Announcements

We are pleased to announce the results of the first MDPI Writing Prize. We received a large number of entries from across the globe on the theme of “The Global Benefits of Open Research”. It was a pleasure to read so many original, well-researched and well-presented ideas, and the final choice was not an easy one. We are pleased to announce that the winners are as follows:

1st prize (500 CHF, Swiss knife and certificate)

Edmond Sanganyado, Shantou University, China

2nd prizes (250 CHF, Swiss knife and certificate)

Kamala T. Rajahgopal, Asia e University, Malaysia
Yin Zhixuan, Qingdao University of Technology, China

3rd prizes (100 CHF, Swiss knife and certificate)

Alexandra Ticea, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Romania
Ankur Sarker, University of Virginia, USA
Daniel Attoye, United Arab Emirates University, UAE

Congratulations to all of them! The winning entries can be downloaded by clicking on the names above. A compilation of all entries will soon be available as an open access book.

The writing prize is sponsored by the MDPI English editing service.

At MDPI, we always want to keep you up to date. Even for already published articles, some corrections or minor changes may occur. To prevent you from missing any updates, from now on you will be able to access the latest version of any manuscript by clicking on the “check for updates” logo that you can find in the PDF file, even if you have saved the file on your computer.

We will be attending the RFG 2018, to be held in Vancouver Convention Center, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 16–21 June 2018. It is the first international conference dedicated to the availability of resources needed to sustain future generations. The conference will examine the critical natural resources that have led to the development of the human race over the last 10,000 years, and remain fundamental to our existence—energy, minerals and water. This is a unique opportunity to participate in a conference with implications for a sustainable future. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Resources
Water
Energies
Minerals
Sustainability
Environments

We will be attending the JpGU Meeting 2018. JpGU is an academic union that encompasses all the Earth and Planetary Sciences disciplines and related fields, organizing annual meetings since 2005. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Geosciences
Water
Atmosphere
Minerals
Climate
Environments
Education Sciences
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #Pub13–14). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: http://www.jpgu.org/meeting_e2018/.

We are proud to announce that MDPI is now a member of UKSG, the UK´s largest scholarly communications community. Through UKSG, different stakeholders share their knowledge and experience in order to improve the knowledge and information environment for researchers. UKSG´s members include universities, publishers, content providers, intermediaries, and other similar organisations. Members participate in discussions and events on issues around scholarly communications.

The UKSG Annual Conference and Exhibition is a flagship initiative from the UKSG and one of the most stimulating events in the scholarly communications calendar. It is held annually and attracts a large number of delegates. More information is available at https://www.uksg.org/events/annualconference

MDPI is delighted to be a part of this active community and we look forward to making our own contribution. We will continue to support organisations and initiatives that boost collaboration and vision within scholarly communication.

More information about UKSG can be found at https://www.uksg.org/. The full membership list is available at: https://www.uksg.org/members.

The DORA initiative addresses the need for advanced approaches in the evaluation and measurement of the quality of scientific research outputs. It is a worldwide initiative covering all scholarly disciplines. MDPI proudly joins a list of more than 400 organizations around the world which support DORA’s recommendations for improving the way the quality of research results is evaluated.

More info can be found at http://www.ascb.org/dora/

We will be attending the General Assembly 2018 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) (https://egu2018.eu/home.html). The EGU General Assembly 2018 will bring together geoscientists from all over the world to one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary and space sciences. It aims to provide a forum where scientists, especially early career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Remote Sensing
Geosciences
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Water
Animals
Atmosphere
Climate
Environments
Forests
Hydrology
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Land
Minerals
Resources
Quaternary
Sensors

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #36). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://egu2018.eu/home.html.

The competition is still open until end of March! Please check out the banner for more details: https://mdpi-res.com/data/english-prize.pdf

We are delighted to announce that UCL Press has adopted MDPI's Journal Article & Management System, JAMS, including production services. JAMS is a modular, integrated editorial platform for academic publishers. It offers flexibility, ease-of-use, and is a fully integrated solution for the end-to-end management of scholarly journals. JAMS is based on the software used to publish MDPI’s portfolio of journals. 

Ian Caswell, UCL Press Journals Manager, says he is "excited to see UCL Press and MDPI partner together to implement the JAMS submission system for all UCL Press journals. The system offered a flexible, efficient and straightforward solution for our processes from author submission to ready for publication. I am grateful for the valuable experience and support MDPI have offered and look forward to developing our programme with an effective submission system in place.” Dr Martyn Rittman, MDPI’s Publishing Services Manager, adds, “We are proud to support one of the UK’s premier university presses in their publishing operation. This is an excellent way for us at MDPI to share our experience and knowledge, and benefit the research community beyond our own journals.”

JAMS combines services that are kept separate for many publishers. The entire editorial process, production and invoicing (e.g. for open access article processing charges) are fully integrated into a single platform. This allows for efficient, fast manuscript processing. For further information about JAMS, see https://www.mdpi.com/publishing_services. 

We will be attending the 147th TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition, which will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, USA, March 11–15, 2018, representing the following open access journals:

Metals
Materials
Coatings
Applied Sciences
Energies
Minerals
Fibers
JFB

Please come along to our booth (#322) to talk with our delegates about online publishing and our journals. We look forward to meeting you in person in Phoenix!

For more information on the conference, please visit:
http://www.tms.org/tms2018