell W. Brann, Yujiao Lu, Jing Wang, Gangadhara R. Sareddy, Uday P. Pratap, Quanguang Zhang, Rajeshwar R. Tekmal and Ratna K. Vadlamudi
Biology 2022, 11(12), 1698; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11121698
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/12/1698

9. “Wide-Field Calcium Imaging of Neuronal Network Dynamics In Vivo”
by Angela K. Nietz, Laurentiu S. Popa, Martha L. Streng, Russell E. Carter, Suhasa B. Kodandaramaiah and Timothy J. Ebner
Biology 2022, 11(11), 1601; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11111601
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/11/1601

10. “Methionine Metabolism Is Down-Regulated in Heart of Long-Lived Mammals”
by Natalia Mota-Martorell, Mariona Jové, Rebeca Berdún, Èlia Òbis, Gustavo Barja and Reinald Pamplona
Biology 2022, 11(12), 1821; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11121821
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/12/1821 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the research groups that submitted manuscripts to Biology.

As a leading open access publisher, MDPI provides scholars with a high-quality and rich academic exchange platform by continuously expanding into new and exciting research areas.

In December 2022, MDPI launched five new journals, covering multiple subjects such as life sciences, biology, medicine and pharmacology, social sciences and humanities. These new journals are being edited by established scholars across the world.

If you are interested in creating more open access journals with us to publish cutting-edge research, please send your journal proposal application to newjournal-committee@mdpi.com.

MDPI is pleased to announce that we now display the co-authors’ email addresses in addition to the corresponding author’s email address on the webpage of published papers, protected by Captcha. For more information about this change, please visit the journal’s instructions for authors page. 

We believe this change will facilitate academic discussions and advance our cause of open science and research. The corresponding authors are responsible for communicating with their co-authors and indicating in our system (https://susy.mdpi.com/) if co-authors would prefer for their email addresses not to be displayed.

On 9 February 2023, Clarivate, a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics, added the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science platform, streamlining the research process by allowing researchers to locate and link to preprints alongside other trusted content in the database.

The Preprint Citation Index will act as a bridge to connect cutting-edge preprints with peer-reviewed journal articles published within the Web of Science Core Collection. Alerts can be easily set to monitor new research across several repositories and authors will also be able to include preprints on their Web of Science Research Profile to more accurately display their various research outputs.

As of its launch, the Preprint Citation Index will provide nearly two million preprints from various repositories, including MDPI’s own Preprints.org.

MDPI's Preprints Platform – Preprints.org

To advance Open Science and the fast dissemination of research, MDPI offers researchers a free multidisciplinary preprint platform. Preprints.org accepts submissions from all research areas and offers authors high visibility, permanent archiving, article-level Metrics and immediately citable content by assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all preprints.

During submission to any MDPI journal, authors have the option to share their research as a preprint. After an initial screening, the manuscript is available online in 48 hours or less. Once online, preprints can be downloaded, shared, commented on, and cited, providing authors maximum visibility.

We invite you to join the ranks of the over 100k researchers using Preprints.org and share your research.

For more information, please visit Preprints.org.

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative—the MDPI Special Issue Mentor Program.

This program will enable early career researchers (who must hold a Ph.D. in a related field) to experience editing a Special Issue in MDPI journals, under the mentorship of our experienced Editorial Board Members or other experienced scientists. The mentor program will provide an excellent opportunity for early career scientists to gain editorial experience, and to cultivate their ability to edit scientific research.

The mentee’s responsibilities include:

• Proposing a Special Issue title and assisting the mentor in preparing a summary (around 200–400 words) and 3–10 keywords describing the background, importance, and goal of the Issue;
• Writing a brief promotion plan for the Special Issue;
• Preparing a list of scholars who may be interested in the Issue and personally e-mailing invitations on behalf of Guest Editors;
• Writing an editorial for the online Special Issue together with the mentor.

The mentor’s responsibilities include:

• Conducting a final check before the Special Issue is published online;
• Performing editorial control of the Special Issue and quality control of the publications, both of which must be carried out in a timely manner;
• Providing suggestions to younger scholars if they have any doubts or concerns regarding submissions;
• Organizing video calls with young scholars and the Editorial Office regularly to discuss problems and improvement suggestions for the Special Issue;
• Making and submitting decisions regarding submissions with the assistance of mentees.

Certificates and awards:
After the Special Issue closes, the Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all the mentors and early career researchers.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Editorial Office of a journal you choose, and we will discuss the process (i.e., mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail. The full list of MDPI journals is as follows: https://www.mdpi.com/about/journals.

In addition to the new Special Issue Mentor Program, we will continue to welcome all Special Issue proposals focusing on hot research topics.

MDPI has just become the first open access (OA) publisher to reach the milestone of one million articles published. That is one million articles freely available to all, to circulate and build upon! We are proud to share this special moment with the global scientific community.

This landmark has been reached thanks to the immeasurable support of more than 600,000 expert reviewers, 66,000 editorial board members and 6700 hard-working colleagues across MDPI’s global offices.

Within more than 25 years of publishing, our journals received 2.1 million manuscripts and generated 4.6 million peer review reports to get to one million papers published.

