Peer Review Week began 19 September 2022 under the theme of “Research Integrity: Creating and Supporting Trust in Research”. Through various blog articles, podcast, and webinar, we discussed this crucial subject throughout the week, celebrating the essential role peer review plays in maintaining research quality.

To begin, we held a Webinar on the topic. Professor Peter W. Choate and Dr. Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi joined Dr. Ioana Craciun, one of MDPI’s scientific officers, for an in-depth discussion.

We invite you to view the event recording:

During the week, the MDPI Blog in a series articles highlighted how good Peer Review safeguards research integrity. The following topics were covered:

• Peer Review Week 2022
• Research Integrity
• What We’ve Learned About Peer Review Reports
• 4 Steps to the Perfect Peer Review Report
• How to Write the Perfect Peer Review Report: An Interview
• Inviting Great Peer Reviewers

In a new edition of Insight Faster, an MDPI podcast, we were delighted to talk to the co-chairs of the Peer Review Week committee, Jayashree Rajagopalan (Senior Manager of Global Community Engagement for CACTUS) and Danielle Padula (Head of Marketing and Community Development at Scholastica) to get their take on this year’s event and its related topics.

You can find the Podcast here.

We hope you enjoy the contents!

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Ronald W. Armstrong has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Crystallography and Applications of Metallic Materials” in Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701).

Name: Prof. Dr. Ronald W. Armstrong
Affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Interests: dislocation mechanics; constitutive equations; Hall–Petch relations; Zerilli–Armstrong equations; microstructural stereology; high-rate metal deformations; ductile–brittle transition behaviors; X-ray diffraction imaging

We would like to wish him a warm welcome, and we look forward to our Section reaching more milestones under his leadership.

In order to specifically develop different research areas and attract more high-quality papers, we are pleased to announce the addition of the new Section “Metallic Functional Materials” to Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701), which intends to cover all of the disciplines of the field of materials science.

The new Section “Metallic Functional Materials” is recruiting Editorial Board Members.

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

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting the Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements to the journal.

For more information about this Section, or publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/metallic_functional_materials.

To apply for joining the Section Editorial Board, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact the Metals Editorial Office at [email protected], or Ms. Josie Li at [email protected].

Taking under consideration the Section Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Yong Zhang’s proposal for Section development, the Section “Transition Metals and Rare Metals” will henceforth be known as “Entropic Alloys and Meta-Metals”. For more details, please click here.

Name: Prof. Dr. Yong Zhang
Affiliation: Beijing Advanced Innovation Center of Materials Genome Engineering, State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 30 XueyuanRoad, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: High-entropy and amorphous alloys; serration and noise in materials; metamaterials

We look forward to Section reaching more milestones under his leadership.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jianqiang Wang has been appointed Associate Editor of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701).

Name: Dr. Jianqiang Wang
Position: Associate Editor
Affiliation: Inst Met Res, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
Interests: Metallic glasses; coatings; powder metallurgy; additive manufacturing; corrosion; mechanical properties

For the full list of Metal’s Editorial Board Members visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/editors.

We would like to wish him a warm welcome and we look forward to his contribution to the continued success of Metals.

In order to further develop different research areas and manage the journal more professionally, we are pleased to announce that our journal Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) has established the following two sections:

• “Metal Matrix Composites” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/metal_matrix_composites);
• “Crystallography and Applications of Metallic Materials” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/crystallography_applications_metallic_materials).

Additionally, we are currently seeking Section Editorial Board Members and accepting applications for editorial positions for these two Sections, with the opportunity to be promoted to Section Editor-in-Chief.

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

• Pre-screening and making decisions on new submissions related to the journal Section;
• Helping to edit 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 peers or at conferences;
• Attending Board Meetings to suggest journal development strategies:
• Reviewing manuscripts.

Please send your application, or any questions, to the Metals Editorial Office ([email protected]).

Conference: International Conference of Non-Ferrous Materials 2022
Date: 15–17 July 2022
Place: Nanning, China
Booth: #A5

Materials (ISSN: 1996-1944) and Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) will be attending the International Conference of Non-Ferrous Materials 2022 as exhibitors from 15 to 17 July in Nanning, China.

The International Conference of Non-Ferrous Materials is an important academic conference in the field of non-ferrous materials, sponsored by the Nonferrous Metals Society of China and co-organized by universities, research institutes, and enterprises engaged in the non-ferrous metal industry. It is held once a year. The meeting objectives are for China to be engaged in non-ferrous metal materials science research, the development and industrialization of experts, scholars, professors, and scientific as well as technical workers, the management of the relevant government department leaders, entrepreneurs, and other relevant personnel to build a communication platform, share the latest research results of materials, achieve the purpose of promoting each other, improving together, and, additionally, to improve the status and role of new materials in China's national economy and social development.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Materials;
• Metals;
• Technologies;
• QuBS;
• JMMP;
• Alloys.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you plan on attending this conference. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you might have.

For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://www.huiyi-123.com/article/278-179.html.

The 2021 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:

Journal	Impact Factor	Rank	Category
Antioxidants	7.675	Q1	Food Science & Technology
			Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
			Chemistry, Medicinal
Cells	7.666	Q2	Cell Biology
Nutrients	6.706	Q1	Nutrition & Dietetics
Cancers	6.575	Q1	Oncology
Pharmaceutics	6.525	Q1	Pharmacology & Pharmacy
International Journal of Molecular Sciences	6.208	Q1	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
		Q2	Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Marine Drugs	6.085	Q1	Chemistry, Medicinal
			Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Biomolecules	6.064	Q2	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Batteries *	5.938	Q2	Electrochemistry
			Energy & Fuels
			Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Viruses	5.818	Q2	Virology
Biosensors	5.743	Q1	Chemistry, Analytical
			Instruments & Instrumentation
		Q2	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Journal of Fungi	5.724	Q1	Mycology
		Q2	Microbiology
Nanomaterials	5.719	Q1	Physics, Applied
		Q2	Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
			Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
			Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Metabolites	5.581	Q2	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Foods	5.561	Q1	Food Science & Technology
Drones *	5.532	Q2	Remote Sensing
Remote Sensing	5.349	Q1	Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
			Imaging Science & Photographic Technology
		Q2	Remote Sensing
			Environmental Sciences
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research	5.318	Q2	Business
Antibiotics	5.222	Q1	Pharmacology & Pharmacy
		Q2	Infectious Diseases
Pharmaceuticals	5.215	Q1	Pharmacology & Pharmacy
		Q2	Chemistry, Medicinal
Biology	5.168	Q1	Biology
Fermentation	5.123	Q2	Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Toxins	5.075	Q1	Toxicology
		Q2	Food Science & Technology
Bioengineering *	5.046	Q2	Engineering, Biomedical
Polymers	4.967	Q1	Polymer Science
Journal of Clinical Medicine	4.964	Q2	Medicine, General & Internal
Vaccines	4.961	Q2	Immunology
			Medicine, Research & Experimental
Molecules	4.927	Q2	Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
			Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Microorganisms	4.926	Q2	Microbiology
Journal of Functional Biomaterials *	4.901	Q2	Engineering, Biomedical
			Materials Science, Biomaterials
Biomedicines	4.757	Q2	Medicine, Research & Experimental
			Pharmacology & Pharmacy
			Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Plants	4.658	Q1	Plant Sciences
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health	4.614	Q1	Public, Environmental & Occupational Health (SSCI)
		Q2	Public, Environmental & Occupational Health (SCIE)
			Environmental Sciences (SCIE)
Membranes	4.562	Q1	Polymer Science
		Q2	Engineering, Chemical
			Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
			Chemistry, Physical
Pathogens	4.531	Q2	Microbiology
Catalysts	4.501	Q2	Chemistry, Physical
Toxics	4.472	Q2	Toxicology
			Environmental Sciences
Gels	4.432	Q1	Polymer Science
Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease	4.415	Q2	Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Chemosensors	4.229	Q1	Instruments & Instrumentation
		Q2	Chemistry, Analytical
		Q3	Electrochemistry
Genes	4.141	Q2	Genetics & Heredity
Diagnostics	3.992	Q2	Medicine, General & Internal
Agronomy	3.949	Q1	Agronomy
			Plant Sciences
Land	3.905	Q2	Environmental Studies
Sustainability	3.889	Q2	Environmental Sciences (SCIE)
			Environmental Studies (SSCI)
		Q3	Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (SCIE)
		Q4	Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (SSCI)
Sensors	3.847	Q2	Instruments & Instrumentation
			Chemistry, Analytical
			Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Materials	3.748	Q1	Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering
		Q2	Physics, Applied
			Physics, Condensed Matter
		Q3	Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
			Chemistry, Physical
Biomimetics *	3.743	Q2	Engineering, Multidisciplinary
		Q3	Materials Science, Biomaterials
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease *	3.711	Q1	Tropical Medicine
		Q2	Parasitology
		Q3	Infectious Diseases
Lubricants *	3.584	Q2	Engineering, Mechanical
Fractal and Fractional	3.577	Q1	Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications
Water	3.530	Q2	Water Resources
		Q3	Environmental Sciences
Micromachines	3.523	Q2	Instruments & Instrumentation
			Physics, Applied
			Chemistry, Analytical
		Q3	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Journal of Personalized Medicine	3.508	Q2	Medicine, General & Internal
			Health Care Sciences & Services
Agriculture	3.408	Q1	Agronomy
Processes	3.352	Q2	Engineering, Chemical
Separations	3.344	Q2	Chemistry, Analytical
Magnetochemistry	3.336	Q2	Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear
		Q3	Chemistry, Physical
			Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Brain Sciences	3.333	Q3	Neurosciences
Buildings	3.324	Q2	Construction & Building Technology
			Engineering, Civil
Forests	3.282	Q1	Forestry
Energies	3.252	Q3	Energy & Fuels
Life	3.251	Q2	Biology
Coatings	3.236	Q2	Materials Science, Coatings & Films
			Physics, Applied
		Q3	Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Animals	3.231	Q1	Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
			Veterinary Sciences
Journal of Intelligence *	3.176	Q2	Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Fishes	3.170	Q1	Marine & Freshwater Biology
		Q2	Fisheries
Healthcare	3.160	Q2	Health Policy & Services (SSCI)
			Health Care Sciences & Services (SCIE)
Inorganics *	3.149	Q2	Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear
Insects	3.139	Q1	Entomology
Atmosphere	3.110	Q3	Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
			Environmental Sciences
Current Oncology	3.109	Q3	Oncology
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information	3.099	Q2	Geography, Physical
		Q3	Computer Science, Information Systems
			Remote Sensing
Diversity	3.029	Q2	Biodiversity Conservation
			Ecology
Tomography	3.000	Q3	Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Current Issues in Molecular Biology	2.976	Q3	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Medicina	2.948	Q3	Medicine, General & Internal
Symmetry	2.940	Q2	Multidisciplinary Sciences
Horticulturae	2.923	Q1	Horticulture
Machines	2.899	Q2	Engineering, Mechanical
			Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Systems *	2.895	Q2	Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
Applied Sciences	2.838	Q2	Engineering, Multidisciplinary
			Physics, Applied
		Q3	Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
			Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Children	2.835	Q2	Pediatrics
Minerals	2.818	Q2	Mining & Mineral Processing
			Mineralogy
			Geochemistry & Geophysics
Universe	2.813	Q2	Astronomy & Astrophysics
		Q3	Physics, Particles & Fields
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering	2.744	Q1	Engineering, Marine
		Q2	Oceanography
			Engineering, Ocean
Entropy	2.738	Q2	Physics, Multidisciplinary
Fire *	2.726	Q2	Forestry
		Q3	Ecology
Metals	2.695	Q2	Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering
		Q3	Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Electronics	2.690	Q3	Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
			Computer Science, Information Systems
			Physics, Applied
Crystals	2.670	Q2	Crystallography
		Q3	Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Aerospace	2.660	Q1	Engineering, Aerospace
Mathematics	2.592	Q1	Mathematics
Photonics	2.536	Q3	Optics
Actuators	2.523	Q2	Instruments & Instrumentation
		Q3	Engineering, Mechanical
Veterinary Sciences	2.518	Q2	Veterinary Sciences
Behavioral Sciences *	2.286	Q3	Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Axioms *	1.824	Q2	Mathematics, Applied

For more information on Impact Factors and what it means to index academic journals, please visit our related blog posts.

