We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Yi Tang has been appointed Associate Editor of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049).

Name: Prof. Dr. Yi Tang
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Interests: zeolite catalysis and nanomaterials for energy conversion and fine chemicals production

Prof. Dr. Yi Tang received his B.S. in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1990 at the Fudan University under the supervision of Prof. Zi Gao. He then became a Lecturer (1990), Associate Professor (1993), and eventually Full Professor (1997) at the Department of Chemistry at Fudan University and chaired the Department of Chemistry at Fudan University from 2006 to 2015. He has carried out research in the fields of zeolite, mesoporous material, superacid, layered phosphate, metal non-oxide, and so on for applications in catalysis, electrocatalysis, biomaterials, and others. His main research interests in recent years have been the synthesis and application of zeolitic materials and nanomaterials on catalytic and electrocatalytic conversion of petroleum, biomass, plastics, and hydrogen generation from water splitting, etc.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Yi Tang to the Editorial Board of Molecules. We wish him every success in his new position and look forward to his contributions to the journal.

1. “Potential Therapeutic Anti-Inflammatory and Immunomodulatory Effects of Dihydroflavones, Flavones, and Flavonols”
Cristina Zaragozá et al.
Molecules 2020, 25(4), 1017; 10.3390/molecules25041017
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/4/1017 

2. “Recent Developments in Chitosan-Based Adsorbents for the Removal of Pollutants from Aqueous Environments”
Daniele C. da Silva Alves et al.
Molecules 2021, 26(3), 594; 10.3390/molecules26030594
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/3/594

3. “Green Silver and Gold Nanoparticles: Biological Synthesis Approaches and Potentials for Biomedical Applications”
Andrea Rónavári et al.
Molecules 2021, 26(4), 844; 10.3390/molecules26040844
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/4/844

4. “3-(6-Phenylimidazo [2,1-b][1,3,4]thiadiazol-2-yl)-1H-Indole Derivatives as New Anticancer Agents in the Treatment of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma”
Stella Cascioferro et al.
Molecules 2020, 25(2), 329; 10.3390/molecules25020329
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/2/329

5. “Highly Bioavailable Forms of Curcumin and Promising Avenues for Curcumin-Based Research and Application: A Review”
Sidney J. Stohs et al.
Molecules 2020, 25(6), 1397; 10.3390/molecules25061397
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/6/1397

6. “Paper-Based Oil Barrier Packaging using Lignin-Containing Cellulose Nanofibrils”
Ali H. Tayeb et al.
Molecules 2020, 25(6), 1344; 10.3390/molecules25061344
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/6/1344

7. “New Phosphine Oxides as High Performance Near- UV Type I Photoinitiators of Radical Polymerization”
Céline Dietlin et al.
Molecules 2020, 25(7), 1671; 10.3390/molecules25071671
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/7/1671

8. “Catechol-Containing Schiff Bases on Thiacalixarene: Synthesis, Copper (II) Recognition, and Formation of Organic-Inorganic Copper-Based Materials”
Pavel Padnya et al.
Molecules 2021, 26(8), 2334; 10.3390/molecules26082334
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/8/2334

9. “Actuating Shape Memory Polymer for Thermoresponsive Soft Robotic Gripper and Programmable Materials”
Dennis Schönfeld et al.
Molecules 2021, 26(3), 522; 10.3390/molecules26030522
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/3/522

10. “Using a B-Phycoerythrin Extract as a Natural Colorant: Application in Milk-Based Products”
Ana Belén García et al.
Molecules 2021, 26(2), 297; 10.3390/molecules26020297
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/26/2/297

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative, 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 in Molecules will act as Guest Editors under the mentorship of an experienced scientist; this mentor could be a member of the Editorial Board of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049) or from other well-established research institutes or laboratories.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Molecules Editorial Office ([email protected]), and we will discuss the process (i.e., mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail.

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

Name: Jianzhang Zhao

Affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

Research Keywords: charge separation; electron transfer; energy transfer; intersystem crossing; triplet state

 

 

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Jianzhang Zhao has been appointed Associate Section Editor-in-Chief of the “Photochemistry” Section of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049).

Prof. Dr. Jianzhang Zhao received his Ph.D. in 2000 at the Jilin University. He then moved to the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) to carry out postdoctoral research under the supervision of Prof. Kimoon Kim. In 2001, he moved to the Max-Planck Research Unit of Enzymology of Protein Folding at Halle (Saale), Germany. He worked on the photochemistry of peptides (photo-switching of the conformation of peptides) with Prof. Gunter Fischer. In 2003, he moved to the Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, to carry out another postdoctoral research project, working on enantioselective fluorescent chemosensors with Prof. Tony D. James. In 2005, Jianzhang Zhao joined the Dalian University of Technology as a Full Professor. His main research interests are the photochemistry and photophysics of organic compounds, focused on intersystem crossing (ISC) and triplet excited state-related properties. The research in his group is based on synthetic chemistry, steady-state and time-resolved transient optical spectroscopy, and time-resolved electron paramagnetic spectroscopy (TREPR), as well as theoretical computations. Electron transfer, energy transfer, and electron spin dynamics (ESP) of organic compounds are the main subjects of interest for the group.

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Jianzhang Zhao in his role as Associate Section Editor-in-Chief, and we look forward to him leading Molecules to achieving more milestones.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• 29 October 2021
  Processes journal and Beijing Institute of Technology

• 29 October 2021
  Coatings journal and Wuhan University of Technology

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

MDPI will be attending the 21st Chinese Zeolite Conference (21 CZC), hosted by the Chinese Zeolite Association and China University of Petroleum, which will be held from 27 to 30 September 2021 in Qingdao, China. The conference will be held at the International Conference Center of China Railway Qingdao World Expo City. More than 1500 delegates are expected to attend.

The theme of this conference is “Porous Materials and Future Energy”. The conference aims to show the latest progress in the field of zeolite and porous material in China and discuss the responsibilities, opportunities, and challenges in zeolite and related porous functional material chemistry in the new era of energy reform and sustainable development. We also aim to further promote the development and achievements of zeolite science and technology.

The main topics of the conference include: the synthesis, modification, and characterization of porous zeolite materials; host-guest chemistry and functional materials; adsorption, separation, and diffusion performances; porous material catalysis and chemical processes; theoretical calculations and simulations of porous material properties, structures, and applications.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Molecules;
• Separations;
• Energies;
• Crystals;
• Materials;
• Membranes;
• Inorganics;
• Sustainability;
• Sustainable Chemistry;
• Symmetry;
• Reactions.

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (#B20). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit https://www.chemsoc.org.cn/meeting/21czc/.

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]

Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049) has launched a new section entitled “Bioactive Lipids”. If you are an active researcher in a relevant field of research and are passionate about contributing to the publication of cutting-edge research, please do not hesitate to contact us about joining the board.

The Section “Bioactive Lipids” of the journal Molecules publishes original, fundamental, and impactful research and timely review articles on bioactive lipids. The Section covers all aspects of this rapidly growing field of investigation, with the aim of increasing our understanding of how the chemical structure of bioactive lipids determines their pharmacodynamic, pharmacokinetic, and physicochemical properties and, hence, their therapeutic potential. The main scope is covered by, but not limited to, the following core research areas:

• The structures and chemical properties of (i) eicosanoids (e.g., leukotrienes, lipoxins and prostanoids like prostaglandins, prostacyclines, and thromboxanes), (ii) endocannabinoids (e.g., anandamide [N-arachidonoylethanolamine], other N-acylethanolamines, 2-arachidonoyl glycerol, other acyl esters and endocannabinoid-like compounds), (iii) specialized proresolving mediators (e.g., resolvins, maresins, (neuro)protectins), (iv) steroids, and (v) isoprostanes, sphingosines, and plasmalogens;
• The structures and chemical properties of plant-derived cannabinoids (terpeno-phenol compounds, also known as phytocannabinoids), and of additional natural compounds such as terpenoids (including sterols), carotenoids, and phenolics (including flavonoids);
• The structural and functional properties of metabolic enzymes that synthesize bioactive lipids both in vivo and in vitro;
• The structural and functional properties of the transporters that move bioactive lipids intracellularly, across the plasma membrane, and extracellularly;
• The structural and functional properties of the receptor targets of bioactive lipids, along with molecular details of the signal transduction pathways triggered thereof.

MDPI will be attending the 2021 Chinese Medicinal Chemistry Symposium and CPA-EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (CMCS 2021), hosted by the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Chinese Pharmaceutical Association, which will be held from Monday, 27 September, until Thursday, 30 September 2021, in Shenyang, China.

As a top-level biennial event in the medicinal chemistry and the related fields in China, CMCS aims to boost the information exchange and communication between peers in frontiers of medicinal chemistry and the relevant fields. According to the cooperation framework agreement signed by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association (CPA) and the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC), the CPA-EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry (CPA-EFMC ISMC) will be held concurrently.

The topics covered will include the frontiers and hotspots of medicinal chemistry and chemical biology, innovative drug research for major diseases, rational drug design strategies and new methods, lead compound discovery and optimization strategies, natural active substance discovery and structural modification, and modern drug preparation technology and innovation craft.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Molecules;
• Antibiotics;
• Medical Sciences.

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (#16). 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://cmcs2021.syphu.edu.cn/Home.htm.

Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049) has launched a new section entitled “Inorganic Chemistry”. If you are an active researcher in a relevant field of research and are passionate about contributing to the publication of cutting-edge research, please do not hesitate to contact us about joining the board.

