Announcements

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.

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!

The Journal of Nanotheranostics (ISSN: 2624-845X) is an international, scientific, and open access journal that provides a platform for basic, translational, and advanced research in the multi-disciplinary field dedicated to exploring nano-enabled theranostics for personalized health care. It publishes reviews, original research articles, communications, perspectives, brief/case reports, commentaries, and editorials. The journal is indexed within CNKI, DOAJ, EBSCO and many other databases.

The Journal of Nanotheranostics editorial team is pleased to announce this open call for Special Issue proposals, which offers a group of authors the opportunity to work on an interconnected set of papers on an innovative topic. We are soliciting high-quality proposals that will be evaluated in a continuous selection process throughout the year.

Proposals within the scope of the journal are welcome. For more details, please see the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jnt/about.

If you would like to propose a Special Issue topic for this journal, please contact the Journal of Nanotheranostics Editorial Office (nanotheranostics@mdpi.com) or complete and submit the form at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/jnt. Our editors will respond to you as soon as possible.

The following information should be featured in the proposal:

• A 150–200-word summary that clearly states the significance, novelty, technical advancement, and adherence of the proposed topic to the scope of the journal;
• A list of 5–10 keywords related to the topic;
• A brief resume of the proposed Guest Editors, together with their information (title, name, email, affiliation, personal website, and keywords of interests);
• A proposed submission deadline (a Special Issue will usually be open for submissions for 6–8 months).

The duties of acting as a Guest Editor are as follows:

• Preparing the Special Issue title, brief summary, and keywords;
• Circulating the call for papers for the Special Issue and inviting submissions;
• Pre-screening papers, supervising the entire peer-review process, and making decisions based on the reports we collect;
• Promoting the Special Issue at conferences, on social media, and on other relevant platforms.

The benefits of acting as a Guest Editor are as follows:

• Increased visibility and knowledge of innovations in the field;
• Publishing a paper, free of charge, in the Special Issue;
• Discounts for additional papers you invite;
• If ten or more papers are published in this Special Issue, we will make a Special Issue book and send a hard copy to each Guest Editor.

The Editorial Office will set up the Special Issue’s website, arrange the promotional materials, assist with the invitations for paper contributions, and take care of the administrative tasks associated with peer review (including inviting reviewers, collating reports, contacting authors, and arranging professional production before publication).

Please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office (nanotheranostics@mdpi.com) for further details and clarification.

We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Journal of Nanotheranostics Editorial Office

The Journal of Nanotheranostics (JNT, ISSN: 2624-845X) released its inaugural issue in December 2020, and is now published as a quarterly journal. Since the beginning, the Journal of Nanotheranostics has aimed to provide a professional publishing service to the scientific community and has strived towards the effective dissemination of high-quality scientific work.

The Journal of Nanotheranostics is now seeking cooperation with academic conferences, and is open to a diverse range of collaborations, such as media partnerships, awards, exhibitions, and publications, amongst others.

We welcome consultations with all nanotheranostics-related conferences. If you are interested in collaborating with the Journal of Nanotheranostics, please contact us at: nanotheranostics@mdpi.com.

The Journal of Nanotheranostics is an open access journal dedicated to exploring nano-enabled theranostics for personalized healthcare. The mission of the journal is to explore fundamentals as well as applied research to investigate novel theranostics approaches to develop effective diagnostics and therapeutics for disease management, aiming to improve personalized health needs.

The scope of the journal includes the following:

• Advanced nanomaterials for biomedical applications;
• Miniaturized systems for healthcare;
• Nano-enabled sensing systems for target analyte detection;
• Point-of-care systems for personalized healthcare;
• Image-guided therapy;
• Personalized nanomedicine;
• Nano-enabled tissues and gene engineering;
• Nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems;
• Nanopharmacology;
• Nanobiotechnology for drug addiction;
• Translational and clinical research;
• Theoretical aspects of disease management;
• Bioinformatics for disease management;
• Ethical and regulatory issues in theranostics.

