Announcements

We are so delighted to inform you that the journal Cells (ISSN: 2073-4409, IF: 6.600) has been accepted into Scopus! We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to all the authors who have been involved within the journal over the years, and whose contributions have enabled this achievement!

Cells is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of cell biology, molecular biology, and biophysics, published monthly online by MDPI. The Spanish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM), Signal Transduction Society (STS), Nordic Autophagy Society (NAS), Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy (SEHH), and Society for Regenerative Medicine (Russian Federation) (RPO) are affiliated with Cells, and their members receive discounts on the article processing charges.

Cells has been indexed within Scopus, SCIE (Web of Science) (since 2017), PubMed (since 2013), MEDLINE, PMC, CAPlus/SciFinder, and many other databases. The journal’s manuscripts are peer-reviewed, and a first decision provided to authors approximately 15.3 days after submission. The process from acceptance to publication is undertaken in 2.9 days.

Thank you again for your continued effort and support. We look forward to the opportunity to work with you again.

Cells Editorial Office

This serves to announce to our valued authors based in Japan that value-added tax, or consumption tax will now be imposed on article processing fees and other service fees for all papers submitted, or resubmitted (assigned new paper IDs), effective from 15 August 2021. The change is in accordance with the Japanese "Act for Partial Revision of the Income Tax Act and Other Acts" (Act No. 9 of 2015), which includes a revision of consumption taxation on cross-border supplies of services such as digital content distribution.

For additional information from the National Tax Agency please see here ("Cross-border supplies of electronic services").

Contact: Setsuko Nishihara, MDPI Tokyo

The 2020 citation metrics have been officially released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR)!

We are pleased to announce that 85 MDPI journals are included, of which:

• 10 journals received their first impact factor
• 96% of journals increased their impact factor from 2019
• 32 journals (38%) ranked among the top 25% of journals, in at least one category

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2021

Source: 2020 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ® (Clarivate, 2021)

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 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 November 2020, the Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy (SEHH) became affiliated with Hemato, JCM and Cells. As part of this collaboration, all members of the SEHH enjoy a discount on the article processing charge (APC) when submitting articles to the journals.

The SEHH is a scientific society purposed with the promotion, development and dissemination of research advances in two specialist areas, Hematology and Hemotherapy. In particular, the SEHH focuses on their medical, scientific, organizational, care, teaching and research aspects. Hematology, as a specialty, covers all aspects related to the physiology of the blood and hematopoietic organs, the diagnosis and treatment of benign and malignant diseases of the blood, the study of the hemostasis and coagulation system, and all aspects related to transfusion medicine, including hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The professional role of the hematologist covers all aspects of the practice.

With 61 years of history, the SEHH is today an organization that contributes significantly to science. At present, it holds a community of almost 2800 professionals, of which many are internationally recognized figures, who continually contribute to making hematology, globally, one of the most prestigious fields of Spanish medicine. The society considers that, in order to achieve optimal patient care, it is essential to have access to medical advances, promote research and have well-trained and highly qualified specialists in the management of hematological diseases.

The SEHH is a professional organization whose functions and research are highly relevant to the scope of Hemato, JCM and Cells. We look forward to collaborating with the SEHH and to publishing state-of-the-art research from its members.

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to announce that the Cells 2021 Young Investigator Award and Cells 2021 PhD Thesis Award are now open for application!

These awards will be given in recognition of the excellence of the recipient in the field of cell biology, with the Cells 2021 Young Investigator Award granted to a young investigator and the Cells 2021 PhD Thesis Award granted to a PhD student about to graduate or participate in their graduation defense.

All nominations and applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee led by the Editors-in-Chief, Dr. Alexander E. Kalyuzhny and Prof. Dr. Cord Brakebusch.

Cells 2021 Young Investigator Award

1. Prize:

— CHF 2000 (Swiss Francs);

— Option to publish one paper free-of-charge in Cells after peer review before the end of 2022;

— An electronic certificate;

— The top ten nominees as assessed by our Evaluation Committee will each be granted a 20% discount voucher toward publication in Cells, valid until the end of 2022.

2. Eligibility and Requirements:

— Maximum of 40 years of age and no more than 8 years after receiving their PhD;

— A significant contribution to the advancement/research of cell biology, molecular biology, and biophysics research fields;

— Eligible applicants should be from academic, governmental, or biotech/pharma laboratories.

3. List of Documents for Nomination:

— Detailed CV including education history, a publication list, and a list of research grants;

— Birth certificate or other proof of age;

— Research description (up to two pages);

— Reference letter(s) from supervisor(s), research director(s), or department head(s);

— copy of doctorate certificate.

4. Schedule:

— Open for nominations: 1 January 2021;

— Deadline for application: 1 September 2021;

— Date for announcement of the winners: 31 October 2021.

Cells 2021 PhD Thesis Award

1. Prize:

— CHF 800 (Swiss Francs).

2. Eligibility and Requirements:

— The candidate must be a PhD student about to graduate or participate in their graduation thesis defense;

— The PhD thesis must be original work;

— The PhD thesis must be defended between 1 January 2021 and 31 October 2021;

— Applicants are required to submit the following documents:

1. An executive summary of the PhD thesis in English, around 3000 words;
2. A letter from the PhD supervisor recommending the candidate for consideration for this award;
3. The candidate’s CV, including a list of publications connected with the thesis;
4. An electronic copy of the PhD thesis.

3. Selection Criteria:

— Quality of resume and publications;

— Relevance of the candidate and research description;

— Novelty of the candidate’s PhD thesis;

— Strength of the recommendation letter;

— Anticipated academic potential;

— Originality and impact of the research.

4. Schedule:

— Open for nominations: 1 January 2021;

— Deadline for application: 31 October 2021;

— Date for announcement of the winners: 31 December 2021.

How to submit nominations and Applications?

The nominations and applications must be submitted online by the following links:

Cells 2021 Young Investigator Award:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/cells/awards/submit/1256

Cells 2021 PhD Thesis Award:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/cells/awards/submit/1257

Should you have any questions, suggestions, or recommendations, please feel free to contact cells@mdpi.com or rainy.han@mdpi.com directly.

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.