As a leading open access publisher, MDPI provides scholars with a high-quality and rich academic exchange platform by continuously expanding into new and exciting research areas.

In December 2022, MDPI launched five new journals, covering multiple subjects such as life sciences, biology, medicine and pharmacology, social sciences and humanities. These new journals are being edited by established scholars across the world.

If you are interested in creating more open access journals with us to publish cutting-edge research, please send your journal proposal application to [email protected].

MDPI is pleased to announce that we now display the co-authors’ email addresses in addition to the corresponding author’s email address on the webpage of published papers, protected by Captcha. For more information about this change, please visit the journal’s instructions for authors page. 

We believe this change will facilitate academic discussions and advance our cause of open science and research. The corresponding authors are responsible for communicating with their co-authors and indicating in our system (https://susy.mdpi.com/) if co-authors would prefer for their email addresses not to be displayed.

On 9 February 2023, Clarivate, a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics, added the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science platform, streamlining the research process by allowing researchers to locate and link to preprints alongside other trusted content in the database.

The Preprint Citation Index will act as a bridge to connect cutting-edge preprints with peer-reviewed journal articles published within the Web of Science Core Collection. Alerts can be easily set to monitor new research across several repositories and authors will also be able to include preprints on their Web of Science Research Profile to more accurately display their various research outputs.

As of its launch, the Preprint Citation Index will provide nearly two million preprints from various repositories, including MDPI’s own Preprints.org.

MDPI's Preprints Platform – Preprints.org

To advance Open Science and the fast dissemination of research, MDPI offers researchers a free multidisciplinary preprint platform. Preprints.org accepts submissions from all research areas and offers authors high visibility, permanent archiving, article-level Metrics and immediately citable content by assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all preprints.

During submission to any MDPI journal, authors have the option to share their research as a preprint. After an initial screening, the manuscript is available online in 48 hours or less. Once online, preprints can be downloaded, shared, commented on, and cited, providing authors maximum visibility.

We invite you to join the ranks of the over 100k researchers using Preprints.org and share your research.

For more information, please visit Preprints.org.

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative—the MDPI Special Issue Mentor Program.

This program will enable early career researchers (who must hold a Ph.D. in a related field) to experience editing a Special Issue in MDPI journals, under the mentorship of our experienced Editorial Board Members or other experienced scientists. The mentor program will provide an excellent opportunity for early career scientists to gain editorial experience, and to cultivate their ability to edit scientific research.

The mentee’s responsibilities include:

• Proposing a Special Issue title and assisting the mentor in preparing a summary (around 200–400 words) and 3–10 keywords describing the background, importance, and goal of the Issue;
• Writing a brief promotion plan for the Special Issue;
• Preparing a list of scholars who may be interested in the Issue and personally e-mailing invitations on behalf of Guest Editors;
• Writing an editorial for the online Special Issue together with the mentor.

The mentor’s responsibilities include:

• Conducting a final check before the Special Issue is published online;
• Performing editorial control of the Special Issue and quality control of the publications, both of which must be carried out in a timely manner;
• Providing suggestions to younger scholars if they have any doubts or concerns regarding submissions;
• Organizing video calls with young scholars and the Editorial Office regularly to discuss problems and improvement suggestions for the Special Issue;
• Making and submitting decisions regarding submissions with the assistance of mentees.

Certificates and awards:
After the Special Issue closes, the Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all the mentors and early career researchers.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Editorial Office of a journal you choose, and we will discuss the process (i.e., mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail. The full list of MDPI journals is as follows: https://www.mdpi.com/about/journals.

In addition to the new Special Issue Mentor Program, we will continue to welcome all Special Issue proposals focusing on hot research topics.

MDPI has just become the first open access (OA) publisher to reach the milestone of one million articles published. That is one million articles freely available to all, to circulate and build upon! We are proud to share this special moment with the global scientific community.

This landmark has been reached thanks to the immeasurable support of more than 600,000 expert reviewers, 66,000 editorial board members and 6700 hard-working colleagues across MDPI’s global offices.

Within more than 25 years of publishing, our journals received 2.1 million manuscripts and generated 4.6 million peer review reports to get to one million papers published.

Reaching the milestone of one million articles published reinforces our mission to remove any existing barriers and to make scientific research accessible to all. Since its inception, MDPI’s goal has been to create reliable processes to make science open. This is a path towards facilitating the dissemination of novel insights in scientific communities.

Regular feedback from authors and reviewers shows that our service is greatly appreciated and needed. At the same time, the feedback helps us identify areas for further improvement.

As it stands, a significant share of published research findings remain closed access. More than half of the content published with the most well-known legacy publishers stays behind a paywall, and that is not including articles published in hybrid OA journals, or made available months or years after publication.

A new policy announced by the US administration in August 2022 requires that, as of January 2026, all US federally funded research be made freely and immediately available after publication. While the new policy does not mandate articles be published under an open access license, it is aligned with the open access movement in removing all barriers to research. Similarly, some of the most advanced research institutions in the world intend to have all funded research articles published in open access by 2025.

MDPI is proud to be the leading agent of the transition to open access.

"Thanks a Million" to all the contributors!

We are pleased to announce that the website of the MDPI Sustainability Foundation has been revamped! For the past couple of months, our UX UI team and front-end developers have been working hard to launch the website in time for the opening of the Sustainability Awards nominations.