MDPI’s Young Investigator Awards recognize promising junior researchers, acknowledge their contributions, and enhance communication among scientists. We are proud to present the winners for the year 2021 in the “Medicine & Pharmacology” category. The winners were selected by the journals’ editors.

We warmly congratulate the awarded young investigators for their outstanding contributions. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Biomedicines:

• Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong
• Mateusz Maciejczyk, Medical University of Bialystok, Poland

Current Oncology:

• Matteo Lambertini, University of Genova, Italy

Dentistry Journal:

• Helen Rogers, Newcastle University, UK

Healthcare:

• Amir Karami, University of South Carolina, USA

Journal of Clinical Medicine:

• Andrea Palermo, Campus Bio-Medico University, Italy

Journal of Personalized Medicine:

• Simone Di Franco, University of Palermo, Italy
• Catriona Hippman, University of Calgary, Canada

Medicina:

• Veeru Kasivisvanathan, University College London, UK
• Andrea Cortegiani, University of Palermo, Italy; University Hospital Policlinico Paolo Giaccone, Italy

Pharmaceutics:

• Qi Zhou, Purdue University, USA

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the “Medicine & Pharmacology” category for their outstanding presentations and to present them with the prize.

MDPI journals regularly offer travel awards to encourage talented junior scientists to present their latest research at academic conferences in specific fields, which helps to increase their influence.

The winners mentioned below were carefully selected by the journal editors based on an outline of their research and the work to be presented at an academic conference.

We would like to warmly congratulate the Travel Awards winners for the year 2021 and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors. MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.

Biomedicines:

• Soheil Saeedi, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Dentistry Journal:

• Shawn Alexander Hallett, University of Michigan, USA

Medicines:

• Claire Albert, Yale University, USA

Pharmaceuticals:

• Raquel Filipa da Costa Viveiros, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
• Patrick Jim Küppers, University Hospital Bonn, Germany

In order to acknowledge our reviewers, who so generously dedicate their time to reviewing papers, and demonstrate diligence, professionalism, and timeliness when reviewing manuscripts, MDPI journals regularly offer outstanding reviewer awards to scholars who participate in the peer-review process.

We are proud to recognize winners for the year 2021 in the “Medicine & Pharmacology” category for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with an Outstanding Reviewer Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the winners on their achievement. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Cancers:

• Antonio G. Solimando, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy
• Chenghui Li, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, USA
• Joaquim Carreras, Tokai University, Japan
• Pierfrancesco Franco, University of Turin School of Medicine, Italy
• Laurentiu Pop, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA

Current Oncology:

• Margaret Fitch, University of Toronto, Canada
• Caroline Mariano, BC Cancer Agency, Canada; University of British Columbia, Canada

Healthcare:

• Naser Alsharairi, Griffith University, Australia
• Peter W. Choate, Mount Royal University, Canada
• Qin Xiang Ng, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Journal of Clinical Medicine:

• Giulio Francesco, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
• Sebastian Schnaubelt, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
• Olga Kislitsina, Northwestern University, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, USA

Journal of Personalized Medicine:

• Onofrio Laselva, University of Foggia, Italy
• Ping-Hsun Wu, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan
• Vladimir Vladimirov, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
• Mauro Giuffrè, University of Trieste, Italy

Medical Sciences:

• Erika Palmieri, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, USA

Tomography:

• Anjul Khadria, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

The purpose of our Best Paper Awards is to promote and recognize the most impactful contributions published within MDPI journals.

The editors of each journal carefully selected reviews and research papers through a rigorous judging process based on criteria such as the scientific merit, overall impact, and the quality of presentation of the papers published in the journal last year.

