Announcements

We are pleased to inform you that Information (ISSN: 2078-2489) has received an updated CiteScore of 5.8, an increase of 38% compared with the 2021 metric. The 2022 CiteScore™ was released recently, making an assessment of the scientific influence of journals in the 2019 to 2022 period.

Information’s CiteScore ranks 103 among 379 titles (Q2) in the “Information Systems” category.

For more journal statistics, please visit https://www.mdpi.com/journal/information/stats.

Excellent performance is inseparable from the support and dedication of all journal editors, reviewers, authors, and readers. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have contributed to the journal.

On 27 June 2023, MDPI, and the journals AI, Algorithms, Big Data and Cognitive Computing (BDCC), Future Internet, Informatics, Information, Languages and Publications, organized the webinar AI Chatbots: Threat or Opportunity?.

The first presentation, delivered by Dr. Ibrahim Demir, tackled “AI Chatbots: Opportunities and Challenges in Engineering Research, Education and Practice”. Dr. Demir is the Director of the UI Hydroinformatics Lab and serves as an Associate Professor in both the Civil and Environmental Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering departments at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.

The second presenter was Dr. Haridimos Kondylakis, who presented his paper on “SummaryGPT: Leveraging ChatGPT for Summarizing Knowledge Graphs”. He is a researcher with FORTH-ICS in Greece.

Please note that this webinar is associated with the Topic titled “AI Chatbots: Threat or Opportunity?”. The abstract submission deadline is 29 February 2024.

In addition, the second webinar of the series will be held on 10 July 2023, 3 p.m. (CEST). For more information, or to register for the webinar, please visit the webpage via the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/6117.

You can watch the recorded webinar at the following link: https://youtu.be/lWEDnfGObzI.

Keynote Speakers:

• Ibrahim Demir, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA;
• Haridimos Kondylakis, Institute of Computer Science, FORTH, Greece.

The purpose of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide. 17 May marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

This year, World Telecommunication and Information Society Day focuses on “Empowering the least developed countries (LDCs) through information and communication technologies.” As the world becomes increasingly adept at leveraging the Internet for value creation, LDCs risk falling further behind. To further explore the information about digital transformation in these LDCs and communication technologies in the rest of the world on the 2023 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, we have gathered academic research from several journals on the topic of digital communication, all of which are open access, enabling practitioners, policymakers and people around the world to access and share up-to-date scientific knowledge.

Let us celebrate the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day together.

MDPI will be attending the 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT 2023) in Taipei, Taiwan, which will take place from 25 to 30 June 2023.

ISIT is the premier international conference series dedicated to the advancement of information theory and related areas. It brings together an international community of researchers and practitioners each year to present and discuss new research results and perspectives on future developments relevant to all areas of information theory, including big data analytics, source and channel coding, communication theory and systems, cryptography and security, detection and estimation, emerging applications, networks, network coding, signal processing, and statistical/machine learning.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Entropy;
• Mathematics;
• Information;
• Axioms;
• Algorithms;
• Symmetry;
• Data;
• JCP;
• Cryptography.

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://isit2023.org/.

Professor Mark Burgin, a renowned mathematician, logician, computer scientist, and information theoretician, passed away on Saturday, February 18, 2023. He was President-Elect of the IS4SI, International Society for the Study of Information, where he served as Vice-President for Publications for many years and one of the main moving forces of the summit of IS4SI where he organized the conference series “Theoretical and Foundational Problems (TFP) In Information Studies”. Prof. Burgin was a prominent figure in the IS4SI organization, a cohesive force, a highly respected colleague, and a friend.