The “Inorganic Chemistry” Section of Molecules covers all fundamental and applied aspects of the inorganic chemistry of discrete and condensed matter inorganic compounds and materials. This includes studies on the synthesis of new compounds and materials, the characterization of their structures by experimental and theoretical means, and the exploration of their chemical and physical properties in addition to their applications. Studies aimed at establishing the structure–property relationships in known compounds and materials are also important subjects covered in the “Inorganic Chemistry” Section.

Publications in this Section will include original and innovative studies and applications that will enrich knowledge on inorganic chemistry in the form of full-length articles, communications of current interest, and review articles on topics of emerging interest from leading scientists. Special Issues on hot topics will also be published in this Section.

Topics of interest to the “Inorganic Chemistry” Section include, but are not limited to:

• Synthesis of inorganic and organic/inorganic hybrid compounds;
• Studies of mixed-valence compounds;
• Molten-salt-mediated and hydrothermal reaction methods;
• Studies of rare-earth compounds and their properties;
• Development of nanomaterials and semiconductor materials;
• Photocatalysts for hydrogen production and photo-oxidation;
• Synthesis of nanoporous materials and composites;
• Inorganic biomaterial composites for energy applications;
• Studies of optical and magnetic compounds and materials;
• Studies of superconducting, multiferroic and thermoelectric materials;
• Investigation of linear and nonlinear optical properties;
• Theoretical and computational studies of structure–property relationships.

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].

Molecules (ISSN: 1420-3049) has just launched one new Section: “Macromolecular Chemistry”. If you are an active researcher in the field and are passionate about participating in cutting-edge research publications, please do not hesitate to contact us about joining the board and contributing to the Section.

The Section “Macromolecular Chemistry” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules/sections/macromolecular_chemistry) publishes original, fundamental, impactful research and timely review articles on all aspects of polymer science. The journal covers all aspects of polymer synthesis, including polymerization mechanisms and chemical functional transformations, with a focus on novel polymers and the relationships between molecular structure and polymer properties. In addition, we welcome submissions on bio-based, natural, or renewable polymers, stimuli-responsive systems, and polymer bio-hybrids. The main topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Novel synthetic routes for polymerization, functional modification, controlled/living polymerization, and precision polymers;
• Polymerization mechanisms and kinetics;
• Macromolecular structure and function and advanced characterization of polymers;
• Sustainable polymer synthesis, bio-based, natural, biodegradable, and polymeric bio-nanocomposites;
• Supramolecular polymers and self-assembly;
• Polymers for regenerative medicine and biomedical applications or drug delivery release;
• Synthesis and application of novel polymers.

This position is open to experts in all aspects of macromolecular chemistry. To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Carina Liu ([email protected]) from the Molecules Editorial Office.

The Section “Flavours and Fragrances” of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049, IF 4.411) (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules) is recruiting Editorial Board Members.

Serving as a Section Editorial Board Member, you will have the opportunity to publish one paper free of charge in Molecules per year if the editorial workloads are carried out in full, and you will receive special discounts to publish additional papers.

Briefly, responsibilities include the following:

1. Advising on the strategic development of the journal;
2. Leading at least one Special Issue related to your research field every two years;
3. Soliciting at least five high-quality submissions and promoting the journal among the related community;
4. Pre-screening and making decisions on manuscripts;
5. Promoting the journal at scientific conferences or through other venues.

Molecules is a leading international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of chemistry sciences published semimonthly online by MDPI. For more information about this Section, please see: (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules/sections/flavours_and_fragrances).

This position is open to experts in various aspects of flavour and fragrance compounds. To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Jim Zhu ([email protected]) from the Molecules Editorial Office.

The Section “Applied Chemistry” of Molecules is recruiting Editorial Board Members. You can check the existing Editorial Board Members by visiting the following link:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules/sectioneditors/applied-chemistry.

Benefits of Molecules Editorial Board membership:

1. Increase your visibility and also increase your knowledge of the field;
2. Full waiver of the article processing charge (APC, CHF 2000) for one paper published in Molecules per year and special discounts (10% off) for any additional papers, providing that terms 1 or 2 in the responsibilities are addressed during the editorship;
3. Molecules offers sponsorships for conferences organized by Editorial Board Members and helps with promotion.

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

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

This Section of Molecules covers the application of the principles and theories of chemistry to answer a specific question or solve a real-world problem, as opposed to pure chemistry, which is aimed at enhancing knowledge within the field. For more information about this Section and publishing in Molecules, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules/sections/applied-chemistry.

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

The Section “Food Chemistry” of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049, IF 4.411) (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules) is recruiting Editorial Board Members.

Serving as a Section Editorial Board Member, you will have the opportunity to publish one paper free of charge in Molecules per year if the editorial workloads are carried out in full, and you will receive special discounts to publish additional papers.

Briefly, responsibilities include the following:

1. Advising on the strategic development of the journal;
2. Leading at least one Special Issue related to your research field every two years;
3. Soliciting at least five high-quality submissions and promoting the journal among the related community;
4. Pre-screening and making decisions on manuscripts;
5. Promoting the journal at scientific conferences or through other venues.

Molecules is a leading international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of chemistry sciences published semimonthly online by MDPI. For more information about this Section, please see: (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules/sections/food_chemistry).

This position is open to experts in all aspects of food chemistry. To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact Meta Miao ([email protected]) from the Molecules Editorial Office.

The Section “Molecular Structure” of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049) is recruiting Editorial Board Members. Molecules is published semimonthly online by MDPI with 2020 IF of 4.411. This is a leading international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of chemistry.

This Section publishes original research articles, reviews, short communications, and invited perspective articles on all aspects of molecular structure, which is broadly defined as the study of condensed and gaseous states of matter in the form of molecules (as opposed to atoms, plasmas, or subatomic particles). We welcome manuscripts on fundamental and applied aspects of experimental, theoretical, or computational studies of molecular structure, including but not limited to the topics of chemical bonding, DFT, docking, spectroscopy, diffraction, molecular dynamics simulations, protein structure prediction, quantum chemistry, X-ray crystallography, and microscopy.

For more information about this Section, please see the Section’s webpage: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules/sections/molecular_structure.

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

• Promoting this new Section on your social media or among your acquaintances;
• Supervising the quality of the papers in this Section (when we have new submissions to the Section);
• Acting as/recommending a Guest Editor for a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests.

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

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

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

Contact: Setsuko Nishihara, MDPI Tokyo

Molecules is recruiting Editorial Board Members for the following three new Sections:

- Electrochemistry;

- Chemical Biology;

- Nanochemistry.

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

1) Promoting this new Section on your social media or among your acquaintances;

2) Supervising the quality of the papers in this Section (when we have new submissions to the Section);

3) Acting as a/recommending a Guest Editor for a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests;

4) Providing conference/society cooperation recommendations.

Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049) is the leading international, peer-reviewed, open access journal of chemistry science. Molecules is published semimonthly online by MDPI. 2020 IF for Molecules was 4.411.

To apply for this position, please send your full academic CV and a short cover letter that details your interest and enthusiasm for the position to [email protected].

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

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

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

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

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2021

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

Tu Youyou Award

Established in honor of Professor Tu Youyou, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for her key contributions to the discovery of Artemisinin, which is used as an antimalarial agent, the Tu Youyou Award is presented bienially to a researcher of any age who has made significant, high-impact contributions to natural product or medicinal chemistry research. Prof. Tu tested the toxicity of her new drug by taking it herself; she put herself in harm’s way in order to produce a compound that would go on to save the lives of millions. Molecules established the Tu Youyou Award in order to highlight and celebrate researchers who, like Tu Youyou, dedicate their lives in various ways to research that improves the lives of others. The Award is given for the originality of the nominee's research, the importance of the work, and the quality of publications. The winner receives 3000 CHF and an engraved plaque.

About 2020 winner

The winner of the Molecules 2020 Tu Youyou Award is

Prof. Mauro Maccarrone.

Mauro Maccarrone is a Professor and Chair of Biochemistry at the University of L'Aquila. He is also the Director of the Lipid Neurochemistry Laboratory at the European Centre for Brain Research (Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome). His group is comprised of four units, and they are highly integrated and have collaborated for more than 15 years (they are located at Tor Vergata University of Rome, University of Teramo, Santa Lucia Foundation, and Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome). Prof. Maccarrone’s research focuses on a novel class of lipid signalling molecules: the endocannabinoids, and resulted in numerous articles published in prestigious journals which have been cited many times. Most importantly, his work has great translational potential and has opened new avenues for the treatment of a number of diseases that altered endocannabinoid functions in a pathogenic capacity. This is an outstanding achievement in a scientific environment that is only becoming more competitive. Please join us in congratulating Prof. Mauro Maccarrone for his commitment and wish him the best in future endeavours. Let’s learn some more interesting facts while listening to the interview!

 

Contact: 
Dr. Agnieszka Witkowska
Scientific Officer—Chemistry
[email protected]

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Axel Klein has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the “Inorganic Chemistry” Section of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049).

Name: Axel Klein
Email: [email protected]
Affiliation: Universität zu Köln, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Department für Chemie, Institut für Anorganische Chemie, Greinstraße 6, 50939 Köln, Germany
Homepage: https://klein.uni-koeln.de/
Research Keywords: transition metal complexes (including organometallic); platinum, palladium, nickel; copper; synthesis; electrochemistry; photophysics; spectroscopy; modelling of catalytic processes; precursors for CVD; ligand design; cytotoxic complexes; organic–inorganic perovskites; functionalisation of nanomaterials; electrochemistry

Prof. Dr. Axel Klein received his PhD in 1994 in Inorganic Chemistry and, since then, has worked in academic research focused on coordination chemistry. Today, his work spreads over various fields ranging from photochemistry and photophysics of complexes, organometallic catalysis, bioinorganic chemistry, and cytotoxic platinum complexes to organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites and the modification of nanomaterials, maintaining collaborations on all continents. Axel Klein holds a full professorship at the University of Cologne, Germany, and is the (co)author of more than 220 research papers, reviews, book chapters, and books. He is associate editor of numerous chemical journals, has provided over 500 reviews for journals, and is an active reviewer for several funding agencies (Humboldt, DFG, DAAD, NSF).

