Announcements

In May, MDPI Romania held three author training sessions – one endorsing an external event and two stand-alone sessions.

The National Session of Scientific Student Communications took place at Technical University Cluj on 17 and 18 May 2024. MDPI Romania sponsored this event and contributed an author training session on the production of research papers and case study analyses. JRS Norbert Kiss gave a presentation called The World of Open Access to explain different open access publishing models and the benefits of open access publishing. His presentation highlighted the impact of open access publishing on scientific progress and innovation.

On 29 May 2024, MDPI Romania hosted an author training session for Ph.D. students, early career researchers, and professors at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy. In collaboration with Prof. Andreea Arsene, JRS Ioana Paunescu prepared two presentations: The Steps of the Publishing Process and Elaboration of a Peer Review Report. In her first presentation, she delved into MDPI’s history and mission, MDPI’s editorial process, and MDPI journals of various scopes that are accepting submissions. Her second presentation outlined the types of peer review, the contents of a peer review report by an MDPI reviewer, and the responsibilities of an MDPI reviewer.

MDPI Romania also hosted an author training session at the Iasi University of Life Sciences on 29 May 2024. JRSs Laurentiu Preda and Cosmin Artan gave four presentations: Efficient Writing of an ISI-Indexed Scientific Article, Benefits of Publishing in the Open Access Model, Various Methods of Open Access Publishing, and MDPI Guide for the Article Review Process. The first three presentations offered guidance on how to improve academic writing, the fourth focused on how to write peer review reports. A highly interactive discussion followed the presentations, during which the JRSs provided extensive answers to attendees’ questions.

MDPI is grateful for all the attendees, speakers, and organizers involved in these events. Through their enthusiasm and dedication, these events were great successes.

MDPI will be attending the 14th European Conference on Ecological Restoration (SERE2024) in Tartu, Estonia, which will take place from 26 to 30 August 2024. Ecological restoration is a topic that holds a prominent place on both political and scientific agendas. The decline in biodiversity demands our urgent attention, and degraded ecosystems around the world require an effective and knowledge-driven path to recovery. The SERE2024 will cover topics ranging from the theory and practice of restoring various ecosystems (wetlands, grasslands, forests, rivers, agroecosystems, urban and marine ecosystems) to the socioeconomic and political contexts of ecological restoration.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Diversity;
• Land;
• Animals;
• Clean Technologies;
• Conservation;
• Ecologies;
• Environments;
• Forests;
• Geosciences.

If you are attending the conference, please visit our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following link: https://sere2024.org/.

MDPI will be attending the 5th Academic Forum on “Nitrogen Biogeochemical Cycle” in Wuhan, China, which will take place from 16 to 18 August 2024. The conference is organized by the Soil Science Society of China (SSSC). With the theme of “Global Change and Ecosystem Nitrogen Cycle”, this academic forum will focus on important issues such as the farmland ecosystem nitrogen cycle, wetland and water nitrogen cycle, forest and grassland nitrogen cycle, atmospheric nitrogen cycle, nitrogen cycle microorganisms and nitrogen management and policy, and conduct in-depth discussions.

The top ten scientific advances of the year in research on the nitrogen cycle will also be released to promote cross-integration and independent innovation among disciplines.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Diversity;
• Sustainability;
• Ecologies;
• Environments;
• Land;
• Limnological Review;
• Nitrogen;
• Plants.

If you are planning to attend the conference, please visit our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://ncycle2024.aconf.cn/.

MDPI will be attending The Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America 2024 held in Long Beach, USA, from 4 to 9 August 2024.

The annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America invites all ecologists to come together and share new knowledge, learn from one another, meet old friends and make new ones, and grow professionally. This year’s meeting will emphasize society’s mission of supporting ecologists throughout their careers. The emphasis recognizes the need for us to continually invest in all the people who advance the science and practice of ecology. Among many aspects of professional development, we are planning programming and invite contributions that consider the transformational potential of effective mentorship.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Land;
• Sustainability;
• Forests;
• Environments;
• Nitrogen;
• Diversity;
• Biology;
• Oceans;
• Resources;
• Ecologies;
• Remote Sensing;
• Hydrology.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth at #110. 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://www.esa.org/longbeach2024/.

Five new journals covering multiple subjects have launched their inaugural issue in June 2024. We are excited to be able to share with you the newest research rooted in the value of open access.

We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all the Editorial Board Members and each journal will ensure its high-quality output using excellent editorial and rigorous peer review processes, to ensure that the articles achieve high impact and visibility.

Please feel free to browse and discover more about the new journals below.

