Announcements

The International Day for Biological Diversity will be celebrated on 22 May 2023, under the theme “From Agreement to Action: Build Back Biodiversity”, which aims to raise awareness and understanding of biodiversity issues. Biodiversity refers to the diversity of all life forms on Earth, including genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. Biological diversity resources are the pillars upon which we build civilizations; however, the loss of biodiversity threatens everything, including our health. We hope that the established MDPI journals on life sciences and biology, including Biology, Diversity, Fishes, Birds, Insects, Water, Forests, Grasses, Life, Seeds, Agriculture, and Agronomy, will provide suitable communication platforms. The aim is to strengthen scientific cooperation in response to the International Day for Biological Diversity and to embrace the potential to promote sustainable development.

“Avifaunal Diversity and Abundance in the Proposed Sarasalai Mangrove Reserve, Jaffna, Sri Lanka”
by Nitharsan Aloysius, Shashi Madhushanka and Chathuri Chandrika
Birds 2023, 4(1), 103-116; https://doi.org/10.3390/birds4010009

“Perils of Underestimating Species Diversity: Revisiting Systematics of Psammocambeva Catfishes (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae) from the Rio Paraíba do Sul Basin, South-Eastern Brazil”
by Wilson J. E. M. Costa, José Leonardo Mattos, Paulo J. Vilardo, Pedro F. Amorim and Axel M. Katz
Taxonomy 2022, 2(4), 491-523; https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy2040032

“Environmental DNA Metabarcoding: A Novel Contrivance for Documenting Terrestrial Biodiversity”
by Shahnawaz Hassan, Sabreena, Peter Poczai, Bashir Ah Ganai, Waleed Hassan Almalki, Abdul Gafur and R. Z. Sayyed
Biology 2022, 11(9), 1297; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11091297

“Dam Construction Impacts Fish Biodiversity in a Subtropical River Network, China”
by Xiongjun Liu, Julian D. Olden, Ruiwen Wu, Shan Ouyang and Xiaoping Wu
Diversity 2022, 14(6), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14060476

“Human Communities in Protected Natural Areas and Biodiversity Conservation”
by Elizabeth Olmos-Martínez, Heidi Leticia Romero-Schmidt, María del Carmen Blázquez, Camilo Arias-González and Alfredo Ortega-Rubio
Diversity 2022, 14(6), 441; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14060441

“Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on the Population Structure and Genetic Diversity of Erythroneurini in the Typical Karst Rocky Ecosystem, Southwest China”
by Chen Xiaoxiao, Jia Jiang, Ni Zhang, Xiao Yang, Yongkuan Chi and Yuehua Song
Insects 2022, 13(6), 499; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13060499

“Application of Ecological Restoration Technologies for the Improvement of Biodiversity and Ecosystem in the River”
by Li Pushuang, Dan Li, Xiaoqing Sun, Zhaosheng Chu, Ting Xia and Binghui Zheng
Water 2022, 14(9), 1402; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091402

“Conservation-Status Gaps for Marine Top-Fished Commercial Species”
by Imanol Miqueleiz, Rafael Miranda, Arturo Hugo Ariño and Elena Ojea
Fishes 2022, 7(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7010002

International Day for Biological Diversity

Date and time: 22 May 2023, 9–11 a.m. (CEST)

This is a free webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar.

To develop different research areas and attract more high-quality papers, we are pleased to announce the following new Sections in Fishes:

• “Aquatic Invertebrates”;
• “Fish Pathology and Parasitology”.

We are now recruiting Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for these Sections. If you are an active researcher in one of the aforementioned fields and are passionate about publishing cutting-edge research, please do not hesitate to get in touch (fishes@mdpi.com). You can find more information on our homepage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/fishes.

Editorial Board Members have the following responsibilities:

• Making decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted, based on the reports we collect;
• Reviewing a small number of papers per year;
• Acting as a Guest Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests;
• Promoting Fishes and increasing its visibility at related academic conferences.

Fishes (ISSN: 2410-3888) is an international, peer-reviewed, and open access journal that provides an advanced forum for studies related to fishes and aquatic animals. Fishes has been indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), and the 2021 IF was 3.170.