 

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2022

Source: 2021 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2022)

MDPI’s Young Investigator Awards recognize promising junior researchers, acknowledge their contributions, and enhance communication among scientists. We are proud to present the winners for the year 2021 in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category. The winners were selected by the journals’ editors.

We warmly congratulate the awarded Young Investigators for their outstanding contributions.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Coatings:

• Marta Mohedano, Complutense University of Madrid-UCM, Spain

Materials:

• Edoardo Baldini, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Magnetochemistry:

• Mauro Perfetti, University of Florence, Italy

Membranes:

• Xu Hou, Xiamen University, China

Molecules:

• Biplab Maji, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India

Nanomaterials:

• Andres Castellanos-Gomez, Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de Madrid, Spain
• Takuya Isono, Hokkaido University, Japan
• Panbo Liu, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China

In order to acknowledge our reviewers, who so generously dedicate their time to reviewing papers and demonstrate diligence, professionalism, and timeliness when reviewing manuscripts, MDPI journals regularly offer outstanding reviewer awards to scholars who participate in the peer-review process.

We are proud to recognize the winners for the year 2021 in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with the Outstanding Reviewer Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners on their achievement.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Catalysts:

• Rahat Javaid, Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, Japan
• Georgios Bampos, University of Patras, Greece
• Esmail Doustkhah, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan
• Pawan Kumar, University of Alberta, Canada

Magnetochemistry:

• Lorenzo Sorace, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy

Materials:

• Khaled Giasin, University of Portsmouth, UK
• Oldrich Sucharda, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic
• Danil Pimenov, South Ural State University, Russia
• Marián Palcut, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Slovakia

Metals:

• Khaled Giasin, University of Portsmouth, UK
• Catalin Pruncu, University of Strathclyde, UK
• Jacek Tomków, Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland
• Alexander Yu Churyumov, National University of Science and Technology (MISiS), Russia
• Hesam Pouraliakbar, Chungnam National University, South Korea

Nanomaterials:

• George Kenanakis, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Greece
• Goshtasp Cheraghian, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
• Oana Cadar, Research Institute for Analytical Instrumentation, Romania

Polymers:

• Sawsan A. Zaitone, Suez Canal University, Saudi Arabia
• Lucia Baldino, University of Salerno Via Giovanni Paolo II, Fisciano (SA) Italy
• Gyorgy Szekely, University of Manchester, UK
• Bin Jiang, Northeast Agricultural University, China
• Haibao Lu, Harbin Institute of Technology, China

 

The purpose of our Best Paper Awards is to promote and recognize the most impactful contributions published within MDPI journals.

The editors of each journal carefully selected reviews and research papers through a rigorous judging process based on criteria such as the scientific merit, overall impact, and the quality of presentation of the papers published in the journal last year.

We are honored to present the winners in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category, who were selected amongst the extensive competition, and congratulate the authors for their outstanding scientific publications.

MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

C — Journal of Carbon Research：

• “Activated Carbons Derived from High-Temperature Pyrolysis of Lignocellulosic Biomass”
  by Cristian I. Contescu, Shiba P. Adhikari, Nidia C. Gallego, Neal D. Evans and Bryan E. Biss
  C 2018, 4(3), 51; doi:10.3390/c4030051

Catalysts:

• “Hydrogen Oxidation on Ni-Based Electrocatalysts: The Effect of Metal Doping”
  by Elena S. Davydova, Jérémie Zaffran, Kapil Dhaka, Maytal Caspary Toroker and Dario R. Dekel
  Catalysts 2018, 8(10), 454; doi:10.3390/catal8100454
• “Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production: Role of Sacrificial Reagents on the Activity of Oxide, Carbon, and Sulfide Catalysts”
  by Vignesh Kumaravel, Muhammad Danyal Imam, Ahmed Badreldin, Rama Krishna Chava, Jeong Yeon Do, Misook Kang and Ahmed Abdel-Wahab
  Catalysts 2019, 9(3), 276; doi:10.3390/catal9030276
• “A General Overview of Support Materials for Enzyme Immobilization: Characteristics, Properties, Practical Utility”
  by Jakub Zdarta, Anne S. Meyer, Teofil Jesionowski and Manuel Pinelo
  Catalysts 2018, 8(2), 92; doi:10.3390/catal8020092
• “Mechanistic Insights into Photodegradation of Organic Dyes Using Heterostructure Photocatalysts”
  by Yi-Hsuan Chiu, Tso-Fu Mark Chang, Chun-Yi Chen, Masato Sone and Yung-Jung Hsu
  Catalysts 2019, 9(5), 430; doi:10.3390/catal9050430

Ceramics:

• “Chemical Preparation Routes and Lowering the Sintering Temperature of Ceramics”
  by Philippe Colomban
  Ceramics 2020, 3(3), 312–339; doi:10.3390/ceramics3030029

Coatings:

• “State of the Art in Directed Energy Deposition: From Additive Manufacturing to Materials Design”
  by Adrita Dass and Atieh Moridi
  Coatings 2019, 9(7), 418; doi:10.3390/coatings9070418
• “Encapsulation of Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells: A Review”
  by Ashraf Uddin, Mushfika Baishakhi Upama, Haimang Yi and Leiping Duan
  Coatings 2019, 9(2), 65; doi:10.3390/coatings9020065
• “Poly (Lactic Acid)/Thermoplastic Starch Films: Effect of Cardoon Seed Epoxidized Oil on Their Chemicophysical, Mechanical, and Barrier Properties”
  by Rosa Turco, Rodrigo Ortega-Toro, Riccardo Tesser, Salvatore Mallardo, Sofia Collazo-Bigliardi, Amparo Chiralt Boix, Mario Malinconico, Massimo Rippa, Martino Di Serio and Gabriella Santagata
  Coatings 2019, 9(9), 574; doi:10.3390/coatings9090574
• “Physical and Morphological Characterization of Chitosan/Montmorillonite Films Incorporated with Ginger Essential Oil”
  by Victor Gomes Lauriano Souza, João Ricardo Afonso Pires, Carolina Rodrigues, Patricia Freitas Rodrigues, Andréia Lopes, Rui Jorge Silva, Jorge Caldeira, Maria Paula Duarte, Francisco Braz Fernandes, Isabel Maria Coelhoso and Ana Luisa Fernando
  Coatings 2019, 9(11), 700; doi:10.3390/coatings9110700
• “Application and Evaluation of a Pectin-Based Edible Coating Process for Quality Change Kinetics and Shelf-Life Extension of Lime Fruit (Citrus aurantifolium)”
  by Neda Maftoonazad and Hosahalli S. Ramaswamy
  Coatings 2019, 9(5), 285; doi:10.3390/coatings9050285

Crystals:

• “Crystal and Magnetic Structures in Layered, Transition Metal Dihalides and Trihalides”
  by Michael A. McGuire
  Crystals 2017, 7(5), 121; doi:10.3390/cryst7050121
• “σ-Hole Interactions: Perspectives and Misconceptions”
  by Peter Politzer and Jane S. Murray
  Crystals 2017, 7(7), 212; doi:10.3390/cryst7070212
• “σ-Hole Interactions of Covalently-Bonded Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Arsenic: A Survey of Crystal Structures”
  by Peter Politzer, Jane S. Murray, Goran V. Janjić and Snežana D. Zarić 
  Crystals 2014, 4(1), 12-31; doi:10.3390/cryst4010012
• “Epitaxial Graphene on SiC: A Review of Growth and Characterization”
  by Gholam Reza Yazdi, Tihomir Iakimov and Rositsa Yakimova
  Crystals 2016, 6(5), 53; doi:10.3390/cryst6050053

Magnetochemistry:

• “A Clock Transition in the Cr₇Mn Molecular Nanomagnet”
  by Charles A. Collett, Kai-Isaak Ellers, Nicholas Russo, Kevin R. Kittilstved, Grigore A. Timco, Richard E. P. Winpenny and Jonathan R. Friedman
  Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(1), 4; doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5010004
• “A Series of Field-Induced Single-Ion Magnets Based on the Seven-Coordinate Co(II) Complexes with the Pentadentate (N₃O₂) H₂dapsc Ligand”
  by Vyacheslav A. Kopotkov, Denis V. Korchagin, Valentina D. Sasnovskaya, Ildar F. Gilmutdinov and Eduard B. Yagubskii
  Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(4), 58; doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5040058
• “Magnetic Janus Particles for Static and Dynamic (Bio)Sensing”
  by Susana Campuzano, Maria Gamella, Verónica Serafín, María Pedrero, Paloma Yáñez-Sedeño and José Manuel Pingarrón
  Magnetochemistry 2019, 5(3), 47; doi:10.3390/magnetochemistry5030047

Membranes:

• “Composite Membranes for High Temperature PEM Fuel Cells and Electrolysers: A Critical Review”
  by Xinwei Sun, Stian Christopher Simonsen, Truls Norby and Athanasios Chatzitakis
  Membranes 2019, 9(7), 83; doi:10.3390/membranes9070083

• “Transport Characteristics of Fujifilm Ion-Exchange Membranes as Compared to Homogeneous Membranes AMX and CMX and to Heterogeneous Membranes MK-40 and MA-41”
  by Veronika Sarapulova, Inna Shkorkina, Semyon Mareev, Natalia Pismenskaya, Natalia Kononenko, Christian Larchet, Lasaad Dammak and Victor Nikonenko
  Membranes 2019, 9(7), 84; doi:10.3390/membranes9070084

Nanomaterials:

• “Nanomaterials for the Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater”
  by Jinyue Yang, Baohong Hou, Jingkang Wang, Beiqian Tian, Jingtao Bi, Na Wang, Xin Li and Xin Huang
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(3), 424; doi:10.3390/nano9030424
• “Injectable Alginate-Peptide Composite Hydrogel as a Scaffold for Bone Tissue Regeneration”
  Moumita Ghosh, Michal Halperin-Sternfeld, Itzhak Grinberg and Lihi Adler-Abramovich
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(4), 497; doi:10.3390/nano9040497
• “Carbon Dots and Graphene Quantum Dots in Electrochemical Biosensing”
  by Susana Campuzano, Paloma Yáñez-Sedeño and José M. Pingarrón
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(4), 634; doi:10.3390/nano9040634
• “A Smart Nanovector for Cancer Targeted Drug Delivery Based on Graphene Quantum Dots”
  by Daniela Iannazzo, Alessandro Pistone, Consuelo Celesti, Claudia Triolo, Salvatore Patané, Salvatore V. Giofré, Roberto Romeo, Ida Ziccarelli, Raffaella Mancuso, Bartolo Gabriele, Giuseppa Visalli, Alessio Facciolà and Angela Di Pietro
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(2), 282; doi:10.3390/nano9020282
• “Evolution of Wearable Devices with Real-Time Disease Monitoring for Personalized Healthcare”
  by Kyeonghye Guk, Gaon Han, Jaewoo Lim, Keunwon Jeong, Taejoon Kang, Eun-Kyung Lim and Juyeon Jung
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(6), 813; doi:10.3390/nano9060813
• “An Ultra-High-Energy Density Supercapacitor; Fabrication Based on Thiolfunctionalized Graphene”
  by Janardhanan. R. Rani, Ranjith Thangavel, Se-I Oh, Yun Sung Lee and Jae-Hyung Jang
  Nanomaterials 2019, 9(2), 148; doi:10.3390/nano9020148

Polymers:

• “The Relationships between the Working Fluids, Process Characteristics and Products from the Modified Coaxial Electrospinning of Zein”
  by Menglong Wang, Tao Hai, Zhangbin Feng, Deng-Guang Yu, Yaoyao Yang and SW Annie Bligh 
  Polymers 2019, 11(8), 1287; doi:10.3390/polym11081287
• “Design of Controlled Release System for Paracetamol Based on Modified Lignin”
  by Mahboubeh Pishnamazi, Hamid Hafizi, Saeed Shirazian, Mario Culebras, Gavin M. Walker and Maurice N. Collins 
  Polymers 2019, 11(6), 1059; doi:10.3390/polym11061059
• “Additive Manufacturing of PLA-Based Composites Using Fused Filament Fabrication: Effect of Graphene Nanoplatelet Reinforcement on Mechanical Properties, Dimensional Accuracy and Texture”
  by Miguel Ángel Caminero, Jesús Miguel Chacón, Eustaquio García-Plaza, Pedro José Núñez, José María Reverte and Jean Paul Becar
  Polymers 2019, 11(5), 799; doi:10.3390/polym11050799
• “Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites: Manufacturing, Properties, and Applications”
  by Miguel Ángel Caminero, Jesús Miguel Chacón, ,Eustaquio García-Plaza, Pedro José Núñez, José María Reverte and Jean Paul Becar
  Polymers 2019, 11(5), 799; doi:10.3390/polym11050799

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the “Chemistry & Materials Sciences” category for their outstanding presentations.

