Announcements

Land is currently recruiting prestigious scholars from around the world to join our Editorial Board for the following 13 Sections:

• “Land Systems and Global Change”;
• “Landscape Ecology”;
• “Soil–Sediment–Water Systems”;
• “Land Socio-Economic and Political Issues”;
• “Urban Contexts and Urban–Rural Interactions”;
• “Land–Climate Interactions”;
• “Landscape Archaeology”;
• “Land, Biodiversity, and Human Wellbeing”;
• “Land Environmental and Policy Impact Assessment”;
• “Land Innovations—Data and Machine Learning”;
• “Water, Energy, Land and Food (WELF) Nexus”;
• “Land—Observation and Monitoring”;
• “Land Planning and Architecture”.

Land (ISSN: 2073-445X, Impact Factor 3.398) is an international and cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal of land system science, landscape, soil–sediment–water systems, urban study, land–climate interactions, water–energy–land–food (WELF) nexus, biodiversity research and health nexus, land modelling and data processing, ecosystem services, and multifunctionality and sustainability etc., published monthly online by MDPI. The International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE), European Land-use Institute (ELI), Landscape Institute (LI) and Urban Land Institute (ULI) are affiliated with Land, and their members receive a discount on the article processing charge.

The main responsibilities of Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Pre-checking and making decisions for several manuscripts, based on your area of expertise;
• Acting as, or recommending, a Guest Editor for a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests;
• Promoting Land and increasing its visibility on related academic social media.

The benefits of becoming an Editorial Board Member (EBM) include the following:

• The opportunity to publish one paper, free of charge, per year in Land, as well as receiving certain discounts for papers invited from your scientific network;
• A certificate recognizing you as an Editorial Board Member of Land;
• Land may offer sponsorship for conferences organized by you;
• Land may offer travel grants of CHF 300–500 per year for conferences that you attend or organize.

To apply for this position (in one of our sections), recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact the Land Editorial Office (land@mdpi.com) with the following two files attached:

• A full academic CV;
• A short cover letter that details your interest and enthusiasm for the position.

Land Editorial Office

Land (ISSN: 2073-445X) is an international and cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal of land system science, landscape, soil–sediment–water systems, urban study, land–climate interactions, water–energy–land–food (WELF) nexus, biodiversity research and health nexus, land modelling and data processing, ecosystem services, and multifunctionality and sustainability etc., published monthly online by MDPI. It is the only open access journal covering all aspects of land science, indexed within Scopus, SSCI (Web of Science), AGRICOLA, AGRIS, GeoRef, RePEc, and many other databases. Land has received an increased CiteScore (2020 Scopus data) of 3.0, and its 2020 Impact Factor is 3.398.

Land’s new Section “Landscape Archaeology” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/sections/landscape_archaeology) is now recruiting Editorial Board Members.

The main responsibilities of the Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Supervising the quality of the papers in this Section (reviewing new submissions);
• Acting as a/recommending Guest Editors for a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests;
• Providing conference/society cooperation recommendations;
• Helping to promote this Section among your peers or at conferences.

Applications for the position should include (i) a brief cover letter and (ii) a short CV outlining the candidate’s track record in publishing, peer reviewing, and editing in scientific journals and links to ORCID, Publons, Scopus, SciProfiles, and/or Google Scholar profiles.

This position is open to experts in any aspect of landscape archaeology. To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact the Land Editorial Office (land@mdpi.com) or Carol Ma (carol.ma@mdpi.com).

The journal Land (ISSN 2073-445X) is launching a new position: Topical Advisory Panel Member. The main responsibility of the new members of the Topical Advisory Panel is to regularly provide support to Guest Editors, Topic Editors, and Section Board Members. The responsibilities of the Topical Advisory Panel Members are available here: https://www.mdpi.com/editors.

Land is an international and cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal of land system science, landscape, soil–sediment–water systems, urban study, land–climate interactions, water–energy–land–food (WELF) nexus, biodiversity research and health nexus, land modelling and data processing, ecosystem services, and multifunctionality and sustainability, etc., published monthly online by MDPI. The International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE), European Land-use Institute (ELI), and Landscape Institute (LI) are affiliated with Land. The aims and scope of the journal can be found at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/about.

Each year, the members’ performance is evaluated and outstanding members will be promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief.

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must:

• Have expertise and experience in the field related to the journal;
• Be within approximately 10 years of receiving a Ph.D.;
• Have at least 6-8 published papers in the last 5 years as first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute.