We are honored to present the winners in the “Medicine & Pharmacology” category, who were selected amongst extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Antibiotics:

• “Antimicrobial and Synergistic Effects of Commercial Piperine and Piperlongumine in Combination with Conventional Antimicrobials”

by Eunice Ego Mgbeahuruike, Milla Stålnacke, Heikki Vuorela and Yvonne Holm

Antibiotics 2019, 8(2), 55; doi:10.3390/antibiotics8020055

• “Antibiotic Discovery: Where Have We Come from, Where Do We Go?”

by Bernardo Ribeiro da Cunha, Luís P. Fonseca and Cecília R. C. Calado

Antibiotics 2019, 8(2), 45; doi:10.3390/antibiotics8020045

Dentistry Journal:

• “Regeneration of the Periodontal Apparatus in Aggressive Periodontitis Patients”

by Zvi Artzi, Shiran Sudri, Ori Platner and Avital Kozlovsky

Dent. J. 2019, 7(1), 29; doi:10.3390/dj7010029

• “Treatment of Peri-Implant Mucositis with Repeated Application of Chlorhexidine Chips or Gel during Supportive Therapy—A Randomized Clinical Trial”

by Philipp Sahrmann, Cyrill Bettschart, Daniel B. Wiedemeier, Ahmed Al-Majid, Thomas Attin and Patrick R. Schmidlin

Dent. J. 2019, 7(4), 115; doi:10.3390/dj7040115

Healthcare:

• “Two-Year Use of Care Robot Zora in Dutch Nursing Homes: An Evaluation Study”

by Chantal Huisman and Helianthe Kort

Healthcare 2019, 7(1), 31; doi:10.3390/healthcare7010031

• “The Interlinked Rising Epidemic of Insufficient Sleep and Diabetes Mellitus”

by Vijay Kumar Chattu, Soosanna Kumary Chattu, Deepa Burman, David Warren Spence and Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal

Healthcare 2019, 7(1), 37; doi:10.3390/healthcare7010037

Journal of Clinical Medicine:

• “Periodontitis: A Multifaceted Disease of Tooth-Supporting Tissues”

by Eija Könönen, Mervi Gursoy and Ulvi Kahraman Gursoy

Clin. Med. 2019, 8(8), 1135; doi:10.3390/jcm8081135

• “The Immunomodulatory Functions of Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem Cells Mediated via Paracrine Activity”

by Yueyuan Zhou, Yusuke Yamamoto, Zhongdang Xiao and Takahiro Ochiya

Clin. Med. 2019, 8(7), 1025; doi:10.3390/jcm8071025

• “Optimizing Detection of Kidney Transplant Injury by Assessment of Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA via Massively Multiplex PCR”

by Tara K. Sigdel, Felipe Acosta Archila, Tudor Constantin, Sarah A. Prins, Juliane Liberto, Izabella Damm, Parhom Towfighi, Samantha Navarro, Eser Kirkizlar, Zachary P. Demko, Allison Ryan, Styrmir Sigurjonsson, Reuben D. Sarwal, Szu-Chuan Hseish, Chitranon Chan-On, Bernhard Zimmermann, Paul R. Billings, Solomon Moshkevich and Minnie M. Sarwal

Clin. Med. 2019, 8(1), 19; doi:10.3390/jcm8010019

Medicina:

• “Tumor Microenvironment”

by Borros Arneth

Medicina 2020, 56(1), 15; doi: 10.3390/medicina56010015

• “Comparative Epidemiology and Resistance Trends of Common Urinary Pathogens in a Tertiary-Care Hospital: A 10-Year Surveillance Study”

by Márió Gajdács, Marianna Ábrók, Andrea Lázár, and Katalin Burián

Medicina 2019, 55(7), 356; doi: 10.3390/medicina55070356

Pharmaceutics:

• “3D Printed Pellets (Miniprintlets): A Novel, Multi-Drug, Controlled Release Platform Technology”

by Atheer Awad, Fabrizio Fina, Sarah J. Trenfield, Pavanesh Patel, Alvaro Goyanes, Simon Gaisford and Abdul W. Basit.

Pharmaceutics 2019, 11(4), 148; doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics11040148

• “Mathematical Modeling of Release Kinetics from Supramolecular Drug Delivery Systems”

by Constantin Mircioiu, Victor Voicu, Valentina Anuta, Andra Tudose, Christian Celia, Donatella Paolino, Massimo Fresta, Roxana Sandulovici and Ion Mircioiu

Pharmaceutics 2019, 11(3), 140; doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics11030140