Journal	Founding Editor-in-Chief	Journal Topics (Selected)
	Prof. Dr. Marco Ranucci, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, Italy | Editorial | view inaugural issue	anaesthetic medications; blood and fluid management; pain management; critical care; critical illness | view journal scope | submit an article
	Dr. Giovanni E. Cacciamani, University of Southern California, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue	surgical/procedural complications; complications; perioperative adverse events; postoperative adverse events | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr.  Gassan Hodaifa, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain | Editorial | view inaugural issue	laboratory management; laboratory safety; protective equipment; laboratory problems and challenges; laboratory Innovation | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Jan S. Suchodolski, Texas A&M University, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue	companion animals health and disease; veterinary care and nutrition; genetics and genomics; behavior and welfare; human-animal relations | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Pierfrancesco De Paola, University of Naples Federico II, Italy | Editorial | view inaugural issue	real estate appraisal; economic and financial valuation of real estate projects; sustainable real estate; housing and urban economics | view journal scope | submit an article

We wish to thank everyone who has supported the development of open access publishing. You are welcome to send an application here, or contact the New Journal Committee (newjournal-committee@mdpi.com) if you would like to create more new journals.

MDPI is pleased to announce the inclusion of 237 journals in the 2024 release of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and share the key results (see above).

This year, journals covered in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) received category ranks together with journals in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Overall, 139 MDPI journals indexed in ESCI are included in the new unified rankings for the first time.

Enhanced Comparability of Data

According to Clarivate, "the creation of unified category rankings [provides] a simpler and more complete category view for the evaluation of journal performance. [...] The category-first approach simplifies journal performance assessment with a holistic view of all journals in each subject category."

We are thrilled to announce that 72% of our ranked MDPI journals (171 of 237) are above average, in Q1 or Q2. Twenty-nine of our journals received their first Impact Factor this year, accounting for more than 5% of the journals accepted into the Web of Science last year.

MDPI Journals Ranked in JCR

The following data includes all MDPI journals indexed in SCIE, SSCI, ESCI and AHCI.

Source: 2023 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2024)

About MDPI

A pioneer in scholarly, open access publishing, MDPI has supported academic communities since 1996. MDPI is leading the transition to open science by making more research free and accessible to everyone. Over 3.5 million researchers have entrusted MDPI with publishing their scientific discoveries. MDPI’s editorial process is bolstered by a network of dedicated reviewers, a team of 6000 professional, well-trained staff members, and an in-house article submission platform that was designed to ensure efficient processes within its 440 fully open access titles.

Conference: XX International Botanical Congress—IBC 2024
Organization: International Association for Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS)
Date: 21–27 July 2024
Place: FEMA Madrid, Avda del Partenón, 5. 28042 Madrid, Spain

MDPI journals will be attending IBC 2024 as exhibitors. This meeting will be held in Madrid, Spain, from 21 to 27 July 2024.

The IBC takes place every six years under the supervision of the International Association for Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS). Rooted in the tradition of systematic botany, the IBCs have enlarged their scope over more than a century to become an integrated forum for knowledge on the plant and mycological worlds. The topics include the following: systematics; phylogenetics; biogeography and evolution; ecology, environmental, and global change, including invasive species and plant-animal interactions; biodiversity and conservation; structure, physiology, and development, including evo-devo genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics; and plants and society.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Plants;
• International Journal of Plant Biology (IJPB);
• Biology;
• Taxonomy;
• Agronomy;
• Diversity;
• Forests;
• Life;
• Ecologies;
• Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens (JZBG);
• Journal of Fungi (JoF);
• Conservation.

If you will be attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://ibcmadrid2024.com/.

We are pleased to inform you that Ecologies (ISSN: 2673-4133) has received its first CiteScore of 1.8 for June 2024, following its inclusion in Scopus (Elsevier) in 2023. The CiteScore ranks 279 among 461 titles (Q3) in the “Ecology” category.

CiteScore provides transparent metrics that enable well-informed publishing strategies, library collection development, and the benchmarking of journal performance. It is now a standard citation metric alongside SNIP and SJR that gives an up-to-date view of a journal’s impact.

The CiteScore metrics for 2024 are calculated by dividing the total number of citations of peer-reviewed articles in a journal from 2020 to 2023 by the total number of peer-reviewed articles published in the journal over the same period.

This noteworthy achievement is a cause for congratulations to everyone involved!

To view more data, please go to the statistics page at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ecologies/stats.

Ecologies Editorial Office

On UNESCO’s 2024 Oceans Day, MDPI encourages the scientific community to increase the accessibility of ocean research to accelerate ocean conservation.