MDPI journals regularly offer travel awards to encourage talented junior scientists to present their latest research at academic conferences in specific fields, which helps to increase their influence.

The winners mentioned below were carefully selected by the journal editors based on an outline of their research and the work to be presented at an academic conference.

We would like to warmly congratulate the winners of Travel Awards for the year 2021 and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors.

MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.

Crystals:

• Gaojun Mao, Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland
• Lidia Bofill Herrera, University of Barcelona, Spain

Gels:

• Demetra Giuri, University of Bologna, Italy
• Martina Genta, Imperial College London, UK

Journal of Functional Biomaterials:

• Anushree Seth, Washington University, USA

Magnetochemistry:

• Fabio Ferreira, University of Coimbra, Portugal
• Giulia Serrano, University of Florence, Italy

Materials：

• Giulia Fredi, University of Trento, Italy
• Mattia Biesuz, Czech Academy of Science, Czech Republic

Metals:

• Adriana Eres-Castellanos, Spanish National Center for Metallurgical Research, Spain
• Pavel Shurkin, National University of Science and Technology, Russia

Nanomaterials:

• Aleksandrs Leitis, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, France
• Ekaterina Kolesova, ITMO, Russia

Separations:

• Christoph Gstoettner, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands

The 2021 citation metrics have been officially released in Scopus!

We are pleased to announce that 182 MDPI journals are included, of which:

● 21 journals received their first CiteScore.
● 85% of journals increased their CiteScore from 2020.
● 155 journals (85%) ranked above average, in at least one category.

The following 65 MDPI journals (36%) ranked among the top 25% of journals, in at least one category:

Journal	CiteScore	Quartile	Category
Non-coding RNA	10.1	Q1	Genetics
Journal of Functional Biomaterials	10.0	Q1	Biomedical Engineering
Marine Drugs	8.1	Q1	Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (miscellaneous)
Batteries	7.9	Q1	Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Nutrients	7.9	Q1	Nutrition and Dietetics
Remote Sensing	7.4	Q1	General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Drones	7.2	Q1	Computer Science Applications
International Journal of Molecular Sciences	6.9	Q1	Inorganic Chemistry
Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks	6.9	Q1	Computer Networks and Communications
Cells	6.7	Q1	General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Nanomaterials	6.6	Q1	General Chemical Engineering
Toxins	6.6	Q1	Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Viruses	6.6	Q1	Infectious Diseases
Antioxidants	6.5	Q1	Food Science
Fibers	6.5	Q1	Civil and Structural Engineering
Resources	6.4	Q1	Nature and Landscape Conservation
Sensors	6.4	Q1	Instrumentation
Big Data and Cognitive Computing	6.1	Q1	Management Information Systems
Molecules	5.9	Q1	Chemistry (miscellaneous)
Polymers	5.7	Q1	Polymers and Plastics
Biosensors	5.6	Q1	Engineering (miscellaneous)
Catalysts	5.5	Q1	General Environmental Science
Smart Cities	5.5	Q1	Urban Studies
Future Internet	5.4	Q2	Computer Networks and Communications
Beverages	5.3	Q1	Food Science
Fermentation	5.3	Q1	Plant Science
Environments	5.2	Q1	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Inventions	5.2	Q1	General Engineering
Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity	5.1	Q1	Development
Colloids and Interfaces	5.0	Q1	Chemistry (miscellaneous)
Energies	5.0	Q1	Control and Optimization
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information	5.0	Q1	Geography, Planning and Development
Sustainability	5.0	Q1	Geography, Planning and Development
Fire	4.9	Q1	Forestry
Robotics	4.9	Q1	Control and Optimization
Soil Systems	4.9	Q1	Soil Science
Geosciences	4.8	Q1	General Earth and Planetary Sciences
Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing	4.8	Q1	Mechanical Engineering
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease	4.8	Q1	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Water	4.8	Q1	Geography, Planning and Development
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health	4.5	Q1	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Sports	4.5	Q1	Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation
Entropy	4.4	Q1	Mathematical Physics
Journal of Clinical Medicine	4.4	Q1	General Medicine
Symmetry	4.3	Q1	General Mathematics
Cosmetics	4.2	Q1	Surgery
Foods	4.1	Q1	Health Professions (miscellaneous)
Journal of Fungi	4.1	Q1	Plant Science
ChemEngineering	4.0	Q1	General Engineering
Forests	4.0	Q1	Forestry
Journal of Intelligence	4.0	Q1	Education
Antibiotics	3.9	Q1	General Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics
Cryptography	3.9	Q1	Applied Mathematics
Behavioral Sciences	3.8	Q1	Development
Buildings	3.8	Q1	Architecture
Metals	3.8	Q1	Metals and Alloys
Publications	3.5	Q1	Communication
Social Sciences	3.4	Q1	General Social Sciences
Mathematics	2.9	Q1	General Mathematics
Fractal and Fractional	2.8	Q1	Analysis
Animals	2.7	Q1	General Veterinary
Axioms	2.6	Q1	Algebra and Number Theory
Heritage	1.8	Q1	Conservation
Religions	1.0	Q1	Religious Studies
Philosophies	0.9	Q1	Philosophy

Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)

We are pleased to announce a new development project of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701)—Special Issue Mentor Program.

We seek cooperating opportunities with early career scientists to help them to develop Special Issues, experience the role of an academic editor, and establish more academic interactions under the mentorship of mature or renowned scientists.

We will provide the following services for this new development project:

• A Special Issue in your field of expertise in Metals and a Guest Editor certificate;
• Guidance from experienced scientists from Metals;
• More editorial experience in an SCIE journal to enrich your research career;
• A platform to collect papers on the topic of your interest;
• A platform for in-depth exchange and interaction between young scientists and their global peers;
• Promotional opportunities to expand your academic influence via webinars to publicize your latest scientific research activities and achievements;
• Opportunities for excellent young scientists to join our Topical Advisory Panel Board and Editorial Board and grow together with Metals.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Metals Editorial Office ([email protected]) or submit the proposal at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/metals. We will then discuss our potential collaboration and how the process works in detail.

In addition, Metals continues to welcome Special Issue proposals based on hot and advanced research topics.

The “Transition Metals and Rare Metals” Section of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/transition_metals_rare_metals.

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

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting the Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements to the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the field of transition and rare metal extraction, purification, deformation, physical and mechanical behaviors, characterization, shaping, modeling, materials design, and medium and high entropy alloys. The “Transition Metals and Rare Metals” Section of Metals aims to foster a better understanding of microstructural design and control, including the opportunities that the nanoscale field offers, allowing competition with other forming technologies in the development of high-performance materials for applications where extreme conditions are expected. High-entropy or strong-entropy materials containing transition metals and rare metals are considered, as well as metal matrix composites, hard metals, and tailored microstructural materials. Full-density metals, porous metals, foams, powders (0-D), fibers (1-D), films and coatings (2-D), and bulk (3-D) metal-containing materials are also considered.

The Section will cover any technology that can produce and tailor metallic alloys (including atomizing, mechanical alloying, granulation or agglomeration techniques, chemical processes, etc.), conventional powder metallurgy technologies, such as press and sintering, special methods of assisted sintering (liquid phase sintering, microwave sintering, field assisted sintering), metal injection molding, and technologies that provide full-density materials (hot pressing, hot isostatic pressing, powder extrusion, sinter forging, etc.). Technologies related to 0-D, 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D metals and alloys and metal-containing materials will also be covered in the Section.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/transition_metals_rare_metals.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact the Metals Editorial Office ([email protected]).

The Section “Welding and Joining” of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check out the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/welding_joining.

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

• Pre-screening and making decisions on new submissions related to the journal Section;
• Helping to edit 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 peers or at conferences;
• Attending Board Meetings to suggest journal development strategies:
• Reviewing manuscripts.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/welding_joining.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Ms. Sunny He ([email protected]) from the Metals Editorial Office.

MDPI would like to invite all recognized experts in their field to attend our Topic Workshop | Scientific Advances in STEM. The aim of this workshop is to provide a platform for scholars in disciplines related to science and engineering to discuss and contribute to the advancement of these fields.

Webinar: Topic Workshop | Scientific Advances in STEM
Date: 12/1/2022
Time: 9:30 a.m. (CET)
Register in advance for this webinar here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the workshop. The number of participants in the live session is limited, but the recording will be made available shortly afterwards. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.

Workshop Chairperson:

• Ana María Beltrán Custodio, University of Seville (US)

Dr. Ana M. Beltrán has a Ph.D. in material science and is currently an Associate Professor of Material Science at the University of Seville (Spain). Her scientific interests include the characterization of different materials, both at a macroscale (concerning the mechanical properties of biomaterials) and at a nanoscale, through transmission electron microscopy (structural and compositional analysis of bio-nanostructures, semiconductor, and catalysts) to understand their behavior. She has been the Guest Editor of Special Issues for the journal Metals, and she also contributed to MDPI’s first multidisciplinary topic involving the journals Metals, Polymers, Foods, Sustainability, and Sensors, from which a book was published. She is currently involved in the running of a second multidisciplinary topic entitled “Scientific Advances in STEM: Synergies to Achieve Success”.

Workshop Speakers:

• Frank Jörg Clemens, Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology Überlandstrasse

Dr. Frank Clemens is a Group Leader (Smart Ceramic Processing) at the Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics at Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology, Switzerland. His scientific and applied research belongs to the thermoplastic processing of powder-based sensors, actuators, and structural materials. His group focuses on national and international projects in this field, and he works with physicists, chemists, material scientists, and engineers to investigate activation energies on different processing steps. In addition, he has also developed new strategies for the processing of functional ceramics and soft sensor materials and structures. Since 2003, he has been a lecturer at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), and between 2010 and 2021, he was a lecturer at ZHAW (Switzerland). He has more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and patents.

• Dr. Carlos Bengoechea, Chemical Engineering Department, University of Sevilla, Seville, Spain

Prof. Dr. Carlos Bengoechea is an Associate Professor at the University of Seville, Spain, where he teaches different courses, such as Chemical Engineering or Polymeric Materials. He has wide experience in the development of applications (e.g., plastics, emulsions) that add value to by-products of the industry (e.g., soy protein, porcine plasma). Currently, he is supervising an R&D project on green superabsorbent materials for personal care applications using different by-products.

We are pleased to provide this excellent opportunity to all the brilliant researchers to propose and develop new approaches, exchange perspectives, and encourage new lines of research.

To find out more about the speakers and the program, please visit https://sciforum.net/event/SASTEM. We hope you can join us for this event.

Shun Li
MDPI Guest Editor Club
Conference Secretariat

We would like to invite active scientific researchers to become involved in our journal Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701; IF: 2.351; ranking: 24/80 (Q2) in Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering) as an Editorial Board Member. Our Editor in Chief is Prof. Dr. Hugo F. Lopez, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA. You can see the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/editors.

If you are interested, wish to recommend potential candidates, or wish to request further information, please contact our Editorial Office ([email protected]).

It is our great pleasure to welcome the following eminent researchers, who have recently joined the Editorial Board of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701): Prof. Dr. José Luis Sánchez Llazamares, from Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, Mexico, and Prof. Dr. Lin Liu, from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China.

In addition, Prof. Dr. Chunsheng Wang from the University of Maryland, MD, USA, who was previously an Editorial Board Member of Metals, has been promoted to the position of an Advisory Board Member.

We look forward to our future collaboration!

Metals Editorial Board Member Prof. Dr. Weihong Zhang was elected as an academician after the "Announcement on the Announcement of the List of Elected Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2021", made by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 

Name: Prof. Dr. Weihong Zhang

Affiliation: State IJR Center of Aerospace Design and Additive Manufacturing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China

Interests: optimization; advanced manufacturing; smart materials and structures

 

 

On behalf of all academic editors, the Metals Editorial Office would like to extend our congratulations to him!