Prof. Burgin earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in mathematics from Moscow State University. He later went on to receive a Doctor of Science (DSc) in logic and philosophy from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Throughout his career, he held various academic positions, including Visiting Professor at UCLA, a Professor at the Institute of Education, Kiev, Ukraine, at International Solomon University, Kiev, Ukraine, at Kiev State University, Ukraine, the Head of the Assessment Laboratory of the Research Center of Science at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Chief Scientist at Institute of Psychology, Kiev. At the time of his passing, he was affiliated with UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Prof. Mark Burgin was widely recognized for his groundbreaking contributions to a broad range of fields, including mathematics, information sciences, theory of algorithms, theory of knowledge, computer science, system theory, philosophy, logic, psychology, cognitive sciences, social sciences, pedagogical sciences, and methodology of science. He was the first to address Non-Diophantine arithmetics, and to axiomatize and build mathematical foundations for negative probability used in physics, finance, and economics. He also constructed new classes of automata that overcame the barrier posed by the Church-Turing Thesis in computer science. His recent contribution to Super-Symbolic Computing and the General Theory of Information with Structural Machines is leading to various practical applications in enhancing machine intelligence to solve diverse problems in healthcare and self-regulating software systems in distributed computing environments.

In addition to various contributions in specific areas of science, Prof. Burgin paid great attention to the new development of scientific methodology. He published a number of papers on methodology including “Methodology of Information Ecology in the Context of Modern Academic Research”, “Techn-Ecology and Problems of Education”, “Principles of General Ecology” and “Introduction to Modern Exact Methodology of Science”, as well as the edited book Philosophy and Methodology of Information: The Study of Information in a Transdisciplinary Perspective.

Dr. Burgin authored and co-authored over 500 papers and 21 books, including Theory of Knowledge: Structure and Processes (2016), Structural Reality (2012), Hypernumbers and Extrafunctions: Extending the Classical Calculus (2012), Theory of Named Sets (2011), Theory of Information: Fundamentality, Diversity and Unification (2010), Measuring Power of Algorithms, Computer Programs, and Information Automata (2010), Neoclassical Analysis: Calculus Closer to the Real World (2008), Super-recursive Algorithms (2005), On the Nature and Essence of Mathematics (1998), Intellectual Components of Creativity (1998), Fundamental Structures of Knowledge and Information: Achievement of an Absolute (1997), Non-Diophantine Arithmetics or is it Possible that 2 + 2 ¹ 4’ (1997), Introduction to the Modern Exact Methodology of Science (1994), The Structure-Nominative Analysis of Theoretical Knowledge (1992), and The World of Theories and Power of Mind (1992).

Prof. Mark Burgin was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, a Senior Member of IEEE, the Society for Computer Modeling and Simulation International, and the International Society for Computers and their Applications. He was also an Honorary Professor of the Aerospace Academy of Ukraine, the Chair of the IEEE San Fernando Valley Computer and Communication Chapter, and the Secretary of the International Society for Computers and their Applications.

He was the editor of the World Scientific Series in Information Studies with 14 already published volumes and two that are forthcoming. Prof. Burgin served as an Associate Editor of the MDPI journal Information.

Prof. Mark Burgin’s extraordinary intellect and pioneering research will continue to inspire future generations of researchers. Prof. Burgin will be remembered for his outstanding contributions to the fields of mathematics, computer science, and information sciences as well as his work on methodology and transdisciplinary science. He was a brilliant scholar who made a significant impact on the academic community. He will be sorely missed by his colleagues, students, and the wider international academic community.

Our thoughts and condolences go out to his family, friends, and colleagues.

International Society for the Study of Information:

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Vice-President for Protocol
Yixin Zhong, President
Pedro Marijuan, President
Gustavo Saldanha, President Elect
Marcin Schroeder, Immediate Past President
Wolfgang Hofkirchner, Vice-President for Funds
José María Díaz Nafría, Vice-President for Transdisciplinary Projects
Xueshan Yan, Vice-President for Institutional Membership
Zhicheng Chen, Vice-President for Special Interest Groups
Shigeo Kawashima, Vice-President for Regional Chapters
Wu Kun, Vice-President for Archives
Krassimir Markov, Vice-President for Research
Yagmur Denizhan, Vice-President for Educational Affairs
Jorge Navarro López, Vice-President for Conferences
Teresa Guarda, Vice-President for Communication
Annette Grathoff, Secretary

Peter N Boltuc, University of Illinois Springfield
Rao Mikkilineni, Golden Gate University
Eugene Eberbach, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Joseph E. Brenner, International Center for the Philosophy of Information, Xi’an Jiaotong University
Bill Seaman, Duke University

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.

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!