The website is not the only thing that has had a remodeling. Indeed, the format of the Emerging Sustainability Leader Award (ESLA) has been updated. ESLA is now a competition open to individual researchers or start-ups founded by researchers under the age of 35. Nominee applications will go through 2 rounds of selection until the final 3 are decided. The finalists will then be invited to give pitch presentations during the Award Ceremony to win either first place (10,000 USD) or runner-up (2 x 5000 USD).

The World Sustainability Award, on the other hand, remains the same: a total prize money of 100,000 USD is up for grabs by senior individual researchers or groups of researchers from the international research community.

Nominations for both the World Sustainability Award and the Emerging Sustainability Leader award are now open! Check out our new website for more information on how to nominate.

MDPI will be attending the 2023 INT’L Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS ‘23), held in Warsaw, Poland, from 6 to 9 June 2023. ICUAS ‘23 aims to bring together different groups of qualified representatives worldwide, as well as funding agencies, industry, academia, end-users, and practitioners, to discuss the current state of unmanned aviation and the roadmap to its full utilization in civilian and public domains. The conference is open to scholars and specialists from academia and the engineering profession. During this conference, MDPI will welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest ideas with us.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Drones;
• Applied Sciences;
• Applied Mechanics;
• Aerospace;
• Imaging;
• JSAN;
• Micromachines;
• Smart Cities.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have.

For more information about the conference, please see the following link: http://www.uasconferences.com/2023_icuas/.

1. “2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19): Paving the Road for Rapid Detection and Point-of-Care Diagnostics”
by Trieu Nguyen et al.
Micromachines 2020, 11(3), 306; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11030306
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/3/306

2. “Path Planning Strategies to Optimize Accuracy, Quality, Build Time and Material Use in Additive Manufacturing: A Review”
by Jingchao Jiang et al.
Micromachines 2020, 11(7), 633; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11070633
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/7/633

3. “Development Trends and Perspectives of Future Sensors and MEMS/NEMS”
by Jianxiong Zhu et al.
Micromachines 2020, 11(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11010007
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/1/7

4. “MEMS Mirrors for LiDAR: A review”
by Dingkang Wang et al.
Micromachines 2020, 11(5), 456; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11050456
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/5/456

5. “Graphene-Based Biosensors for Detection of Biomarkers”
by Yunlong Bai et al.
Micromachines 2020, 11(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11010060
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/1/60

6. “Fabrication of [email protected]₂ nanocomposite heterojunction arrays and their photoelectric properties”
by Hui Wu et al.
Micromachines 2020, 11(2), 189; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11020189
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/2/189

7. “Evolution of Biochip Technology: A Review from Lab-on-a-Chip to Organ-on-a-Chip”
by Neda Azizipour et al.
Micromachines 2020, 11(6), 599; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11060599
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/6/599

8. “Materials, Design, and Characteristics of Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonator: A Review”
by Yan Liu et al.
Micromachines 2020, 11(7), 630; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11070630
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/7/630

9. “Fabrication of [email protected]@Ag₃PO₄ Ternary Heterojunction: Superhydrophilic Properties, Antireflection and Photocatalytic Properties”
by Huan Huan et al.
Micromachines 2020, 11(3), 309; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11030309
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/3/309 

A range of MDPI journals will be attending the Asia Communications and Photonics Conference. This meeting will be held in Shenzhen, China, from 5 to 8 November 2022.

The Asia Communications and Photonics Conference (ACP) is one of the largest conferences in the Asia-Pacific region on optical communication, photonics, and relevant technologies, which has been held annually since 2001 and jointly sponsored by OPTICA, SPIE, IEEE Photonics Society, The Chinese Optical Society, and China Institute of Communications. 

ACP 2022 will be held concurrently with the International Conference on Information Photonics and Optical Communications (IPOC). IPOC was founded by the State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2013.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Micromachines (leading journal);
• Photonics;
• Symmetry;
• Optics;
• Fibers;
• J. Imaging.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have.

For more information about the conference, please see the following link: http://www.acp2022.org/.

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!

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

The academic 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.

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

Actuators:

• “Position Control of Pneumatic Actuators Using Three-Mode Discrete-Valued Model Predictive Control”
  by Haitao Qi, Gary M. Bone and Yile Zhang
  Actuators 2019, 8(3), 56; doi: 10.3390/act8030056
• “Review of Electrothermal Actuators and Applications”
  by Alissa Potekhina and Changhai Wang
  Actuators 2019, 8(4), 69; doi: 10.3390/act8040069

Batteries:

• “Pre-Lithiation Strategies for Rechargeable Energy Storage Technologies: Concepts, Promises and Challenges”
  by Florian Holtstiege, Peer Bärmann, Roman Nölle, Martin Winter and Tobias Placke
  Batteries 2018, 4(1), 4; doi: 10.3390/batteries4010004
• “A Critical Review of Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Processes from a Circular Economy Perspective”
  by Omar Velázquez-Martínez, Johanna Valio, Annukka Santasalo-Aarnio, Markus Reuter and Rodrigo Serna-Guerrero
  Batteries 2019, 5(4), 68; doi: 10.3390/batteries5040068
• “Critical Review of the Use of Reference Electrodes in Li-Ion Batteries: A Diagnostic Perspective”
  by Rinaldo Raccichini, Marco Amores and Gareth Hinds
  Batteries 2019, 5(1), 12; doi: 10.3390/batteries5010012
• “Life Cycle Analysis of Lithium-Ion Batteries for Automotive Applications”
  by Qiang Dai, Jarod C. Kelly, Linda Gaines and Michael Wang
  Batteries 2019, 5(2), 48; doi 10.3390/batteries5020048
• “Design Strategies for High Power vs. High Energy Lithium Ion Cells”
  by Michael J. Lain, James Brandon and Emma Kendrick
  Batteries 2019, 5(4), 64; doi: 10.3390/batteries5040064