If you are interested in this position, please apply via the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/topical_advisory_panel_application, or send an email to land@mdpi.com with your academic CV.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Land (ISSN: 2073-445X) is an international and cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal of land system science, landscape, soil–sediment–water systems, urban study, land–climate interactions, water–energy–land–food (WELF) nexus, biodiversity research and health nexus, land modelling and data processing, ecosystem services, and multifunctionality and sustainability etc., published monthly online by MDPI. It is the only open access journal covering all aspects of land science, indexed within Scopus, SSCI (Web of Science), AGRICOLA, AGRIS, GeoRef, RePEc, and many other databases. Land has received an increased CiteScore (2020 Scopus data) of 3.0, and its 2020 Impact Factor is 3.398.

Land’s new Section “Land, Biodiversity, and Human Wellbeing” is now recruiting Editorial Board Members. This Section will highlight the land–biodiversity–human wellbeing nexus with respect to its trends, compromises, and controversies. You can find more information on the Section webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/sections/land_biodiversity_human_wellbeing.

The main responsibilities of Section Editorial Board Members are as follows:

• Pre-screening and making decisions on new submissions related to the journal Section;
• Assisting in editing a Special Issue on a topic related to the Section (or supervising Special Issues related to your research field);
• Providing input or feedback regarding journal policies;
• Helping to promote the journal among their peers or at conferences;
• Attending board meetings to develop journal development strategies;
• Reviewing manuscripts.

This position is open to active experts who are passionate about this field. To apply for the position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please do not hesitate to contact the Land Editorial Office (land@mdpi.com) or Erin Li (erin.li@mdpi.com).

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Sean Sloan has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the newly established Section “Land, Biodiversity, and Human Wellbeing” in Land (ISSN 2073-445X, IF 3.398).

Dr. Sean Sloan is a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in the Human Dimensions of Sustainability and Resilience and Professor of Geography at Vancouver Island University, Canada. His research interests encompass emergent trends to land management/change in the Global South, particularly with respect to the human dimensions of forest change, wildfires, and agriculture. Formally, Dr. Sloan was a Research Fellow at James Cook University, Australia, where his research extended to biological conservation amidst rapid road infrastructure development and related land exploitation.

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Sean Sloan, who shared his vision for the Section with us, as well as his views of the research area:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as its Section Editor-in-Chief?

In my view, Land has served as a niche outlet for exploratory research often produced by emergent scholars, including junior scientists, those in the Global South, and/or other typically under-represented demographics. When carefully vetted and cultivated, studies from such scholars can often be visionary and exciting. I have always enjoyed bringing out the best of such studies. I now look forward to doing so formally as Section Editor-in-Chief.

2. What is your vision for the Section?

While cliché, it is true that we live in unprecedented times in many respects, in degree if not in kind. The impacts of unfolding land-change dynamics are arguably more cumulative than ever, or at least felt more widely in terms of individual and societal wellbeing, broadly defined. This Section, therefore, seeks to compile scientific studies and informed commentaries on the implications of land change and/or related biodiversity fluxes for human wellbeing, as with respect to physical, mental, and spiritual health but also notions of social and environmental security, resilience, prosperity, and peace.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

To date, the field has been both piecemeal (e.g., local case studies) or all-encompassing (e.g., global meta-analyses). Each approach has struggled to explicitly highlight and/or generalise the “connective tissue” between actual land management, actual biodiversity change, and actual human wellbeing. The promise of the field, and this Section, is in doing just this.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?

I have always held Open Access publication as necessary for a globalized world in which much scientific research is publicly funded, but where access to educational resources including publications remains highly uneven. The Open Access model provides unparalleled access to scientific knowledge amongst scholars and practitioners, particularly in the Global South, where journal subscriptions are very limited. Ultimately, the model contributes to greater knowledge dissemination and related applications, perhaps especially where they are most needed. In short, the model is both scientifically utilitarian and publicly virtuous.

5. Who should contribute to this Section, and what can readers expect?

Contributions are welcome from all keen observers of the nexus of land management, biodiversity, and human wellbeing. These include professional scientists but also informed practitioners of land management, conservation, health, etc., as well as stakeholders dealing with changes to this nexus.

We warmly welcome Dr. Sean Sloan to his new role as Section Editor-in-Chief, and we look forward to his leading Land to many more milestones.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Chuanrong (Cindy) Zhang has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the newly established Section “Land Innovations – Data and Machine Learning” in Land (ISSN 2073-445X, IF 3.398).