We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Axel Klein in his role as Section Editor-in-Chief, and we look forward to his leading Molecules to achieving more milestones.

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

Selections

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

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

 

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

Special Issue Reprints

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

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

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

 

Why choose MDPI Books?

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

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

Contact: Laura Wagner, MDPI Books Manager (email)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Introduction

Michal Szostak received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas, which he completed under the supervision of Prof. Jeffrey Aubé. After postdoctoral stints at Princeton University with Prof. David MacMillan and at the University of Manchester with Prof. David Procter, he joined the faculty at Rutgers University. His research group is focused on the development of new catalytic methods based on transition-metal catalysis, amide bonds, N–C, O–C, C–H bond activation, Pd–NHC catalysis, and synthetic methodology. He is the author of over 180 peer-reviewed publications and Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section on Organometallic Chemistry in Molecules.

Main Fields of Interest

Synthetic organic, organometallic chemistry, catalysis, ligand design.

1. Can you briefly describe your research?

The major goal of my laboratory is fundamental reaction methodology development in synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry with a focus on N–C activation, amide bonds, cross-coupling, C–H activation, and NHC ligands, and their application to the synthesis of chemically relevant motifs. A particular interest is directed towards new organometallic synthetic strategies that permit ready access to metal electrophiles from ubiquitous carboxylic acid derivatives and highly active, well-defined metal catalysts for organic reactions of major significance to researchers working in both industrial and academic settings.

2. Can you share your career development story?

I have a broad background in synthetic organic chemistry with specific training and expertise in catalysis, nitrogen-heterocycles, carbonyl functional groups and organometallic cross-coupling chemistry. Initially, my laboratory has been focused on developing new synthetic methods based on transition-metal-catalysis for amide bond activation. This research avenue was inspired by the classical amide bond twisting in bridged lactams, which, as extraordinarily elegant as they are, have limited applications in organic synthesis. By applying concepts introduced by pioneers in bridged lactam chemistry, we have successfully developed the amide bond cross-coupling platform by N–C bond activation in common acyclic amides. Taking off from the amide bond research, my laboratory has moved on to establish new methods for cross-coupling of esters, carboxylic acids, mechanistic studies, functional-group-interconversion, decarbonylative coupling, C–H activation and later organometallic synthesis, ligand design and metal-NHC catalysis, which are among the main current goals.

3. What do you think of the future of our Organometallic Chemistry Section? What are the expectations you have for this section? What perspective do you think the section will bring to the related fields?

It is our hope that the section will reach the impact and readership level matching the most established journals in the field. As outlined in our editorial (https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/13/3038), statistical data of Molecules compare very favorably with the flagship journals in the field. The journal impact factor of 3.267 ranks Molecules as one of the highest among the organometallic journals. Furthermore, we have recently compared the statistical data for review articles in the section, which showed an excellent IF of 8.3 for reviews published in the Organometallic Chemistry Section of Molecules. The highly encouraging statistical data combined with open access publishing provide an attractive springboard for future developments. 

4. As a researcher in Organometallic Chemistry, what valuable suggestions would you like to share with young scholars in terms of research topic selection?

Organometallic research occupies a central place in chemistry. The most successful research is if others apply the developed concepts, catalysts, complexes, or reactions in their own studies. Organometallic processes that contribute to and enable scientific advances across disciplines have a potential to be the key driving force for chemical science.

Work–Life Balance

1. What got you interested in scientific research in the first place?

Chemistry research is exciting and extraordinarily rewarding. It is a field where everyone can find their niche and very quickly test their research hypothesis, experiment with a new idea, or try out a new approach. Few other disciplines offer such a quick transition from the conceptual design stage to the experimental testing, and ultimately, in select few cases, to real-life applications.

2. What attracted you to join the academic editor team of Molecules/MDPI?

With the advent of open access publishing, Molecules and MDPI have been steadily growing in recognition and influence among the chemistry community, and recently the journal celebrated its 25-year anniversary. There were some outstanding review articles published by the journal, which we had followed and resulted in expansion of our research portfolio. The journal impact factor compares very favorably with other open access journals and as one of the highest among the organometallic journals.

3. What do you think are the most important characteristics/personality for an editor?

One of the challenges is to ensure that the journal provides an attractive open access platform for disseminating highquality articles in the field. Organometallic research is extremely broad as a field, encompassing organometallic chemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, as well as synthesis, catalysis, and applications. Our editors acknowledge these points and provide ample opportunities to the authors to disseminate their research through a variety of article types, platforms, and forums.

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

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

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

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

The Coalition is committed to:

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

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

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

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

1) Information is displayed in the left information bar.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Journal	Impact Factor	Rank	Category	Details
Actuators	1.957	31/64 (Q2)	• Instruments & Instrumentation	Link
Agriculture	2.072	25/91 (Q2)	• Agronomy	Link
Biology	3.796	19/93 (Q1)	• Biology	Link
Biomedicines	4.717	30/138 (Q1) 36/270 (Q1)	• Medicine, Research & Experimental • Pharmacology & Pharmacy	Link
Biosensors	3.240	24/86 (Q2)	• Chemistry, Analytical	Link
Chemosensors	3.108	16/64 (Q1) 27/86 (Q2) 13/27 (Q2)	• Instruments & Instrumentation • Chemistry, Analytical • Electrochemistry	Link
Children	2.078	50/128 (Q2)	• Pediatrics	Link
Healthcare	1.916	62/102 (Q3) 45/87 (Q3)	• Health Care Sciences & Services (SCIE) • Health Policy & Services (SSCI)	Link
Journal of Fungi	4.621	5/29 (Q1) 31/135 (Q1)	• Mycology • Microbiology	Link
Journal of Personalized Medicine	4.433	24/165 (Q1) 10/102 (Q1)	• Medicine, General & Internal • Health Care Sciences & Services	Link
Land	2.429	58/123 (Q2)	• Environmental Studies (SSCI)	Link
Life	2.991	26/93 (Q2) 109/267 (Q2)	• Biology • Microbiology	Link
Magnetochemistry	1.947	22/45 (Q2) 109/159 (Q3) 201/314 (Q3)	• Chemistry, Inorganic & Nuclear • Chemistry, Physical • Materials Science, Multidisciplinary	Link
Membranes	3.094	53/143 (Q2) 129/314 (Q2) 23/89 (Q2)	• Engineering, Chemical • Materials Science, Multidisciplinary • Polymer Science	Link
Pharmaceuticals	4.286	49/270 (Q1)	• Pharmacology & Pharmacy	Link
Photonics	2.140	48/97 (Q2)	• Optics	Link
Separations	1.900	53/86 (Q3)	• Chemistry, Analytical	Link
Toxics	3.271	32/92 (Q2) 92/265 (Q2)	• Toxicology • Environmental Sciences	Link

