Announcements

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 that 10 new scholars have been appointed Editorial Board Members for the journal Fractal and Fractional (ISSN: 2504-3110):

• Dr. Vicenç Méndez (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain);
• Dr. Nickolay Korabel (The University of Manchester, UK);
• Prof. Dr. Igor V. Pantić (University of Belgrade, Serbia);
• Prof. Dr. Santos Bravo Yuste (Universidad de Extremadura, Spain);
• Prof. Dr. Rodica Luca ("Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania);
• Dr. Alexandra M. S. F. Galhano (Universidade Lusófona do Porto, Portugal);
• Dr. Christopher Angstmann (University of New South Wales, Australia);
• Prof. Dr. Wei-Shih Du (National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan);
• Dr. Alessandro Taloni (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy);
• Prof. Dr. Andreas Rauh (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany).

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.

1. “Fractals: An Eclectic Survey, Part-I”
by Akhlaq Husain, Manikyala Navaneeth Nanda, Movva Sitaram Chowdary and Mohammad Sajid
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(2), 89; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6020089
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/2/89

2. “Cardiovascular Circulatory System and Left Carotid Model: A Fractional Approach to Disease Modeling”
by José Emilio Traver, Cristina Nuevo-Gallardo, Inés Tejado, Javier Fernández-Portales, Juan Francisco Ortega-Morán, J. Blas Pagador and Blas M. Vinagre
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(2), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6020064
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/2/64

3. “Fractal Analysis on Surface Topography of Thin Films: A Review”
by Wenmeng Zhou, Yating Cao, Haolin Zhao, Zhiwei Li, Pingfa Feng and Feng Feng
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(3), 135; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6030135
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/3/135

4. “On the Existence and Stability of Variable Order Caputo Type Fractional Differential Equations”
by Shahzad Sarwar
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(2), 51; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6020051
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/2/51

5. “Influence of MgO on the Hydration and Shrinkage Behavior of Low Heat Portland Cement-Based Materials via Pore Structural and Fractal Analysis”
by Lei Wang, Xiao Lu, Lisheng Liu, Jie Xiao, Ge Zhang, Fanxing Guo and Li Li
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(1), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6010040
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/1/40

6. “Geometric Properties of a Certain Class of Mittag–Leffler-Type Functions”
by Hari M. Srivastava, Anish Kumar, Sourav Das and Khaled Mehrez
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(2), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6020054
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/2/54

7. “Elementary Fractal Geometry. 2. Carpets Involving Irrational Rotations”
by Christoph Bandt and Dmitry Mekhontsev
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(1), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6010039
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/1/39

8. “Recent Advances and Applications of Spiral Dynamics Optimization Algorithm: A Review”
by Madiah Binti Omar, Kishore Bingi, B Rajanarayan Prusty and Rosdiazli Ibrahim
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(1), 27; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6010027
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/1/27

9. “Influence of Groundwater Depth on Pile–Soil Mechanical Properties and Fractal Characteristics under Cyclic Loading”
by Bingxiang Yuan, Zhijie Li, Weijie Chen, Jin Zhao, Jianbing Lv, Jie Song and Xudong Cao
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(4), 198; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6040198
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/4/198

10. “Examining the Position of Wright’s Fallingwater in the Context of His Larger Body of Work: An Analysis Using Fractal Dimensions”
by Josephine Vaughan and Michael J. Ostwald
Fractal Fract. 2022, 6(4), 187; https://doi.org/10.3390/fractalfract6040187
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3110/6/4/187

The Fractal and Fractional (ISSN: 2504-3110; IF: 3.577) Editorial Office is pleased to inform you that applications are open for the Topical Advisory Panel (TAP).

The benefits of becoming a Topical Advisory Panel Member include the following:

• The opportunity to publish 3−4 papers, with a certain discount, per year in Fractal and Fractional, in addition to potential discounts for additional papers you invite;
• Receiving a certificate in recognition of becoming a Topical Advisory Panel Member of Fractal and Fractional;
• Journal sponsorships for conferences organized by Topical Advisory Panel Members.

The main responsibilities of the new members of the Topical Advisory Panel are as follows:

• Providing regular reviews of manuscripts;
• Setting up at least one Special Issue (SI) in partnership with a senior researcher within two years of the appointment. The topic of the proposal should be within the scope of Fractal and Fractional;
• Providing a strategy plan for the SI, including assisting in preparing the Special Issue’s/Topic’s title, aim and scope, summary, and keywords, as well as soliciting papers for and promoting the SI;
• Promoting our journal at conferences, social media, and other relevant platforms;
• Collaborating with the Editorial Office to promote high-quality/featured papers.

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must fit the following criteria:

• Have expertise and experience in the field related to Fractal and Fractional;
• Have published at least six papers in the last five years as a first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute.

For the full list of Topical Advisory Panel Members, please see the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/fractalfract/topical_advisory_panel.

If you are interested in this role, please contact the Editorial Office (fractalfract@mdpi.com). You can also click on the following link to submit your application: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/fractalfract/topical_advisory_panel_application.

Fractal and Fractional Editorial Office

Peer Review Week began 19 September 2022 under the theme of “Research Integrity: Creating and Supporting Trust in Research”. Through various blog articles, podcast, and webinar, we discussed this crucial subject throughout the week, celebrating the essential role peer review plays in maintaining research quality.

To begin, we held a Webinar on the topic. Professor Peter W. Choate and Dr. Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi joined Dr. Ioana Craciun, one of MDPI’s scientific officers, for an in-depth discussion.

We invite you to view the event recording:

During the week, the MDPI Blog in a series articles highlighted how good Peer Review safeguards research integrity. The following topics were covered:

• Peer Review Week 2022
• Research Integrity
• What We’ve Learned About Peer Review Reports
• 4 Steps to the Perfect Peer Review Report
• How to Write the Perfect Peer Review Report: An Interview
• Inviting Great Peer Reviewers

In a new edition of Insight Faster, an MDPI podcast, we were delighted to talk to the co-chairs of the Peer Review Week committee, Jayashree Rajagopalan (Senior Manager of Global Community Engagement for CACTUS) and Danielle Padula (Head of Marketing and Community Development at Scholastica) to get their take on this year’s event and its related topics.

You can find the Podcast here.

We hope you enjoy the contents!

MDPI will be attending the Conference on Complex Systems (CCS2022) in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, which will take place from 17 to 21 October 2022. The CCS is the largest and most important annual meeting of the international complex systems community. It comes under the auspices of the Complex Systems Society. This edition, organized by IFISC, takes place after previous events held in Lyon, Singapore, Thessaloniki, and Cancun.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Entropy;
• Fractal and Fractional;
• Symmetry;
• Mathematics;
• Dynamics;
• Algorithms;
• Systems;
• Informatics;
• MAKE;
• Information;
• Future Internet;
• Applied System Innovation;
• Data.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following link: https://www.ccs2022.org/.

We are pleased to announce that five new scholars have been appointed Editorial Board Members for the journal Fractal and Fractional (ISSN: 2504-3110):

• Prof. Dr. VuKim Tuan (University of West Georgia, USA);
• Prof. Dr. Sabir Umarov (University of New Haven, USA);
• Prof. Dr. Vy Khoi Le (Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA);
• Prof. Dr. Damian Słota (Silesian University of Technology, Poland);
• Prof. Dr. Francesco Marotti De Sciarra (University of Naples Federico II, Italy).