Chemosensors:

• “Influence of Humidity on NO₂-Sensing and Selectivity of Spray-CVD Grown ZnO Thin Film above 400 °C”
  by Roussin Lontio Fomekong and Bilge Saruhan
  Chemosensors 2019, 7(3), 42; doi: 10.3390/chemosensors7030042
• “Low Molecular Weight Fluorescent Probes (LMFPs) to Detect the Group 12 Metal Triad”
  by Ashley D. Johnson, Rose M. Curtis and Karl J. Wallace
  Chemosensors 2019, 7(2), 22; doi: 10.3390/chemosensors7020022

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering:

• “Marine Application of Fiber Reinforced Composites: A Review”
  by Felice Rubino, Antonio Nisticò, Fausto Tucci and Pierpaolo Carlone
  Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(1), 26; doi: 10.3390/jmse8010026
• “Numerical Simulation of Large Wave Heights from Super Typhoon Nepartak (2016) in the Eastern Waters of Taiwan”
  by Shih-Chun Hsiao, Hongey Chen, Han-Lun Wu, Wei-Bo Chen, Chih-Hsin Chang, Wen-Dar Guo, Yung-Ming Chen and Lee-Yaw Lin
  Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(3), 217; doi: 10.3390/jmse8030217
• “Development of Deterministic Artificial Intelligence for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV)”
  by Timothy Sands
  Mar. Sci. Eng. 2020, 8(8), 578; doi: 10.3390/jmse8080578

Lubricants:

• “Solid Lubrication with MoS₂: A Review”
  by Mohammad R. Vazirisereshk, Ashlie Martini, David A. Strubbe and Mehmet Z. Baykara
  Lubricants 2019, 7(7), 57; doi:10.3390/lubricants7070057
• “Investigations of the Friction Losses of Different Engine Concepts. Part 1: A Combined Approach for Applying Subassembly-Resolved Friction Loss Analysis on a Modern Passenger-Car Diesel Engine”
  by Christoph Knauder, Hannes Allmaier, David E. Sander and Theodor Sams
  Lubricants 2019, 7(5), 39; doi: 10.3390/lubricants7050039
• “A Discussion on Present Theories of Rubber Friction, with Particular Reference to Different Possible Choices of Arbitrary Roughness Cutoff Parameters”
  by Andrea Genovese, Flavio Farroni, Antonio Papangelo and Michele Ciavarella
  Lubricants 2019, 7(10), 85; doi: 10.3390/lubricants7100085

Micromachines:

• “4D Printing of Multi-Hydrogels Using Direct Ink Writing in a Supporting Viscous Liquid”
  by Takuya Uchida and Hiroaki Onoe
  Micromachines 2019, 10(7), 433; doi: 10.3390/mi10070433
• “Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance and Mechanism of [email protected]₃ Composites with Au Nanoparticles Assembled on CaTiO₃ Nanocuboids”
  by Yuxiang Yan, Hua Yang, Zao Yi, Ruishan Li and Xiangxian Wang
  Micromachines 2019, 10(4), 254; doi: 10.3390/mi10040254
• “Three-Dimensionally Structured Flexible Fog Harvesting Surfaces Inspired by Namib Desert Beetles”
  by Jun Kyu Park and Seok Kim
  Micromachines 2019, 10(3), 201; doi: 10.3390/mi10030201

Processes:

• “Accelerating Biologics Manufacturing by Modeling or: Is Approval under the QbD and PAT Approaches Demanded by Authorities Acceptable without a Digital-Twin?”
  by Steffen Zobel-Roos, Axel Schmidt, Fabian Mestmäcker, Mourad Mouellef, Maximilian Huter, Lukas Uhlenbrock, Martin Kornecki, Lara Lohmann, Reinhard Ditz and Jochen Strube
  Processes 2019, 7(2), 94; doi: 10.3390/pr7020094
• “Multiscale Agent-Based and Hybrid Modeling of the Tumor Immune Microenvironment”
  by Kerri-Ann Norton, Chang Gong, Samira Jamalian and Aleksander S. Popel
  Processes 2019, 7(1), 37; doi: 10.3390/pr7010037
• “Dynamic Flowsheet Model Development and Sensitivity Analysis of a Continuous Pharmaceutical Tablet Manufacturing Process Using the Wet Granulation Route”
  by Nirupaplava Metta, Michael Ghijs, Elisabeth Schäfer, Ashish Kumar, Philippe Cappuyns, Ivo Van Assche, Ravendra Singh, Rohit Ramachandran, Thomas De Beer, Marianthi Ierapetritou and Ingmar Nopens
  Processes 2019, 7(4), 234; doi: 10.3390/pr7040234

Sensors:

