Announcements

MDPI’s Young Investigator Awards recognize promising junior researchers, acknowledge their contributions, and enhance communication among scientists. We are proud to present the winners for the year 2021 in the “Medicine & Pharmacology” category. The winners were selected by the journals’ editors.

We warmly congratulate the awarded young investigators for their outstanding contributions. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Biomedicines:

• Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong
• Mateusz Maciejczyk, Medical University of Bialystok, Poland

Current Oncology:

• Matteo Lambertini, University of Genova, Italy

Dentistry Journal:

• Helen Rogers, Newcastle University, UK

Healthcare:

• Amir Karami, University of South Carolina, USA

Journal of Clinical Medicine:

• Andrea Palermo, Campus Bio-Medico University, Italy

Journal of Personalized Medicine:

• Simone Di Franco, University of Palermo, Italy
• Catriona Hippman, University of Calgary, Canada

Medicina:

• Veeru Kasivisvanathan, University College London, UK
• Andrea Cortegiani, University of Palermo, Italy; University Hospital Policlinico Paolo Giaccone, Italy

Pharmaceutics:

• Qi Zhou, Purdue University, USA

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the “Medicine & Pharmacology” category for their outstanding presentations and to present them with the prize.

MDPI journals regularly offer travel awards to encourage talented junior scientists to present their latest research at academic conferences in specific fields, which helps to increase their influence.

The winners mentioned below were carefully selected by the journal editors based on an outline of their research and the work to be presented at an academic conference.

We would like to warmly congratulate the Travel Awards winners for the year 2021 and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors. MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.

Biomedicines:

• Soheil Saeedi, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Dentistry Journal:

• Shawn Alexander Hallett, University of Michigan, USA

Medicines:

• Claire Albert, Yale University, USA

Pharmaceuticals:

• Raquel Filipa da Costa Viveiros, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
• Patrick Jim Küppers, University Hospital Bonn, Germany

In order to acknowledge our reviewers, who so generously dedicate their time to reviewing papers, and demonstrate diligence, professionalism, and timeliness when reviewing manuscripts, MDPI journals regularly offer outstanding reviewer awards to scholars who participate in the peer-review process.

We are proud to recognize winners for the year 2021 in the “Medicine & Pharmacology” category for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with an Outstanding Reviewer Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the winners on their achievement. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Cancers:

• Antonio G. Solimando, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy
• Chenghui Li, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, USA
• Joaquim Carreras, Tokai University, Japan
• Pierfrancesco Franco, University of Turin School of Medicine, Italy
• Laurentiu Pop, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA

Current Oncology:

• Margaret Fitch, University of Toronto, Canada
• Caroline Mariano, BC Cancer Agency, Canada; University of British Columbia, Canada

Healthcare:

• Naser Alsharairi, Griffith University, Australia
• Peter W. Choate, Mount Royal University, Canada
• Qin Xiang Ng, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Journal of Clinical Medicine:

• Giulio Francesco, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
• Sebastian Schnaubelt, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
• Olga Kislitsina, Northwestern University, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, USA

Journal of Personalized Medicine:

• Onofrio Laselva, University of Foggia, Italy
• Ping-Hsun Wu, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan
• Vladimir Vladimirov, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
• Mauro Giuffrè, University of Trieste, Italy

Medical Sciences:

• Erika Palmieri, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, USA

Tomography:

• Anjul Khadria, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

The purpose of our Best Paper Awards is to promote and recognize the most impactful contributions published within MDPI journals.

The editors of each journal carefully selected reviews and research papers through a rigorous judging process based on criteria such as the scientific merit, overall impact, and the quality of presentation of the papers published in the journal last year.

We are honored to present the winners in the “Medicine & Pharmacology” category, who were selected amongst extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Antibiotics:

• “Antimicrobial and Synergistic Effects of Commercial Piperine and Piperlongumine in Combination with Conventional Antimicrobials”

by Eunice Ego Mgbeahuruike, Milla Stålnacke, Heikki Vuorela and Yvonne Holm

Antibiotics 2019, 8(2), 55; doi:10.3390/antibiotics8020055

• “Antibiotic Discovery: Where Have We Come from, Where Do We Go?”

by Bernardo Ribeiro da Cunha, Luís P. Fonseca and Cecília R. C. Calado

Antibiotics 2019, 8(2), 45; doi:10.3390/antibiotics8020045

Dentistry Journal:

