Announcements

We are pleased to announce that Mathematics will become a semimonthly publication on 1 January, 2021. Semimonthly publication allows papers to be indexed in Web of Science and other indexing databases on a semimonthly basis, rather than on a one month period, and so they become searchable and are citable earlier. We would also like to acknowledge the many valuable publications from our authors and the important contributions of our dedicated reviewers.

MDPI is proud to adopt the principles of the Coalition for Diversity & Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) to support building equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications.

The C4DISC represents organizations and individuals working in scholarly communications and is focused on addressing issues of diversity and inclusion within the publishing industry.

MDPI’s Managing Editors encourage the Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors to appoint diverse expert Editorial Boards. This is also reflective in our multi-national and inclusive workplace. We are proud to create equal opportunities without regard to gender, ethnicity, geographic location, sexual orientation, age, disability, political beliefs, religion, or socio-economic status. There is no place for discrimination in our workplace and editors of MDPI journals are to uphold these principles in high regard.

Representatives from C4DISC meet monthly, and have started to implement initiatives to shed light and improve on the lack of diversity in scholarly communications. Some of the initiatives include developing a joint statement of principles; conducting market research; providing training resources, best practices, toolkits, and documentation for our collective memberships; and establishing outreach programs, curricula, events, and publications.

The Coalition is committed to:

• eliminating barriers to participation, extending equitable opportunities across all stakeholders, and ensuring that our practices and policies promote equitable treatment and do not allow, condone, or result in discrimination;
• creating and maintaining an environment that respects diverse traditions, heritages, and experiences;
• promoting diversity in all staff, volunteers, and audiences, including full participation in programs, policy formulation, and decision-making;
• raising awareness about career opportunities in our industries to groups who are currently underrepresented in the workforce;
• supporting our members in achieving diversity and inclusion within their organizations.

At MDPI we have slightly revised the layout for articles to be published in the 2021 Volume, starting at the end of December 2020. As of today, the article templates available for download on ‘Instructions for Authors’ pages have been updated.

The most noticeable change can be found on the first page of the article, where a left-hand column has been created to include the following front matter elements: (i) the recommended citation style for the article, (ii) the publishing history, (iii) as well as the Creative Commons Attribution license used (iv) a standard note regarding affiliations. At the same time, the extra spacing on the left means the authors’ affiliations are now more clearly set apart than before. Other front matter key elements such as journal logo, article type, article title, authors, abstract and keywords remain unchanged.

The blank column on the left runs through all pages in an article; as a result, the main text is slightly more condensed, which improve reader friendliness for smaller screens. Small figures/tables are aligned on the left with standard indenture, while large figures/tables are centered and covering the full width of the page. The revised layout was applied in the article pictured below, to serve as an example:

1) Information is displayed in the left information bar.

2) In the main text, there is a blank column on the left.

3) Small tables/figures are aligned on the left, large tables/figures are centered.

We are pleased to acknowledge that many academic editors who have made an impact on MDPI journals as editorial board members, editors-in-chief, or section editors, are recognized as 2020 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate.

Highly Cited Researchers highlights the top 1% of researchers, by citations, in one or more of the 22 fields used in Clarivate Analytics Essential Science Indicators. We offer our congratulations to 279 academic editors of MDPI journals who were recognized as the most influential scholars in their fields in 2020.

The full list of 2020 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed on https://recognition.webofsciencegroup.com/awards/highly-cited/2020/

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

It is our pleasure to welcome Prof. Ulf Meißner (University of Bonn, Germany), Prof. Anthony Harriman (Newcastle University, UK), Dr. Maria José Alves (University of Porto, Portugal), and various other prominent academics as new Editorial Board Members of Symmetry.

As an international and peer-reviewed open access journal, Mathematics (ISSN 2227-7390, IF = 1.747) is an advanced forum for studies related to mathematics. It is devoted exclusively to the publication of high-quality reviews, regular research papers, and short communications in all areas of pure and applied mathematics. The Mathematics Editorial Team is pleased to announce this Open Call for Special Issue Proposals, which gives a group of authors the possibility to work on an interconnected set of papers on an innovative topic. We would like to solicit high-quality proposals that will be evaluated in a competitive procedure on a rolling basis throughout the year.

Proposals for a Special Issue should have a well-articulated unifying topic and reflect, at an international level, the best work in a particular research area, either a mature area or an important emerging area, in which future investigations may be boosted by the publication of a set of excellent papers. Hence, an international group of Guest Editors and a few high-quality planned papers are always encouraged in the proposals.

