Announcements

Name: Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Sorace Affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica “U. Schiff”, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy Research Interests: magnetic anisotropy; electron paramagnetic resonance; lanthanides; molecular qubits; molecular magnetism; single-molecule magnets; spin dynamics

1. Could you please briefly introduce your research group and current research projects to us?

I am an Associate Professor at the University of Florence, working in the Laboratory of Molecular Magnetism where I am responsible for the Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy. At present, I am interested in using this technique for the experimental characterization of molecular systems acting as potential qubits or qu-gates and of the anisotropy of Lanthanide-based complexes.

2. As an expert in the field of molecule magnets, could you please talk about the hot topics in this field?

Molecular magnetism dramatically evolved since I started working in the field, and is much more diversified now. I would mention only a few hot topics: further increasing blocking temperature in single-molecule magnets; controlling and addressing magnetic properties of molecular complexes by the electric field and optical radiation; application of molecular magnets in quantum technologies, by exploiting their coherent properties; nanostructuration of molecular magnets. Each one of these fields has seen spectacular advances in the past few years.

3. Based on your rich reviewing experience, could you please share the common problems that authors face?

Apart from technical issues of different degrees of severity, a general problem often encountered during the review process is a lack of clarity about the scope of the work. This also reduces the impact of the presented results.

4. Could you please share some useful skills to help young researchers achieve their research goals smoothly?

First and foremost, research work is hardly a smooth path from point A to point B, even when accurate planning of experimental and theoretical work has been done in advance. Significant progress in our knowledge can occur when deviations from the expectations are observed, and, thus, one of the most relevant skills is the ability to identify such deviations and interpret them. In terms of the skills needed to obtain results, beyond a strong fundamental preparation in their research field, they must be able to discuss results with specialists in many different fields, to broaden the scope of their research and make it more effective.

5. As an Editorial Board Member of Magnetochemistry, your advice is important to us. Can you tell us your idea for the development of the journal and the Open Access model?

While Open Access is a necessity in scientific publishing, it is my feeling that an Open Access model based on Article Processing Charges by authors risks to reproduce and amplify the major issues of the subscription-based model, i.e., an increase of the inequality among researchers from different countries and groups, based on their funding. At least at a European level, the direction to be pursued is that of transformative agreement of the subscription model toward open-access “read-and-publish” ones. As for Magnetochemistry, in the past few years, it got a quite recognizable profile of a forum for presenting magnetic characterization of materials. I think it should build on it by increasing the number of normal submissions and considering Special Issues only for very special cases.

The Magnetochemistry Editorial Office would like to express sincere appreciation for Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Sorace, who is an excellent scientist in his field. In 2021, he published more than 10 papers, and some of them get more than 10 citations. In addition, he has rich experience in reviewing papers. He provided many valuable suggestions for authors and Editorial Office editors. For example, hot topics, clarity about the scope of the work and skills to achieve their research goals. We believe his suggestions will provide great help to authors to orient their research direction and improve the quality of their articles.

MDPI is committed to publishing high-quality articles efficiently and we as a company share the same concerns as Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Sorace. To reduce the risk posed by the Article Processing Charge, MDPI makes many efforts, providing vouchers for reviewers from all around the world, cooperating with universities on Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP link: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap) and so on. We are devoted to improving the popularity of the journal and increasing regular contributions. Currently, Special Issues may be one of the methods to attract high-quality papers. However, we believe there must be more ways to solicit quality contributions. In addition, it is our great honor to hear the high praise for Magnetochemistry and we hope these efforts will make a difference.

The latest classification catalogue of the China Association for Science and Technology has recently been published, and 17 scientific and technological MDPI journals have been selected, among which Magnetochemistry (ISSN: 2312-7481) has been listed as T2 in the field of materials synthesis.