• “A Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Healthcare Blockchain for IoT”
  by Ashutosh Dhar Dwivedi, Gautam Srivastava, Shalini Dhar and Rajani Singh
  Sensors 2019, 19(2), 326; doi: 10.3390/s19020326
• “The Progress of Glucose Monitoring—A Review of Invasive to Minimally and Non-Invasive Techniques, Devices and Sensors”
  by Wilbert Villena Gonzales, Ahmed Toaha Mobashsher and Amin Abbosh
  Sensors 2019, 19(4), 800; doi: 10.3390/s19040800
• “Contact-Based Methods for Measuring Respiratory Rate”
  by Carlo Massaroni, Andrea Nicolò, Daniela Lo Presti, Massimo Sacchetti, Sergio Silvestri and Emiliano Schena
  Sensors 2019, 19(4), 908; doi: 10.3390/s19040908

World Electric Vehicle Journal:

• “Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer Charging Infrastructure for Future EVs: From Experimental Track to Real Circulated Roads Demonstrations”
  by Stéphane Laporte, Gérard Coquery, Virginie Deniau, Alexandre De Bernardinis and Nicolas Hautière
  World Electr. Veh. J. 2019, 10(4), 84; doi: 10.3390/wevj10040084

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 “Engineering” 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.

Biosensors:

• Amay J. Bandodkar, North Carolina State University, USA.

ChemEngineering:

• Andrew S. Paluch, Miami University, USA.

Chemosensors:

• Mindy Levine, Ariel University, Israel.

Electronics:

• Amir H. Gandomi, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering:

• Tiago Fazeres-Ferradosa, University of Porto, Portugal.

Machines:

• Chen Lv, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore;
• Ignacio Gonzalez-Prieto, University of Malaga (UMA), Spain;
• Ning Sun, Nankai University, China.

Processes:

• Anton Rassõlkin, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia.

Sensors:

• Qammer H. Abbasi, Queen Mary University of London, UK;
• Chi Hwan Lee, Purdue University, USA.

We are proud to recognize the winners of MDPI’s 2021 Travel Awards in the “Engineering” category for their outstanding presentations and to present them with the prize.

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 this year’s Travel Awards and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors. MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.

Actuators:

• Matthew Wei Ming Tan, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Applied Sciences:

• Márcia de Sousa Oliveira, University of León, Spain;
• Caroline Sarah Taylor, University of Sheffield, UK;
• Raquel Viveiros, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal;
• Alfonso González Briones, University of Salamanca, Spain;
• Alen Horvat, University Carlos III Madrid, Spain;
• Marie Švecová, University of Chemistry and Technology, Czech Republic;
• Venanzio Giannella, University of Salerno, Italy;
• Michaël Lobet, University of Namur, Belgium;
• Lam Thi Ngoc Tran, National Research Council, Italy;
• Hanfei Mei, University of South Carolina, USA.

Applied System Innovation:

• Mert Nakip, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.

Biosensors:

• Mengdi Bao, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA;

Yichi Su, Stanford University, USA.

Buildings:

• Karthik Panchabikesan, Concordia University, Canada;
• Xiaolei Yuan, Tongji University, China.

Chemosensors:

• Verónica Montes García, Université de Strasbourg & CNRS, France.

Electronics:

• Peng Hang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore;
• Alfonso González Briones, University of Salamanca, Spain.

Fluids:

• Alberto Zingaro, Politecnico di Milano, Italy;
• Sarah E. Morris, Auburn University, USA.

Infrastructures:

• Angelo Aloisio, University of L’Aquila, Italy;
• André Filipe Castanheira Alves Furtado, University of Porto, Portugal.

Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications:

• Tommaso Zanotti, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing:

• Nagalingam Arun Prasanth, [email protected] Corporate Lab, Singapore.

Machines:

• Muhammad Jamil, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), China;
• Mariagrazia Tristano, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

Processes:

• Michele Schlich, University of Cagliari, Italy;
• Álvaro Santana Mayor, University of La Laguna, Spain.

Sensors:

• Eleonora Macchia, Åbo Akademi University, Finland;
• Alfonso Gonzalez Briones, University of Salamanca, Spain;
• Saúl Vallejos Calzada, University of Burgos, Spain;
• Ana Novo, University of Vigo, Spain;
• Yalin Liu, Macau University of Science and Technology, China;
• Marilena Giglio, Politecnico of Bari, Italy;
• Yuzhi Shi, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.

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 “Engineering” category for their outstanding contributions among extensive competition by presenting them with an Outstanding Reviewer Award.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the winners on their achievement. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Actuators:

• Ryszard Dindorf, Kielce University of Technology, Poland.

Applied Sciences:

• Khaled Giasin, University of Portsmouth, UK;
• Jakub Krzysztof Grabski, University of Technology, Poland;
• Marcos Tostado-Véliz, University of Jaén, Spain;
• Luigi Pugliese, University of Calabria, Italy;
• Francesco Bennardo, University of Catanzaro, Italy;
• Heriberto Perez-Acebo, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain.

Biosensors:

• Amir Hatamie, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Buildings:

• Francesco Fiorito, Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy;
• Paul G. O’Brien, York University, Canada.

Chemosensors:

• Verónica Montes García, University of Strasbourg, France.

Machines:

• Piotr Gierlak, Rzeszow University of Technology, Poland;
• Sebastian A. Nugroho, University of Michigan, USA;
• Viorel Paleu, Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania.

Processes:

• Marcin Dębowski, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland;
• Bartłomiej Zieniuk, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland;
• Zbigniew Nadolny, Poznan University of Technology, Poland;
• Attila Egedy, University of Pannonia, Hungary;
• Seok-Ho Rhi, Chungbuk National University, Korea.

