Announcements

Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309), MDPI’s open access journal on building science, building engineering and architecture, has published more than 1000 papers since its inception in 2011. On behalf of the editorial team, we would like to express our gratitude to the Editor-in-Chief of Buildings, Prof. Dr. David Arditi, and all the Editorial Board members, as well as to Guest Editors of Special Issues and Topics Board members who have ensured the continued success of the journal through their hard work and diligence.

Buildings is now covered in the Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science), Scopus, and other databases. The journal’s Citescore is 2.8, which equals rank 15/126 (Q1) in ‘Architecture' category’, rank 54/174 (Q2) in ‘Building and Construction’ and rank 114/310 (Q2) in ‘Civil and Structural Engineering’ according to Scopus data.

Dear authors and readers of Buildings,

Buildings would like to introduce a new feature, called "Editor's Choice Articles", which highlight outstanding papers published in the journal. These are selected by the editors, and include original articles which make important and impactful findings, as well as review articles that are excellently written. With this feature, readers can expect timely and useful highlights of recent articles in the journal, and deserving authors would receive more attention on their excellent contributions. We hope that this feature will enhance your reading pleasure and experience with Buildings.

MDPI will be attending the China Materials Conference and Exhibition 2020, Qingdao, Shandong, China, November 19–21, 2020.

CMC's 19th annual meeting is the premier venue for the presentation in the field of materials sciences, where one can learn from experts, forge collaborations with peers, explore new tools and technologies, and advance their career.

The purpose of the conference is to build an exchange platform for experts, scholars, professors, scientific and technological workers, relevant government management departments and leaders, entrepreneurs, and related personnel, engaged in the scientific research, development, and industrialization of new materials in China to exchange and share the latest materials research achievements, in order to achieve the purpose of mutual promotion and common improvement.

There are many outstanding people in the committee of the meeting, such as Professor Boyun Huang and Academician Lian Zhou of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor Bingbo Wei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc. The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Coatings (leading journal);
• Materials;
• Crystals;
• Energies;
• Molecules;
• Metals;
• Nanomaterials;
• Polymers.
• Actuators
• Sustainability
• Membranes
• Technologies
• Gels
• ASI

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth C13). 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://cmc2020.medcon.net.cn/cn/web/index/

We are pleased to inform you that the open access journal Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309) has been accepted for coverage in the Science Citation Indexed Expanded (SCIE) in Web of Science. Articles published from Volume 8 (2018) onwards will be indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection.

Buildings has been publishing research in buildings science for more than nine years, and the journal is expected to receive its first Impact Factor in the June 2021 release of the Journal Citation Reports.

At the same time, Buildings continues to be covered in Scopus, where its CiteScore (2.8) ranks 15th out of 126 journals in the 'Architecture' category, 54th out of 174 journals in the 'Building and Construction' category and 114th out of 310 journals in the 'Civil and Structural Engineering' category.

We are pleased to inform the Journal of Cardiovascular Disease and Development (ISSN 2308-3425), as well as the journals Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309) and Machines (ISSN 2075-1702) have been accepted for inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) in the Web of Science Core Collection, as well as in Current Contents. These journals are due to receive first Journal Impact Factors in the June 2021 release of the Journal Citation Reports.

The Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), Web of Science^TM and Current Contents are Clarivate Analytics products.

Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309), an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open access journal published monthly online by MDPI, is recruiting Guest Editors (GEs) whose research interests are related, but not limited to, the following topics:

• architecture
• architectural/building engineering
• design
• building construction
• construction management
• building materials
• energy and buildings
• building operations
• building physics
• building structures
• building mechanical systems
• building lighting systems
• green buildings
• building/facility management
• the philosophy, art and science of architecture designing
• the links and interactions between the built environment and ecology, natural resources, climate, local communities, public policy, and economic development

Buildings is covered in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI—Web of Science), Scopus, and Inspec (IET) (for a full list of databases, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings/indexing). The most recent CiteScore in Scopus for the year 2019 is 2.8, which corresponds to a ranking of 15/126 (Q1) in “Architecture”. https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/26980.

The journal aims to publish high-quality scientific papers presenting groundbreaking and innovative results as well as documenting major achievements in the field of building science in the form of original research articles and reviews. Our aim is to provide a forum for researchers to exchange their ideas and creativity toward advancing the research boundaries of this field further. More information can be accessed via our homepage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings.

If this sounds of interest to you, please do not hesitate to contact the Buildings Editorial Office at buildings@mdpi.com.

You are also welcome to submit your Special Issue proposal via the following link:

https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/buildings

Let’s work together to initiate something stimulating and inspirational. We look forward to your participation.

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 helen.dobson@jisc.ac.uk.

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 ioap@mdpi.com.

Earlier this year, the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) became affiliated to Sustainability, Smart Cities and Buildings. As part of this collaboration, all members of CIB enjoy a discount on the article processing charges (APC) when submitting articles to these three journals.

The International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) was established in 1953 with the support of the United Nations as an Association whose objectives were to stimulate and facilitate international cooperation and information exchange between government research institutes in the building and construction sector, with an emphasis on those institutes engaged in technical fields of research.

CIB has since developed into a worldwide network of over 3,000 experts from about 300 member organizations with a research, university, industry or government background, who collectively are active in all aspects of research and innovation for building and construction. It covers the technical, economic, environmental and organizational aspects of the built environment during all stages of its life cycle, addressing basic and applied research, documentation and translation of research results, and the implementation to industry practice.

CIB is a professional organization whose functions are highly relevant to the scope of Sustainability, Smart Cities and Buildings. We look forward to collaborating with CIB and publishing state-of-the-art research from its members in this field.

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

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.