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.

Abate, Antonio Abatzoglou, John T. Abbaszadeh, Mostafa Acharya, U. Rajendra Acharya, Viral V. Agarwal, Ravi P. Ahn, Myung-Ju Airoldi, Laura Ali, Imran Allakhverdiev, Suleyman I. Aluko, Rotimi E. Anasori, Babak Andersson, Dan I. Andes, David Anker, Stefan D. Apergis, Nicholas Ariga, Katsuhiko Arqub, Omar Abu Aschner, Michael Assaraf, Yehuda G. Astruc, Didier Atala, Anthony Atanasov, Atanas G. Atangana, Abdon Bahram, Mohammad Bakris, George L. Balandin, Alexander A. Baleanu, Dumitru Balsamo, Gianpaolo Bando, Yoshio Banks, William A. Bansal-Travers, Maansi Barba, Francisco J. Barros, Lillian Basit, Abdul W. Baskonus, Haci Mehmet Bassetti, Matteo Battino, Maurizio Bell, Jordana T. Bellomo, Nicola Benediktsson, Jon Atli Benelli, Giovanni Benjakul, Soottawat Bhatnagar, Amit Biddle, Stuart J. H. Biondi, Antonio Biondi-Zoccai, Giuseppe Bjarnsholt, Thomas Blaabjerg, Frede Blaschke, Thomas Blay, Jean-Yves Blumwald, Eduardo Blunt, John W. Boffetta, Paolo Bogers, Marcel Bonomo, Robert A. Bowman, David M.J.S. Boyer, Cyrille Brestic, Marian Brevik, Eric C. Buhalis, Dimitrios Burdick, Jason A. Byrd, John C. Cabeza, Luisa F. Cai, Xingjuan Cai, Jianchao Calhoun, Vince D. Calin, George Cao, Jinde Cao, Guozhong Carvalho, Andre F. Castellanos-Gomez, Andres Cerqueira, Miguel Ângelo Parente Ribeiro Chang, Jo-Shu Chang, Chih-Hao Chastin, Sebastien Chau, Kwok-wing Chemat, Farid Chen, Xiaobo Chen, YangQuan Chen, Jianmin Chen, Chaoji Chen, Min Chen, Qi Chen, Jun Chen, Xi Chen, Peng Chen, Yulin Chen, Bo Chen, Chen Chen, Zhi-Gang Chen, Wei-Hsin Chen, Gang Chen, Yongsheng Chen, Xiang Chen, Yimin Chen, Runsheng Chen, Lidong Chen, Shaowei Chen, Qian Chen, Yu Chen, Shuangming Chiclana, Francisco Cho, Sun Young Choi, Wonyong Chowdhary, Anuradha Choyke, Peter L. Cichocki, Andrzej Corella, Dolores Corma, Avelino Cortes, Javier Cortes, Jorge Costanza, Robert Crommie, Michael F. Cui, Yi Cui, Haiying Cui, Qinghua Cummings, Kenneth Michael Dai, Shifeng Dai, Sheng Daiber, Andreas Davis, Steven J. Dawson, Ted M. de la Fuente-Nunez, Cesar Decker, Eric Andrew Dekel, Avishai Demaria, Marco Deng, Yong Deng, Xiangzheng DePinho, Ronald A. Desneux, Nicolas Dimopoulos, Meletios-Athanasios Ding, Aijun Dionysiou, Dionysios D. Dokmeci, Mehmet Remzi Dolgui, Alexandre Dong, Fan Dou, Shi Xue Dou, Letian Du, Qian Du, Bo Dube, Shanta Rishi Dufresne, Alain Dummer, Reinhard Dupont, Didier Edwards, David Elaissari, Abdelhamid Elhoseny, Mohamed Ellahi, Rahmat Ellis, Erle C. ElMasry, Gamal Esteller, Manel Estévez, Mario Fabbro, Doriano Facchetti, Antonio Fan, Zhanxi Fang, Chuanglin Fasano, Alessio Fečkan, Michal Felser, Claudia Feng, Liangzhu Fensholt, Rasmus Ferdinandy, Péter Fernandez-Lafuente, Roberto Ferreira, Isabel C. F. R. Filippi, Massimo Fisher, Helen Fortino, Giancarlo Fosso Wamba, Samuel Franceschi, Claudio Fujita, Hamido Fujita, Masayuki Gai, Francesco Gaisford, Simon Galanakis, Charis M. Galluzzi, Lorenzo Galvano, Fabio Gan, Ren-You Gan, Lihua Gandomi, Amir H. Gao, Bin Gao, Feng Gao, Minrui Gao, Huijun Gao, Wei Gao, Huile Garbe, Claus Garcia, Hermenegildo Gasbarrini, Antonio Gasco, Laura Gautret, Philippe Geng, Yong Gerdts, Gunnar Geschwind, Daniel H. Ghadimi, Noradin Ghaffari, Roozbeh Ghamisi, Pedram Giampieri, Francesca Glick, Bernard R. Gnant, Michael Goel, Ajay Gogotsi, Yury Goldewijk, Kees Klein Gong, Jinlong Gong, Yongji Govindan, Kannan Granato, Daniel Grancini, Giulia Green, Douglas R. Grosso, Giuseppe Gu, Ke Guan, Cao Guastella, Adam J. Guerrero, Josep M. Gui, Guan Guizani, Mohsen Guo, Zaiping Gupta, Rangan Gutzmer, Ralf Haase, Dagmar Habibi-Yangjeh, Aziz Hagemann, Stefan Hagger, Martin Hamblin, Michael R. Hammoudeh, Shawkat Han, Heesup Hanes, Justin Harrison, Roy M. Hartung, Hans-Peter Hasanuzzaman, Mirza He, Jr-Hau He, Hongwen He, Jiaqing He, Debiao Henseler, Jörg Herrera, Francisco Herrera-Viedma, Enrique Hetz, Claudio Ho Kim, Jung Holmes, Elaine Hossain, Ekram Hsueh, Po-Ren Hu, Xiaosong Hu, Wenbin Huang, Jianping Huang, Hongwei Huang, Yu Huang, Jianying Huang, Peng Huang, Baibiao Huang, Shaoming Hubacek, Klaus

Iqbal, Hafiz M. N. Ismail, Ahmad Fauzi Izzo, Angelo A. Jacobson, Kenneth A. Jain, Atul Jankovic, Joseph Jelezko, Fedor Ji, Xiaobo Ji, Guangbin Jiang, Hai-Long Jiang, Lei Jiang, Junjun Jiang, Qing Jiang, Shibo Jin, Shi Jones, Peter A. Kalantar-zadeh, Kourosh Kaner, Richard B. Kannan, Kurunthachalam Kappos, Ludwig Karagiannidis, George K. Karimi, Hamid Reza Karimi-Maleh, Hassan Karp, Peter D. Kataoka, Kazunori Katritch, Vsevolod Kawi, Sibudjing Keesstra, Saskia Kepp, Oliver Keyzers, Robert A. Khademhosseini, Ali Khan, Nafees A. Kiessling, Fabian Kim, Ki-Hyun Kim, Haegyeom Kim, Jeonghun Kim, Jong Seung Kirkwood, John M. Kisi, Ozgur Kivshar, Yuri Klenk, Hans-Peter Ko, Wen-Chien Konopleva, Marina Y. Kontoyiannis, Dimitrios P. Koonin, Eugene V. Kou, Gang Krausmann, Fridolin Krebs, Frederik C. Kroemer, Guido Kuca, Kamil Kudo, Masatoshi Kuhn, Jens H. Kumar, Devendra Kumar, Alan Prem Kumar, Sudhir Kumar Sangaiah, Arun Kurths, Juergen Kuznetsov, Nikolay V. Kuzyakov, Yakov Kwan, Mei-Po Kyrpides, Nikos C. La Vecchia, Carlo Lai, Yuekun Lam, James Lammers, Twan Lamuela-Raventos, Rosa M. Lancellotti, Patrizio Landi, Francesco Laurent, Sophie Lavie, Carl J. Laxminarayan, Ramanan Lee, Sang Soo Lee, Jin-Wook Lee, Pooi See Lehmann, Johannes Lei, Yaguo Lei, Ting Leng, Lijian Leung, Dennis Y. C. Leung, Victor C. M. Levine, Ross Li, Wei Li, Jie Li, Jinghong Li, Jun Li, Heng Li, Gang Li, Yat Li, Peng Li, Hailong Li, Changpin Li, Yan Li, Yurui Li, Xiaodi Li, Hong Li, Shutao Li, Hongyi Li, Zhijun Li, Peiyue Lin, Yuehe Lin, Hongjun Lin, Lin Lip, Gregory Y. H. Liu, Jian Liu, Meng Liu, Hong Liu, Tao Liu, Lei Liu, Jianxing Liu, Wei Liu, Gang Liu, Yang Liu, Peide Lockhart, Shawn R. Long, Hualou Löscher, Wolfgang Lu, Jun Lu, Jianquan Lu, Nanshu Lucey, Brian Lund, Henrik Luo, Jun Luo, Yi Luo, Jingshan Luo, Yangchao Lupton, Deborah Luque, Rafael Lv, Wei Lvov, Yuri M. Lyons, Timothy W. Ma, Tianyi Ma, Jun Ma, Jiayi Ma, Wen-Xiu Ma, Yanming Maggioni, Aldo Pietro Mahmood, Nasir Mahmoudi, Morteza Mai, Liqiang Mallavarapu, Megharaj Mandala, Mario Mardani, Abbas Marengo, Jose Maria Rossolini, Gian Martinoia, Enrico Mathiesen, Brian Vad Mathivanan, Suresh Mattick, John S. Matyjaszewski, Krzysztof McCabe, Matthew E. McCauley, Darren McClements, David Julian Melcher, Karsten Melenhorst, Jan Joseph Melero, Ignacio Mezzetti, Bruno Mirjalili, Seyedali Mishchenko, Artem Mittler, Ron Moreau, Philippe Motohashi, Hozumi Mousavi Khaneghah, Amin Mu, Shichun Mueller, Lukas A. Mueller-Roeber, Bernd Muenzel, Thomas Muhammad, Khan Munger, J. William Nauen, Ralf Naushad, Mu. Negri, Eva Nemeroff, Charles B. Newman, David J. Niaura, Raymond S. Nie, Feiping Nieto, Juan J. Novara, Agata Nunkoo, Robin Ogino, Shuji Olabi, Abdul-Ghani Ong, Hwai Chyuan O'Regan, Donal Orsini, Nicola Ouyang, Minggao Ozcan, Aydogan Pacher, Pal Pan, Xiaoqing Pan, Likun Pan, Quan-Ke Pang, Huan Pavela, Roman Pedrycz, Witold Pei, Yanzhong Peng, Shushi Peng, Qing Peng, Mugen Perc, Matjaz Perez-Alvarez, Jose Angel Perlin, David S. Piquero, Alex R. Polasky, Stephen Pommier, Yves Poor, H. Vincent Postolache, Mihai Potenza, Marc N. Poulter, Benjamin Preat, Veronique Prinsep, Michele R. Pu, Hong-Bin Putnik, Predrag Qiu, Jieshan Qu, Xiaogang Quiles, José L. Rabczuk, Timon Ramakrishna, Seeram Ramkissoon, Haywantee Ran, Jingrun Recio, Isidra Reiter, Russel J. Remuzzi, Giuseppe Ren, Jinsong Ren, Jun Riahi, Keywan Richardson, Paul G. Rignot, Eric Rimm, David Rinn, John L. Robert, Caroline Rodriguez, Rosa M. Rojo, Teofilo Ros, Emilio Rosen, Marc A. Roubaud, David Russo, Alessandro Russo, Gian Luigi