Updated Impact Factors

Journal	Impact Factor	Rank	Category	Details
Agronomy	2.603	18/91 (Q1) 65/234 (Q2)	• Agronomy • Plant Sciences	Link
Animals	2.323	10/63 (Q1) 14/142 (Q1)	• Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science • Veterinary Sciences	Link
Antibiotics	3.893	23/93 (Q1) 64/270 (Q1)	• Infectious Diseases • Pharmacology & Pharmacy	Link
Antioxidants	5.014	10/139 (Q1) 56/297 (Q1) 7/61 (Q1)	• Food Science & Technology • Biochemistry & Molecular Biology • Chemistry, Medicinal	Link
Applied Sciences	2.474	161/314 (Q3) 32/91 (Q2) 88/177 (Q2) 62/154 (Q2)	• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary • Engineering, Multidisciplinary • Chemistry, Multidisciplinary • Physics, Applied	Link
Atmosphere	2.397	48/93 (Q3)	• Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences	Link
Biomolecules	4.082	98/297 (Q2)	• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Link
Brain Sciences	3.332	113/271 (Q2)	• Neurosciences	Link
Cancers	6.126	37/244 (Q1)	• Oncology	Link
Catalysts	3.520	65/159 (Q2)	• Chemistry, Physical	Link
Cells	4.366	70/195 (Q2)	• Cell Biology	Link
Coatings	2.436	10/21 (Q2)	• Materials Science, Coatings & Films	Link
Crystals	2.404	10/26 (Q2) 165/314 (Q3)	• Crystallography • Materials Science, Multidisciplinary	Link
Diagnostics	3.110	39/165 (Q1)	• Medicine, General & Internal	Link
Diversity	1.402	119/168 (Q3)	• Ecology	Link
Electronics	2.412	125/266 (Q2)	• Engineering, Electrical & Electronic	Link
Energies	2.702	63/112 (Q3)	• Energy & Fuels	Link
Entropy	2.494	33/85 (Q2)	• Physics, Multidisciplinary	Link
Foods	4.092	27/139 (Q1)	• Food Science & Technology	Link
Forests	2.221	17/68 (Q1)	• Forestry	Link
Genes	3.759	53/177 (Q2)	• Genetics & Heredity	Link
Insects	2.220	18/101 (Q1)	• Entomology	Link
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)	2.849	58/193 (Q2) 32/170 (Q1) 105/265 (Q2)	• Public, Environmental & Occupational Health (SCIE) • Public, Environmental & Occupational Health (SSCI) • Environmental Sciences (SCIE)	Link
International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS)	4.556	74/297 (Q1) 48/177 (Q2)	• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology • Chemistry, Multidisciplinary	Link
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (IJGI)	2.239	31/50 (Q3) 18/30 (Q3)	• Geography, Physical • Remote Sensing	Link
Journal of Clinical Medicine	3.303	36/165 (Q1)	• Medicine, General & Internal	Link
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering	2.033	31/66 (Q2)	• Oceanography	Link
Marine Drugs	4.073	16/61 (Q2)	• Chemistry, Medicinal	Link
Materials	3.057	132/314 (Q2)	• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary	Link
Mathematics	1.747	28/324 (Q1)	• Mathematics	Link
Medicina	1.205	107/165 (Q3)	• Medicine, General & Internal	Link
Metabolites	4.097	95/297 (Q2)	• Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Link
Metals	2.117	18/79 (Q1) 185/314 (Q3)	• Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering • Materials Science, Multidisciplinary	Link
Micromachines	2.523	56/92 (Q3) 23/64 (Q2)	• Nanoscience & Nanotechnology • Instruments & Instrumentation	Link
Microorganisms	4.152	37/135 (Q2)	• Microbiology	Link
Minerals	2.380	6/21 (Q2) 11/30 (Q2)	• Mining & Mineral Processing • Mineralogy	Link
Molecules	3.267	70/177 (Q2) 141/297 (Q2)	• Chemistry, Multidisciplinary • Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Link
Nanomaterials	4.324	89/314 (Q2) 42/103 (Q2)	• Materials Science, Multidisciplinary • Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Link
Nutrients	4.546	17/89 (Q1)	• Nutrition & Dietetics	Link
Pathogens	3.018	65/135 (Q2)	• Microbiology	Link
Pharmaceutics	4.421	44/270 (Q1)	• Pharmacology & Pharmacy	Link
Plants	2.762	58/234 (Q1)	• Plant Sciences	Link
Polymers	3.426	16/89 (Q1)	• Polymer Science	Link
Processes	2.753	59/143 (Q2)	• Engineering, Chemical	Link
Remote Sensing	4.509	9/30 (Q2)	• Remote Sensing	Link
Sensors	3.275	22/86 (Q2) 77/266 (Q2) 15/64 (Q1)	• Chemistry, Analytical • Engineering, Electrical & Electronic • Instruments & Instrumentation	Link
Sustainability	2.576	120/265 (Q2) 26/41 (Q3) 53/123 (Q2) 6/8 (Q3)	• Environmental Sciences (SCIE) • Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (SCIE) • Environmental Studies (SSCI) • Green & Sustainable Science & Technology (SSCI)	Link
Symmetry	2.645	29/71 (Q2)	• Multidisciplinary Sciences	Link
Toxins	3.531	21/92 (Q1) 34/139 (Q1)	• Toxicology • Food Science & Technology	Link
Universe	1.752	18/29 (Q3) 42/68 (Q3)	• Physics, Particles & Fields • Astronomy & Astrophysics	Link
Vaccines	4.086	57/158 (Q2) 50/138 (Q2)	• Immunology • Medicine, Research & Experimental	Link
Viruses	3.816	12/37 (Q2)	• Virology	Link
Water	2.544	31/94 (Q2)	• Water Resources	Link

Source: Clarivate 2020, InCites Journal Citation Reports®.

Since 1996, MDPI has been committed to supporting the research community by providing the latest research freely available and making relevant and useful research available as quickly as possible. The world is current experiencing a pandemic of COVID-19, and researchers are working extremely hard to understand it and find a cure.

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Sample preparation continues to attract the attention of a number of research teams around the world. Research in the area has been outstandingly successful with a number of groups reporting breakthrough concepts, novel techniques and materials. Despite these advances the area has not been effective in defining itself and projecting its contemporary advances on prominent academic and non-academic external platforms. There has been a lack of communication within and outside the discipline, lack of public engagement and lack of coordination on credible and influential voices to articulate.

The EuChemS-DAC Sample Preparation Task Force and Network aim to promote sample preparation through the creation of clusters, organization of events, facilitation of communication, information exchange, networking, and the promotion of fundamental studies and cross-disciplinary collaboration. To further benefit the area, efforts are placed on promoting innovation and entrepreneurship as well as promoting early stage researchers involvement.

Sample preparation is an essential but perhaps under-recognised area of analytical sciences, and this Action will champion its importance. Join our team today and become part of this vision.

Professor Elia Psillakis,
Head of the EuChemS-DAC Sample Preparation Task Force and Network

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The world is currently suffering from a global pandemic of the corona virus COVID-19. MDPI expresses its sympathies for all of those affected by the virus and stands in solidarity with medical staff and researchers treating patients and searching for scientific solutions.

MDPI has previously published papers covering corona viruses in addition to new papers on the current outbreak, see all papers here. In particular, Viruses has published a number of Special Issues and papers on the topic (see here, here, and here) as well as a forthcoming Special Issue.

Alongside journal articles, MDPI has been a strong supporter of preprints, which are increasingly being used to rapidly disseminate the latest research, and we run the preprint server Preprints.org. Our database of research articles, Scilit, is free to use and covers all publishers including preprint servers. New papers are often in search results within hours of publication and users can set up alerts for new papers.

Our main priority during this period has been the health and safety of staff, and we continue to allow staff to work at home and closely monitor the situation in all locations in which we work. Despite the restrictions, we continue to provide a full publication service and, by close collaboration with our editorial boards and making use our in-house teams, ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in publishing vital research. Fast and open publication has always been at the core of MDPI values and is now more important than ever.

We hope that a solution to the current situation will emerge soon. In the meantime, we will do our best to continue communicating vital research in all fields.

The advantages of the open access model of scientific publishing are being increasingly recognized in the scientific community. It allows new scientific evidence to be accessed from the moment of publication for free by anyone around the globe, boosting the impact of new research. In response, many funders, libraries and universities have been adopting new principles to accelerate the transition to open access.

Recently, “transformative agreements” have been negotiated between traditional publishers and various institutions. While increasing the number of open access papers, these agreements lack binding commitments to a full transition to open access, their conditions vary across different regions, and access is still limited for many users.

MDPI is a co-signatory of the recent position statement raising concerns about potential downsides of transformative agreements and how they may delay a full transition to open access. The statement highlights that these models “risk perpetuating current limitations on access, transparency and market competitiveness, while simultaneously facilitating excessive charges on the public purse”.

As a pioneering open access journal publisher, MDPI is the first to promote the importance of science being made available to everyone. Our peer-reviewed journals, covering diverse academic disciplines, are fully accessible to the public free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). This is why, along with other open access publishers, MDPI is a proud signatory of the position paper and is committed to contributing to the replacement of weak transitional agreements with “agreements with publishers that are already fully committed to open science and who offer full, immediate and transparent Open Access”.

Read the position paper here

We are pleased to announce that Encyclopedia will be awarding five Outstanding Contributor Awards for researchers in 2020. The nominations and applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Encyclopedia Editorial Board.

Prize for Winners

1. An official certificate;
2. A cash award of 500 CHF or an MDPI discount voucher of 800 CHF.

Application Deadline

31 December, 2020 (Please send your application email with a list of all entries you contributed to our office before the deadline: [email protected])

Candidate Requirements

1. Have a Ph.D. degree;
2. Have more than three qualified entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020.

Evaluation Standards

1. Number of entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020;
2. Quality of entries online (including length, figure quality, and novelty);
3. Impact of entries (including the number of likes, discussion contents, views, and downloads).

If you are a researcher and have not yet contribute entries to Encyclopedia, please do not miss this chance to highlight your research results.

MDPI will be attending the 17th International Congress on Catalysis, San Diego, California, USA, June 14-19, 2020.

This congress is the premier technical gathering of our communities of practice in surface and organometallic catalysis, industrial homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis, photocatalysis, and catalysis in condensed media. This meeting brings together participants from academia, industry, and national laboratories, with a tradition and expressed goal of nurturing and mentoring students and young researchers as part of its mission.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Catalysts
• Molecules
• Materials
• Coatings
• Clean Technologies
• Energies
• Inorganics
• Processes

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #408). 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://2020icc.com/

MDPI will be attending the 20th Biennial Meeting for the Society for Free Radical Research International (SFRRI 2020), Taoyuan, Taiwan, 17-20 March 2020.

The Society for Free Radical Research, founded in the United Kingdom in 1982, is an International Society and operates as a charitable voluntary, non-profit institution. The aims and objectives of the International Society are to advance education in free radical processes with particular reference to their industrial and medical importance, informing education for the benefit of the public. The Society promotes interest in all aspects of research into the reactions and properties of free radicals and into their physical, chemical, biological, medical, and industrial roles. Founded in 1982, and now with over 2500 members worldwide, the Society consists of five autonomous regional groups: SFRR Asia, SFRR Europe, SFRR Australasia, Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine (SFRR Americas), and SFRR Africa. A number of regional groups have also been established within these areas.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Antioxidants
• Molecules
• Biology
• International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS)
• Medicines
• Biomolecules
• Life
• Metabolites
• Biomedicines

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the website: http://www.sfrri2020.org/.

Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049) is the leading international peer-reviewed open access journal in chemistry, published semi-monthly online by MDPI.