• “Regeneration of the Periodontal Apparatus in Aggressive Periodontitis Patients”

by Zvi Artzi, Shiran Sudri, Ori Platner and Avital Kozlovsky

Dent. J. 2019, 7(1), 29; doi:10.3390/dj7010029

• “Treatment of Peri-Implant Mucositis with Repeated Application of Chlorhexidine Chips or Gel during Supportive Therapy—A Randomized Clinical Trial”

by Philipp Sahrmann, Cyrill Bettschart, Daniel B. Wiedemeier, Ahmed Al-Majid, Thomas Attin and Patrick R. Schmidlin

Dent. J. 2019, 7(4), 115; doi:10.3390/dj7040115

Healthcare:

• “Two-Year Use of Care Robot Zora in Dutch Nursing Homes: An Evaluation Study”

by Chantal Huisman and Helianthe Kort

Healthcare 2019, 7(1), 31; doi:10.3390/healthcare7010031

• “The Interlinked Rising Epidemic of Insufficient Sleep and Diabetes Mellitus”

by Vijay Kumar Chattu, Soosanna Kumary Chattu, Deepa Burman, David Warren Spence and Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal

Healthcare 2019, 7(1), 37; doi:10.3390/healthcare7010037

Journal of Clinical Medicine:

• “Periodontitis: A Multifaceted Disease of Tooth-Supporting Tissues”

by Eija Könönen, Mervi Gursoy and Ulvi Kahraman Gursoy

Clin. Med. 2019, 8(8), 1135; doi:10.3390/jcm8081135

• “The Immunomodulatory Functions of Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem Cells Mediated via Paracrine Activity”

by Yueyuan Zhou, Yusuke Yamamoto, Zhongdang Xiao and Takahiro Ochiya

Clin. Med. 2019, 8(7), 1025; doi:10.3390/jcm8071025

• “Optimizing Detection of Kidney Transplant Injury by Assessment of Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA via Massively Multiplex PCR”

by Tara K. Sigdel, Felipe Acosta Archila, Tudor Constantin, Sarah A. Prins, Juliane Liberto, Izabella Damm, Parhom Towfighi, Samantha Navarro, Eser Kirkizlar, Zachary P. Demko, Allison Ryan, Styrmir Sigurjonsson, Reuben D. Sarwal, Szu-Chuan Hseish, Chitranon Chan-On, Bernhard Zimmermann, Paul R. Billings, Solomon Moshkevich and Minnie M. Sarwal

Clin. Med. 2019, 8(1), 19; doi:10.3390/jcm8010019

Medicina:

• “Tumor Microenvironment”

by Borros Arneth

Medicina 2020, 56(1), 15; doi: 10.3390/medicina56010015

• “Comparative Epidemiology and Resistance Trends of Common Urinary Pathogens in a Tertiary-Care Hospital: A 10-Year Surveillance Study”

by Márió Gajdács, Marianna Ábrók, Andrea Lázár, and Katalin Burián

Medicina 2019, 55(7), 356; doi: 10.3390/medicina55070356

Pharmaceutics:

• “3D Printed Pellets (Miniprintlets): A Novel, Multi-Drug, Controlled Release Platform Technology”

by Atheer Awad, Fabrizio Fina, Sarah J. Trenfield, Pavanesh Patel, Alvaro Goyanes, Simon Gaisford and Abdul W. Basit.

Pharmaceutics 2019, 11(4), 148; doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics11040148

• “Mathematical Modeling of Release Kinetics from Supramolecular Drug Delivery Systems”

by Constantin Mircioiu, Victor Voicu, Valentina Anuta, Andra Tudose, Christian Celia, Donatella Paolino, Massimo Fresta, Roxana Sandulovici and Ion Mircioiu

Pharmaceutics 2019, 11(3), 140; doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics11030140

The 2021 citation metrics have been officially released in Scopus!

We are pleased to announce that 182 MDPI journals are included, of which:

● 21 journals received their first CiteScore.
● 85% of journals increased their CiteScore from 2020.
● 155 journals (85%) ranked above average, in at least one category.

The following 65 MDPI journals (36%) ranked among the top 25% of journals, in at least one category:

Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)

It is our great honor to congratulate the Editorial Board Members and Editors in MDPI's journals who have been distinguished as 2021 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate, according to Web of Science data. We herewith express our gratitude for the immense impact the named researchers continue to make on scientific progress and on our journals' development.

