Announcements

Since 1996, MDPI has been committed to supporting the research community by providing the latest research freely available and making relevant and useful research available as quickly as possible. The world is current experiencing a pandemic of COVID-19, and researchers are working extremely hard to understand it and find a cure.

The values MDPI holds strongly are particularly important at the moment, and we will continue to publish relevant, peer-reviewed research as quickly as possible in open access format. This means that it will immediately be available for researchers, health professionals, and the general public to read, distribute, and reuse. We believe that scientific advancements will be crucial to overcoming this pandemic, and will do everything we can to support researchers working looking for solutions.

COVID-19 Academic Resources Center contains a variety of information related to COVID-19 available from MDPI, including journal articles, special issues, and preprints, among others.

For more information, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/covid-19

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Lluís Ribas de Pouplana has been appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Genetics and Genomics Research” of Life (ISSN 2075-1729).

Prof. Dr. Lluís Ribas de Pouplana
Affiliation: Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Parc Científic de Barcelona, C/Baldiri Reixac 10, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Website: https://www.irbbarcelona.org/en/profile/lluis-ribas
E-mail: lluis.ribas@irbbarcelona.org

Prof. Dr. Lluís Ribas de Pouplana received his B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Barcelona (1988), and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Edinburgh. After the completion of his doctoral studies he was hired as a postdoctoral scientist at the Department of Biology of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1993–97). From Cambridge, he moved to San Diego, where he accepted a Senior Research Scientist position and, in 2001, an Assistant Professorship of Molecular Biology at the Scripps Research Institute. In June 2003 he accepted an ICREA Research Professorship, and became a principal investigator at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).

His research is focused on the mechanisms of control of protein synthesis, or gene translation. The transformation of genetic information into protein sequence is the central process of biology; its control is essential for the well-being of the cell, and a large number of human diseases are caused by defects in this control.

He also worked as Guest Editor for the Special Issues

Evolution of tRNA
International Journal of Molecular Sciences: Functions of Transfer RNAs 2.0

The editorial team looks forward to his contribution to the continued success of Life and warmly welcomes Prof. Dr. Lluís Ribas de Pouplana as the Editor-in-Chief of the Section "Genetics and Genomics Research". For further information on the journal sections, please click here.

As a leading Open Access publisher, MDPI is committed to fostering open scientific exchange in all forms across all disciplines. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, many researchers have to stay at home and many academic conferences have been cancelled or postponed. In light of these changes, MDPI has adopted numerous initiatives that may help accelerate scientific exchange and provide support to the academics during this period.

Scholarly Community—Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia is an online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as providing benchmark information for researchers and the general public interested in accurate and advanced knowledge on specific topics.

Comprehensive and Free Literature Database—Scilit

Scilit is a comprehensive, free database for scientists that uses a new method to collate data and index scientific material. Our crawlers extract the latest data from CrossRef and PubMed on a daily basis. This means that newly published articles are immediately added to Scilit.

Display Academic Achievements—SciProfiles

SciProfiles is an innovative social network for researchers and scholars that is developed by MDPI. In line with our broad mission, the purpose of SciProfiles is to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and providing opportunities for academic networking.

Organize and Participate in Conferences Online—Sciforum

Sciforum is an event planning platform that supports open science by offering the opportunity to host and participate in academic conferences. It provides an environment for scholarly exchange, discussion of topics of current interest, building of networks, and establishing collaborations.

Post Early Versions of Research Outputs—Preprints

Preprints is a platform dedicated to making early versions of research outputs permanently available and citable. We post original research articles and comprehensive reviews, and papers can be updated by authors at any time. Content on Preprints is not peer-reviewed, and feedback can be received from readers.

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MDPI remains committed to open science and open data and has signed a statement, along with more than thirty scholarly publishers, showing our intention to facilitate sharing of new research findings as early on as possible. The initiative sees publishers collectively removing barriers to new research, in the face of a global healthcare crisis.

The world is currently suffering from a global pandemic of the corona virus COVID-19. MDPI expresses its sympathies for all of those affected by the virus and stands in solidarity with medical staff and researchers treating patients and searching for scientific solutions.

MDPI has previously published papers covering corona viruses in addition to new papers on the current outbreak, see all papers here. In particular, Viruses has published a number of Special Issues and papers on the topic (see here, here, and here) as well as a forthcoming Special Issue.

Alongside journal articles, MDPI has been a strong supporter of preprints, which are increasingly being used to rapidly disseminate the latest research, and we run the preprint server Preprints.org. Our database of research articles, Scilit, is free to use and covers all publishers including preprint servers. New papers are often in search results within hours of publication and users can set up alerts for new papers.

Our main priority during this period has been the health and safety of staff, and we continue to allow staff to work at home and closely monitor the situation in all locations in which we work. Despite the restrictions, we continue to provide a full publication service and, by close collaboration with our editorial boards and making use our in-house teams, ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in publishing vital research. Fast and open publication has always been at the core of MDPI values and is now more important than ever.

We hope that a solution to the current situation will emerge soon. In the meantime, we will do our best to continue communicating vital research in all fields.

The advantages of the open access model of scientific publishing are being increasingly recognized in the scientific community. It allows new scientific evidence to be accessed from the moment of publication for free by anyone around the globe, boosting the impact of new research. In response, many funders, libraries and universities have been adopting new principles to accelerate the transition to open access.

Recently, “transformative agreements” have been negotiated between traditional publishers and various institutions. While increasing the number of open access papers, these agreements lack binding commitments to a full transition to open access, their conditions vary across different regions, and access is still limited for many users.