The journals in each discipline area are divided into the following three levels: T1, T2 and T3. T1 indicates that the journals are close to, or possess, international first-class journals, T2 refers to internationally renowned journals, and T3 refers to journals recognized as being of high standard by the industry. Magnetochemistry received a rating of T2, indicating that it has reached the level of international well-known journals.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles, recently published in the journal, that they believe will be particularly interesting to authors, or important in this field of research. The aim of doing this is to provide a snapshot of some of the most interesting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

We warmly welcome the following distinguished researchers to the Editorial Board of Magnetochemistry (ISSN: 2312-7481):

Name: Prof. Dr. Liviu Chibotaru
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Interests: rare earth magnetic metal materials; lanthanide metal complexes; lanthanide compounds

Name: Prof. Dr. Qianwang Chen
Affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Interests: synthesis under magnetic fields; chemical catalysis under magnetic fields

Name: Prof. Dr. Yiquan Zhang
Affiliation: School of Physics and Technology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Interests: magnetic properties; single-molecule magnets (SMMs); single-chain magnets (SCMs); density functional theory; computational quantum chemistry

Name: Prof. Dr. Stuart Cavill
Affiliation: Department of Physics, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
Interests: magnetic materials and nanostructures; multiferroics; magnetization dynamics; soft X-ray spectroscopy and imaging

We look forward to achieving new milestones with their support.

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.

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.

Founded in 1996, MDPI was one of the first fully Open Access publisher. Over 25 years MDPI has grown to become the largest Open Access publisher globally, publishing over 160,000 articles across more than 350 journals in 2020. At the core, MDPI was founded in response to a pressing need of fast publication and inclusion. The scholar was set at the centre of the publication process for the first time. Acting as a service provider, rather than a product provider, MDPI exists to help scientists achive their objective to disseminate research results. At MDPI, we believe scientists deserve a better service from the publishing world.

The International Open Access Week (Open Access Week), founded by the SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Alliance and student partners in 2008, has been successfully running for 13 years. As an advocate and pioneer of open access publishing, MDPI actively responds to the call of International Open Access Week. This year’s theme of “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity” highlights the Recommendation’s call for equitable participation from all authors and readers.

For the last 25 years, MDPI has been committed to disseminating open research. Here is a video showing MDPI’s Commitment to Equity, Inclusion and Diversity for More than 25 Years.

International Open Access Week is an important opportunity to catalyze new conversations, create connections across and between communities that can facilitate this co-design, and advance progress in the building of more equitable foundations for opening knowledge—discussions and actions that need to be continued, year in and year out. MDPI has always aimed to provide professional and efficient publishing services to scholars around the world.

Our mission is to make scientific research accessible to everyone; this year, we interview and hold discussions with open science ambassadors on how to build an equal and inclusive environment for open science. Academic editors help us collaborate with more institutions to advocate for open access ideas.

Read our anniversary blog post: "Sharing 'Collective Human Knowledge': The Benefits of Open Access Publication"

Besides this, our scientific community is a key driver of our success and MDPI’s remarkable growth. Despite the pandemic, we have prepared online conferences and workshops to gather scholars from different communities.

The Basel Sustainable Publishing online forum provides an equal opportunity for stakeholders and researchers from multi-cultural environments to exchange ideas and eliminate barriers to participation.

Conference date: 25 October 2021, online
Conference website: https://bspf2021.sciforum.net/
Main topics: MDPI discusses the current dilemma of open access science from various perspectives such as governments, libraries, and publishers, and related measures on how to change the status quo of discrimination from a global perspective.

We aim to support equality, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications. We collaborate with universities and key laboratories and have scholarly communications with researchers, teachers, and students on open access workshops.

• 25 October 2021
  Energies journal and Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

• 28 October 2021
  Machines journal and State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University

• 29 October 2021
  Processes journal and Beijing Institute of Technology

• 29 October 2021
  Coatings journal and Wuhan University of Technology

MDPI is committed to providing open access and high-quality publishing services for scholars and promoting rapid dissemination of academic achievements. We hope to promote the practices and policies of open access publishing and diversify the dissemination of academic achievements.