During its 24th year of existence, Molecules has passed another milestone by publishing the 20,000th article. Out of all articles published in the journal, almost one third, or 6524 articles, have been cited ten times or more (h-10 index).

Molecules' aim is to provide rigorous peer review and enable rapid publication of cutting-edge research to educate and inspire the scientific community worldwide. Scientists are encouraged to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible; there is no restriction on the length of papers. Full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. In addition, the availability of information on published compound samples is considered important, and authors are encouraged to register or deposit their chemical samples through the international non-profit organization Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI).

Our sincere thanks go to the Editor-in-Chief of Molecules, Dr. Derek J. McPhee, and all Editorial Board members, as well as Guest Editors of Special Issues, who have ensured the continued success of the journal through their hard work and diligence.

MDPI will be attending the 7th International Conference on Food Factors and the 12th International Conference and Exhibition on Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods (ICoFF2019 / ISNFF2019) in Kobe, Japan, 1–5 December 2019.

With the mission of promoting research into all aspects of basic and applied Food and Nutritional Science, ICoFF held its first conference in 1995 and has continued to hold every four years. ICoFF is one of the largest international conferences for researchers, scientists, professors and students in the field of food factors and their health-promoting effects. ISNFF, founded in 2007, has been focusing on the research and development on materials that can be used as functional foods.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Foods
• Nutrients
• Antioxidants
• Biomolecules
• IJMS
• Molecules

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #34). 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://icoff2019.umin.jp/index.html.

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of SciProfiles, its social network platform for researchers and scholars.

The purpose of SciProfiles is aligned with MDPI’s broad mission to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and to serve scholars and communities by providing opportunities for academic networking.

SciProfiles also ambitions to serve as a sustainable, transparent and community-driven research evaluation system aligned with the DORA principles (https://sfdora.org/). Through their scientific profiles, academics can highlight their contribution to research communities, and measure their impact on their field, beyond publication numbers and impact factors. SciProfiles is currently a beta version and will enrich to give researchers the possibility to highlight all of their contributions to science and their scientific communities as authors, reviewers, editors, conference organizers, conference panelists, conference keynote speakers, or even as lecturers or student mentors at their University.

The classic components of popular community social networks, including follower/following, classical metrics, endorsements and recommendations (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1690), comments (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397) are or will be very soon highlighted in SciProfiles as open science contributions.

To help increase the impact and visibility of articles and their authors to an appropriate audience, the platform offers a NewsFeed that includes recommendations of relevant content based on interests, publication history, saved searches or colleagues’ recommendations.

SciProfiles’ avatars are now being integrated on several MDPI platforms, meaning that you will directly access researchers’ profiles from any of the MDPI platforms:

MDPI's journal publishing website: www.mdpi.com
MDPI's conference hosting and management website: www.sciforum.net
MDPI's pre-print website : www.preprints.org
MDPI's knowledge sharing website : www.encyclopedia.pub
MDPI's books store: www.mdpi.com/books
MDPI's literature database : www.scilit.net

SciProfiles aims to serve scientific communities at large. It can be embedded into third-party websites and also welcomes integration of data from third-parties.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/2
Dr. Franck Vazquez: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/FranckVazquez
Dr. Martyn Rittman: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/martynrittman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MDPI will be attending the 11th Conference of The World Mycotoxin Forum^® and the XVth IUPAC International Symposium on Mycotoxins in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 14-16 October 2019.

The aim of WMFmeetsIUPAC – the world’s largest mycotoxin event – is to increase the awareness of human and animal health risks due to mycotoxin contamination. It offers a platform for the food and feed industry, science and regulatory authorities to exchange current knowledge, to promote harmonisation of food and feed safety regulations and control procedures, and to make recommendations for integrated strategies ensuring the safety and security of the food and feed supply chain.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Toxins
• Foods
• Molecules
• Biosensors
• IJMS
• Microorganisms

If you are also attending this conference, please 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 visit: https://www.worldmycotoxinforum.org/welcome.php

We are glad to inform you that MDPI will be attending the 27th International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry. The 27th International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry Congress will take place from 1st-6th September, 2019 in Kyoto, Japan. The conference is chaired by Shuji Akai (Osaka Univ.) and Yasuyuki Kita (Ritsumeikan Univ. / Osaka Univ.).

Representatives of the following journals will attend:

Molecules
Chemistry
Molbank

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #2). 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.cdsympo.com/ishc2019/index.html

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is promising communication with other publishers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

MDPI will be attending the joint conference XVI International Symposium on Marine Natural Products & XI European Conference on Marine Natural Products in Peniche, Portugal, 1–5 September 2019.

WMNP 2019 is this year’s the most important event in this field, especially for the European scholars studying marine natural products. It will cover all aspects in this field, hosting both experienced experts and active pioneers.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Marine Drugs
Toxins
Molecules

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #Near Conference Hall). 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://wmnp2019.ipleiria.pt/.

We are pleased to inform that Molecules received an updated Journal Impact Factor of 3.060 in the recent release of the Journal Citation Reports®. The journal's 5-Year Impact Factor is 3.380. Molecules now ranks 68/172 (Q2) in the category 'Chemistry, Multidisciplinary' and 136/298 (Q2) in 'Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.'

Evolution of Impact Factor, Citations and Publications for Molecules:

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

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

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

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

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Materials
Metals
Catalysts
Nanomaterials
Processes
Polymers
Molecules
JFB
Sustainability
Coatings
Inorganics

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (#BrB1) in Norra Latin - The Marble Vault. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://euromat2019.fems.eu/.

We will be attending the The 21st European Symposium on Organic Chemistry. Since its first edition in 1979, the biannual ESOC conference has developed into the flagship event for the Organic Chemistry community in Europe and beyond. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Molecules
Chemistry
Molbank
Marine Drugs
Polymers
Coatings
Catalysts
Materials
Processes

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #25). 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://esoc2019.conf.tuwien.ac.at/welcome/.

We will be attending the 46th Controlled Release Society Annual Meeting & Exposition. It is one of the biggest events in pharmaceutical field. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Pharmaceutics
JCM
Biomolecules
Materials
IJMS
Molecules
Nanomaterials
Pharmaceuticals
Scientia Pharmaceutica
Vaccines
JPM
Genes
JFB
IJERPH
Biomedicines
Healthcare

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #303). 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://2019.controlledreleasesociety.org/

We are pleased to announce that the winners of the 2019 Travel Award, sponsored by MDPI and Molecules, are Juan Vicente Alegre Requen, Belinda Hetzler and Dan Preston.

Juan V. Alegre-Requena (top right) mainly focuses on computational mechanistic studies of organic and organometallic reactions, working in close collaboration with different experimental groups.

Belinda E. Hetzler (left) is currently a Ph.D. student at New York University. Her research involves the development of synthetic methodology for complex natural product syntheses and the design of novel molecular switches for the control of protein function.”

Dan Preston (bottom right) completed his doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He currently holds a Rutherford Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Kruger Group at the University of Canterbury. He is interested in self-assembly and coordination chemistry and is working on new ways to assemble structures in solution.

It was a difficult decision with such high quality applications for the awards and we would like to thank all applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. We congratulate the winners for their accomplishments.

Dr. Derek J. McPhee
Editor-in-Chief, Molecules

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2018 Young Investigator Award, sponsored by MDPI and Molecules, is Dr Paul McGonigal.

Dr. Paul McGonigal (b 1985) received his undergraduate (MChem, 2007) and postgraduate (PhD, 2010) degrees from The University of Edinburgh, working under the direction of Prof David Leigh. In 2011, he moved to The Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), Spain, as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the laboratory of Prof Antonio Echavarren. The following year, he was awarded a US–UK Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research with Prof Fraser Stoddart’s research group at Northwestern University. His training encompassed topics ranging from molecular machines, homogeneous catalysis, and natural product synthesis to nanoparticle functionalization and metal–organic frameworks.

In 2015, Paul moved to Durham University to take up the position of Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry where he investigates new small-molecule motifs for functional materials by taking advantage of unusual interactions, reactivity, and dynamics. In the past three years, his team has investigated the effects of excited-state aromatic interactions in phenyl-ring molecular rotors, synthesized new functional carbocation materials, and developed strategies to control shapeshifting molecules. As well as providing new fundamental insights, the materials developed by McGonigal are targeted towards applications as components of optoelectronic devices. Paul is being awarded the 2018 Molecules Young Investigator Award for his creative early-career contributions to organic and supramolecular chemistry.

Dr. Derek J. McPhee
Editor-in-Chief, Molecules

MDPI will be attending the 26th meeting of the North American Catalysis Society (NAM 26), to be held in Chicago, USA, 23-28 June 2019.

The 26th meeting of the North American Catalysis Society, NAM26, is the premier scientific event in the field of catalysis research and development in 2019. It will feature technological challenges, breakthrough discoveries, and state-of-the art academic and industrial research.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Catalysts
• Materials
• Energies
• Processes
• Molecules
• Inorganics
• Nanomaterials

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #108). 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://isen.northwestern.edu/nam262019-north-american-catalysis-society-meeting

In November 2018, the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry (ISHC) became affiliated to Molecules. As part of this collaboration, all members of ISHC enjoy a discount on the article processing charges (APC) when submitting articles to Molecules.

The International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry (ISHC) was established in August, 1968, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the USA by Dr. Raymond N. Castle (1916-1999). The function of the society is to promote heterocyclic chemistry, in particular by serving as the primary sponsoring agency for the ISHC-Congress, a large biennial meeting attracting up to a thousand participants. Further aims of the ISHC are to honor persons who have made outstanding contributions to the field with two distinguished Awards and the appointment of ISHC Fellows. The ISHC is also actively involved in the publication of “Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry” (PHC) a major reference work on heterocyclic chemistry published annually since 1989.