Saad, Fred Saad, Walid Sadorsky, Perry Sander, Chris Santamouris, Mattheos Santoro, Gabriele Saraiva, Jorge A. Sarchiapone, Marco Scalbert, Augustin Schloter, Michael Schneider, Gisbert Schubert, Ulrich S. Schulz, Rainer Schwab, Matthias Schweizer, Frank Scolyer, Richard A. Scorrano, Luca Scott, David Scott, Stuart A. Scott, Daniel Serra-Majem, Lluis Sethi, Gautam Shabala, Sergey Shaheen, Sabry M. Shao, Zongping Sharma, Gaurav Shen, Guozhen Shen, Hao Sheremet, Mikhail A. Shi, Peng Shi, Yumeng Shoenfeld, Yehuda Siano, Pierluigi Sillanpaa, Mika Simões, Manuel Simpson, Richard J. Singh, Bhupinder Pal Singh, Vijay P. Smagghe, Guy Song, Yu Song, Houbing Sood, Anil K. Srivastava, Hari M. Stadler, Marc Stadler, Peter F. Stanley, H. Eugene Stoumpos, Constantinos C. Strano, Michael S. Stunnenberg, Hendrik G. Su, [email protected] Su, Chun-Yi Subramanian, S. V. Sun, Zhipei Sun, Fengchun Sun, Hongqi Sunderland, Elsie M. Suzuki, Nobuhiro Svenning, Jens-Christian Szabo, Csaba Szallasi, Arpad Szolnoki, Attila Tacke, Frank Tan, Weihong Tan, Chaoliang Tang, Hua Tang, Chuyang Tang, Chuan-He Tanzi, Rudolph E. Teichmann, Sarah Telenti, Amalio Thakur, Vijay Kumar Thiele, Holger Tian, Jie Tohge, Takayuki Tran, Lam-Son Phan Truhlar, Donald G. Tsao, Rong Tsuda, Kenichi Tukker, Arnold Tung, Chen-Ho Turskis, Zenonas Urquhart, Andrew Valko, Marian Van Breusegem, Frank Van de Wiele, Tom van der Werf, Guido van Wesemael, Bas Vangronsveld, Jaco Varma, Rajender S. Varsani, Arvind Varshney, Rajeev K. Vasilakis, Nikos Vasilakos, Athanasios V. Vasquez, Juan C. Vatanen, Tommi Ventura, Marco Vermote, Eric Veronese, Nicola Verpoorte, Robert Vethaak, A. Dick Vieta, Eduard Vincent, Jean-Louis Wagner, Wolfgang Walton, Vaughn M. Wan, Jiafu Wan, Shaohua Wang, Qi Wang, Joseph Wang, Meng Wang, Tao Wang, Yuan Wang, Xin Wang, Chao Wang, Yong Wang, Jun Wang, Erkang Wang, Sibo Wang, Jian Wang, Ning Wang, John Wang, Qin Wang, Shaojian Wang, Guoxiu Wang, Huanting Wang, Chunsheng Wang, Gongming Wang, Zhong Lin Wang, Lianzhou Wang, Shaobin Wang, Yang Wang, Zifa Wei, Zhixiang Wei, Leyi Weissleder, Ralph Wen, Guanghui Wiens, John J. Wigneron, Jean-Pierre Willerslev, Eske Wishart, David S. Witlox, Frank Wu, Jun Wu, Tom Wu, Hao Bin Wu, Hui Wu, Haijun Wu, Zhongbiao Wu, Zhong-Shuai Wu, Zheng-Guang Xia, Meimei Xia, Xinhui Xiang, Quanjun Xiao, Jianbo Xiao, Jie Xie, Jian-Hua Xin, Sen Xing, Baoshan Xiong, Rui Xu, Bin Xu, Li Da Xu, Yi-Jun Xu, Hui Xu, Zeshui Yamauchi, Yusuke Yan, Huaicheng Yan, Kai Yang, Chenguang Yang, Xiao-Jun Yang, Bing Yang, Yun-Gui Yang, Jie Yang, Jian Yang, Xinsong Yang, Shihe Yang, Yi Yang, Yang Yao, Jen-Chih Yao, Yonggang Yazyev, Oleg Yin, Yulong Yin, Zongyou Yin, Shen Yin, Ya-xia Yin, Shou-Wei Ying, Guang-Guo Young, Allan H. Yu, Shu-Hong Yu, Jun Yu, Guihua Yu, Wenwu Yu, Guocan Yu, Minghao Zarco-Tejada, Pablo J. Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras Zeadally, Sherali Zhai, Tianyou Zhang, Wei Zhang, Binlin Zhang, Shujun Zhang, Guoping Zhang, Zengqiang Zhang, Yu Shrike Zhang, Qichun Zhang, Xian-Ming Zhang, Guowen Zhang, Min Zhang, Yue-Jun Zhang, Shaoqing Zhang, Fan Zhang, Weili Zhang, Xiaodong Zhang, Zhien Zhang, Tierui Zhang, Hongjie Zhang, Dengsong Zhang, Liangpei Zhang, Dan Zhang, Yu-Dong Zhang, Fusuo Zhao, Yi Zhao, Guochun Zhao, Li-Dong Zheng, Hao Zheng, Gengfeng Zhong, Cheng Zhou, Weiqi Zhou, Qi Zhou, Jizhong Zhu, Hongwei Zhu, Chengzhou Zhu, Junfa Zhu, Zhe Zhu, Quanxin Zhuang, Xiaodong Zhuang, Xiaoying Zou, Quan

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
[email protected]

We are excited to welcome the following recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Metals:

Prof. Dr. Junpin Lin;

Prof. Dr. Huijun Li;

Prof. Dr. Zhijian Peng;

Prof. Dr. Salima Bouvier;

Prof. Dr. Alexios P. Douvalis;

Prof. Dr. Namhyun Kang;

Dr. Caterina Zanella;

Prof. Dr. Anil Mahapatro;

Dr. Liangfeng Huang;

Prof. Dr. Jianghua Chen;

Dr. Cuiwei Du;

Prof. Dr. Yong Yang;

Prof. Dr. Angelo Fernando Padilha;

Prof. Dr. Ruslan Z. Valiev;

Prof. Dr. Chang Woo Lee;

Prof. Dr. Xiangdong Gao;

Prof. Dr. Andre Paulo Tschiptschin;

Prof. Dr. Sean R. Agnew;

Dr. Ruslan R. Balokhonov;

Dr. Frank Stein;

Prof. Dr. Guosong Wu;

Dr. Michael Störmer;

Dr. Xiangyuan (Carl) Cui;

Prof. Dr. Peng Wang;

Prof. Dr. Sungmo Moon.

The Section “Computation and Simulation on Metals” of Metals (ISSN: 2075-4701) is recruiting Editorial Board Members. The Section Editor-in-Chief is Prof. Dr. Xing-Qiu Chen from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. You can check out the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/computation_simulation_metals.

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

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/computation_simulation_metals.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Mr. Humphrey Wu ([email protected]) from the Metals Editorial Office.

The Section “Additive Manufacturing” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check out the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/additive_manufacturing.

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

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the field of additive manufacturing, focusing on the innovative nature of additive manufacturing and its broad applications. The scope of this Section covers the following aspects:

• Metals and alloys additive manufacturing;
• Thermal and mechanical modeling related to additive manufacturing;
• Additive manufacturing processes;
• Effects of additive manufacturing leading to metals/alloys and metallic objects;
• Applications of additive manufacturing.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/additive_manufacturing.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Ms. Maggie Guo ([email protected]), the Section Managing Editor.

This serves to announce to our valued authors based in Japan that value-added tax, or consumption tax will now be imposed on article processing fees and other service fees for all papers submitted, or resubmitted (assigned new paper IDs), effective from 15 August 2021. The change is in accordance with the Japanese "Act for Partial Revision of the Income Tax Act and Other Acts" (Act No. 9 of 2015), which includes a revision of consumption taxation on cross-border supplies of services such as digital content distribution.

For additional information from the National Tax Agency please see here ("Cross-border supplies of electronic services").

Contact: Setsuko Nishihara, MDPI Tokyo

The Section “Biobased and Biodegradable Metals” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check out the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/biobased_biodegradable_metals.

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

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the broad field of biomaterials, focusing on recent biomedical materials, to provide a summary of the latest results in the development and production of modern biomedical materials used in contemporary medicine and dentistry. Biomedical alloys are designed to take a form that can direct, through interactions with living systems, the course of any therapeutic or diagnostic procedure. Metals are currently used for medical devices, and over 70% of medical implants consist of metals, of which over 90% are orthopedic implants. Despite many metallic medical devices being in use today, they are predominantly made up of only a few metals. In this sense, in recent decades, metallic alloys have been used in the biomedical field due to their low elastic modulus, good fatigue strength and formability, and corrosion resistance. In this Section of Metals, we intend to gather the main research results from various areas related to the development, processing, and use of metallic alloys for biomedical applications. Topics of interest comprise the design and processing of biomedical alloys, titanium-based alloys, zirconium-based alloys, biodegradable alloys, porous alloys, mechanical properties of biomedical alloys, corrosion resistance of biomedical alloys, the biocompatibility of biomedical alloys, and characterization techniques.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/biobased_biodegradable_metals.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Mr. Humphrey Wu ([email protected]) at the Metals Editorial Office.

The Section “Powder Metallurgy” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/powder_metallurgy.

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

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the field of powder metallurgy, focusing on a wider understanding of powder development, characterization, shaping, modeling, and powder metallurgy materials. Powder metallurgy allows for a better microstructural design and control, including the opportunities that the nanoscale field offers, allowing competition with other forming technologies in the development of high-performance materials for applications where extreme conditions can be expected. All metallic materials are considered, as well as metal matrix composites, hard metals, and tailored microstructural materials. Full-density materials, porous materials, and foams developed through specific routes of powder metallurgy are also considered.

The Section will cover any technology that can produce and tailor metallic powders (including atomizing, mechanical alloying, granulation or agglomeration techniques, chemical processes, etc.), conventional powder metallurgy technologies, such as press and sintering, special methods of assisted sintering (liquid phase sintering, microwave sintering, field assisted sintering), metal injection molding, and technologies that provide full-density materials (hot pressing, hot isostatic pressing, powder extrusion, sinter forging, etc.). Powder-based methods for developing materials by additive manufacturing will also be covered in the Section.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/powder_metallurgy.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Ms. Lyra Xing ([email protected]), the Section Managing Editor.

The Section “Corrosion and Protection” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/corrosion_protection.

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

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Making decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the degradation of materials via corrosion and the methods and mechanisms to protect them. It focuses on the corrosion phenomenon, including advanced mechanisms, efficient testing techniques and the main influencing factors, and finding the most suitable procedures to avoid or slow down its propagation, such as coatings, inhibitors or cathodic protection, among others.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/corrosion_protection.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Ms. Betty Jin ([email protected]) from the Metals Editorial Office.

The Section “Extractive Metallurgy” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/hydrometallurgy_pyrometallurgy.

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

• Providing scientific supervision for the Section;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting hot topics for Special Issues;
• Taking decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promoting this Section, recommending international conference cooperation, and assisting this Section in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Providing feedback and suggesting improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the broad field of metal production and focuses on a deeper understanding of the routes and mechanisms for the extraction of metals from primary raw materials (concentrates, mining, and mineral processing waste) and the recovery of metals from secondary raw materials (scrap, end-of-life products, industrial waste, intermediates) through recycling. The Section also covers not only processes based on reaction chemistries but also processes from the field of special metallurgy, e.g., physical refining.

For more information about this Section and publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/hydrometallurgy_pyrometallurgy.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Mr. Toliver Guo ([email protected]) at the Metals Editorial Office.

The Section “Metal Failure Analysis” of Metals is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sectioneditors/metal_failure_analysis.

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

• Provide scientific supervision for the Section;
• Invite distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggest hot topics for Special Issues;
• Make decisions about the suitability of a paper to enter the peer-review process and about its acceptance at the end of the process;
• Promote this Section, recommend international conference cooperation, and assist in holding physical/electronic conferences;
• Provide feedback and suggest improvements for the journal.

This Section of Metals covers the broad field of failure processes. The main focus of this Section is related to the correlation of failure with the structure and the microstructure of metals and metal welds with their properties.

For more information about this Section, or publishing in Metals, please see the Section’s webpage:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/metals/sections/metal_failure_analysis.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Mrs. Sammi Meng ([email protected]) from the Metals Editorial Office.

The 2020 citation metrics have been officially released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR)!