Rigorous peer-review is the cornerstone of high-quality academic publishing. Over 369,916 scholars served as reviewers for MDPI journals in 2020. We are extremely appreciative of all those who made a contribution to the editorial process in this capacity. At the beginning of every year, journal editorial offices publish a list of all reviewers’ names to express our gratitude. In addition, this year, the MDPI Top Reviewer Award was announced, to recognize the very best reviewers for their expertise and dedication, and their high-quality, and timely review reports. We are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2020 MDPI Top Reviewer Award:

• Adriana Burlea-Schiopoiu;
• Alban Kuriqi;
• Álvaro González-Vila;
• Alessandro Alaimo;
• Alexey Beskopylny;
• Alexander Yu Churyumov;
• Alberto Fernández-Isabel;
• Andrea Mastinu;
• Antonios N. Papadopoulos;
• Anton Rassõlkin;
• Antonio Humberto Hamad Minervino;
• Arkadiusz Matwijczuk;
• Artur Słomka;
• Baojie He;
• Bartłomiej Potaniec;
• Bojan Đurin;
• Camilo Arturo Rodriguez Diaz;
• Carmelo Maria Musarella;
• Chiachung Chen;
• Chiman Kwan;
• Cristian Busu;
• Danil Pimenov;
• Dan-Cristian Dabija;
• Delfín Ortega-Sánchez;
• Demetrio Antonio Zema;
• Denis Butusov;
• Elena Lucchi;
• Gaurab Dutta;
• Livia Anastasiu;
• M. R. Safaei.

For more information about how to become a reviewer of MDPI journals, please see: www.mdpi.com/reviewers.

UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. In 2020 the SDG Publishers Compact was launched, aimed to inspire publishers and accelerate progress to achieve the 17 goals by 2030. Members of the programme are committed to support the publication of materials that will promote and inspire actions towards SDGs.

MDPI is an eager advocate of SDGs and has already been supporting the programme by creating Special Issues and publishing a series of books on SDGs prior to joining the Compact in 2021. MDPI's Sustainability Foundation initiated the World Sustainability Awards in 2016. We fully support UN's goals to promote sustainable actions that make the world a better place for all and, as part of its commitment, we will focus our actions on SDG10: Reduced Inequalities whilst promoting all 17 SDGs. For more details, please visit the programme’s website: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdg-publishers-compact/.

Joining this initiative was a unanimous decision. MDPI has in its core values the dissemination of science for all, breaking the wall between research access and under-represented members of the scientific community and the general population. To support this initiative further and continue to support under-represented scientists, MDPI will take a series of actions that will be announced once ready.

The first action MDPI takes is to nominate Dr. Liliane Auwerter as the coordinator of the programme. Dr. Auwerter studied Environmental Process Technology (UTFPR, Brazil), obtained her MSc degree in Water and Environmental Engineering (University of Surrey, UK) and in 2020 completed her PhD in self-healing low-friction materials for water transport (Imperial College London, UK), always focusing on diverse scientific projects that would potentially bring sustainability to industrial processes. As a student in Brazil, she engaged in volunteering activities focused on environmental education and took part in the Millennial Development Goals meetings held at the university.

For more information, please contact:
Dr. Liliane Auwerter
Scientific Officer
liliane.auwerter@mdpi.com

We warmly welcome the following distinguished researchers to the Editorial Board of Magnetochemistry (ISSN: 2312-7481). We look forward to achieving new milestones with their support.

Name: Dr. Mathieu Gonidec
Affiliation: ICMCB, CNRS, UMR 5026, Pessac, France
Interests: molecular magnetism; molecular electronics; molecular spintronics; plasmonics; microfluidics

Name: Prof. Caiming Liu
Affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Interests: coordination chemistry; multifunctional molecular materials; molecule-based magnets (including single-molecule magnets)

Name: Prof. Zhenxing Wang
Affiliation: National High Magnetic Field Center & School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Interests: molecular-based magnetic materials; molecular-based spintronics; electron paramagnetic resonance technology

Name: Prof. Matilde Fondo
Affiliation: Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Interests: coordination chemistry; single molecule magnets; lanthanoid complexes; multifunctional materials

Name: Dr. Dinh Loc Duong
Affiliation: 1. Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Korea
2. Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics, Institute for Basic Science, Daejeon 34126, Korea
Interests: field effect transistors; magnetic semiconductors; 2D materials; density functional theory

Name: Prof. Pierre Dechambenoit
Affiliation: Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal CRPP, University of Bordeaux, 33600 Pessac, France
Interests: molecular magnetism; crystallography; coordination chemistry; supramolecular chemistry

Further details about the Editorial Board can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/magnetochemistry/editors.