Sensors:

• Hojong Choi, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Korea;
• Li Fu, Hangzhou Dianzi University, China;
• Leonardo De Mello Honorio, Federal University of Juiz De Fora Juiz De Fora, Brazil;
• Mario Versaci, Mediterranea University, Italy;
• Robertas Damasevicius, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania.

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:

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)

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new project in Micromachines—the Special Issue Mentor Program.

This program intends to provide an opportunity for early career scientists to enhance their editing, networking, and organizational skills and to work closely with our journal to gain more editorial experience. Early career scientists who have novel ideas for new Special Issues to be published in Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X) will act as Guest Editors under the mentorship of an experienced scientist; this mentor could be a member of the Micromachines Editorial Board or from other well-established research institutes or laboratories, etc.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Micromachines Editorial Office (micromachin[email protected]), or submit the proposal at the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/micromachines, and we will discuss the process (i.e., mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail. When the Special Issue is closed, our office will provide certificates to all of the mentors and to those who complete the program. Younger scholars will be prioritized as candidates for our journal award.

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:

Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)

We are pleased to announce that Micromachines (ISSN: 2072-666X) is now inviting nominations for the Micromachines 2022 Young Investigator Award. This prize will be given to one young investigator in recognition of his/her excellence in the field of micro/nano-scaled structures, materials, devices, and systems and their applications. All nominations will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee led by the Editor-in-Chief.

Prizes:

• CHF 2000;
• Option to publish one paper free of charge in Micromachines after peer review before the end of 2023;
• An engraved plaque. 

Eligibility and Requirements:

• Must have a Ph.D. degree;
• Must be below 35 years of age by 31 December 2022;
• Must have produced ground-breaking research and a significant contribution to the advancement of the research field;
• Must be nominated by senior scientists. 

List of Documents for Nomination:

• Detailed curriculum vitae, including an updated publication list and a list of the researcher’s own research grants;
• Birth certificate or other proof of age;
• Scanned copy of doctorate certificate;
• Signed nomination letters from two established senior scientists. 

Schedule:

• Open for nominations: 1 March 2022;
• Nomination deadline: 20 September 2022;
• Winner announcement: 31 December 2022. 

How to submit nominations?

Nominations must be submitted online at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/micromachines/awards/1733. Please do not hesitate to contact the Micromachines Editorial Office ([email protected]) with any questions you may have. We look forward to receiving your nominations.

Micromachines Editorial Office

MDPI would like to invite all recognized experts in the field of micromachines to attend the Micromachine Workshop | Current Trends of Inter-Disciplinary Technologies in Biomedical Applications. This series comprises some of the selected current trends of interdisciplinary technologies in biomedical and pre-clinical research. Presented by scientists and clinicians, we will showcase how diverse technology in nanoparticles, material science, biomedical implants, and photonics are presently being applied in preclinical and translational clinical research.

Workshop title: Current Trends of Inter-Disciplinary Technologies in Biomedical Applications
Date: 20/1/2022
Time: 4 p.m. (CST ASIA)
Register in advance for this webinar here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar. 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

Name: Dr. Daniel Teh Boon Loong
Affiliation: Assistant Professor (Research), Department of Biochemistry and Bia-Echo Asia Center for Reproductive Longevity and Equality (ACRLE), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

Daniel Teh, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, National University of Singapore and is affiliated with the Bia-Echo Asia Center for Reproductive Longevity and Equality (ACRLE). He is a 2020 Singapore’s National Medical Research Council Young Investigator Award recipient. The laboratory of Dr. Teh focuses on inter-disciplinary translational research of nanotechnology and material science in biomedical application. Dr. Teh was the first to discover the upconversion optical waveguide property in hydrogel, translating upconversion from a basic science concept to a medical-based implantable device. The technology is now being used as a wireless light delivery implantable device in photodynamic therapy to treat solid tumors in trials. He also devises nanoparticles for applications such as visualization probes in molecular and cellular processes in neurons. Most recently, he led his team to win the Best Teamwork Award in Singapore’s LeanLaunchpad Medtech Category 2020. He works closely with clinicians, biomedical engineers, and scientists.

Workshop Speakers

Name: Dr. Xinyi Su
Affiliation: Senior Principal Investigator, Divisional Director (IMCB, A*STAR), Asst. Professor, Research Director, Department of Ophthalmology (NUS) Consultant, Department of Ophthalmology (NUH) Clinician–Scientist, Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI)

Xinyi Su, MB BChir Ph.D., is an ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon at the National University Hospital of Singapore. She is the Divisional Director at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB, A*STAR) and Research Director of the Department of Ophthalmology (NUS). She runs a broad research program in retinal diseases as Senior Principal Investigator at the Translational Retinal Therapeutics Lab at IMCB and is a Clinician–Scientist at the Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI). Her research in retinal therapeutics has been published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, Advanced Materials, and Nature Communications, among others. She received the Asia Pacific Vitreo-retinal Society LDP Gold Medal Award in 2021, the Eye and Vision Health Distinguished Award in 2021, and the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology SSO Young Ophthalmologist Award for two consecutive years, in 2019 and 2020. Dr. Su has a career total of >SGD 20 million in competitive research grants. She currently leads several translational research programs in developing biomaterials for retinal therapeutics and retinal stem cell regenerative therapy.