We are pleased to announce that 85 MDPI journals are included, of which:

• 10 journals received their first impact factor
• 96% of journals increased their impact factor from 2019
• 32 journals (38%) ranked among the top 25% of journals, in at least one category

Journal	Impact Factor	Rank	Category
Cancers	6.639	Q1	• Oncology
Cells	6.600	Q2	• Cell Biology
Pharmaceutics	6.321	Q1	• Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Antioxidants	6.313	Q1	• Food Science & Technology
			• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
			• Chemistry, Medicinal
Biomedicines	6.081	Q1	• Medicine, Research & Experimental
			• Pharmacology & Pharmacy
			• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
International Journal of Molecular Sciences	5.924	Q1	• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
		Q2	• Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Pharmaceuticals	5.863	Q1	• Pharmacology & Pharmacy
			• Chemistry, Medicinal
Journal of Fungi	5.816	Q1	• Mycology
			• Microbiology
Nutrients	5.719	Q1	• Nutrition & Dietetics
Biosensors	5.519	Q1	• Chemistry, Analytical
			• Instruments & Instrumentation
		Q2	• Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Marine Drugs	5.118	Q1	• Chemistry, Medicinal
			• Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Biology	5.079	Q1	• Biology
Nanomaterials	5.076	Q1	• Physics, Applied
		Q2	• Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
			• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
			• Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Viruses	5.048	Q2	• Virology
Journal of Personalized Medicine	4.945	Q1	• Medicine, General & Internal
			• Health Care Sciences & Services
Metabolites	4.932	Q2	• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Biomolecules	4.879	Q2	• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Remote Sensing	4.848	Q1	• Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
		Q2	• Remote Sensing
			• Imaging Science & Photographic Technology
			• Environmental Sciences
Gels *	4.702	Q1	• Polymer Science
Antibiotics	4.639	Q2	• Infectious Diseases
			• Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Toxins	4.546	Q1	• Toxicology
			• Food Science & Technology
Vaccines	4.422	Q2	• Immunology
			• Medicine, Research & Experimental
Molecules	4.412	Q2	• Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
			• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Foods	4.350	Q2	• Food Science & Technology
Polymers	4.329	Q1	• Polymer Science
Journal of Clinical Medicine	4.242	Q1	• Medicine, General & Internal
Toxics	4.146	Q2	• Toxicology
			• Environmental Sciences
Catalysts	4.146	Q2	• Chemistry, Physical
Microorganisms	4.128	Q2	• Microbiology
Membranes	4.106	Q1	• Polymer Science
		Q2	• Engineering, Chemical
			• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
			• Chemistry, Physical
Genes	4.096	Q2	• Genetics & Heredity
Fermentation *	3.975	Q2	• Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease *	3.948	Q2	• Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Plants	3.935	Q1	• Plant Sciences
Life	3.817	Q2	• Biology
Diagnostics	3.706	Q2	• Medicine, General & Internal
Current Oncology	3.677	Q3	• Oncology
Materials	3.623	Q1	• Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering
		Q2	• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
			• Chemistry, Physical
			• Physics, Applied
			• Physics, Condensed Matter
Sensors	3.576	Q1	• Instruments & Instrumentation
		Q2	• Chemistry, Analytical
			• Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Pathogens	3.492	Q2	• Microbiology
Agronomy	3.417	Q1	• Agronomy
			• Plant Sciences
Chemosensors	3.398	Q2	• Instruments & Instrumentation
			• Chemistry, Analytical
		Q3	• Electrochemistry
Land	3.398	Q2	• Environmental Studies
Brain Sciences	3.394	Q3	• Neurosciences
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health	3.390	Q1	• Public, Environmental & Occupational Health (SSCI)
		Q2	• Public, Environmental & Occupational Health (SCIE)
			• Environmental Sciences (SCIE)
Tomography	3.358	Q2	• Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Fractal and Fractional *	3.313	Q1	• Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications
Sustainability	3.251	Q2	• Environmental Sciences (SCIE)
			• Environmental Studies (SSCI)
		Q3	• Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (SCIE)
			• Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (SSCI)
Water	3.103	Q2	• Water Resources
			• Environmental Sciences
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research	3.049	Q3	• Business
Energies	3.004	Q3	• Energy & Fuels
Agriculture	2.925	Q1	• Agronomy
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information	2.899	Q2	• Geography, Physical
			• Computer Science, Information Systems
		Q3	• Remote Sensing
Micromachines	2.891	Q2	• Instruments & Instrumentation
			• Physics, Applied
		Q3	• Chemistry, Analytical
			• Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Coatings	2.881	Q2	• Materials Science, Coatings & Films
			• Physics, Applied
		Q3	• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Children	2.863	Q2	• Pediatrics
Processes	2.847	Q3	• Engineering, Chemical
Separations	2.777	Q3	• Chemistry, Analytical
Insects	2.769	Q1	• Entomology
Animals	2.752	Q1	• Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
			• Veterinary Sciences
Symmetry	2.713	Q2	• Multidisciplinary Sciences
Atmosphere	2.686	Q3	• Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
			• Environmental Sciences
Applied Sciences	2.679	Q2	• Engineering, Multidisciplinary
			• Physics, Applied
		Q3	• Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
			• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Photonics	2.676	Q2	• Optics
Buildings *	2.648	Q2	• Construction & Building Technology
			• Engineering, Civil
Healthcare	2.645	Q2	• Health Policy & Services (SSCI)
		Q3	• Health Care Sciences & Services (SCIE)
Minerals	2.644	Q2	• Mining & Mineral Processing
			• Mineralogy
			• Geochemistry & Geophysics
Forests	2.634	Q1	• Forestry
Crystals	2.589	Q2	• Crystallography
		Q3	• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Entropy	2.524	Q2	• Physics, Multidisciplinary
Diversity	2.465	Q2	• Biodiversity Conservation
		Q3	• Ecology
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering	2.458	Q2	• Oceanography
			• Engineering, Marine
			• Engineering, Ocean
Medicina	2.430	Q2	• Medicine, General & Internal
Machines *	2.428	Q2	• Engineering, Mechanical
		Q3	• Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Electronics	2.397	Q3	• Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
			• Computer Science, Information Systems
			• Physics, Applied
Fishes *	2.385	Q2	• Fisheries
			• Marine & Freshwater Biology
Metals	2.351	Q2	• Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering
		Q3	• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Horticulturae *	2.331	Q1	• Horticulture
Veterinary Sciences *	2.304	Q1	• Veterinary Sciences
Universe	2.278	Q3	• Physics, Particles & Fields
			• Astronomy & Astrophysics
Mathematics	2.258	Q1	• Mathematics
Magnetochemistry	2.193	Q3	• Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear
			• Chemistry, Physical
			• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Current Issues in Molecular Biology	2.081	Q4	• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Actuators	1.994	Q3	• Instruments & Instrumentation
			• Engineering, Mechanical
Aerospace *	1.659	Q2	• Engineering, Aerospace

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2021

Source: 2020 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ® (Clarivate, 2021)

We are excited to welcome the following recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Metals:

Dr. Steffen Neumeier;

Prof. Dr. Yulong Li;

Prof. Dr. Qiuming Peng;

Prof. Dr. Daniela Sachs;

Dr. Kazunori Sato;

Prof. Dr. Russell Goodall;

Prof. Dr. Liang Huang;

Dr. Jong-Taek Yeom;

Prof. Dr. Ilya Okulov;

Dr. Alexander Kauffmann;

Prof. Dr. Svea Mayer;

Prof. Dr. Zhang Erlin;

Dr. Atef Saad Hamada;

Dr. Leandro Bolzoni;

Prof. Dr. Fahe Cao;

Dr. Sebastian Feliú Jr.;

Prof. Dr. Helmi Attia;

Prof. Dr. Rességuier Thibaut;

Prof. Dr. Rodolphe Bolot;

Prof. Dr. Kenta Yamanaka;

Prof. Igor Yadroitsev;

Prof. Dr. Alfonso Paoletti;

Prof. Dr. Jer-Ren Yang;

Dr. Huaiyu Shao;

Prof. Dr. Noel Jakse;

Prof. Dr. Ehsan Toyserkani;

Dr. Juan Creus;

Dr. Karsten Kunze;

Prof. Dr. Shoujin Sun;

Prof. Dr. Varvara Romanova;

Prof. Dr. Sergey N. Grigoriev;

Prof. Dr. Janez Grum;

Prof. Dr. Alberto Moreira Jorge Junior;

Prof. Dr. Biao Chen;

Dr. Frank Czerwinski;

Prof. Dong-Woo Suh;

Prof. Dr. Andrea Di Schino;

Prof. Dr. Hardy Mohrbacher;

Prof. Dr. Antoni Roca;

Prof. Dr. João Pedro Oliveira;

Prof. Dr. Frank Liou;

Prof. Dr. Frantisek Chmelik;

Dr. Thorsten Michler;

Dr. Norbert Hort;

Prof. Dr. Xudong Qian;

Prof. Dr. Noé Cheung;

Dr. Thorsten Michler;

Prof. Dr. Ruidi Li;

Prof. Dr. Lucien Veleva;

Dr. Lingfeng He;

Prof. Dr. Tomáš Prošek;

Prof. Dr. Alexander L. Kalamkarov;

Prof. Dr. Hauke Springer;

Prof. Dr. Fumihiro Ashida;

Prof. Dr. Mohsen Asle Zaeem;

Prof. Young-Rae Cho.

MDPI Books recently released Book Builder, a new online tool to conveniently arrange, design and produce an eBook from any content published in MDPI journals. Book Builder offers two functions: on the one hand (1) Selections, available to every registered user of MDPI; on the other hand (2) Special Issue Reprints, which can be used exclusively by Guest Editors of Special Issues.

Selections

In just a matter of a few clicks, all users are now able to assemble books from MDPI articles and receive instantaneous feedback in the form of a fully produced and compiled book (PDF), which can be downloaded or ordered as print copy. Selections can include any paper published with MDPI, picking and combining content from different journals and special issues.

This way, the user may for example choose to compile an ebook focusing around a particular topic, or assemble articles from a group of others.

 

We invite you to make yourself familiar with the new tool! The Book Builder can be found here: https://www.mdpi.com/books/book_builder.

Special Issue Reprints

The Book Builder allows Guest Editors of MDPI journals to create a reprint from a successfully completed Special Issue or Topical Collection in book format. If you are a Guest Editor for an MDPI journal, you can use the new tool  to create an PDF document which includes all articles published in the Special Issue as well as a book cover and table of contents.

For Special Issues containing a minimum of 5 articles, the Guest Editor can request its publication on the MDPI Book platform. Published reprints are assigned an ISBN and DOI.

In addition to the PDF copy of the Reprint Book, as a token of our gratitude, MDPI offers every Guest Editor one (1) complimentary print copy (via print-on-demand). All contributors benefit from a discount on orders of any additional print copies, to share with colleagues or libraries or others.

 

Why choose MDPI Books?

In line with our organization's values, MDPI Books publishes all content in open access, promoting the exchange of ideas and knowledge in a globalized world. MDPI Books encompasses all the benefits of open access—high availability and visibility, as well as wide and rapid dissemination. MDPI Books are distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License, meaning as an author you retain the copyright for your work. In addition, with MDPI Books you can complement the digital version of your work with a high-quality printed counterpart.

If you are interested in editing a book volume or series, or have a monograph manuscript to be considered for publication, please submit your proposal online and look at our Information for Authors.

Contact: Laura Wagner, MDPI Books Manager (email)

In June of this year, MDPI will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its foundation. To mark this significant milestone, we have created a 25th Anniversary page on our website that evokes the development of our company over the past quarter-century.

MDPI has been a pioneer of Open Access publishing ever since the concept was first created.

In a wide-ranging interview, our CEO Delia Mihaila reflects on the company’s 25th anniversary and its contribution to the world of scientific publishing.

Delia considers how MDPI has evolved since starting life in 1996 as a visionary ‘project’ run out of an apartment in Basel, Switzerland, by Dr. Shu-Kun Lin. A chemist who was passionate about the long-term preservation of rare chemical sample, Dr. Lin was determined to help scholars publish their findings as quickly as possible and make their research results available to as wide a readership as possible worldwide. That determination remains unchanged 25 years later.

Today, MDPI is an international organization with over 4,000 employees based on three continents and in ten countries, and ranks among the world's top four academic publishers.

MDPI's mission is to accelerate access to new scientific research, delivering insight faster for researchers worldwide. Read more here about the company's remarkable success story and what the Open Access publishing model can offer the global scientific community.

At MDPI, we strive to make your online publication process seamless and efficient. To achieve this, our team is continuously developing tools and features to make the user experience useful and convenient.