ISHC is a professional organization whose functions are highly relevant to the scope of Molecules. We look forward to collaborating with ISHC and publishing state-of-the-art research from its members in this field.

We are pleased to welcome more universities from Poland, Italy, Germany, Brazil and other parts of the world to MDPI's Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). A warm welcome to the institutions listed below, who have joined the Program in February and March this year.

James Madison University (JMU), Harrisonburg	USA
Loughborough University	UK
Lublin University of Technology	Poland
Marquette University, Milwaukee	USA
Massey University, Palmerston North	New Zealand
Medical College of Wisconsin	USA
Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń	Poland
Poznań University of Life Sciences	Poland
Robert Koch-Institut, Berlin	Germany
Rothamsted Research, Harpenden	UK
Santa Clara University (SCU)	USA
Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau	Germany
University of Aveiro	Portugal
University of Brasília	Brazil
University of Duisburg-Essen	Germany
University of Greifswald	Germany
University of Molise	Italy
University of Naples Parthenope	Italy
University of São Paulo (USP) - São Carlos Institute of Physics	Brazil
University of Szczecin	Poland
University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn	Poland
University West, Trollhättan	Sweden
UTP University of Science and Technology, Bydgoszcz	Poland
VTT - Technical Research Centre of Finland	Finland

Authors affiliated with these institutions can now enjoy a discount on the APC for papers accepted for publication in any MDPI journal. If you would like to learn more about our program, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap or email us at [email protected].

We will be attending the ACS 2019 National Meeting & Exposition. It is an interdisciplinary forum open to anyone with an interest in chemistry and related disciplines. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

Biomolecules
Catalysts
Diagnostics
Fibers
Inorganics
Materials
Membranes
Micromachines
Molbank
Molecules
Pharmaceuticals
Processes

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #1123). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/meetings/national-meeting.html

We are delighted to announce our participation in Jisc’s Publication Router project, as of March 2019.

Publications Router is a Jisc service that automatically sends notifications about research articles to institutions' systems such as their repositories or CRISs, since May 2015. Through this agreement, MDPI will provide Jisc with daily feeds and information regarding published articles, which will be gathered by their system and delivered to institutions also registered to this service. Nearly all of our articles are published within 15 days of acceptance, so institutions will receive them quite promptly.

The feed will include the full text of the published version of record, with no embargo, so the articles can be exposed immediately for public view. They are accompanied by rich metadata, including confirmation of the immediate CC BY licence, minimising the need for any manual intervention or checking.

For more information about Publications Router, you may contact Jisc’s central helpdesk at [email protected]. For any queries about MDPI’s institutional agreements and collaborations, you may get in touch with MDPI’s Institutional Engagement team at [email protected], which would be very happy to hear from further UK institutions.

Once over 10 papers have been received for this Special Issue, one of the published papers will be selected to receive an SI Best Paper Award by an Evaluation Committee.

Eligibility for the Award:

• Paper published within the Special Issue: Noncovalent Interactions and Supramolecular Complex Formation
• Original research articles and reviews will be considerd

Selection Criteria:

The papers will be selected by the Guest Editor and invited panel members from the Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry meeting (2019) organising committee, according to the following criteria:

• Originality and novelty
• Career stage
• Importance of work to the supramolecular community

Prize Details:

The award will consist of a certificate and an invitation for the corresponding authour to present their work at the Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry meeting 2019, to be held at the University of Kent (UK) on the 16th–17th of December 2019. Funding of up 400 Swiss Francs will also be provided to support travel to and accommodation at the conference. It has also been agreed that the conference registration fee for the recipient of this award also be waived by the conference organisers. To be the recipient of this award, the author must be free to attend the Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry meeting detailed above.

Timeline:

The submission deadline is 1 August 2019. The issue will be closed at the end of October. The successful applicant will be notified by the 15th of November 2019.

Rigorous peer-review is the cornerstone of high quality academic publishing. Over 97,000 scholars served as reviewers for MDPI journals in 2018. 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 all reviewers’ names to express our gratitude. In addition, this year the “MDPI Top Reviewer Awards” are announced, to recognize the very best reviewers for their expertise, dedication, high quality, and timely review reports. We are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2018 MDPI Top Reviewer Awards:

• Ali Behnood
• Andrea Pezzuolo
• Angela Gorgoglione
• Anna D'Auria
• Antonio D'Andrea
• Azhar Abbas
• Bogdan Zagajewski
• Chunhui Chen
• Dominika Głąbska
• Dominika Guzek
• Dragan Pamucar
• Francisco J. G. Silva
• Frank Li
• Gianluca Serafini
• Gyorgy Szekely
• Haozhi Pan
• Helvi Heinonen-Tanski
• José Manuel Gómez-Soberón
• Kathy Lewis
• Klara Kosova
• Luis N. López De Lacalle
• M. Z. Naser
• Malwina Tytła
• Masoume Amirkhani
• Matteo Ghidelli
• Moretti Laura
• Petra Schneider
• Roberto Cerchione
• Spyros Papaefthymiou
• Ştefan Cristian Gherghina

Since 2010, MDPI has run its own online submission system. More recently, we have made the software, with accompanying publishing services, available to other publishers as JAMS (Journal and Article Management System). We are now delighted to announce the launch of JAMS Journals, a standardized platform for operating open access journals at low cost.

JAMS Journals provides a comprehensive service, including a shared submission website, journal websites hosted at a URL provided by the publisher, and a full production service. There is a small setup fee and the cost for each published paper is just a few hundred Swiss francs.

The platform demonstrates that running an open access journal can be straightforward and affordable. The JAMS Journals platform is suitable for

• small publishers or groups of scholars looking to launch their own journal;
• existing publishers or societies seeking to explore open access options;
• publishers looking to convert an existing subscription journal to open access.

JAMS journals launches with two journals from Canadian-based publisher Etcetera Publications:

• Canadian Journal of Pesticides & Pest Management (http://www.cjppm.ca)
• Nanotechnology in Agriculture, Food & Environment (http://www.nanoafe.ca)

Dr AJ Al-Rajab (President of Etcetera Publications) comments:

“In the past few months, we were working on our project to launch new open access scientific journals in the field of agricultural and environmental sciences. We decided to go with JAMS for this venture because of the high quality of their services, reasonable prices, professionalism and easy communication. Our portfolio is expected to grow rapidly during 2019 to include more titles covering different areas in agriculture and environment. MDPI earned already our complete satisfaction and we are looking for a long term cooperation.”

Alongside the new platform, we continue to provide flexible, tailored journal management solutions for existing publishers. For any questions or to request a quotation, contact Dr. Constanze Schelhorn ([email protected]).

2018 was a great year for preprints, with increasing numbers of authors looking to make their papers available online before peer review. Along with other preprint servers, our platform Preprints.org  saw an increase in the uptake from authors, and more than double the number of announced papers compared to 2017. In fact, we recently passed two important milestones: 8000 preprints online and 30,000 authors. 

We believe that the whole research community has the opportunity to benefit from work being available online as early as possible. We thank and congratulate our authors for supporting us to make this goal a reality.

In 2019, we will be looking carefully at how to provide better value for authors, maintain efficiency while growing in size, and make sure we remain well-connected with the research community. 

If you want to participate, you can consider screening preprints or joining our advisory board. And, of course, posting your own work.

We are delighted to announce the establishment of our national Open Access agreement with the Austrian Academic Library Consortium (KEMÖ) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Through this national agreement, the Austrian institutions listed below as well as FWF will cover the Article Processing Charges (APC) of manuscripts published by eligible corresponding or funded authors in MDPI journals as long as central funds are available.

All participating institutions have gained access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information as well as Funder and Grant ID details for easy identification and additional transparency. At the same time eligible authors are benefited from an APC discount which comes at no cost for the institutions.

Eligible corresponding 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. The program will be selected automatically if authors submit their papers using their institutional email address. To claim their discount, FWF funded authors should choose the particular funder and add their Grant ID upon online submission of their manuscript. The institutions will then crosscheck the information and confirm the APC funding.

Eligible authors that have their APC covered by their institution or funder are advised to include the following sentence in their acknowledgments: "Open Access Funding by the [name of the institution/funder]".

The full text of the agreement is openly available online at: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2536007

For any questions about the agreement, please contact the KEMÖ Consortium at [email protected], FWF at [email protected], or the MDPI IOAP team at [email protected]

The Austrian institutions participating in this agreement are:

• Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
• University for Continuing Education Krems
• University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna
• University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria
• University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien
• Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences
• International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
• Institute of Science and Technology Austria
• MCI Management Center Innsbruck
• University of Graz
• University of Linz
• University of Salzburg
• Graz University of Technology
• TU Wien
• University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
• University of Vienna

This is our first collective agreement with a national library consortium, while the individual institutions around the world participating in our IOAP are now more than 500 - see details here: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap. We would be mostly interested in discussing about possible collaborations with other consortia, funders, and institutions in our mutual efforts to accelerate Open Access.

In September 2018, two societies chose to establish a cooperation with MDPI journals.

Society	Journal
The Spanish Society of Medicinal Chemistry (SEQT)	Molecules
International Coenzyme Q10 Association (ICQ10A)	Antioxidants

As part of this collaboration, the members of these affiliated societies will enjoy a discount on the article processing charges (APC) when submitting articles to the corresponding journals. The collaboration goes beyond the discount benefit offered to members and includes other services as well as cross-promotions.