Clarivate's annual list of Highly Cited Researchers^TM identifies the most highly cited scientists for the past decade. Their impactful papers are among the top 1 per cent in the citation distribution of one or more of 22 fields analyzed in the "Essential Science Indicators", distinguishing them as hugely influential among their peers.

The full list of 2021 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed at the following webpage in the Web of Science^TM https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2021/.

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

Academic editors play a crucial role in leading our journals and ensuring that each article undergoes a robust and timely peer-review. With the launch of Topics this year and addition of Topic Editors to our family of academic editors, we decided it would be a good time to restructure our academic boards, thus providing more clarity and support for each role. MDPI is pleased to announce the launch of a new position—Topical Advisory Panel Member, that will replace the previous position of Topics Board Member. The Topical Advisory Panel will be comprised of early career researchers eager to gain experience in editorial work.

The main responsibility of the new members of the Topical Advisory Panel is to regularly provide support to Guest Editors, Topic Editors, and Section Board Members. The responsibilities of the Topical Advisory Panel are available here: https://www.mdpi.com/editors.

Each year, the members’ performances are evaluated, and outstanding members are promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief.

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

• Have expertise and experience in the field related to the journal;
• Have received a Ph.D. in the last 10 years, approximately;
• Have at least 6-8 published papers in the last 5 years as first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute.

If you are interested in this role, please contact the editorial office by email.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you for accepting our invitation for the interview. We would like to interview you in two parts, mainly about your research work and editorial work. We believe your scientific experience would give some inspiration to the young researchers and your editorial experience will have a great impact on the development of science.

For your research work:

1. Firstly, could you please introduce yourself simply?

I am chairman (catedrático) of Oral Diseases and Periodontology in the Dental School of the University of Sevilla. My academic training started with an MD degree and then a DDS degree. Additionally, I occupied the position of Dean of the Dental School of Sevilla for 14 years. My main duty is to train new dentists in the clinical and teaching aspects. I have had the opportunity to influence the way dentists are trained in the oral field with a lot of scholars. Also, I have contributed to research that aims to apply medical and biological principles to oral diseases.

2. What got you interested in scientific research in the first place?

My main objective was to integrate systemic health in the oral field. Very often, oral diseases are not taken into consideration in systemic health. A degree in Odontology is an independent qualification from a Medicine degree. The teaching of dentistry does not cover concepts of systemic health in sufficient detail. Dentists should not forget that the mouth is part of the body; it is integrated into a very complex organism. Now, the population is aging; most of our patients are 50 years old or older, and the majority suffer systemic diseases that require drugs to treat them. Also, the oral cavity can show us symptoms of systemic diseases and it is very easy to access for exploration. So, dentists should be trained to think about these aspects and diagnose them. For instance, periodontal disease is considered an infectious disease with an inflammatory damaging mechanism. Now, a lot of systemic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and rheumatoid arthritis, are associated with periodontitis. Inflammation is the meeting point behind many non-communicable diseases that nowadays are the first cause of death. All of these points initially constituted my main scientific research. I consider them to be the future in developing dentistry to meet the requirements of patients. 

3. Can you briefly describe your research and summarize it in several keywords?

I integrate both the physiological and biological perspectives in oral diseases. So, my keywords that define my research are: periodontitis, oral diseases, systemic relationship to oral diseases, cardiovascular disease and periodontal disease, diabetes, and periodontal disease, cellular metabolism, metabolic disorder, autophagy, AMPK, lysosomal disorder, and mitochondrial disorder.

4. Can you share your career development story briefly? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?

The entirety of my career was developed in the academic field. I have been involved in teaching and research in the university environment for 40 years. The case that influenced me most deeply was a girl suffering a Papillon–Lefevre syndrome. She suffered dermatological hyperkeratotic lesions and advanced periodontitis. Her brothers and sisters also displayed the syndrome with different manifestations. It was impossible to treat the periodontal disease and both sisters lost all their teeth. Many years later, with the development of new technologies, we demonstrated that autophagy and lysosomal disorder were the main mechanisms behind the disease. The involvement of systemic health and cellular metabolism in oral diseases is my main field of interest. We have published papers exploring the relationship between cardiovascular disease and diabetes with periodontitis.

5. As a researcher in rare syndromes, what valuable suggestions would you like to share with young scholars in terms of research topic selection?