We believe that by combining our rigorous editorial policies with your expertise, we can achieve a high-quality journal. We thank you in advance for your interest, and we look forward to collaborating with you.

Fishes Editorial Office

1. “The Complete Mitochondrial Genome of Hyotissa hyotis (Bivalvia: Gryphaeidae) Reveals a Unique Gene Order within Ostreoidea”
by Fengping Li, Mingfu Fan, Shunshun Wang, Zhifeng Gu, Aimin Wang, Chunsheng Liu, Yi Yang and Shikai Liu
Fishes 2022, 7(6), 317; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060317
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/6/317

2. “A Review on the Use of Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence for Fish Recognition, Monitoring, and Management”
by Jayme Garcia Arnal Barbedo
Fishes 2022, 7(6), 335; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060335
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/6/335

3. “Resilience of Communities and Sustainable Aquaculture: Governance and Regulatory Effects”
by Carole R. Engle and Jonathan van Senten
Fishes 2022, 7(5), 268; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7050268
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/5/268

4. “Anthropogenic Contaminants Shape the Fitness of the Endangered European Eel: A Machine Learning Approach”
by Bastien Bourillon, Eric Feunteun, Anthony Acou, Thomas Trancart, Nils Teichert, Claude Belpaire, Sylvie Dufour, Paco Bustamante, Kim Aarestrup, Alan Walker et al.
Fishes 2022, 7(5), 274; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7050274
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/5/274

5. “Elevated Winter Stream Temperatures below Wastewater Treatment Plants Shift Reproductive Development of Female Johnny Darter Etheostoma nigrum: A Field and Histologic Approach”
by Catherine M. Adams, Dana L. Winkelman, Paula A. Schaffer, Daniel L. Villeneuve, Jenna E. Cavallin, Michael Ellman, Kelvin Santana Rodriguez and Ryan M. Fitzpatrick
Fishes 2022, 7(6), 361; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060361
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/6/361

6. “Influence of Thermal Regimes on the Relationship between Parasitic Load and Body Condition in European Sardine along the Catalan Coast”
by Xènia Frigola-Tepe, Marta Caballero-Huertas, Jordi Viñas and Marta Muñoz
Fishes 2022, 7(6), 358; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060358
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/6/358

7. “Validation of a Portable eDNA Detection Kit for Invasive Carps”
by Stacie A. Kageyama, Matthew R. Hoogland, Tariq Tajjioui, Theresa M. Schreier, Richard A. Erickson and Christopher M. Merkes
Fishes 2022, 7(6), 363; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060363
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/6/363

8. “Production of Marine Shrimp Integrated with Tilapia at High Densities and in a Biofloc System: Choosing the Best Spatial Configuration”
by Mariana Holanda, Wilson Wasielesky, Jr., Gabriele Rodrigues de Lara and Luís H. Poersch
Fishes 2022, 7(5), 283; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7050283
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/5/283

9. “Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of the Giant Mottled Eel, Anguilla marmorata Quoy & Gaimard, 1824 in Central Vietnam”
by Anh Tuan Nguyen, Hoc Tan Dao, Hoang Tan Quang, Seishi Hagihara, P. Mark Lokman and Erin L. Damsteegt
Fishes 2022, 7(5), 286; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7050286
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/5/286

10. “Larval Retention and Homing Behaviour Shape the Genetic Structure of the Bullet Tuna (Auxis rochei) in the Mediterranean Sea”
by Judith Ollé-Vilanova, Núria Pérez-Bielsa, Rosa Maria Araguas, Núria Sanz, Sámar Saber, David Macías and Jordi Viñas
Fishes 2022, 7(5), 300; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7050300
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/5/300

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.