Name: Dr. Sanghoon Lee
Affiliation: DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology)

Dr. Sanghoon Lee is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Robotics Engineering, Daegu Geongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST). He received his B.S. degree from the Department of Electronic Material Engineering at Kwangwoon University, Seoul, Korea, in 2009 and received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2013 and 2017, respectively. He was a research fellow at the Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE) from 2017 to 2018. In 2018, he joined DGIST and is a director of the Neuro-Interfaced Robotics Lab. His research interests include neural interface-based neuroprosthetics and bioelectronic medicine, as well as neural devices and peripheral neuromodulation.

Name: Prof. Sze Y. Set
Affiliation: Associate Professor, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, Japan; Visiting Associate, Cambridge Graphene Centre, Engineering Department, Cambridge University, UK; Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge University, UK

Prof. Sze Y. Set received a B.Eng. (first-class honors) and a Ph.D. from the University of Southampton, UK. He was awarded the JSPS postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1998. He joined a startup in Atlanta, Georgia, US, as a senior R&D engineer in 2000, and in 2005, he was appointed the CEO and CTO of a University of Tokyo startup to commercialize university technologies. In 2016, he was appointed as an associate professor at RCAST, the University of Tokyo.

Prof. Set’s research focuses on carbon nanotube photonics, ultrashort pulsed fiber lasers, ultrafast nonlinear optics, bio-photonics, optical communication, fiber optic sensing, and laser 3D imaging. He also teaches courses in university entrepreneurship. He was the first to demonstrate the use of a carbon-nanotube for laser mode-locking in 2003, and has contributed to 10 patents and over 200 academic publications in international journals and conferences. Prof. Set is a fellow of the OPTICA (Formerly OSA), the Deputy Committee Member of the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP), and an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics. Prof. Set was elected as a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University in October 2022. He is currently affiliated to the Cambridge Graphene Centre, a world-leading center of excellence for research in graphene and related materials technologies.

This Micromachines workshop will bring together a group of multi-disciplinary researchers from all over the world to present and exchange breakthrough ideas on biomedical applications. We are pleased to provide this excellent opportunity to all brilliant researchers.

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

Shun Li
MDPI Conference Secretariat

It is our great honor to congratulate the Editorial Board Members and Editors in MDPI's journals who have been distinguished as 2021 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate, according to Web of Science data. We herewith express our gratitude for the immense impact the named researchers continue to make on scientific progress and on our journals' development.

Clarivate's annual list of Highly Cited Researchers^TM identifies the most highly cited scientists for the past decade. Their impactful papers are among the top 1 per cent in the citation distribution of one or more of 22 fields analyzed in the "Essential Science Indicators", distinguishing them as hugely influential among their peers.

The full list of 2021 Highly Cited Researchers  can be accessed at the following webpage in the Web of Science^TM https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2021/.

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

Academic editors play a crucial role in leading our journals and ensuring that each article undergoes a robust and timely peer-review. With the launch of Topics this year and addition of Topic Editors to our family of academic editors, we decided it would be a good time to restructure our academic boards, thus providing more clarity and support for each role. MDPI is pleased to announce the launch of a new position—Topical Advisory Panel Member, that will replace the previous position of Topics Board Member. The Topical Advisory Panel will be comprised of early career researchers eager to gain experience in editorial work.

The main responsibility of the new members of the Topical Advisory Panel is to regularly provide support to Guest Editors, Topic Editors, and Section Board Members. The responsibilities of the Topical Advisory Panel are available here: https://www.mdpi.com/editors.

Each year, the members’ performances are evaluated, and outstanding members are promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief.

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must:

• Have expertise and experience in the field related to the journal;
• Have received a Ph.D. in the last 10 years, approximately;
• Have at least 6-8 published papers in the last 5 years as first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or a government institute.

If you are interested in this role, please contact the editorial office by email.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• 29 October 2021
  Processes journal and Beijing Institute of Technology

• 29 October 2021
  Coatings journal and Wuhan University of Technology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For more information, please contact:
Dr. Liliane Auwerter
Scientific Officer
[email protected]

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 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

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2021

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

We will be attending the 23rd Semiconductor Physics Conference (SPC 2021), which is to be held in Xi'an, China, on 8–11 July 2021. The topics of SPC 2021 include semiconductor quantum computing, semiconductor spin physics, semiconductor surface physics, quantum information, wide-bandgap semiconductor physics, etc. The purpose is to support and lead the development of multidisciplinary information, energy, life and materials. The following open access journals will be represented:

Micromachines;
Electronics;
Applied Sciences;
Nanomaterials;
Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications;
Technologies;
Condensed Matter;
Photonics;
Energies.

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth #27. Our delegates are looking forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have.

For more information about the conference, please visit https://www.spcmeeting2021.org/.

We are pleased to announce that seven new scholars were recently appointed as Editorial Board Members for the journal Micromachines:

Dr. Francesca Bragheri (Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie (IFN)-CNR, Italy)
Prof. Dr. Laurent A. Francis (Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium)
Prof. Dr. Attila Gáspár (University of Debrecen, Hungary)
Dr. Hae-Jin Kim (Gyeongsang National University, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea)
Dr. Jin-yuan Qian (Zhejiang University, China)
Dr. Ali Soltani (University of Lille, France)
Prof. Dr. Chaoyong Yang (Xiamen University, China)

We wish them every success in both their research and development of the journal.
Further details about the Editorial Board can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/micromachines/editors.

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)

Peer review is an essential part of the publication process, ensuring that Micromachines maintains high quality standards for its published papers. As such, the Micromachines Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy given by reviewers in checking manuscripts submitted to the journal. 