Please take into account that proposals for Special Issues should be sent by 31 December, 2020 to the Editorial Office (mathematics@mdpi.com), who will forward them to the Editors of Mathematics for evaluation.

Information to be provided in a proposal

• A 300–500-word summary to rationally explain the significance, novelty, technical advancement, and adherence to the scope of the journal of the proposed topic;
• A few keywords on the topic;
• A plan for obtaining quality papers or a list of at least three planned papers;
• A brief resume of the proposed Guest Editors together with their information (title, name, email, affiliation, personal website, keywords of interests);
• A proposed submission deadline (we normally run a Special Issue for 6–8 months).

Guest Editor(s)’ Role

Once the proposal is accepted, the GE will circulate the Call for Papers for the Special Issue and invite submissions.

Each submission will undergo a formal peer review process, after which we will ask the GE, the Editor in Chief, or a suitable Editorial Board Member to decide whether the paper is acceptable for publication in Mathematics.

If 10 or more papers are published in this Special Issue, we can make a Special Issue book and send a hard copy to each Guest Editor.

Editorial Office’s Role

The Editorial Office will take care of setting up the Special Issue website, arranging for promotional material; assisting with invitations to contribute papers; and taking care of administrative tasks associated with peer review, including inviting reviewers, collating reports, contacting authors, and professional production before publication.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office for further details and clarifications.

We look forward to receiving your creative proposals.

Mathematics Editorial Office 

We are delighted to announce the establishment of our Open Access agreement with Jisc Collections, which will allow UK institutions to benefit from access to article processing charge (APC) discounts and streamlined payment workflows.

All institutions participating in the agreement will also gain access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information for easy identification and additional transparency.

Eligible authors affiliated with the participating institutions are prompted to choose the corresponding Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) when they submit an article via our online submission system.

About Jisc

Jisc's vision is for the UK to be the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world. At its heart is the super-fast national research and education network, Janet, with built-in cyber security protection.  Jisc also provides technology solutions for its members (colleges, universities and research centres) and customers (public sector bodies), helps members save time and money by negotiating sector-wide deals and provides advice and practical assistance on digital technology. Jisc is funded by the UK higher and further education and research funding bodies and member institutions.

For more information, contact helen.dobson@jisc.ac.uk.

About MDPI

MDPI is a publisher of fully peer-reviewed, Open Access journals with a focus on thorough and rapid editorial processing. Its aim is to ensure that high-quality research is verified and made available to the research community as quickly as possible. MDPI stands at the forefront of the Open Access movement, having launched its first online journal Molecules in 1996. Today, MDPI is a leader in Open Access publishing with over 250 journals across all research disciplines, and all content published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).

For any questions about this agreement, please contact the MDPI IOAP team at ioap@mdpi.com.

We hope that you and your loved ones remain safe and well during the coronavirus pandemic.

We are pleased to inform you that Mathematics received an updated journal Impact Factor of 1.747 in the recent release of the Journal Citation Reports®. Mathematics now ranks 28/325 (Q1 and top 10%) in the Mathematics category. For more detailed information, please visit https://www.mdpi.com/journal/mathematics/stats.

The updated citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), published by Clarivate. The recent release of the JCR includes seventy-one MDPI titles. Out of these, 18 titles are newcomers, receiving a first Journal Impact Factor which is based on citation activity in 2019: Actuators, Agriculture, Biology, Biomedicines, Biosensors, Chemosensors, Children, Healthcare, Journal of Fungi, Journal of Personalized Medicine (JPM), Land, Life, Magnetochemistry, Membranes, Pharmaceuticals, Photonics, Separations and Toxics.

• Out of the previously listed journals, a total of 72 percent boast an increased Impact Factor.
• 25 journals are ranked among the top 25% of journals in at least one of the categories they are ranked for.
• Articles published in 2019 in MDPI journals account for approximately 17 percent of of articles published in gold Open Access journals covered in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).
  
  

First Impact Factors

Updated Impact Factors

The Mathematics 2021 Best Paper Award is now open. A total of six winners will be selected from all research articles and reviews published in Mathematics in 2019 according to their citations in 2020 as well as their originality. The winners will be announced after a final decision is made, following review and voting by the Mathematics Best Paper Award Committee.

The six winners (each corresponding author) will receive a certificate and an offer to publish a paper free of charge in Mathematics, subject to the standard peer review procedure. In addition, each winner will receive a prize based on the award class:

• First Prize (one paper): 500 CHF
• Second Prize (two papers): 300 CHF
• Third Prize (three papers): 200 CHF

The winner will be announced by 31 March 2021 on the journal website.