Scholars need to consider the patient as a whole and look at what is going on behind the mouth; it is a very complex organism with a lot of questions without an answer. It is a very exciting challenge that will guide the future of dentistry. The oral cavity is very accessible for exploration, and usually, rare syndromes have oral manifestations. It is understood that we have to deal with it, and we could be the first health workers to diagnose a systemic disease. Sometimes, we could be responsible for saving the lives of our patients or improving their health conditions.

6. What do you think are the most important characteristics of the researchers? Do you have any suggestions for young researchers?

The most important characteristic for researchers to have is the motivation to obtain answers for the needs of our patients. So, I suggest young researchers try to establish the causes behind any diseases, which may guide and improve the outcomes of our treatment. These aspects involve the biological and physiological mechanisms that control our body. The diseases take place in an organism and all of them share similar physiological mechanisms.

For your editorial work:

1. What attracted you to join the academic editor team of Diseases/MDPI?

Diseases is an open-access journal that tries to focus on the multidisciplinary point of view. It focuses on the latest and most outstanding research on diseases.

2. What do you think of the future of our journal Diseases?

I think is the aim of the journal is outstanding. Nowadays, a high degree of specialization exists in health science and we need to integrate different knowledge to improve our treatment outcomes.

3. What perspective do you think the section “Rare Syndrome” will bring to the related fields?

Now, there is an increasing growth in the number of rare syndromes. New scientific tools allow us to differentiate between different diseases. All of them need a specific diagnostic and treatment. The section “Rare Syndrome” can give new clues about the metabolic mechanisms behind the behavior of these diseases.

4. What have you gained from the editorial work?

The editorial work has allowed me to gain different perspectives from researchers all over the world.

5. How do you improve your academic writing ability?

I am grateful to contribute to the enhancement of scientific endeavors in the field of Rare Syndromes with rigor.

6. What do you think about the development of open access in the publishing field? How do you respond to open-access sceptics?

In a deeply interconnected world, we have access to a lot of information and can share data and findings with all researchers. In the future, I think almost all research papers will be published in an open-access way.

Founded in 1996, MDPI was one of the first fully Open Access publisher. Over 25 years MDPI has grown to become the largest Open Access publisher globally, publishing over 160,000 articles across more than 350 journals in 2020. At the core, MDPI was founded in response to a pressing need of fast publication and inclusion. The scholar was set at the centre of the publication process for the first time. Acting as a service provider, rather than a product provider, MDPI exists to help scientists achive their objective to disseminate research results. At MDPI, we believe scientists deserve a better service from the publishing world.

The International Open Access Week (Open Access Week), founded by the SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Alliance and student partners in 2008, has been successfully running for 13 years. As an advocate and pioneer of open access publishing, MDPI actively responds to the call of International Open Access Week. This year’s theme of “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity” highlights the Recommendation’s call for equitable participation from all authors and readers.

For the last 25 years, MDPI has been committed to disseminating open research. Here is a video showing MDPI’s Commitment to Equity, Inclusion and Diversity for More than 25 Years.

International Open Access Week is an important opportunity to catalyze new conversations, create connections across and between communities that can facilitate this co-design, and advance progress in the building of more equitable foundations for opening knowledge—discussions and actions that need to be continued, year in and year out. MDPI has always aimed to provide professional and efficient publishing services to scholars around the world.

Our mission is to make scientific research accessible to everyone; this year, we interview and hold discussions with open science ambassadors on how to build an equal and inclusive environment for open science. Academic editors help us collaborate with more institutions to advocate for open access ideas.

Read our anniversary blog post: "Sharing 'Collective Human Knowledge': The Benefits of Open Access Publication"

Besides this, our scientific community is a key driver of our success and MDPI’s remarkable growth. Despite the pandemic, we have prepared online conferences and workshops to gather scholars from different communities.

The Basel Sustainable Publishing online forum provides an equal opportunity for stakeholders and researchers from multi-cultural environments to exchange ideas and eliminate barriers to participation.

Conference date: 25 October 2021, online
Conference website: https://bspf2021.sciforum.net/
Main topics: MDPI discusses the current dilemma of open access science from various perspectives such as governments, libraries, and publishers, and related measures on how to change the status quo of discrimination from a global perspective.

We aim to support equality, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications. We collaborate with universities and key laboratories and have scholarly communications with researchers, teachers, and students on open access workshops.