As the number of academic papers continues to grow, so does the need to analyze and work with them on a large scale. This prompted us to design a new feature aimed at helping researchers find journals that are relevant to their publication by matching their abstract topic. In this regard, we designed a similarity model that automatically identifies the most suitable academic journals for your paper.

We are pleased to introduce Journal Selector, a new feature that measures similarity in academic contexts. By simply entering the title and/or abstract into our Journal Selector, the author will see a list of the most related scientific journals published by MDPI. This method helps authors select the correct journals for their papers, highlighting the time of publication and citability.

The methodology is known as representation learning, where words are represented as vectors in hyperspace. Representation helps us differentiate between different concepts within articles, and in turn, helps us identify similarities between them.

We used an advanced machine learning model to better capture the semantic meanings of words. This helps the algorithm make better predictions by leveraging scientific text representation. In turn, this ensures high precision, helping authors decide which journal they should submit their paper to.

The goal is to support authors to publish their work in the most suitable journal for their research, as fast as possible, accelerating their career progress.

Contact: Andrea Perlato, Head of Data Analytics, MDPI (email)

We are excited to welcome the following recognized researchers, who recently joined the Editorial Board of Metals:

Prof. Sunghyuk Park

Prof. Dr. Myungchang Kang

Prof. Lara Righi

Prof. Lauri Holappa

Prof. Dr. Man Seung Lee

Prof. Dr. Aitzol Lamíkiz

Prof. Dr. Alan Luo

Prof. Pavel Lejček

Prof. Javier Segurado

Prof. Dr. Pasquale Cavaliere

Assoc. Prof. Pavel Korzhavyi

Prof. Junwei Qiao

Prof. Dr. Yonggang Yao

Prof. Hong Yong Sohn

Prof. Wangyu Hu

Prof. Dr. Di Zhang

Prof. Dr. Qingsong Wei

Prof. Dr. Jinshan Li

Prof. Dr. Xiancheng Zhang

Prof. Dr. Pyuck-Pa Choi

Prof. Dr. Fantao Kong

Prof. Giovanni Principi

Prof. Dr. Qudong Wang

Prof. Dongyang Li

Prof. Guozhao Fang

Prof. Dr. Jakub Čížek

Prof. Dr. Xiaoqing Pan

Prof. Dr. Yugui Zheng

Prof. Dr. Kewei Gao

Dr. Suveen Mathaudhu

Prof. Dr. Qi-Jie Zhai

Dr. Nikolaos Michailidis

Prof. Dr. Imre Bakonyi

Prof. Dr. Dmitri Molodov

Prof. Dr. Bo Song

Prof. Dr. Chunfeng Hu

Prof. Dr. Mauro Giovannini

Prof. Boris B. Straumal

Prof. Sadahiro Tsurekawa

Dr. Kamyar Shirvanimoghaddam

Prof. Dr. Jose Miguel Molina Jordá

Prof. Cemal Basaran

We are pleased to introduce the following professors as Section EiCs: Prof. Bernd Friedrich for Extractive Metallurgy; Prof. Jose Manuel Torralba for Powder Metallurgy; Prof. Takayoshi Nakano for Metal Casting, Forming, and Heat Treatment; and Prof. Dr. Matteo Pavese for Additive Manufacturing.

We are honored to share with you the news that Metals has now published more than 5,000 papers. We would like to thank the academic editors, authors, and editorial office staff for their support. We hope that Metals continues to develop and excel in the coming years. For more articles, please see here.

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.

Adams, Dave Agarwal, Ravi P. Ahn, Choon Ki Ahn, Myung-Ju Albrecht, Randy A. Andersson, Dan I. Anker, Stefan D. Apergis, Nicholas Ariga, Katsuhiko Artaxo, Paulo Balsamo, Gianpaolo Barba, Francisco J. Benediktsson, Jon Atli Benelli, Giovanni Bhatnagar, Amit Bialystok, Ellen Blaabjerg, Frede Blay, Jean-Yves Bogers, Marcel Bolton, Declan J. Boyer, Cyrille Brocca, Luca Bruix, Jordi Buhalis, Dimitrios Burdick, Jason A. Byrd, John C. Cabeza, Luisa F. Cabrerizo-Lorite, Francisco Javier Cai, Jianchao Calhoun, Vince D. Cantu, Robert C. Cerqueira, Miguel Chang, Jo-Shu Chau, Kwok-wing Chemat, Farid Chen, Jianmin Chen, Jun Chen, Min Chen, Shaowei Chen, Wei Chen, Wei-Hsin Chen, Xiaofeng Chen, Yangkang Chen, Zhi-Gang Chiclana, Francisco Corella, Dolores Cortes, Javier Cortes, Jorge Cummings, Kenneth Michael Dai, Shifeng Decker, Eric A. DePinho, Ronald A. Dimopoulos, Meletios-Athanasios Dincer, Ibrahim Du, Yihong Dupont, Didier Edwards, David Ellahi, Rahmat Ellis, Erle C. ElMasry, Gamal Esteller, Manel Estruch, Ramón Fang, Chuanglin Fasano, Alessio Fernandez-Lafuente, Roberto Ferreira, Isabel Fortino, Giancarlo Galluzzi, Lorenzo Galvano, Fabio Gandomi, Amir H. Gandomi, Amir H. Gao, Bin Gao, Feng Gao, Wei Garbe, Claus García, Hermenegildo Geschwind, Daniel H. Giampieri, Francesca Giralt, Sergio A. Glanz, Karen Goldewijk, Kees Klein Gössling, Stefan Govindan, Kannan Granato, Daniel Grosso, Giuseppe Grosso, Giuseppe Guerrero, Josep M. Haase, Dagmar Hagger, Martin S. Hamblin, Michael R. Han, Heesup Jankovic, Joseph Janotti, Anderson

Jiang, Hai-Long Kalaji, Hazem M. Kalantar-Zadeh, Kourosh Kaner, Richard B. Karimi, Hamid Reza Kataoka, Kazunori Keesstra, Saskia Kepp, Oliver Kerminen, Veli-Matti Keyzers, Robert A. Khademhosseini, Ali Khan, Nafees A. Kim, Ki-Hyun Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír Klenk, Hans-Peter Konopleva, Marina Y. Krammer, Florian Krebs, Frederik C. Kroemer, Guido Kudo, Masatoshi Kurths, Juergen Kurzrock, Razelle Kuznetsov, Nikolay V. Kyrpides, Nikos C. La Vecchia, Carlo Lai, Yuekun Lam, James Lancellotti, Patrizio Lee, Sangmoon Leung, Victor C. M. Li, Jinghong Li, Yurui Lindahl, José M. Merigó Lip, Gregory Y. H. Loh, Xian Jun Long, Hualou Lund, Henrik Luo, Jingshan Luque, Rafael Lyons, Timothy W. Ma, Jun Ma, Wen-Xiu Ma, Yanming Maeda, Keisuke Makarova, Kira Mantovani, Alberto Martín-Belloso, Olga Martinoia, Enrico Marzband, Mousa Masclaux-Daubresse, Celine Masson, Patrick Mateos, María Victoria Mathiesen, Brian Vad Matyjaszewski, Krzysztof McArthur, Grant A. McCauley, Darren Medlock, Jolyon M. Melero, Ignacio Mezzetti, Bruno Miroshnichenko, Andrey E. Moran, Daniel Mueller, Lukas A. Mueller-Roeber, Bernd Naushad, Mu Nemeroff, Charles B. Nieto, Juan J. O'Donnell, Colm Ogino, Shuji Olabi, Abdul-Ghani O'Regan, Donal Orsini, Nicola Oswald, Isabelle P. Ozcan, Aydogan Pahl-Wostl, Claudia Pang, Huan Payne, James E. Peng, Shushi Perc, Matjaz Perez-Alvarez, Jose Angel Piquero, Alex R. Ploss, Alexander Postolache, Mihai Pradhan, Biswajeet Prinsep, Michele R. Qian, Dong Qu, Xiaogang Reiter, Russel J. Riahi, Keywan Richter, Andreas Rignot, Eric Robert, Caroline Ros, Emilio Rosell, Rafael

Rosen, Marc A. Rossolini, Gian Maria Saad, Fred Saad, Walid Sadorsky, Perry Sakthivel, Rathinasamy Schwab, Matthias Scolyer, Richard A. Serra-Majem, Lluis Sethi, Gautam Seto, Karen C. Settele, Josef Seymour, John F. Shi, Peng Siano, Pierluigi Sillanpää, Mika Simal-Gandara, Jesus Smagghe, Guy Srivastava, Hari M. Stadler, Peter F. Sun, Fengchun Sunderland, Elsie M. Suzuki, Nobuhiro Svenning, Jens-Christian Tan, Weihong Teixeira, José António Thakur, Vijay Kumar Tong, Shilu Tornabene, Francesco Tsao, Rong Tukker, Arnold Turskis, Zenonas Uversky, Vladimir N. van Wesemael, Bas Van Zwieten, Lukas Vangronsveld, Jaco Varma, Rajender S. Varshney, Rajeev K. Vasquez, Juan C. Velicogna, Isabella Vieta, Eduard Wade, Timothy J. Wagner, Wolfgang Wamba, Samuel Fosso Wang, Chunsheng Wang, Guoxiu Wang, Joseph Wang, Qi Wang, Tao Wang, Yuan Wiens, John J. Wu, Hao Bin Wu, Hui Wu, Tom Wu, Zhongbiao Xia, Xinhui Xiao, Wenjiao Xin, Sen Xiong, Rui Xu, Bin Xu, Zeshui Yan, Huaicheng Yang, Bing Yang, Hongxing Yang, Jie Yang, Xiao-Jun Yin, Shen Ying, Guang-Guo Young, Allan H. Yu, Guihua Zarco-Tejada, Pablo J. Zavadskas, EdmundasKazimieras Zeadally, Sherali Zhang, Fan Zhang, Liangpei Zhang, Qichun Zhang, Xian-Ming Zhang, Yue-Jun Zhao, Guochun Zhao, Li-Dong Zhu, Zhe Zhuang, Xiaodong Zou, Quan

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.

MDPI will be attending 2020 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit, to be held in virtual form from 27 November to 4 December 2020.

This conference is the key forum to present research to an interdisciplinary and international audience. It represents a window to the future of materials science and offers an opportunity for researchers—from students and postdoctoral fellows, to Nobel and Kavli Prize Laureates—to exchange technical information and connect with colleagues.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Materials
• Energies
• Metals
• Gels
• Technologies

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference and our virtual booth, please visit: http://ii070.cn/Qi9MrG

We are delighted to invite you to join the 1st International Electronic Conference on Metallurgy and Metals (IEC2M 2021). I hope you will agree to take part in this conference, which will enable you to share and discuss your most recent research findings with the vibrant worldwide community of scientists and technologists in the field.

IEC2M 2021 will revolutionize dissemination in the field with “MDPI Sciforum” for sharing research in an online environment that will preserve the same standards and structure as expected of traditional conferences but will be more inclusive by breaking the cost and time barriers that prevent participation in international conferences.

IEC2M 2021 will make your presentation accessible to hundreds of researchers worldwide, with the active engagement of the audience in question and answer sessions and discussion groups that will take place online. I hope you will join us in presenting your work and taking part in this thriving online experience.

Submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the conference committee. The authors of accepted contributions will be invited to produce an extended abstract for the conference proceedings along with a slide presentation of their work. Following the conference, outstanding contributions will be invited to be submitted for publication in Metals.

This conference will address a variety of research topics, which reflect some of the current areas of focus. These are organized into 8 sessions, and include:

• Topic A: Hydrometallurgy/Pyrometallurgy;
• Topic B: Powder Metallurgy
• Topic C: Corrosion and Protection
• Topic D: Biobased and Biodegradable Metals
• Topic E: Metal Forming
• Topic F: Additive Manufacturing
• Topic G: Metal Failure
• Topic H: Metal Recycling.

Important Dates

• Abstract Deadline: 7 December 2020
• Abstract Acceptance Notification Deadline: 17 December 2020
• Full Paper Submission Deadline: 7 February 2021
• Conference Date: 22 February-7 March 2021
• Awards Announcement: 22 April 2021

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions.

We look forward to welcoming you at this exciting meeting online.

https://iec2m.sciforum.net/

MDPI will be attending the China Materials Conference and Exhibition 2020, Qingdao, Shandong, China, November 19–21, 2020.