Reaching the milestone of one million articles published reinforces our mission to remove any existing barriers and to make scientific research accessible to all. Since its inception, MDPI’s goal has been to create reliable processes to make science open. This is a path towards facilitating the dissemination of novel insights in scientific communities.

Regular feedback from authors and reviewers shows that our service is greatly appreciated and needed. At the same time, the feedback helps us identify areas for further improvement.

As it stands, a significant share of published research findings remain closed access. More than half of the content published with the most well-known legacy publishers stays behind a paywall, and that is not including articles published in hybrid OA journals, or made available months or years after publication.

A new policy announced by the US administration in August 2022 requires that, as of January 2026, all US federally funded research be made freely and immediately available after publication. While the new policy does not mandate articles be published under an open access license, it is aligned with the open access movement in removing all barriers to research. Similarly, some of the most advanced research institutions in the world intend to have all funded research articles published in open access by 2025.

MDPI is proud to be the leading agent of the transition to open access.

"Thanks a Million" to all the contributors!

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Panayiotis Dimitrakopoulos, from the University of the Aegean, has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Ecology” in Biology (ISSN: 2079-7737).

Prof. Dr. Dimitrakopoulos’s research mainly focuses on biodiversity effects on ecosystem processes in Mediterranean ecosystems, plant community ecology, serpentine ecology, and nature conservation policy.

During his past tenure as a member of the Editorial Board, Prof. Dr. Panayiotis Dimitrakopoulos was actively involved in all aspects of the journal, including manuscript pre-checks, peer review and decision making, and he has edited several successful Special Issues. We look forward to further successful collaboration with Prof. Dr. Dimitrakopoulos in his new editorial role.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Panayiotis Dimitrakopoulos, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and Open Access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as its Section Editor-in-Chief?
I am honored to be asked to contribute to the success of a new Section in one of the best journals in this particular scientific field and flattered to be invited. It's an opportunity to contribute to my wider research community and learn things at the same time.

2. What is your vision for the Section?
My vision is for “Ecology” to find its niche in this journal.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?
Ecology is called upon to provide answers to major environmental problems of the 21st century. For this reason, the production of innovative knowledge by talented people is required.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?
Open Access is a useful tool, but it must ensure equality among all (both authors and readers).

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Panayiotis Dimitrakopoulos as he starts his new role as Section Editor-in-Chief, and we look forward to him leading Biology to achieve many more milestones.

We are pleased to announce that the website of the MDPI Sustainability Foundation has been revamped! For the past couple of months, our UX UI team and front-end developers have been working hard to launch the website in time for the opening of the Sustainability Awards nominations.

The website is not the only thing that has had a remodeling. Indeed, the format of the Emerging Sustainability Leader Award (ESLA) has been updated. ESLA is now a competition open to individual researchers or start-ups founded by researchers under the age of 35. Nominee applications will go through 2 rounds of selection until the final 3 are decided. The finalists will then be invited to give pitch presentations during the Award Ceremony to win either first place (10,000 USD) or runner-up (2 x 5000 USD).

The World Sustainability Award, on the other hand, remains the same: a total prize money of 100,000 USD is up for grabs by senior individual researchers or groups of researchers from the international research community.

Nominations for both the World Sustainability Award and the Emerging Sustainability Leader award are now open! Check out our new website for more information on how to nominate.

Biology (ISSN: 2079-7737, IF: 5.168), a peer-reviewed, open access journal of biological science published monthly, is now recruiting Editorial Board Members (EBMs).

The responsibilities of Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Pre-screening and making decisions on new submissions related to your research interests;
• Setting up at least one Special Issue during your term on a topic related to your research interests (or supervising Special Issues related to your research field);
• Providing input or feedback regarding journal policies;
• Helping to promote the journal among your peers or at conferences;
• Attending board meetings to suggest journal development strategies;
• Reviewing manuscripts.

For the full list of Editorial Board Members, please visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/biology/editors.

If you are interested in becoming an Editorial Board Member of Biology, please send us your full academic CV and a short cover letter detailing your interest and suitability for the position. If you would like to recommend potential candidates or request further information, please contact the Biology Editorial Office at biology@mdpi.com. We look forward to working with you in the future.

The Biology (ISSN: 2079-7737) Editorial Office is pleased to inform you that applications are open for the Topical Advisory Panel (TAP).

The following are the main responsibilities of new members of the Topical Advisory Panel:

• Providing support to the following tasks depending on their availability;
• Providing regular reviews of manuscripts;
• Setting up at least one Special Issue (SI) in partnership with a senior researcher within two years of the appointment. The topic of the proposal should be within the scope of Biology;
• Providing a strategy plan for the SI, including assisting in preparing the Special Issue’s/Topic’s title, aim and scope, summary, and keywords, as well as soliciting papers for and promoting the SI;
• Promoting our journal at conferences, social media, and other relevant platforms.

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must:

• Have expertise and experience in the fields related to Biology (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/biology/about);
• Have completed their Ph.D. within approximately the last 10 years;
• Have published at least six papers in the last 5 years as a first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute;
• Each year, Members’ performance is evaluated, and outstanding Members are promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief.

Please click on the following link to submit your application: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/biology/topical_advisory_panel_application, or send an email to biology@mdpi.com with your academic CV.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Biology Editorial Office