• 25 October 2021
  Energies journal and Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

• 28 October 2021
  Machines journal and State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University

• 29 October 2021
  Processes journal and Beijing Institute of Technology

• 29 October 2021
  Coatings journal and Wuhan University of Technology

MDPI is committed to providing open access and high-quality publishing services for scholars and promoting rapid dissemination of academic achievements. We hope to promote the practices and policies of open access publishing and diversify the dissemination of academic achievements.

Thank you for accepting our invitation for the interview. This interview will have two parts, mainly regarding your research and editorial work. We believe your scientific experience would give some inspiration to young researchers and your editorial experience will have a great impact on the development of science.

Part I— Regarding your research work:

1. Firstly, could you please introduce yourself?

I earned my degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna (Italy), and a degree in Clinical Nutrition from the School of Food Science – the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy). From 2005 until now, I have been practicing in the field of obesity and eating disorders in several settings (inpatient, day hospital, and outpatient) in Northern Italy (mainly the Emilia Romagna and Veneto regions). Moreover, I am a Full Professor and Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Beirut Arab University (Lebanon). I was recently qualified as a European Clinical Fellow by the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO).

2. What got you interested in scientific research in the first place?

My interest is specifically in clinical research, which primarily aims to fill the gaps that clinicians may face during their clinical practice and to improve treatment outcomes.

3. Can you briefly describe your research and summarize it in several keywords?

My current research is focused on body composition, energy expenditure, physical activity, and health-related quality of life, as well as treatment outcomes in clinical settings for eating disorders and obesity.

4. Can you share your career development story briefly? For example, what cases have influenced you the most?

Since I have always been fascinated by the study of body composition models in humans, the last decade of my career can be distinguished by two main parts: the first was the research that I conducted on body composition in patients with anorexia nervosa, which extensively clarified several aspects of the changes in body fat, skeletal muscle and bone mass in this population. The second was the research I conducted which led to a better understanding of the new phenotype termed “sarcopenic obesity”, especially its impact on attrition, weight loss, and maintenance outcomes during obesity management programs.

5. As a researcher in obesity, what valuable suggestions would you like to share with young scholars in terms of research topic selection?

On a general note, I discourage young researchers from publishing only to increase their number of publications, or to seek promotion, etc. I advise them to focus on a few topics and think about how to produce results with a relevant scientific impact and clinical implication. Specifically, in the field of obesity, we still need to study and understand the obstacles behind the lack of weight-loss maintenance in the long term (i.e., after three to five years) regardless of the nature of the treatment, which occurs in the majority of patients with obesity.

6. What do you think are the most important characteristics of researchers? Do you have any suggestions for young researchers?

A successful investigator has to consider research as a lifestyle, to which they dedicate a lot of time, at least in the initial stages, and this needs to be driven by high motivation and passion. In addition, accuracy and scientific honesty are two key elements that are rewarding in the long term.

Part II—Regarding your editorial work:

1. What attracted you to join the academic editorial team of Diseases?

I think that during the career of any researcher at a certain point they should join the academic editorial team of a reputable journal released by a prestigious publisher, and this was what attracted me to join Diseases as an academic editor.

2. What do you think of the future of our journal Diseases?

I am quite convinced that our journal is on the right track, always growing with more and more success, as with other journals released by MDPI.

3. What have you gained from editorial work?

The role of an academic editor is important and has a certain responsibility towards the scientific community. The editorial work taught me a lot about how things happen on the other side, as opposed to what authors usually see. Moreover, it keeps me regularly exposed to the most recent research conducted in my field.

4. How do you improve your academic writing ability?

Initially, you should find a tough mentor who teaches you the art. After that, the only way to improve your academic writing ability is to write, write and write daily, especially in the early stages of your career. Last but not least, take into consideration and follow the peer review comments that you receive on your manuscripts, considering them as an opportunity to improve your manuscript in general, which automatically positively impacts your writing ability.

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

I think it is the future. Simply put, science should be available to all, regardless of any conditions.

6. How do you respond to Open Access skeptics?

Firstly, it is widely known that Open Access science articles are read and cited more often than articles available only to subscribers, and this is one of the most important goals that any researcher seeks. Secondly, I disagree with those who say that it is easier to publish in an Open Access journal. For instance, in my long experience with MDPI as an author, I only have a 40% acceptance rate among all the articles that I have submitted so far. That is to say, it is not that easy to publish in MDPI journals.