The following reviewers have been selected to receive the “Micromachines 2020 Outstanding Reviewer Award” based on the quantity, timelines, and quality of their reviews in Micromachines. 

	Prof. Dr. Khashayar Khoshmanesh Affiliation: School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia Research Interests: microfluidics; lab-on-a-chip; organ-on-a-chip; mechano-biology; soft matter
	Dr. Nathan Lazarus Affiliation: US Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, USA Research Interests: 3D printing; stretchable electronics; self-folding origami
	Prof. Dr. Ion Stiharu Affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, Quebec, Canada Research Interests: microsystems; sensing (inertial, flow, load, strain); design of MEMS; data processing; modeling of coupled micro and macro systems; packaging of microsensors; MEMS for turbulence control; microfabrication; non-conventional microfabrication; rapid prototyping; migration from auto to aero; reliability of MEMS; failure models; test methodologies
	Dr. Yi Zhang Affiliation: School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Research Interests: micro/nanomedicine; microfluidics; diagnostics; bio-sensing; nanomaterials

 We sincerely congratulate the winners and acknowledge their support of Micromachines. We wish them the best in their future research and careers. 

For more information about Micromachines awards, please visit mdpi.com/journal/micromachines/awards.

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)

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself to the readers?

My name is Junsuk Rho, I am currently a Mu-Eun-Jae endowed chair Associate Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), South Korea.

2. What does your current research involve, and why did you choose this research field?

My research is focused on developing novel nanophotonic materials and devices based on fundamental physics and experimental studies of deep sub-wavelength light-matter interactions. Specifically, I am working on metamaterials, plasmonics, photonic crystals, topological photonics. Recently, the wavelength regime has expanded to longer wavelengths, such as acoustic and elastic frequencies. I saw the news that an invisibility cloak may be creating through the application of metamaterials. This is the reason why I want to study this for my Ph.D. Such metamaterials will be able to realize invisibility cloaks, super-resolution imaging, acoustic black holes, hologram displays and so on.

3. Which research topics do you think will be of particular interest to the research community in the coming years?

Quantum optics, flexible opto-electronics, photonic chips for diagnostics, and single-digit-nanometer fabrication to overcome the current semiconductor industry problems.

4. Have you ever encountered any difficulties when conducting research? If so, how did you overcome them?

Everyday... this is related to question number five. Have patience, persevere with the research until you make a breakthrough, try not to become depressed and frustrated with your research if things do not go as planned first time around.

5. What qualities do you think young scientists need?

Patience, a positive mind for failure (e.g., individuals who do not let the failure of experiments depress or frustrate them, but instead try the same thing the next day!), and people who keep up to date with the current scientific trends.

6. Micromachines is an Open Access journal. How do you think Open Access impacts the authors? 

Open access journals allow more readers to read the papers, which is extremely helpful in sharing the result with different communities. However, with the limited funding (especially for junior researchers), it can sometimes become a burden. So, support for junior researchers is necessary. In terms of this, MDPI does a very good job in providing financial support and waiving fees for junior researchers.

Prof. Dr. Wei Gao, Editorial Board Member of Micromachines, has recently been recognized as a Clarivate Analytics 2020 Highly Cited Researcher. This corresponds to the top 1% of the most-cited researchers for that publication year.

Prof. Wei Gao received his B.S. degree from Huazhong University of Science & Technology in 2007, M.S. degree from Tsinghua University in 2009, and Ph.D. degree from University of California San Diego in 2014. He has been an Assistant Professor of Medical Engineering at Caltech since 2017.

Professor Gao’s primary research interest is the development of novel bioelectronic devices for personalized and precision medicine: wearable and flexible biosensors that can analyze various biomarkers in body fluids for real-time continuous health monitoring and early diagnosis, and synthetic micro/nanomachines for rapid drug delivery and precision surgery. His study include fundamental materials innovation as well as practical device and system-level applications in translational medicine.

Prof. Dr. Jingshan Luo, Editorial Board Member of Micromachines, has recently been recognized as a Clarivate Analytics 2020 Highly Cited Researcher. This corresponds to the top 1% of the most cited researchers for that publication year.

Prof. Jingshan Luo is a Full Professor and Vice Director of the Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology at Nankai University. He received his B.S. degree from Jilin University in 2010 and his Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University in 2014. He went to École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland for postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Michael Grätzel, where he led the solar fuel subgroup. In 2018, he joined Nankai University.

Professor Luo has authored/co-authored 1 book chapter and more than 80 peer-reviewed publications in Science, Nature Energy, Nature Catalysis, and other journals in the field, which have garnered more than 12,000 literature citations and an h-index of 50 (Google Scholar). He is listed as one of 35 Innovators under 35 years old in China by the MIT Technology Review and 2018 and 2019 Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate Analytics. He is a recipient of the Marie Curie Fellowship, the Clariant Cleantech Award (First Prize), the E-MRS Young Scientist Award, and the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad.

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

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

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

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

The Coalition is committed to:

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

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

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

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

1) Information is displayed in the left information bar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are pleased to announce Dr. Junsuk Rho to be the winner of the Micromachines 2020 Young Investigator Award. The final decision was extremely difficult to make given the extraordinary number of high-quality nominations that were received. We would like to thank all the nominees from various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee members for their efforts in evaluating the many nominations.

