Announcements

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.

The journal Future Internet (ISSN 1999-5903) is recruiting a Topical Advisory Panel (TAP). TAP Members are expected to provide support to Guest Editors, Topic Editors, and Section Board Members. The responsibilities of the reviewers are here.

Future Internet (ISSN 1999-5903, indexed by Scopus, Ei Compendex, ESCI-Web of Science) is a journal on Internet technologies and the information society. It maintains a rigorous and fast peer review system with a median publication time of 35 days from submission to online publication, and 3 days from acceptance to publication. On Scopus, Future Internet ranks 104th out of 334 (Q2) in the “Computer Networks and Communications” category. The aims and scope of the journal can be found here.

Benefits: Topical Advisory Panel Members are encouraged to apply for travel grants for their research group or themselves after one year of their tenure has been served. Moreover, they may be recommended for the role of Editorial Board Member after the Editorial Office's evaluation.

If you are interested in becoming a Topical Advisory Panel Member of Future Internet, please send your application, including a full academic CV, to the Future Internet Editorial Office (futureinternet@mdpi.com).

For more information about Future Internet, please visit the website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet.

We are pleased to announce that 5 new scholars have recently been appointed as Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for the journal Future Internet (ISSN 1999-5903).

We wish them every success both in their research and in the development of the journal.

Further details about the Editorial Board can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet/editors.

Rigorous peer-review is the cornerstone of high-quality academic publishing. Over 369,916 scholars served as reviewers for MDPI journals in 2020. We are extremely appreciative of all those who made a contribution to the editorial process in this capacity. At the beginning of every year, journal editorial offices publish a list of all reviewers’ names to express our gratitude. In addition, this year, the MDPI Top Reviewer Award was announced, to recognize the very best reviewers for their expertise and dedication, and their high-quality, and timely review reports. We are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2020 MDPI Top Reviewer Award:

• Adriana Burlea-Schiopoiu;
• Alban Kuriqi;
• Álvaro González-Vila;
• Alessandro Alaimo;
• Alexey Beskopylny;
• Alexander Yu Churyumov;
• Alberto Fernández-Isabel;
• Andrea Mastinu;
• Antonios N. Papadopoulos;
• Anton Rassõlkin;
• Antonio Humberto Hamad Minervino;
• Arkadiusz Matwijczuk;
• Artur Słomka;
• Baojie He;
• Bartłomiej Potaniec;
• Bojan Đurin;
• Camilo Arturo Rodriguez Diaz;
• Carmelo Maria Musarella;
• Chiachung Chen;
• Chiman Kwan;
• Cristian Busu;
• Danil Pimenov;
• Dan-Cristian Dabija;
• Delfín Ortega-Sánchez;
• Demetrio Antonio Zema;
• Denis Butusov;
• Elena Lucchi;
• Gaurab Dutta;
• Livia Anastasiu;
• M. R. Safaei.

For more information about how to become a reviewer of MDPI journals, please see: www.mdpi.com/reviewers.

Future Internet (ISSN 1999-5903) is a scholarly, peer-reviewed, open access journal on Internet technologies and the information society, published monthly online by MDPI. Because it is an open access journal, papers published receive high levels of publicity. Future Internet is indexed by ESCI, Scopus (CiteScore 4.1), etc. The Future Internet website can be accessed at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet.

Given the prospect of open access repositories and especially the vigorous development of Future Internet, we are now recruiting Guest Editors (GEs) for this journal, in the following macro-areas. The detailed topics can be found at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/futureinternet/about.

• Macro-Area 1: Smart System Technologies and Architecture;
• Macro-Area 2: Smart Systems and Applications;
• Macro-Area 3: Net-Living Human Factors and Quality of Life Enhancement.

As a GE, you will have the following responsibilities and opportunities:

• Serving as the editor of Special Issues on topics related to your critical research interests, at your convenience;
• Deciding whether a manuscript qualifies for acceptance in a Special Issue, according to MDPI criteria;
• Promoting Future Internet at academic events to increase its visibility within related academic fields;
• Inviting paper submissions and enjoying our premium editorial service at any time.

It is our pleasure to receive applications from leading experts in the aforementioned academic fields. We welcome and encourage you to apply.

You can submit your application directly via the link here.

If you have any questions before or after applying, please do not hesitate to contact us (futureinternet@mdpi.com).

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

Dear Colleagues,

As the Editor-in-Chief of Future Internet, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Future Internet 2021 Best Paper Award.

The award has been granted to one research article:

• “A Review of Machine Learning and IoT in Smart Transportation”
  by Fotios Zantalis, Grigorios Koulouras, Sotiris Karabetsos, and Dionisis Kandris
  Volume 11, Issue 4, doi: 10.3390/fi11040094

The corresponding authors will receive CHF 500 and a chance to publish a paper free of charge in Future Internet in 2021. On behalf of the Assessment Committee, I would like to congratulate the winners on their accomplishment. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the nominated research groups of the above exceptional paper for their contributions to Future Internet and thank the Award Committee for voting and helping with the award.

Prof. Dr. Dino Giuli
Editor-in-Chief of Future Internet

MDPI will be attending the 2021 CCF Conference on Artificial Intelligence (CCFAI 2021), which is to be held in Yantai, China, on 22–25 July 2021. As one of the most important academic conferences in the field of artificial intelligence in China, CCFAI aims to provide an interactive communication platform for practitioners in artificial intelligence, accelerating the exchange of latest research results and knowledge, as well as improving the research level in artificial intelligence.

The following MDPI journals will be represented at the meeting:

• Electronics;
• BDCC;
• Information;
• ASI;
• Future Internet.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth. Our delegates are looking forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you may have.

For more information about the conference, please visit: https://ccfai2021.ytu.edu.cn/.

Future Internet has received an increased CiteScore of 4.10 in the latest released 2020 CiteScore™ values, published by Elsevier in June 2021. Future Internet now ranks Q2 (104/307) in the category “Computer Networks and Communications”. For full details of the current CiteScore release, please see the journal's Source profile: https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21100409311.