Basel, Switzerland, June 7, 2024: MDPI, a leading open access (OA) publisher, is proud to announce its active support for World Oceans Day 2024, celebrated under UNESCO’s Ocean Decade framework. MDPI’s CEO, Stefan Tochev hopes that “the latest ocean research can be made freely accessible to help empower scientists and communities at large to save our oceans,” under UNESCO’s Ocean Decade until 2030.

Open Access: A Catalyst for Ocean Action

MDPI’s presence at the UNESCO Ocean Decade Conference 2024 highlights our unwavering commitment to using OA to advance ocean science, support research communities, and promote sustainable ocean management.

"Our involvement in the UNESCO Ocean Decade Conference underscores MDPI's commitment to the underfunded Ocean SDG. By promoting OA to scientific articles and books on SDGs, we aim to inspire critical actions," said Tochev. "Our initiatives, like the World Sustainability Award and Emerging Sustainability Award, further demonstrate our dedication to advancing sustainability.”

Showcasing MDPI’s Contributions to Ocean Research

Over the past three years, MDPI has published 30,000 papers focused on ocean research and related topics. Key MDPI journals contributing to this body of work include:

• Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (4.9k papers)
• Remote Sensing (2.6k papers)
• Sustainability (2k papers)
• International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS) (1.7k papers)
• Marine Drugs (1.5k papers)
• Water (1.5k papers)

These publications highlight MDPI’s contributions to ocean science, reinforcing our role in the broader sustainability agenda by promoting blue innovation and economy.

Additionally, MDPI has launched Oceans, an international, peer-reviewed forum specifically aimed at publishing studies related to all branches of oceanography with an emphasis on the functioning of the ocean and the sustainable use of its resources and ecosystem services.

Affirming MDPI’s Commitment to Ocean Science

MDPI’s commitment to OA is pivotal in addressing critical global challenges, from climate change to ocean sustainability. Our efforts resonate with Outcome 4 of the UNESCO Ocean Decade action roadmap: an accessible ocean with open and equitable access to data, information, technology, and innovation. By aligning with UNESCO’s goals, MDPI continues to contribute to shaping a sustainable future for our oceans, reinforcing our position as a forward-thinking publisher dedicated to environmental stewardship and scientific excellence.

For more information, contact Rui Duarte at rui.duarte@mdpi.com or +41764313242.

About MDPI

95% of authors rate MDPI’s publication process as excellent or good, setting a new benchmark in scientific publishing – reveals 2023 Annual Report. 

Basel, Switzerland, June 4, 2024: MDPI, the leading open access (OA) publisher, proudly announces the release of its 2023 Annual Report, detailing remarkable achievements and reaffirming its leadership in advancing OA publishing. In 2023, MDPI received 655,065 submissions, of which 285,244 articles were published. The company now commands a 17% market share in gold open access articles, with a median publication time of six weeks.

Stefan Tochev, MDPI's CEO, stated, "As a pioneer in open access publishing, MDPI has long been a game-changer in the scholarly community, serving millions of authors around the world to ensure the latest research is freely available. Reflecting on our incredible journey at MDPI, 2023 has been marked by growth in paper submissions, ambitious projects and initiatives aimed at improving our internal processes and delivering top-notch services to our scientists."

MDPI's 2023 Annual Report highlights several key achievements:

• 17% market share in gold open access articles across all disciplines.
• Record satisfaction rates: 95% of authors, 82% of reviewers, and 85% of guest editors.
• Enhanced editorial standards and feedback processes.
• Increased reach and impact with 54 new MDPI journal inclusions in Scopus, 29 in Web of Science, and 77 in DOAJ.

MDPI’s unwavering commitment to advancing OA has transformed the landscape of scholarly publishing, making high-quality research freely accessible to the global scientific community. The continuous improvement in our editorial standards and feedback processes underscores MDPI’s dedication to ensuring academic integrity and excellence.

Global Reach and Collaboration

MDPI’s global footprint continues to expand, with authors from diverse regions: 37% from Asia/Pacific, 36% from Europe, 15% from the Americas, and 12% from other parts of the world. The company’s fully OA platform attracted nearly 14 million monthly visitors in 2023, reflecting its widespread influence in the scientific community.

Commitment to Partnerships

With over 800 institutional partners, MDPI continues to demonstrate its dedication to providing reliable and collaborative publishing services. The introduction of a transparent flat-fee model highlights MDPI's ongoing efforts to enhance affordability and support to the academic community. For more details read our 2023 Annual Report.

For more information, contact Rui Duarte at rui.duarte@mdpi.com or +41764313242.

About MDPI