1. “Dynamics of Two Anadromous Species in a Dam Intersected River: Analysis of Two 100-Year Datasets”
by Ulisses M. Azeiteiro, Mário J. Pereira, Amadeu M. V. M. Soares, Heitor O. Braga, Fernando Morgado, Magda C. Sousa, João M. Dias and Carlos Antunes
Fishes 2021, 6(2), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes6020021
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/6/2/21

2. “Foundation and Prospects of Wild Population Reconstruction of Acipenser dabryanus”
by Junyi Li, Hao Du, Jinming Wu, Hui Zhang, Li Shen and Qiwei Wei
Fishes 2021, 6(4), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes6040055
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/6/4/55

3. “Concentration of Metals in Native and Invasive Species of Fish in the Fluvial-Lagoon-Deltaic System of the Palizada River, Campeche”
by María del Refugio Castañeda-Chávez, Fabiola Lango-Reynoso, Gabycarmen Navarrete-Rodríguez and Armando Toyokazu Wakida-Kusunoki
Fishes 2021, 6(4), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes6040072
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/6/4/72

4. “Otolith Microchemistry and Demographic History Provide New Insight into the Migratory Behavior and Heterogeneous Genetic Divergence of Coilia grayii in the Pearl River”
Gongpei Wang, Qindong Tang, Zhi Chen, Dingli Guo, Lei Zhou,Han Lai and Guifeng Li
Fishes 2022, 7(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7010023
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/1/23

5. “Wild and Farmed Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus Labrax): Comparison of Biometry Traits, Chemical and Fatty Acid Composition of Fillets”
by Simona Tarricone, Anna Caputi Jambrenghi, Prospero Cagnetta and Marco Ragni
Fishes 2022, 7(1), 45; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7010045
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/1/45

6. “The Lifetime Migratory History of Anadromous Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis): Insights and Risks from Pesticide-Induced Fish Kills”
by Scott D. Roloson, Kyle M. Knysh, Sean J. Landsman, Travis L. James, Brendan J. Hicks and Michael R. van den Heuvel
Fishes 2022, 7(3), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7030109
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/3/109

7. “Otolith Microchemistry Assessment: Evidence of Migratory Coilia nasus of Yangtze River Living in the Shengsi Sea Area”
by Yu Li, Jianhua Chen, Guangpeng Feng, Jian Yang, Feng Zhao, Chenchen Shen, Chao Song and Tao Jiang
Fishes 2022, 7(4), 172; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7040172
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/4/172

8. “Boldness in Zebrafish Larvae—Development and Differences between a Domesticated Lab Strain and Offspring of Wild-Caught Fish”
by Johanna Axling, Hampus Jakobsson, Natalia Frymus,Per-Ove Thörnqvist, Erik Petersson and Svante Winberg
Fishes 2022, 7(4), 197; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7040197
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/4/197

9. “First Evaluation of Associated Gut Microbiota in Wild Thick-Lipped Grey Mullets (Chelon labrosus, Risso 1827)”
by Jorge García-Márquez, Isabel M. Cerezo, Félix L. Figueroa, Roberto Teófilo Abdala-Díaz and Salvador Arijo
Fishes 2022, 7(4), 209; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7040209
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/4/209

10. “Population Structure of Wild Schizothorax kozlovi in the Upper Yangtze River Based on mtDNA and Stable Isotopes, and Their Relationship with Ambient Temperature”
by Yongfeng He, Jinling Gong, Xingbing Wu, Yongjiu Zhu and Deguo Yang
Fishes 2022, 7(5), 292; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7050292
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/5/292

11. ”Nutritional Profiling of Wild (Pangasius pangasius) and Farmed (Pangasius hypophthalmus) Pangasius Catfish with Implications to Human Health”
by Suprakash Chakma, Md. Arifur Rahman, Muhammad A. B. Siddik, Md. Sazedul Hoque, SM Majharul Islam and Ioannis N. Vatsos
Fishes 2022, 7(6), 309; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes7060309
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/7/6/309

12. “Genetic Diversity and Differences among Three F1 Families and Two Wild Populations of Genus Scylla Using Microsatellite Markers”
by Weifeng Gao, Wenxiao Cui, Fangchun Wu, Huiying Chen, Simin Liu, Mengyun Guan, Hafiz Sohaib Ahmed Saqib, Shaopan Ye, Mhd Ikhwanuddin and Hongyu Ma
Fishes 2023, 8(1), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8010018
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3888/8/1/18

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.