Further information about these societies:

The Spanish Society of Medicinal Chemistry (SEQT) is a multidisciplinary, non-profit body created in 1977. It integrates all Professionals, Companies, and Organizations whose activity is related to Spanish Pharmaceutical R+D.

The goals of the SEQT are to promote the development of this field through the organization of scientific meetings that will stimulate professional contacts at both national and international levels and to contribute to the training of advanced graduate students in the field.

The SEQT is incorporated within the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC, www.efmc.info), which groups the majority of graduates and professionals working in Pharmaceutical R+D.

The SEQT has honorary members, foundation members, full members, and protective members (pharmaceutical companies) that belong to the academic milieu, to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC, national research centers), and to private companies.

International Coenzyme Q10 Association (ICQ10A) is a nonprofit association, which aims to promote basic and applied research on the biomedical aspects of coenzyme Q10 in order to diffuse knowledge on basic biochemistry and genetics, and on the preventive and/or therapeutic effects of coenzyme Q10. The Association is motivated by a general interest in the biochemical, genetics, medical, and pharmaceutical fields worldwide, relating to the peculiar collocation of coenzyme Q10 in cellular bioenergetics, the pathogenesis and therapy of coenzyme Q10 deficiency syndrome, the field of antioxidant defense, and other fields where coenzyme Q10 has demonstrated functions. It is therefore important for the Association to coordinate international efforts aimed at furthering knowledge on these subjects and optimizing the use of coenzyme Q10 in preventive and therapeutic fields.

We are pleased to announce the new platform Encyclopedia, which is an online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as providing benchmark information for researchers and the general public interested in accurate and advanced knowledge on specific topics.

We encourage authors of review articles to quote and adapt the content of their published papers to create Encyclopedia entries. You can create completely new entries on topics in which you have knowledge and expertise. There is no limit on the topics or research fields. All of science and the humanities are included. Each entry will be published directly after submission.

We also have prepared a DOI application function in Encyclopedia. Once a DOI application is approved, the entry website will announce the DOI number and a pdf version with DOI information will be automatically created.

We look forward to your contributions and hope you will make use of this service. Find more about the service at: https://encyclopedia.pub/

In September 2018, the Spanish Society of Medicinal Chemistry (SEQT) chose Molecules as its preferred journal and became an affiliated society member of the journal. As part of this collaboration, all members of SEQT enjoy a discount on the article processing charges (APC) when submitting articles to Molecules.

The Spanish Society of Medicinal Chemistry (SEQT) is a multidisciplinary, non-profit body created in 1977. It integrates all Professionals, Companies, and Organizations whose activity is related to Spanish Pharmaceutical R+D.

The goals of the SEQT are to promote the development of this field through the organization of scientific meetings that will stimulate professional contacts at both national and international levels and to contribute to the training of advanced graduate students in the field.

The SEQT is incorporated within the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC), which groups the majority of graduates and professionals working in Pharmaceutical R+D.

The SEQT has honorary members, foundation members, full members, and protective members (pharmaceutical companies) that belong to the academic milieu, to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC, national research centers), and to private companies.

The Spanish Society of Medicinal Chemistry (SEQT) is a professional organization whose functions are highly relevant to the scope of the Molecules. We look forward to collaborating with SEQT and publishing state-of-the-art research from its members in this field.

 

We are delighted to announce that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is now a participant of our Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP). Authors funded by the BMGF can enjoy discounts on the APC, while the funder covers the costs of eligible articles centrally. BMGF also has access to the MDPI online submission system where they can find full article metadata and pricing information as well as Grant ID details for easy identification and additional transparency.

We hope that funded authors find the programme beneficial and we are happy to offer our IOAP to other funders that need a streamlined workflow of compliance checking and APC coverage. 

To claim their discount, BMGF funded authors should choose the particular funder and add their Grant ID upon online submission of their manuscript.

For any questions about the BMGF agreement, please contact the funder at [email protected] or the MDPI IOAP team at [email protected].

Recently, it was announced that a group of European funders supported 10 principles that will help to expand open access, known as Plan S. MDPI warmly welcomes this move as a step towards achieving more open and accessible communication of research across all disciplines. Some aspects remain to be clarified, however the details given so far match the aims and values that MDPI has held over the past two decades.

We believe that open access publishers should be active participants in discussions around Plan S, particularly regarding potential new business models and practical aspects of implementation. MDPI supports APCs as a transparent unit of payment for article publishing, however we are committed to exploring other measures and recently signed the Jussieu Call. Sustainability is a key value for MDPI, and future funding models should have at their heart the sustainability of knowledge and research dissemination. Plan S provides an opportunity for funders and publishers to directly discuss funding of open access journals in ways that are beneficial to all parties involved.

We are happy to announce the establishment of an Open Access (OA) agreement with Qatar National Library (QNL). QNL is committed to supporting and helping Qatar authors publish OA at no cost. Through this national agreement, QNL will cover the Article Processing Charges (APC) of manuscripts published by Qatar-based corresponding authors in MDPI journals.

Eligible corresponding authors affiliated with Qatar research centers and universities are prompted to choose QNL as part of our Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP) when they submit an article via our online submission system. The program will be selected automatically if authors submit their papers using their institutional email and/or a computer registered with the institution’s IP range. QNL will then crosscheck the information and confirm the APC funding.

Qatar authors that have their APC covered by QNL are advised to include the following sentence in their acknowledgments: "The publication of this article was funded by Qatar National Library".

For more information, please visit Open Access at QNL or email the QNL Open Access team at [email protected].

We are pleased to inform that Molecules received an updated Journal Impact Factor of 3.098 in the June 2018 release of the Journal Citation Reports®. The journal's 5-Year Impact Factor is 3.268. Molecules now ranks 68/171 (Q2) in the category 'Chemistry, Multidisciplinary' and 133/292 (Q2) in 'Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.'

Overview of Citation Metrics:

• Journal Impact Factor, 2 yrs (2017): 3.098
• 5-Year Impact Factor (2017): 3.268
• CiteScore, 3 yrs (Scopus): 3.27
• SJR Scimago Journal Rank 2017(SJR): 0.855
• Source Normalized Impact 2017 (SNIP): 1.146

Evolution of Impact Factor, Citations and Publications for Molecules:

Source: data according to Journal Citation Reports®, 2018 release, a Clarivate Analytics product; and Scopus journal metrics.

MDPI will be attending the 8th Tokyo Conference on Advanced Catalytic Science and Technology (TOCAT8), to be held in Yokohama, Japan, 5–10 August 2018.

Catalysis Society of Japan will organize this meeting as a continuation of TOCAT (1990), TOCAT2 (1994), TOCAT3 (1998), TOCAT4 (2002), TOCAT5 (2006), TOCAT6/APCAT5 (2010), and TOCAT7 (2014). The past seven TOCAT conferences have earned a good reputation as a new series of international conferences on catalysis that has significantly filled the gap between research and technology in catalysis. Stimulating closer ties between academia and industry and encouraging young researchers in the field of catalysis are the central concept of this conference. This conference should greatly contribute to exchanging new ideas and technologies and promoting developments of new outstanding catalysts and systems under the scope that catalysis is a highly and eagerly demanded technology in industries and for sustainable society and drives innovation in many other fields.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Catalysts
Processes
Energies
Molecules
Materials

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #8). 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.shokubai.org/tocat8/index.html.

We are pleased to report Molecules received a CiteScore of 3.27 for 2017. The metric reflects citation activity in 2017 in Scopus for papers published in the period 2014‒2016.

Molecules ranks in the first quartile in several chemistry-related categories. For the full details in the current CiteScore release, please see the journal's Source profile.

To check the full list of MDPI journals receiving CiteScores, please see here.

The 2017 CiteScore™ data is available now, based on citation data in the Scopus® database. The current CiteScore reflects citation activity in 2017 for articles published in 2014‒2016. Please note that the list below includes journals assigned a CiteScore in this year’s release. For a full list of journals indexed in Scopus, please see our journal list.

Thirteen of our journals received a CiteScore which is in the top 10% of the distribution in at least one of the categories (marked with * in the table below), while a further 32 journals exhibit scores that are in the first quartile of the respective categories.

To access the full data for MDPI journals, please see here. More data can also be found in SJR Scimago Journal & Country Rank.

Unlike CiteScores and the widely used Journal Impact Factors, the Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) metrics are normalized in order to correct for differences in citation practices between scientific fields. Therefore, the SNIP allows direct comparison between journals specialized in different fields.

According to 2017 data, MDPI publishes six journals with an average citation impact, or SNIP, in excess of 1.500. These journals are Biomolecules, Cancers, Journal of Clinical Medicine (JCM), Marine Drugs, Remote Sensing and Sensors (see the last column in the table below).

