Announcements

UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. In 2020 the SDG Publishers Compact was launched, aimed to inspire publishers and accelerate progress to achieve the 17 goals by 2030. Members of the programme are committed to support the publication of materials that will promote and inspire actions towards SDGs.

MDPI is an eager advocate of SDGs and has already been supporting the programme by creating Special Issues and publishing a series of books on SDGs prior to joining the Compact in 2021. MDPI's Sustainability Foundation initiated the World Sustainability Awards in 2016. We fully support UN's goals to promote sustainable actions that make the world a better place for all and, as part of its commitment, we will focus our actions on SDG10: Reduced Inequalities whilst promoting all 17 SDGs. For more details, please visit the programme’s website: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdg-publishers-compact/.

Joining this initiative was a unanimous decision. MDPI has in its core values the dissemination of science for all, breaking the wall between research access and under-represented members of the scientific community and the general population. To support this initiative further and continue to support under-represented scientists, MDPI will take a series of actions that will be announced once ready.

The first action MDPI takes is to nominate Dr. Liliane Auwerter as the coordinator of the programme. Dr. Auwerter studied Environmental Process Technology (UTFPR, Brazil), obtained her MSc degree in Water and Environmental Engineering (University of Surrey, UK) and in 2020 completed her PhD in self-healing low-friction materials for water transport (Imperial College London, UK), always focusing on diverse scientific projects that would potentially bring sustainability to industrial processes. As a student in Brazil, she engaged in volunteering activities focused on environmental education and took part in the Millennial Development Goals meetings held at the university.

For more information, please contact:
Dr. Liliane Auwerter
Scientific Officer
liliane.auwerter@mdpi.com

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

MDPI will be attending IGARSS 2021, to be held in virtual form from 12th to 16th of July 2021.

IGARSS 2021, which will take place from 12 to 16 July 2021, is a joint effort of the Low Countries, the Netherlands and Belgium, and they have chosen Crossing Borders as the overall theme of the conference:

• Between countries and research institutes;
• Between types of platforms (from satellites to drones);
• Between data sources;
• Between disciplines.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Remote Sensing
• Atmosphere
• Water
• Sustainability
• Data
• Soil Systems
• IJGI
• Drones

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference and our virtual booth, please visit: https://igarss2021.com/default.asp.

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.

The journal Drones (ISSN 2504-446X) is launching a new position—Topic Board Members. Drones is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal, published quarterly online by MDPI, indexed in SCIE and Scopus. Drones is recruiting Topic Board Members whose research interests are related to the science and technology of designing and applications of drones, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), etc. Scholars whose research interests are related to unmanned water/underwater drones and unmanned ground vehicles are also welcomed.

Responsibilities of Drones Topic Editors include the following:

1. Setting up at least one Special Issue (SI) over two years in the journal and proposing a detailed strategy plan for the SI (including soliciting papers, promoting the SI, etc.);
2. Promoting the journal at conferences (adding 1–2 slides to your presentation, distributing flyers, recommending the journal to your colleagues, etc.);
3. Recommending conferences, including physical and virtual, for us to cooperate in if you have conference plans;
4. Promoting Drones and published papers among your peers via social media or other venues periodically;
5. Suggesting the latest topics within your research field.

Benefits for Drones Topic Editors include the following:

1. 50% discounts on the article processing charge (APC, 1400 CHF) for papers published in Drones per year in the Special Issues you supervise, and special discounts on any additional papers from your group or by your invitation;
2. Travel grants per year if you lead a successful Special Issue and would like to promote it at conferences that you attend or organize;
3. Additional sponsorships for conferences organized by Topic Editors.

To apply or request further information, please contact the Drones Editorial Office (drones@mdpi.com).

Drones (ISSN 2504-446X) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal, published quarterly online by MDPI, indexed in SCIE and Scopus. Drones is recruiting Editorial Board Members whose research interests are related to the science and technology of designing and applications of drones, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), etc. Scholars whose research interests are related to unmanned water/underwater drones and unmanned ground vehicles are also welcomed.

Please find more details at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/drones.

We already have some highly renowned experts on our Editorial Board, and we are looking for more excellent scholars in this field to join us. If you are interested in this position or know of any potential candidates you would like to recommend, please contact the Drones Editorial Office (drones@mdpi.com). 

The main responsibilities of Editorial Board Members are as follows: 

• Pre-screening submissions and making decisions on whether a manuscript should be accepted or rejected for processing, as well as suggesting additional reviewers if necessary;
• Acting as Guest Editor of a Special Issue in your particular field of expertise, or recommending potential topics and Guest Editors;
• Promoting Drones and increasing its visibility at related academic conferences;
• Advising on the journal’s development.

Benefits for Drones Editorial Board Members include the following:

• You can publish one paper per year free of charge;
• A recognition certificate as an Editorial Board Member of Drones;
• We may apply travel grants for conferences that you attend or organize;
• Additional sponsorships are offered by Drones for conferences that you organize.

We look forward to hearing from you. 

Drones Editorial Office

The journal Drones (ISSN 2504-446X) is recruiting Review Board Members. The main responsibility of the new Members of the Reviewer Board is to regularly provide timely high-quality reports on submitted manuscripts. The responsibilities of the reviewers are available at https://www.mdpi.com/reviewers

Drones (ISSN 2504-446X) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal, published quarterly online by MDPI, indexed in SCIE and Scopus. The journal focuses on the design and applications of drones, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), unmanned water/underwater drones and unmanned ground vehicles. Drones is indexed in SCIE and Scopus. The Aims and Scope of the journal can be found at Aims and Scope.

The benefits of joining the Reviewer Board of Drones are as follows:

1. The Drones Editorial Board will acknowledge all Reviewer Board (RB) Members in its annual reviewer list, to be published in the "Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Drones This Year” of the journal website;
2. The board will present special recognition certificates to "Exceptional Reviewer Board Members". Exceptional reviewers are those recommended by editors for special recognition due to their outstanding review work;
3. Reviewer Board Members may be presented with the possibility of joining the Editorial Board of the journal (subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief).

If you are interested in this role or if you have any recommendations, please feel free to contact us (drones@mdpi.com). We look forward to hearing from you soon.

For more information about Drones, please visit the website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/drones

We are pleased to inform you that the journal Drones (ISSN 2504-446X) has been accepted for inclusion in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) in the Web of Science in March 2021. Drones has been publishing research on the design and applications of drones for more than four years.

At the same time, Drones is also covered in Scopus, where its first CiteScore will be received in June 2021.

The journal focuses on design and applications of drones, including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), etc. Likewise, contributions based on unmanned water/underwater drones and unmanned ground vehicles are also welcomed.

To make the most of this opportunity, we would like to invite you to make submissions to Drones. If you have a paper on any topic within the scope of the journal, please feel free to submit here.

We look forward to working with you again in the future.

Drones Editorial Office

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)