Prof. Dr. Chuanrong (Cindy) Zhang received the Ph.D. in geography from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 2004. She is currently a professor at the Department of Geography & Center of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs. Prof. Dr. Zhang is a broadly trained geographer with substantive interests in geospatial technologies. Her research is interdisciplinary. In particular, her research concentrates on geographical information science (GIS), remote sensing, geo-spatial statistics, geocomputation, GIS cyberinfrastructure, and their applications in land-use/cover studies, climate change, managing disasters and natural resources, landscape ecology, environmental planning, as well as transportation studies. She has published articles in leading journals on GIS, geography, remote sensing, soil, and environmental studies. She has published more than 150 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings since 2003. She published her monograph titled Geospatial Semantic Web as the first author with Springer in 2015. Her work has been supported by different prestigious agents such as the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. She has served as the committee chair or member for several international or national organizations in the geospatial community such as the AAG (Association of American Geographers), CPGIS (The International Association of Chinese Professionals in GIS), and UCGIS (University Consortium for Geographic Information Science). She received the UCGIS/ESRI (University Consortium for Geographic Information Science/Environmental Systems Research Institute) Junior Faculty Award in 2009 and became an NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) CyberGIS Fellow in 2014.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Chuanrong Zhang, who shared her vision for the Section with us as well as her views of the research area:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take on the role as its Section Editor-in-Chief?

Many of the central challenges of the 21st century are tied to our land. For example, receding glaciers, loss of species’ habitats, growing inequalities, resource depletion, population migration, rising disasters, and climate change. Land is the journal in which to publish important interdisciplinary research on land, which has the potential to contribute greatly to efforts to solve these challenges. The journal has gained more attention in various fields and has had a growing impact across the sciences in recent years. As a geographer, I have research interests in common with the journal. My recent research focuses on investigating new technologies in GIS, remote sensing, and spatial statistics to process, analyze, and represent geographical data, which match the aims and scope of the journal well.

2. What is your vision for the Section?

The “Land Innovations – Data and Machine Learning” Section includes, but is not limited to, frontiers of research in spatial data science for obtaining, processing, analyzing, harnessing, and visualizing social, economic, environmental, and other data related to Land. Geospatial artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques for dealing with spatial big data, including remotely sensed data and social media data, are particularly welcome.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

The future of research on land data and machine learning is exciting. The future of research will move beyond proof-of-concept demonstrations and applications of big data and machine learning techniques. The future of research may involve investigations that draw on diverse perspectives and different types of data as well as emphasize integrated approaches and model-driven data analytics approaches, which are important in addressing many research problems and may promote large-scale collaborations.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?

As the Internet has enabled low-cost distribution of digital content, the development of open access will probably gain increasing acceptance and become more popular in the future. More and more journals will become open access journals.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Chuanrong Zhang to her new role as Section Editor-in-Chief, and we look forward to her leading Land to many more milestones.

At the end of October 2021, the citation metrics of Journal Citation Reports (JCR, https://jcr.help.clarivate.com/Content/data-updates.htm) were updated, in order to fix the problems associated with missing material, as well as to fix other small errors. Based on the new metrics, Land received a new IF of 3.398, which is a slight increase from the previous IF of 3.395.

The newest journal ranking in the corresponding categories is shown below.

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

It is our great honor to congratulate the Editorial Board Members and Editors in MDPI's journals who have been distinguished as 2021 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate, according to Web of Science data. We herewith express our gratitude for the immense impact the named researchers continue to make on scientific progress and on our journals' development.

Clarivate's annual list of Highly Cited Researchers^TM identifies the most highly cited scientists for the past decade. Their impactful papers are among the top 1 per cent in the citation distribution of one or more of 22 fields analyzed in the "Essential Science Indicators", distinguishing them as hugely influential among their peers.

The full list of 2021 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed at the following webpage in the Web of Science^TM https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2021/.

--- Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) is a Clarivate product.

The Landscape Institute (LI) Awards 2021 online ceremony will be held on 25 November 2021, at 12 p.m. GMT.

The transformative power of landscape is extremely important in times of crisis. Following the success of the 2020 Landscape Institute Awards, the LI Awards 2021 will aim to celebrate the exceptional contributions of landscape designers, managers, planners, and researchers across the world.

For more information, please visit https://awards.landscapeinstitute.org/.

Academic editors play a crucial role in leading our journals and ensuring that each article undergoes a robust and timely peer-review. With the launch of Topics this year and addition of Topic Editors to our family of academic editors, we decided it would be a good time to restructure our academic boards, thus providing more clarity and support for each role. MDPI is pleased to announce the launch of a new position—Topical Advisory Panel Member, that will replace the previous position of Topics Board Member. The Topical Advisory Panel will be comprised of early career researchers eager to gain experience in editorial work.

The main responsibility of the new members of the Topical Advisory Panel is to regularly provide support to Guest Editors, Topic Editors, and Section Board Members. The responsibilities of the Topical Advisory Panel are available here: https://www.mdpi.com/editors.

Each year, the members’ performances are evaluated, and outstanding members are promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief.

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must:

• Have expertise and experience in the field related to the journal;
• Have received a Ph.D. in the last 10 years, approximately;
• Have at least 6-8 published papers in the last 5 years as first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute.

If you are interested in this role, please contact the editorial office by email.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.