Announcements

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Michael S. Zhdanov has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the newly established Section “Mineral Exploration Methods and Applications” in Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X).

Prof. Dr. Michael S. Zhdanov is a Distinguished Professor of Geology and Geophysics at the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah, USA. Since joining the University of Utah as a Full Professor in 1993, he has also been appointed the director of the Consortium for Electromagnetic Modeling and Inversion (CEMI). The CEMI consortium has been supported for almost three decades by major national and international oil, gas, and mining corporations, geophysical exploration companies and research centers, and agencies from around the globe. Prof. Dr. Zhdanov's research primarily focuses on the geophysical inverse theory and its application to exploration geophysics. He developed a fundamentally new technique of regularized focusing inversion and imaging of deep geological structures with sharp geometrical boundaries, which are the main targets in mineral exploration. Prof. Dr. Zhdanov also introduced a new approach to the joint inversion of multiphysics data based on Gramian spaces of rock physics parameters and joint minimum entropy principles. The regularized inversion methods developed by Prof. Dr. Zhdanov are widely used in geophysical applications and many other fields that require inversion of the observed data, e.g., in medical imaging, nondestructive testing, electrical engineering, meteorology, and radiophysics. The pioneering work of Prof. Dr. Zhdanov on the 3D inversion of large-scale geophysical survey data, using a moving sensitivity domain, resulted in a paradigm change in the interpretation of the airborne surveys by rigorously producing 3D images of the subsurface geology. He has published almost 20 books and over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers in leading international journals.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Michael S. Zhdanov, who shared his vision for the Section with us, as well as his views of the research area:

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

Minerals have become a widely cited journal over the recent years thanks to the excellent work of its editorial staff and the high professional level of the Editorial Board. The scientific appeal of the journal covers the topics much broader than one could expect based on the short name “Minerals”. I anticipate that having a special section dedicated to mineral exploration methods would attract more researchers and make their results freely available to a wide international audience, especially to many young researchers.

2. What is your vision for the Section?

The Section aims to attract papers related to all aspects of exploration for mineral resources, including geological, geophysical, geochemical methods, and satellite imagery. In addition, we want to invite contributions focusing on a novel mineral exploration methodology or presenting the case studies where the established or innovative techniques were successfully used. Finally, the Section may become a forum for discussing the current state of the art and recent advances in mineral exploration.

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

The development of effective methods for mineral exploration and their practical application represents a very active and rapidly changing research field. I believe that the joint inversion and integrated interpretation of multiphysics data will play an important role in this development in the future. Our Section will welcome publications on these topics, as well as on improvements in existing methods and examples of their successful applications for mineral discoveries.

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

Open Access publications make new research results freely available online to limitless numbers of readers, thus creating an invaluable tool of modern research. Unfortunately, there are still many difficulties for the researchers, especially from developing countries, to access the publications in the major academic journals. The development of Open Access in the publishing field helps to remove these difficulties and to bring the international research community together for the common benefit. As a result, Open Access will accelerate academic and applied research progress in the world.

We are pleased to highlight several papers from academicians that have been published in Minerals (ISSN: 2075-163X) over the last two years. We invite you to read these papers, listed below.

“Molecular Modeling of Ammonia Gas Adsorption onto the Kaolinite Surface with DFT Study”
Yaolin Shi (石耀霖)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/1/46

“Distribution Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Uranium Isotopes in Saline Lake Waters in the Northeast of Qaidam Basin”
R. Lawrence Edwards (艾思本)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/1/74

“Effective Treatment of Acid Mine Drainage with Microbial Fuel Cells: An Emphasis on Typical Energy Substrates”
Liyuan Chai (柴立元)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/5/443

“Thermodynamic Constraints on REE Mineral Paragenesis in the Bayan Obo REE-Nb-Fe Deposit, China”
Lin Ding (丁林)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/6/495

“Imaging Karatungk Cu-Ni Mine in Xinjiang, Western China with a Passive Seismic Array”
Wenjiao Xiao (肖文交)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/7/601

“Oxidation State of the Lithospheric Mantle Beneath Komsomolskaya–Magnitnaya Kimberlite Pipe, Upper Muna Field, Siberian Craton”
Yi-Gang Xu (徐义刚)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/9/740

“Analysis and Prediction of the Thiourea Gold Leaching Process Using Grey Relational Analysis and Artificial Neural Networks”
Tao Jiang (姜涛)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/9/811

“Iron Isotopes Constrain the Metal Sources of Skarn Deposits: A Case Study from the Han-Xing Fe Deposit, China”
Hongfu Zhang (张宏福)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/11/951

“Thermo-Structural Evolution of the Val Malenco (Italy) Peridotite: A Petrological, Geochemical and Microstructural Study”
Zhenmin Jin (金振民)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/11/962

“Identification and Origin of Jurassic (~182 Ma) Zircon Grains from Chromitite within the Peridotite of the Jijal Complex, Kohistan Arc in North Pakistan”
Lin Ding (丁林)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/12/1085

“Selective Flotation of Elemental Sulfur from Pressure Acid Leaching Residue of Zinc Sulfide”
Tao Jiang (姜涛)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/11/1/89

