Announcements

MDPI will be attending the Chinese Academic Conference on Tumor Biomarker, held in Shanghai, China, from 7 to 9 April 2023. This conference aims to achieve an in-depth exchange of the latest research results in the field of basic research, clinical application, cutting-edge technology, and industrial development in the field of tumor markers over the year. During this conference, MDPI will welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest inspirations with us.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Biomedicines;
• Cancers;
• Cells;
• Diagnostics;
• Current Oncology;
• JPM;
• JCM;
• Onco;
• CIMB;
• BioMedInformatics.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth, #B155. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have.

For more information about the conference, please follow the link below: https://biomarker2022.sciconf.cn/cn/web/index/13496.

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 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.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Bruce S. Seal has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Molecular Microbiology” in Current Issues in Molecular Biology (CIMB, ISSN: 1467-3045). We look forward to his contribution to the continued success of the journal.

Dr. Bruce S. Seal completed his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Nevada-Reno, followed by completing his post-doctoral studies at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and the Zoological Society of San Diego. The bulk of Dr. Seal’s research was in the animal health programs of the Agricultural Research Service of USDA at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames IA and the containment facility for avian viral diseases in Athens GA. In 2004, Dr. Seal took the position of Research Leader for the Poultry Microbiological Safety Research Unit, joining the food safety research programs for ARS-USDA. Dr. Seal retired from the ARS-USDA in 2014 and now is an Associate and Honors College Faculty member in the Biology Program at the Oregon State University-Cascades campus in Bend, OR USA.

Dr. Seal has been an active molecular biologist for over thirty years and has published over 100 peer-reviewed works, numerous published proceedings as well as invited book chapters, all while directing the research of graduate students, post-doctoral associates, and international visiting scientists. Dr. Seal has made scientific presentations at more than 100 internationally recognized conferences and has presented over 80 internationally invited seminars at scientific institutions, as well as to commodity associates. Dr. Seal was also an adjunct graduate faculty member in the Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia and has served on grant proposal review panels for the USDA, the NSF, and the NIH along with providing reviews on an annual basis for other granting agencies internationally.

His scientific accomplishments have included basic research and diagnostics development for a variety of animal pathogens, including bovine herpesviruses, swine and feline caliciviruses, avian paramyxoviruses, metapneumoviruses and orthomyxoviruses. His ongoing research work includes genomics–proteomics analyses of food-borne bacterial pathogens and examining bacteriophage gene products, along with other alternative antimicrobials as potentials to combat bacterial disease.  Bacteriophages that infect the bacterium Clostridium perfringens have been characterized by full-genome sequencing and expression of the phage lytic proteins as alternative antimicrobials.  Discovery of potential probiotic, spore-forming and lactic acid bacteria from free-ranging animals is being conducted as part of ongoing undergraduate research at OSU Cascades.

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Bruce S. Seal, 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?

The main feature of this journal is its interdisciplinarity coverage of molecular biology and the fact that it is open access. Also, it is important that the journal is indexed in the most accessed databases for biomedical and related research. Consequently, the journal will be able to publish results of research from a wide range of investigators in the field of molecular biology.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

There is a need to attract quality investigators who will publish the results of innovative research in molecular biology. It is also extremely important to attract qualified reviewers that are actively involved in research using cutting-edge approaches in the fields that encompass molecular biology. This will result in the acceptance of a wide range of articles that have passed a set of rigorous selection criteria.

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

The future of molecular biology is seemingly limitless with hopefully high impact on many positive outcomes for improving the human condition and the environment. Certainly, there are potential abuses of molecular biology techniques such as misuse of gain-of-function investigations for pathogens. However, we should focus on the positive potential applications in the fields of biomedical science for improving One Health approaches and improvement in agricultural techniques for a better future.

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

It is an important avenue to learn about and disseminate the results of scientific research, specifically in the arena of molecular biology. Open Access also provides not only scientists involved in basic and applied research but also allows members of the lay community or other scientists that do not have access to extensive library collections to obtain information in a variety of disciplines.

5. What aspects do you focus on when reviewing a manuscript?

The novelty of the results and the techniques used in completion of an investigation. Also, potential impact on the corresponding scientific field is an important aspect of good research. It is also important to ensure that results reported have not been published elsewhere and the rationale for the proposed study is clearly stated in a manuscript. It is important that experimentation and other analyses are performed to a high technical standard and are described in sufficient detail so that others can repeat the investigations.

6. Do you have any suggestions for young researchers in this field?

Persistence. One must keep moving forward professionally even when facing situations that may seem difficult or overwhelming at the time.

We warmly welcome Dr. Bruce S. Seal as he starts his new role as Section Editor-in-Chief, and we look forward to achieving many more milestones under his leadership.

A range of MDPI journals will be attending the 15th Annual Meeting of Chinese Society for Immunology. This meeting will be held in Chongqing, China, from 27 to 30 December 2022.

The conference focuses on the following areas:

• Recognition and regulation of innate immune responses;
• Adaptive immune response;
• Immune metabolism and immune regulation;
• Immunity to COVID-19 infection;
• Tumor immunity and tumor immunotherapy;
• Autoimmune diseases and other topics.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• IJMS (leading journal);
• Vaccines;
• Metabolites;
• Cells;
• Cancers;
• Biomedicines;
• CIMB;
• Pathogens;
• Immuno.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth #B13. 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: https://csimeeting2022.sciconf.cn/cn/web/index/13562.  

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Madhav Bhatia has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Current Issues in Molecular Biology (CIMB, ISSN: 1467-3045). We look forward to his contribution to the continued success of the journal.

Prof. Dr. Madhav Bhatia’s research focuses on inflammation, and he is the head of the Inflammation Research Group at the University of Otago, Christchurch. He leads an active research program on the molecular pharmacology and molecular pathology of inflammatory conditions. He has published more than 190 papers and review articles. One of his articles has been cited more than 1000 times, and 39 of his articles have been cited more than 100 times.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Madhav Bhatia, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views on 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 Editor-in-Chief?

Current Issues in Molecular Biology is a journal with great potential. It publishes high-quality research articles on different aspects of molecular biology. When I was invited to take on this role, I saw an opportunity to make a contribution to further enhance the profile of the journal and help accomplish its full potential.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

The journal should publish high-quality articles that would enhance knowledge in the area. In addition, the journal should aim for rapid turnaround times between submission and publication (while ensuring a rigorous peer-review process), so that the authors, as well as the readers, benefit from the timely dissemination of high-quality research.

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

Molecular biology is a rapidly evolving discipline, which will continue to make significant contributions to science and humanity as a whole.

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

Open access ensures the dissemination of knowledge and is highly popular amongst publishers and scientists alike. I think the publishing field is large enough for high-quality publications to flourish with different models.

We wish Prof. Dr. Madhav Bhatia every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.