After receiving his Ph.D. (2013) in Mechanical Engineering and Nanoscale Science & Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, Junsuk Rho worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Ugo Fano Fellow in the Nanoscience and Technology Division at Argonne National Laboratory. His research is focused on developing novel nanophotonic materials and devices based on fundamental physics and experimental studies of deep sub-wavelength light–matter interaction. Dr. Rho has published approximately 150 high-impact peer-reviewed journal papers and has also presented keynote and invited talks more than 250 times at world-leading institutes and international conferences/workshops. He also has 4 US patents and 26 Korean patents.

We congratulate the winner, Dr. Junsuk Rho, on his accomplishments. We wish him further success in his career.

For more information about Micromachines awards, please visit mdpi.com/journal/micromachines/awards.

We are pleased to announce that the following Editorial Board Members have been appointed as Section Associate Editors of Micromachines:

A: Physics

B: Biology and Biomedicine

C: Chemistry

D: Materials and Processing

E: Engineering and Technology

We are confident that their strong academic background will help in continuing to raise the prestige and quality of Micromachines while maintaining the efficiency of manuscript processing that Micromachines authors have come to expect. We look forward to their contributions to the journal. For more information about Editorial Board, please visit https://www.mdpi.com/journal/micromachines/editors.

Professor Dr. Jizhou Song, Editorial Board Member of Micromachines, has recently been recognized as a Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in 2019. This corresponds to being in the top 1% of the most cited researchers for that publication year.

Prof. Jizhou Song is from Department of Engineering Mechanics at Zhejiang University, China. He received his B.S. and M.E. degrees from University of Science and Technology of China in 2001 and 2004, and Ph.D. degree from University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign, in 2007. He served as Assistant Professor at University of Miami before joining Zhejiang University in 2013. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed journal papers and received numerous awards, including the Provost Award from University of Miami (2009, 2010, 2012), the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities (2010), the Outstanding Young Scholar Award from Qiu Shi Science and Technologies Foundation (2014), and the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (2016). Prof. Song was recently recognized as one of the Highly Cited Researchers in 2019 by the Web of Science. His current research interests include mechanics of stretchable electronics, mechanics of transfer printing, and thermomechanical behavior of materials.

MDPI will be attending the 4th Micro-Nano Optics Technology and Application Exchange Conference (MOTA2020), Chengdu, September 26–28, 2020.

MOTA2020 is organized by the Chinese Society for Optical Engineering, which combines the national defense and industrial applications to build a large platform for the industrial chain. The aim is to build a seamless docking platform for scientific and technical personnel engaged in related research in China and industrial application teams to form a joint force to promote the rapid technological development of micro-nano optics itself and its industrial development.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Energies (leading journal)
• Photonics
• Nanomaterials
• Coatings
• Sensors
• Clean Technologies
• Safety
• Micromachines

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth "Journal Energies"). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://b2b.csoe.org.cn/meeting/MOTA2020.html.

To acknowledge all those who have generously dedicated their time and effort to review manuscripts submitted to Micromachines in 2020, on behalf of the Editors-in-Chief, we are launching the Micromachines 2020 Outstanding Reviewer Awards. We have created this awards to recognize those who have exhibited dedication, professionalism, and timeliness when reviewing manuscripts. Anonymous peer reviewing helps ensure the quality and integrity of scholarly communication. The Micromachines Editorial Office is extremely grateful to reviewers for the time and energy that they dedicate to peer reviews.

What are the eligibility requirements for the “Micromachines 2020 Outstanding Reviewer Awards”?

All reviewers of Micromachines in 2020 will be considered automatically.

What are the evaluation standards?

The number of manuscript reviews, timeliness, quality of their reviews, and Publons record will be taken into consideration.

What will the winners receive?

There will be four awardees, and each will receive:

–A certificate;

–500 CHF (Swiss Francs).

When will the winners be announced?

The winners will be announced on the journal website at the end of March 2021.

How do you ensure you have a chance to win in the future?

For those of you who are experts in micromachines or a related field, and have not yet reviewed papers for Micromachines but would like to, you can easily register as a reviewer at https://susy.mdpi.com/volunteer/profile/edit.

We are pleased to announce that the Micromachines 2021—1st International Conference on Micromachines and Applications (ICMA-2021), chaired by Prof. Dr. Ion Stiharu, will be held at Sciforum (https://sciforum.net/conference/Micromachines2021) from 15 to 30 April, 2021.

These are some of the topics that we expect to cover:

1) Micromachines for scientific research
2) Microfluidic micromachines
3) Micromachines for bio-medical applications
4) Micromachines for bio-chemical applications
5) Micromachines for green energy
6) Micromachines for a clean environment
7) Micromachines for bio-sensing
8) Micromachines and wearable
9) General

The conference will be completely free of charge, both to attend and for scholars to upload and present their latest work on the conference platform. Accepted papers will be gathered in the proceedings of the conference. Selected extended versions of the papers will be published in the journal Micromachines with a discount of 20% on the article processing charge (ISSN 2072-666X; Impact Factor: 2.523, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/micromachines).

Important Dates

• Abstract Submission Deadline: 14 March, 2021
• Notification of Acceptance: 17 March, 2021
• Submission of Full Conference Presentation: 7 April, 2021
• Conference Date: 15–30 April, 2021

For more information on ICMA 2021, please visit the conference website (https://sciforum.net/conference/Micromachines2021) or contact us by email ([email protected]).

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].

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

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

First Impact Factors

Updated Impact Factors