“Iron and Carbon Isotope Constraints on the Formation Pathway of Iron-Rich Carbonates within the Dagushan Iron Formation, North China Craton”
Mingguo Zhai (翟明国)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/11/1/94

“Metallogenic Characteristics and Formation Mechanism of Naomugeng Clay-Type Lithium Deposit in Central Inner Mongolia, China”
Wencai Yang (杨文采)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/11/3/238

“Elimination of Ferric Ion Effect on Separation between Kyanite and Quartz Using Citric Acid as Regulator”
Chuanyao Sun (孙传尧)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/11/6/599

“Assessing the Risk of Total and Available Potentially Toxic Elements in Agricultural Soil in Typical Mining Areas in Xiangjiang River Basin, Hunan Province”
Wenqing Liu (刘文清)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/11/9/953

“Detrital Zircon Provenance of the Cenozoic Sequence, Kotli, Northwestern Himalaya, Pakistan; Implications for India–Asia Collision”
Lin Ding (丁林)
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/11/12/1399

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Yannicke Dauphin has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Biomineralization and Biominerals” in Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X), as of November 2021.

Dr. Yannicke Dauphin received her Ph.D. degree in palaeontology in 1973, and her “Habilitation Thesis” in 1983, both from University Paris XI (France). She was an assistant professor at the University Pierre & Marie Curie (now Sorbonne University), with teaching duties in palaeontology and computer sciences for students in geology. She was PI in several French and international programs dealing with the understanding of biominerals, and is now an honorary researcher at the Museum national d’histoire naturelle de Paris.

As fossils are widely used to reconstruct palaeoenvironments, she studied the microstructure of mollusc shells, and then extended her interest to corals, bones and teeth. Skeletons and shells are not pure minerals; they comprise an organic matrix and are easily modified in fossils. Palaeoenvironmental reconstructions are often based on the geochemical data of these biominerals, and the quality of the fossil record is important. It is necessary to improve our understanding of the origins of alterations in fossils. Comparisons of modern and fossil structures were carried out using optical microscopes, SEM and AFM, and their composition was analyzed using in situ methods (EPMA, FTIR, Raman, SIMS, ToF SIMS, Synchrotron X-ray fluorescence, XANES). The extracted organic components were analyzed using HPLC, electrophoreses, FTIR, Raman, and XANES. Experimental diagenesis was also performed to try to unravel the main involved factors, with implications for our knowledge of climate changes by providing primary data on the structural and compositional biases in fossil biominerals.

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Yannicke Dauphin, who shared her vision for the journal with us, as well as her views of the research area and open access publishing:

An increasing number of editors are complaining about the “lack” of reviewers. Usually, competent people exist, but for diverse reasons, they do not want to review manuscripts. I believe I can help to find experienced reviewers in the field of biominerals.

Biominerals were not a hot topic in the first issues of the journal. Now it is a section. This evolution shows that the journal is not static. There is no specific journal fully dedicated to biominerals, so Minerals is important because it is not focused on a small topic. Modern and fossil biominerals are studied for a better understanding of biological evolution, the paleoenvironnment, etc.

The future is good, because of the large practical implications of the study of biomineralization: medicine, environment, aquaculture, industry, agriculture, etc. are of concern.

Open access is good and bad. Good because it allows everybody to read the articles for free. Bad because the fees are very expensive for small institutions, so these institutions are not able to publish in open journals. Big labs, and labs where some money must be used for publication are in a better position.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• 29 October 2021
  Processes journal and Beijing Institute of Technology

• 29 October 2021
  Coatings journal and Wuhan University of Technology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new Topical Section, “Clays and Engineered Mineral Materials”, to provide a specific venue for this field of research in Minerals (ISSN: 1996-1944). The section is led by Dr. Andrey G. Kalinichev (1. Université de Nantes, Nantes, France; 2. National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia) and covered topics include, but are not limited to:

• Various aspects related to the mineralogy, geochemistry, and genesis of natural clay materials and other associated industrial minerals;
• Experimental and theoretical research on the structure, properties, and applications of broadly described natural and engineered layered and nanoporous minerals, including clays, layered double hydroxides (LDHs), zeolites, cementitious phases, and other related mineral materials;
• Detailed characterization using various diffraction, scattering, and spectroscopic techniques (X-ray, neutron, NMR, IR, Raman, AFM, etc.), and multiscale computational modeling of clay properties;
• Diverse applications of clays and clay minerals in geological and technological settings, such as mineral weathering, geological disposal of chemical and radioactive wastes, geological carbon sequestration, exploration of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources, catalysis, construction, healthcare products, etc.

We are now recruiting submissions for this Section (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/minerals/sections/Clays_Engineered_Mineral_Materials). You can submit your work directly via the following link: https://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload?journal=minerals. Submissions before 31 October 2021 may enjoy a CHF 200 discount on the article processing charge. Alternatively, if you are an active researcher in one of the aforementioned fields and are interested in joining the Editorial Board, please do not hesitate to get in touch (minerals@mdpi.com).

Please feel free to contact us with any questions. We look forward to collaborating with you.

Minerals Editorial Office

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