MDPI is a co-signatory of the recent position statement raising concerns about potential downsides of transformative agreements and how they may delay a full transition to open access. The statement highlights that these models “risk perpetuating current limitations on access, transparency and market competitiveness, while simultaneously facilitating excessive charges on the public purse”.

As a pioneering open access journal publisher, MDPI is the first to promote the importance of science being made available to everyone. Our peer-reviewed journals, covering diverse academic disciplines, are fully accessible to the public free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). This is why, along with other open access publishers, MDPI is a proud signatory of the position paper and is committed to contributing to the replacement of weak transitional agreements with “agreements with publishers that are already fully committed to open science and who offer full, immediate and transparent Open Access”.

Read the position paper here

We are pleased to announce that Encyclopedia will be awarding five Outstanding Contributor Awards for researchers in 2020. The nominations and applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Encyclopedia Editorial Board.

Prize for Winners

1. An official certificate;
2. A cash award of 500 CHF or an MDPI discount voucher of 800 CHF.

Application Deadline

31 December, 2020 (Please send your application email with a list of all entries you contributed to our office before the deadline: office@encyclopedia.pub)

Candidate Requirements

1. Have a Ph.D. degree;
2. Have more than three qualified entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020.

Evaluation Standards

1. Number of entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020;
2. Quality of entries online (including length, figure quality, and novelty);
3. Impact of entries (including the number of likes, discussion contents, views, and downloads).

If you are a researcher and have not yet contribute entries to Encyclopedia, please do not miss this chance to highlight your research results.

MDPI will be attending the Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC 2020) in Washington, DC, USA, 22–26 April 2020.
TAGC is a unique conference organized by the Genetics Society of America that gives you both topic-driven and community-specific sessions to foster collaboration and inspire fresh thinking.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Genes
• Life
• Brain Sciences
• Cancers
• IJMS
• Cells
• Healthcare
• Viruses
• Microorganisms

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth 723). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://genetics-gsa.org/tagc-2020/.

MDPI will be attending the 20th Biennial Meeting for the Society for Free Radical Research International (SFRRI 2020), Taoyuan, Taiwan, 17-20 March 2020.

The Society for Free Radical Research, founded in the United Kingdom in 1982, is an International Society and operates as a charitable voluntary, non-profit institution. The aims and objectives of the International Society are to advance education in free radical processes with particular reference to their industrial and medical importance, informing education for the benefit of the public. The Society promotes interest in all aspects of research into the reactions and properties of free radicals and into their physical, chemical, biological, medical, and industrial roles. Founded in 1982, and now with over 2500 members worldwide, the Society consists of five autonomous regional groups: SFRR Asia, SFRR Europe, SFRR Australasia, Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine (SFRR Americas), and SFRR Africa. A number of regional groups have also been established within these areas.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Antioxidants
• Molecules
• Biology
• International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS)
• Medicines
• Biomolecules
• Life
• Metabolites
• Biomedicines

To expand our offerings to the life science community, Life is recruiting researchers to join the Editorial Board of the new sections:

• Evolutionary Biology
• Proteins and Proteomics
• Genetics and Genomics Research
• Microbiology and Engineering
• Entomology
• Plant Science and Engineering

These sections will expand the scope and editorial board of Life, in order to cover areas that are less well-represented by the current team. If you are interested in this position or know of potential candidates to recommend, please contact us by 31 March 2020.

Life is covered by the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE—Web of Science), BIOSIS Previews, as well as Scopus (CiteScore 3.31). Citations are available in PubMed, with full-text archives available in PubMed Central. The first impact factor for Life is due in June 2020 (JCR—Clarivate Analytics). The website of Life can be accessed here.

Should you decide to serve on the Editorial Board, you would be responsible for some of the following tasks, depending on your availability:

- Reviewing a couple of manuscripts per year;
- Serving as Guest Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research, and making final decisions for submitted papers;
- Recommending Special Issue topics and suggesting potential Guest Editors;
- Identifying appropriate conferences for Editors to attend;
- Promoting the journal.

To apply or request further information, please contact the Life Editorial Office here. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of SciProfiles, its social network platform for researchers and scholars.

The purpose of SciProfiles is aligned with MDPI’s broad mission to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and to serve scholars and communities by providing opportunities for academic networking.

SciProfiles also ambitions to serve as a sustainable, transparent and community-driven research evaluation system aligned with the DORA principles (https://sfdora.org/). Through their scientific profiles, academics can highlight their contribution to research communities, and measure their impact on their field, beyond publication numbers and impact factors. SciProfiles is currently a beta version and will enrich to give researchers the possibility to highlight all of their contributions to science and their scientific communities as authors, reviewers, editors, conference organizers, conference panelists, conference keynote speakers, or even as lecturers or student mentors at their University.

The classic components of popular community social networks, including follower/following, classical metrics, endorsements and recommendations (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1690), comments (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397) are or will be very soon highlighted in SciProfiles as open science contributions.

To help increase the impact and visibility of articles and their authors to an appropriate audience, the platform offers a NewsFeed that includes recommendations of relevant content based on interests, publication history, saved searches or colleagues’ recommendations.

SciProfiles’ avatars are now being integrated on several MDPI platforms, meaning that you will directly access researchers’ profiles from any of the MDPI platforms:

MDPI's journal publishing website: www.mdpi.com
MDPI's conference hosting and management website: www.sciforum.net
MDPI's pre-print website : www.preprints.org
MDPI's knowledge sharing website : www.encyclopedia.pub
MDPI's books store: www.mdpi.com/books
MDPI's literature database : www.scilit.com

SciProfiles aims to serve scientific communities at large. It can be embedded into third-party websites and also welcomes integration of data from third-parties.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/2
Dr. Franck Vazquez: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/FranckVazquez
Dr. Martyn Rittman: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/martynrittman