Announcements

On 24 May 2023, MDPI and the journal Machines (ISSN: 1996-1944) organized the webinar Applications of Piezoelectric Devices and Materials. The webinar focused on collecting novel applications of piezoelectric materials in mechatronic systems and robotics with an emphasis on practical aspects of modeling, fabrication, integration, driving, associated signal processing, and control methods for performance improvement.

Two presentations were delivered—“3D camera prototype based on LASER direct Time of Flight and MEMS mirrors: from simulation to real testing” by Dr. Daniele Caltabiano, and “Hybrid 3D-printed and MEMS devices based on piezoelectric resonators” by Dr. Víctor Ruiz Díez. The topics covered by the presentations represent state-of-the-art research activities in the field of piezoelectric materials and stimulated extreme interest for an intriguing and vibrant discussion among the participants in the webinar.

Please note that this webinar is associated with a Special Issue in Machines “Applications of Piezoelectric Devices and Materials”, for which the deadline is 15 August 2023.

You can watch the recorded webinar here:

Webinar Chairs and Keynote Speakers:

• Dr. Fangzhou Xia, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA;
• Dr. Stefano Mariani, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy;
• Dr. Daniele Caltabiano, STMicroelectronics, Italy;
• Dr. Víctor Ruiz Díez, Microsystems, Actuators, and Sensors Group, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Hui Ma has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the “Machines Testing and Maintenance” Section in Machines (ISSN: 2075-1702).

Name: Prof. Dr. Hui Ma

Email: huima@mail.neu.edu.cn

Affiliation: School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China

Interests: rotating machinery dynamics; fault diagnosis; dynamic design of mechanical systems

Homepage: http://faculty.neu.edu.cn/mahui/en/more/138064/jsjjgd/index.htm

Prof. Dr. Hui Ma focuses on mechanical system dynamic modeling such as pipeline systems, gear transmission systems, rotor dynamics in compressor or aero engines, fault diagnosis in rotor systems such as rotor-stator rubbing faults, gear damage faults, blade cracks, etc. His main contributions are summarized as follows:

• The accurate description method of time-varying meshing stiffness of healthy and faulty gear pairs was developed, a dynamics model of the gear-rotor system was established, the relationship between typical gear faults and vibration characteristics of the system was revealed, and typical fault features were extracted;
• A new rigid-flexible coupling dynamic modeling method for a blisk combined rotor system was proposed based on the beam and plate shell theory. Based on the contact dynamics theory and analytical method, new rubbing models of the rotor-seal and blade-flexible casing were derived. The nonlinear vibration mechanism of the rotor blade and casing induced by rubbing was revealed and some typical fault features were extracted;
• Considering the effects of the fluid–structure coupling and structural coupling of parallel liquid-filled piping, an improved transfer matrix method for the dynamic modeling of complex series-parallel piping systems was proposed. Considering the influence of multi-source excitation such as fluid excitation and foundation excitation, a new method for predicting the vibration transmission characteristics of the parallel filling pipeline was proposed.

Prof. Dr. Ma has published 122 SCI-index journal papers and his works mainly appear in Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing (21), Engineering Failure Analysis (16), Journal of Sound and Vibration (9), Mechanism and Machine Theory (9), International Journal of Mechanical Sciences (8), and they have been cited over 3000 times.

With these achievements, we are confident that the “Machines Testing and Maintenance” Section of Machines will thrive under Prof. Dr. Hui Ma’s leadership.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Hui Ma, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and Open Access publishing:

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

It has a professional team and rapid publication so more readers can quickly understand the developments of this field and share the relevant scientific research results.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

I hope the journal can publish more excellent papers and provide a platform for the academic community to share knowledge.

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

More interdisciplinary, with more emphasis on the development of artificial intelligence and digital twin technology.

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

Open Access can better promote the sharing of academic knowledge, and the acceptance rate is relatively high. Therefore, attention should be paid to improving the quality of papers.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Hui Ma as our Section Editor-in-Chief.

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.

Machines (ISSN: 2571-8789) is now recruiting scientists to join the Editorial Board.

As an Editorial Board Member, you would have the following responsibilities:

• Promoting Machines on your social media or among your acquaintances;
• Supervising the quality of the papers of Machines (when we have new submissions that fit well with your expertise);
• Acting as/recommending a Guest Editor for a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests;
• Providing conference/society cooperation recommendations;
• Providing suggestions or comments on journal development.

As an Editorial Board Member, you would have the following benefits:

• Publishing one paper free of charge in Machines per year, and also publishing extra papers with special discounts;
• Publishing one paper free of charge in your own Special Issue per year;
• Organizing or promoting your own conferences by using our platform SciForum (https://sciforum.net/conferences);
• A CHF 500–1000 travel grant will be offered to Editorial Board Members that make significant contributions to the journal;
• Recommending/inviting your colleagues to submit full research articles or review papers with special discounts.
  

Machines is an open access international journal on machinery, manufacturing and engineering. It was launched in 2013 and has been indexed in several main databases such as the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)-Web of Science, Scopus, and Inspec. Machines received a new IF of 2.899 from JCR in 2022, which equals a rank of 61/137 (Q2) in the “Engineering, Mechanical” category, as well as 127/276 (Q2) in the “Engineering, Electrical & Electronic” category.

If you are interested in joining the Editorial Board of Machines, please send your full academic CV and a short cover letter that details your interest and enthusiasm for the position to machines@mdpi.com.

Conference: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2023)

Date: 29 May–2 June 2023
Place: London, UK

Machines (ISSN: 2075-1702) will be attending ICRA 2023 as an exhibitor. This meeting will take place from 29 May to 2 June 2023 in London, UK.

The largest and most prestigious event of the year in the robotics and automation calendar, the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) will bring together the world's top academics, researchers, and industry representatives. With the conference taking place in the UK for the first time, London will provide the perfect backdrop to this world-class event.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Machines;
• Sensors;
• Actuators;
• Applied Sciences;
• Electronics;
• Robotics;
• Systems;
• JSAN;
• Technologies;
• Inventions;
• Designs;
• Drones;
• JMMP;
• Telecom;
• AI;
• Automation.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please do not hesitate to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://www.icra2023.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!

Recently, Clarivate^TM revealed its 2022 list of Highly Cited Researchers^TM—individuals at universities, research institutes and commercial organizations.

The scientists who were selected into this year’s list of Highly Cited Researchers have published highly cited papers in the 11-year period from January 2011 to December 2021, with citation frequency in the top 1% of academic subjects and the same year of publication in the Web of Science^TM database. Based on Web of Science Citation data, 6,938 researchers from across the globe who have demonstrated a disproportionate level of significant and broad influence in their chosen field or fields over the last decade have been awarded Highly Cited Researcher 2022 designations. The list is truly global, spanning 69 countries or regions and spread across a diverse range of research sciences and social sciences.

According to statistics, 5 members of the Editorial Board of Machines (ISSN: 2075-1702) have been selected into the list of Highly Cited Researchers of Clarivate in 2022. They are being recognized for their high-quality scientific research achievements and outstanding contributions to professional fields. The Machines journal office sincerely congratulates all elected Editorial Board Members and hopes that they continue to have an academically productive relationship with the journal.