CMC's 19th annual meeting is the premier venue for the presentation in the field of materials sciences, where one can learn from experts, forge collaborations with peers, explore new tools and technologies, and advance their career.

The purpose of the conference is to build an exchange platform for experts, scholars, professors, scientific and technological workers, relevant government management departments and leaders, entrepreneurs, and related personnel, engaged in the scientific research, development, and industrialization of new materials in China to exchange and share the latest materials research achievements, in order to achieve the purpose of mutual promotion and common improvement.

There are many outstanding people in the committee of the meeting, such as Professor Boyun Huang and Academician Lian Zhou of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor Bingbo Wei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc. The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Coatings (leading journal);
• Materials;
• Crystals;
• Energies;
• Molecules;
• Metals;
• Nanomaterials;
• Polymers.
• Actuators
• Sustainability
• Membranes
• Technologies
• Gels
• ASI

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth C13). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: http://cmc2020.medcon.net.cn/cn/web/index/

It is our great pleasure to announce the winners of Metals 2019 Highly Cited Paper Award to recognize the most highly cited paper in the past three years. The prize started in the middle of 2020 and it has been awarded three winners.

There papers have been selected for this award assessed by the Editorial Office of Metals from the papers published in 2017 and 2018. The paper citation data are based on citations in Web of Science in 2019.

1st Prize (with 42 citations)
Corrosion-Resistant High-Entropy Alloys: A Review
Yunzhu Shi, Bin Yang, and Peter K. Liaw
Metals 2017, 7, 42; doi:10.3390/met7020043
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/7/2/43

“The paper ‘Corrosion-Resistant High-Entropy Alloys: A Review’ summarizes the investigation of the corrosion characteristics of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) during the last decade. The corrosion resistance of HEAs in various aqueous environments and the corrosion behavior of HEAs coatings are presented. Furthermore, the possible directions of future work regarding the corrosion study of HEAs are suggested.

It was a very pleasant experience to publish the present work with the cooperation of Metals. Hopefully, more and more influential articles will be published in Metals in the future.”

2nd Prize (with 22 citations)
The Prospects of Zinc as a Structural Material for Biodegradable Implants—A Review Paper
Galit Katarivas Levy, Jeremy Goldman, and Eli Aghion
Metals 2017, 7, 402; doi:10.3390/met7100402
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/7/10/402

“The past several years has seen rapid growth in research and development of zinc-based medical devices due to its biological and biodegradability properties that match the human body. Zn is one of the most abundant essential elements in the human body, playing essential roles in human health. Additionally, zinc overcomes many limitations inherent to iron and magnesium, both pure and alloyed. This paper provides an extensive literature review on the current research progress for zinc and the development of zinc-based alloys. We comprehensively summarized and compared between pure zinc and the currently researched zinc alloys in aspects such as biocompatibility, corrosion behavior and mechanical properties. We highlighted the important role of zinc in the human body, along with the side-effects of zinc deficiency and excess and we broadly discussed the degradation model of zinc in the physiological environment as a result of the corrosion process.

We appreciate being able to work with a high quality professional team at Metals, who rapidly moved us through the review and proof correction process.”

3rd Prize (with 18 citations)
A Review of Metastable Beta Titanium Alloys
Prakash Kolli and Arun Devaraj
Metals 2018, 8, 506; doi:10.3390/met8070506
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/8/7/506

“In this article, we provide a broad and extensive review of beta titanium alloys. Beta titanium alloys are an important class of alloys that have found use in demanding applications such as aircraft structures and engines, and orthopedic and orthodontic implants. The advantages of these alloys include their high strength, good corrosion resistance, excellent biocompatibility, and ease of fabrication compared to other high performance alloys. The ease of fabrication, which is due to their lower beta transus temperature, provides these alloys with an advantage compared to other Ti alloy classes. The authors would like to thank the Metals journal for the excellent experience during the editorial and publication process.”

These three outstanding papers are valuable contributions to Metals. On behalf of the Editorial Board and Editorial Office, we would like to congratulate these three teams for their excellent work. In recognition of their accomplishment, the first prize team will be granted 600 CHF, the second prize team will be granted 400 CHF, and the third prize team will be granted 300 CHF.

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected].

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

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.

***

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: [email protected])

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 149th TMS 2020 on minerals, metals, and materials in San Diego, CA, USA, 23–27 February 2020. An Editorial Board Member meeting of Metals will take place during this event. We warmly welcome you join and share your publishing experience with us.

TMS2020 will present more than 85 symposia planned by all five TMS technical divisions and covering a broad range of topics related to minerals, metals, and materials science and engineering. The event will draw more than 4000 attendees and feature four full days of technical programming.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Metals

Coatings

Materials

Applied Sciences

Nanomaterials

Energies

Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing

Entropy

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #726). 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://www.tms.org/TMS2020.

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.net

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

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2019 MDPI Writing Prize. Entrants were asked to write on the theme "Judging research: How should research and researchers be evaluated and rewarded?" We received a large number of excellent essays from PhD students and postdocs, and the process of shortlisting and choosing winners was not an easy one. The winners demonstrated excellent writing skills alongside interesting and thought-provoking ideas.

As last year, we will begin the process of collating all entries into a book that will be available in open access format. Alongside promoting good writing skills, we see the prize as a way to promote the voices of early career researchers within broader debates and policy discussions.

Congratulations to all of the participants and especially the winners. The winners are:

1st Prize (500 CHF):
Albin Nilsson (National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw, Poland)
[Read here]

2nd Prize (250 CHF):
Qi Zhang (Shandong University, Jinan, China)
[Read here]
Igor Ogashawara (Indiana University, Indianapolis, US)
[Read here]

3rd Prize (100 CHF):
Margaret Sivapragasam (Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Perak, Malaysia)
[Read here]
Arvind Sharma (The University of Queensland, Gatton, Australia)
[Read here]
Jose Flores-Guerrero (University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands)
[Read here]

The MDPI Writing Prize is an annual award supported by MDPI Author Services, which provides services including language editing, reformatting, plagiarism checks, and image editing.

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of a new functionality giving the possibility for researchers and scholars to endorse, and formally recommend articles to their colleagues.

MDPI was an early signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (https://sfdora.org/read/) which calls for improvement in how quality and impact of scholarly research outputs are evaluated, especially in moving beyond journal-based citation metrics (journal Impact Factor, Scopus Citescore, etc.).

MDPI supports the establishment of article-level impact metrics, including citations, views, downloads, and Altmetric scores. These measures serve as an impact indicator for research articles on a case–by-case basis, assessing paper on its own merit. However, these metrics are also subjective and can give a biased picture of the article impact: they do not directly reflect the quality or the intrinsic scientific value of the article.

In our view, community engagement with publications based on community-driven metrics can help to overcome this limitation. We have therefore launched an option for scholars to endorse articles, indicating their own assessment of its content and making a recommendation to their community. This follows our implementation of the open source Hypothesis commenting tool, which has been available for all articles published by MDPI for over a year (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397). Both endorsement and commenting are available for all previously published and forthcoming MDPI articles.

In addition to potentially serving as a sustainable solution to article assessment, endorsements will help scientific communities to identify the most relevant articles, independently of the journal in which it was published.

The code for the endorsing functionality, which relies on DOIs and ORCIDs, will be made available on GitHub with an open source license.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin, President and Founder
Dr. Franck Vazquez, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Martyn Rittman, Publishing Director

Encyclopedia is pleased to announce that certain well-prepared entries are eligible for a 100 CHF voucher, which can be used for paper publication in any journals in MDPI. We believe that your contribution would be a great help in keeping up with scientific developments. Do not miss the chance to publish with us. Please clink here to find the detailed guideline.

Encyclopedia is a free online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as provide a comprehensive record of scientific development. If you have any suggestions or questions, please feel free to contact us via [email protected].

We are pleased to announce that Preprints has passed the milestone of 10,000 posted preprints. We are delighted to have reached this after just over three years of operation. Our congratulations and thanks go to our authors and advisory board who have supported growth of the platform and been crucial to its operation.

You can find further details at https://www.preprints.org/announcement/show/37.

Last week, the DeepGreen initiative in Germany started into an advanced test phase with the publishing partners S. Karger AG, SAGE Publishing, MDPI, Frontiers and De Gruyter, as well as 27 universities from all over Germany, from Hamburg University of Applied Sciences to University of Konstanz.

DeepGreen aims at lowering the barriers for open access publishing by automatically delivering metadata and full text publications from participating publishers to authorized repositories at German universities.

In preparation for a later live operation, the advanced test phase serves to gain experience with extensive data deliveries from publishers and also handling different repository software (including OPUS4, DSpace, EPrints, MyCoRe). DeepGreen thereby acts as a sophisticated platform, receiving articles published by authors affiliated with German universities and depositing these articles to respective university repositories, based on the affiliation metadata. For more information about DeepGreen: https://deepgreen.kobv.de

Karger AG has been a close cooperation partner of the DeepGreen consortium since 2016. S. Karger has more than 80 subscription-based and around 20 open access journals covering a wide spectrum in health science. DeepGreen will assign S. Karger articles to authorized institutions on the legal basis of German alliance and national licenses.

SAGE Publishing  was founded by Sara Miller McCune in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE publishes more than 1,000 journals and over 600 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. Our growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company’s continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. SAGE Publishing has been a close cooperation partner of DeepGreen since 2016.

MDPI  is a scientific open access publisher and has been a partner of DeepGreen since 2017. MDPI comprises 205 peer-reviewed journals of various disciplines. All articles are published under a CC-BY license and are freely available without embargo period.

Frontiers  is a scientific open access publisher with 61 journals of over 600 academic disciplines. All articles are peer-reviewed and published freely available under CC-BY license.

De Gruyter  is an academic publisher with more than 700 subscription-based and open access journals of 29 disciplines. Articles provided by De Gruyter will be assigned to institutions with German alliance and national licenses.

There is promising communication with other publishers.

DeepGreen is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the consortium comprises six institutions: the Cooperative Library Network Berlin-Brandenburg, Bavarian State Library, Bavarian Library Network, University Library of the Technische Universität Berlin, University Library of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Helmholtz Open Science Coordination Office at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences.

If you would like to know in more detail which institutions take part in the advanced test phase of DeepGreen, you can find more information here.

The University of Basel and the MDPI Sustainability Foundation are organizing the First Basel Sustainable Publishing Forum on 9th September 2019.

The aim of this event is to provide background and perspectives on Plan S to Learned Societies, which have to make well-informed decisions to transition their journals to Open Access (OA).

The BSPF will bring together several representatives of Learned societies, Plan S architects as well as representatives from various publishers and publishing platforms. After getting the big picture from cOAlition S, panel discussions will allow to better understand the diverse challenges that Learned societies are facing to transition their journals to OA as well as to identify sustainable, implementable and scalable solutions for successful Open Access transition.

For program details and registration, please follow the link below:
https://sciforum.net/conference/SustainableSolutionsToOpenAccess

We are pleased to inform that Metals received an updated Journal Impact Factor of 2.259 in the recent release of the Journal Citation Reports®. The journal's 5-Year Impact Factor is 2.371. Metals now ranks 18/76 (Q1) in the category 'Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering' and 148/293 (Q3) in the category 'Materials Science, Multidisciplinary.'

Evolution of Impact Factor, Citations and Publications for Metals:

Source: data according to Journal Citation Reports®, 2018 release, a Clarivate Analytics product.

MDPI will be attending the European Congress and Exhibition on Advanced Materials and Processes (EUROMAT 2019) in Stockholm, Sweden on 1–5 September 2019.

EUROMAT is the premier international congress in the field of materials science and technology in Europe. The visions of EUROMAT2019 are to:

• Facilitate a programme where academia, research institutes and industry can meet and exchange ideas and provide information on the latest scientific development in
• Promote involvement of top universities and researchers in materials science including special contribution from large scale facilities like MAXIV in Lund
• Demonstrate efficient knowledge transfer between research and its application through the active involvement of research institutes in Sweden like RISE and Swerea

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Materials
Metals
Catalysts
Nanomaterials
Processes
Polymers
Molecules
JFB
Sustainability
Coatings
Inorganics

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (#BrB1) in Norra Latin - The Marble Vault. 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://euromat2019.fems.eu/.