CiteScore Data for MDPI Journals

Journal	Rank (Quartile)	Category	Link	CiteScore 2017	2016	2015	SNIP 2017
Aerospace	43/116 (Q2)	• Aerospace Engineering	Link	1.23	-	-	1.152
Agriculture	69/309 (Q1) 91/398 (Q1) 78/255 (Q2)	• Agronomy and Crop Science • Plant Science • Food Science	Link	1.93	-	-	1.133
Agronomy	46/309 (Q1)	• Agronomy and Crop Science	Link	2.38	-	-	1.115
Algorithms	22/46 (Q2) 61/125 (Q2) 60/107 (Q3) 64/114 (Q3)	• Numerical Analysis • Computational Mathematics • Computational Theory and Mathematics • Theoretical Computer Science	Link	1.03	1.15	1.07	0.749
Animals	12/154 (Q1) * 48/367 (Q1)	• General Veterinary • Animal Science and Zoology	Link	2.02	1.46	1.66	1.099
Antibiotics	6/68 (Q1) * 62/263 (Q1) 55/230 (Q1) 31/108 (Q2) 47/134 (Q2) 139/398 (Q2)	• General Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics • Infectious Diseases • Pharmacology (medical) • Microbiology (medical) • Microbiology • Biochemistry	Link	2.85	1.65	-	0.975
Antibodies	43/143 (Q2) 61/164 (Q2) 85/189 (Q2)	• Drug Discovery • Immunology and Allergy • Immunology	Link	2.85	-	-	0.844
Antioxidants	23/119 (Q1) 35/169 (Q2) 100/398 (Q2) 119/367 (Q2) 102/264 (Q2)	• Clinical Biochemistry • Physiology • Biochemistry • Molecular Biology • Cell Biology	Link	3.42	-	-	1.361
Applied Sciences	48/270 (Q1) 15/66 (Q1) 31/116 (Q2) 18/53 (Q2) 151/434 (Q2) 186/535 (Q2)	• General Engineering • Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes • Instrumentation • Process Chemistry and Technology • General Materials Science • Computer Science Applications	Link	1.90	-	-	0.801
Biology	12/177 (Q1)* 32/186 (Q1) 10/40 (Q1)	• General Agricultural and Biological Sciences • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology • General Immunology and Microbiology	Link	3.48	3.02	2.78	0.961
Biomolecules	31/398 (Q1) * 41/367 (Q1)	• Biochemistry • Molecular Biology	Link	5.72	1.67	3.08	1.542
Biosensors	20/119 (Q1)	• Clinical Biochemistry	Link	3.59	2.83	2.37	1.122
Brain Sciences	47/111 (Q2)	• General Neuroscience	Link	2.56	-	-	0.695
Cancers	26/323 (Q1) * 23/191 (Q1)	• Oncology • Cancer Research	Link	5.82	5.02	4.07	1.567
Catalysts	32/151 (Q1) 21/46 (Q2)	• Physical and Theoretical Chemistry • Catalysis	Link	3.23	3.44	3.45	0.954
Crystals	76/272 (Q2) 140/434 (Q2) 127/398 (Q2) 26/64 (Q2)	• General Chemical Engineering • General Materials Science • Condensed Matter Physics • Inorganic Chemistry	Link	1.97	1.89	1.47	0.745
Diagnostics	49/119 (Q2)	• Clinical Biochemistry	Link	2.43	-	-	0.788
Diversity	30/124 (Q1) 14/52 (Q2) 83/306 (Q2) 11/29 (Q2)	• Nature and Landscape Conservation • Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) • Ecology • Ecological Modelling	Link	2.15	2.03	1.96	1.300
Electronics	109/644 (Q1) 26/148 (Q1) 42/224 (Q1) 50/259 (Q1) 23/96 (Q1)	• Electrical and Electronic Engineering • Hardware and Architecture • Control and Systems Engineering • Computer Networks and Communications • Signal Processing	Link	2.97	-	-	1.227
Energies	6/73 (Q1) * 31/192 (Q1) 103/644 (Q1) 4/16 (Q1) 47/140 (Q2)	• Control and Optimization • Energy Engineering and Power Technology • Electrical and Electronic Engineering • Energy (miscellaneous) • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment	Link	3.11	2.50	2.87	1.340
Entropy	35/202 (Q1)	• General Physics and Astronomy	Link	2.41	1.87	1.99	1.189
Forests	17/129 (Q1)	• Forestry	Link	2.31	2.06	1.76	0.990
Future Internet	132/259 (Q3)	• Computer Networks and Communications	Link	1.25	-	-	-
Games	132/187 (Q3) 78/110 (Q3) 305/418 (Q3)	• Statistics and Probability • Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty • Applied Mathematics	Link	0.61	0.87	0.57	1.038
Genes	21/91 (Q1) 74/311 (Q1)	• Genetics (clinical) • Genetics	Link	3.49	3.62	3.18	0.374
Geosciences	32/182 (Q1)	• General Earth and Planetary Sciences	Link	1.97	1.67	1.29	0.856
Information	143/251 (Q3)	• Information Systems	Link	1.16	0.78	0.94	1.146
Insects	27/135 (Q1)	• Insect Science	Link	1.85	1.81	1.38	0.719
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)	80/478 (Q1) 34/106 (Q2)	• Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis	Link	2.41	2.38	2.42	0.931
International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS)	7/69 (Q1) * 61/535 (Q1) 20/163 (Q1) 9/64 (Q1) 26/151 (Q1) 89/367 (Q2) 17/46 (Q2)	• Spectroscopy • Computer Science Applications • Organic Chemistry • Inorganic Chemistry • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry • Molecular Biology • Catalysis	Link	3.86	3.73	3.37	0.998
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (IJGI)	79/605 (Q1) 22/82 (Q2) 13/36 (Q2)	• Geography, Planning and Development • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) • Computers in Earth Sciences	Link	2.10	1.62	1.52	1.062
Journal of Clinical Medicine (JCM)	10/841 (Q1) *	• General Medicine	Link	7.07	-	-	1.535
Journal of Functional Biomaterials (JFB)	43/199 (Q1) 23/77 (Q2)	• Biomedical Engineering • Biomaterials	Link	3.47	-	-	1.344
Journal of Low Po- wer Electronics and Applications (JLPEA)	301/644 (Q2)	• Electrical and Electronic Engineering	Link	1.12	0.98	0.83	0.367
Journal of Personalized Medicine (JPM)	54/189 (Q2)	• Medicine (miscellaneous)	Link	2.61	-	-	0.944
Land	50/124 (Q2) 129/306 (Q2) 36/65 (Q3)	• Nature and Landscape Conservation • Ecology • Global and Planetary Change	Link	1.44	-	-	0.658
Life	4/94 (Q1) * 70/561 (Q1) 40/186 (Q1) 20/80 (Q2)	• Palaeontology • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology • Space and Planetary Science	Link	3.16	2.95	1.68	0.935
Marine Drugs	17/146 (Q1)	• Drug Discovery	Link	4.58	3.83	3.66	1.537
Materials	83/434 (Q1)	• General Materials Science	Link	3.02	3.26	3.11	1.285
Membranes	5/18 (Q2) 15/53 (Q2) 4/10 (Q2)	• Chemical Engineering (miscellaneous) • Process Chemistry and Technology • Filtration and Separation	Link	2.69	2.19	2.95	0.880
Metabolites	47/209 (Q1) 103/398 (Q2) 127/367 (Q2)	• Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism • Biochemistry • Molecular Biology	Link	3.35	-	-	0.925
Metals	155/434 (Q2)	• General Materials Science	Link	1.87	-	-	0.955
Micromachines	105/554 (Q1) 154/644 (Q1) 64/224 (Q2)	• Mechanical Engineering • Electrical and Electronic Engineering • Control and Systems Engineering	Link	2.31	1.83	1.78	0.987
Minerals	33/175 (Q1) 45/208 (Q1)	• Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology • Geology	Link	2.21	2.13	1.77	1.149
Molecules	4/25 (Q1) 25/172 (Q1) 18/104 (Q1) 31/163 (Q1) 30/151 (Q1) 31/146 (Q1) 55/160 (Q2)	• Chemistry (miscellaneous) • Pharmaceutical Science • Analytical Chemistry • Organic Chemistry • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry • Drug Discovery • Molecular Medicine	Link	3.27	3.09	2.65	1.146
Nutrients	11/255 (Q1) * 9/112 (Q1) *	• Food Science • Nutrition and Dietetics	Link	4.35	4.29	4.07	1.403
Pathogens	38/263 (Q1) 20/108 (Q1) 9/40 (Q1) 40/164 (Q1) 110/367 (Q2)	• Infectious Diseases • Microbiology (medical) • General Immunology and Microbiology • Immunology and Allergy • Molecular Biology	Link	3.52	-	-	1.166
Pharmaceuticals	14/172 (Q1) * 33/160 (Q1)	• Pharmaceutical Science • Molecular Medicine	Link	4.12	4.90	3.64	1.370
Pharmaceutics	21/172 (Q1)	• Pharmaceutical Science	Link	3.68	3.83	2.68	1.092
Photonics	30/116 (Q1) 80/270 (Q2) 53/160 (Q2)	• Instrumentation • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and Imaging • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics	Link	1.96	-	-	0.817
Plants	73/561 (Q1) 48/389 (Q1) 44/306 (Q1)	• Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics • Plant Science • Ecology	Link	3.13	-	-	0.969
Polymers	17/142 (Q1) 63/359 (Q1)	• Polymers and Plastics • General Chemistry	Link	3.30	3.74	3.37	1.213
Religions	26/389 (Q1) *	• Religious Studies	Link	0.56	-	-	0.676
Remote Sensing	13/182 (Q1) *	• General Earth and Planetary Sciences	Link	4.03	3.56	3.76	1.559
Resources	19/142 (Q1) 39/261 (Q1)	• Nature and Landscape Conservation • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law	Link	2.69	-	-	1.387
Scientia Pharmaceutica	92/172 (Q3)	• Pharmaceutical Science	Link	0.86	-	-	0.513
Sensors	9/116 (Q1) * 25/160 (Q1) 100/644 (Q1) 19/104 (Q1) 113/398 (Q2)	• Instrumentation • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics • Electrical and Electronic Engineering • Analytical Chemistry • Biochemistry	Link	3.23	2.78	2.21	1.550
Social Sciences	81/213 (Q2)	• General Social Sciences	Link	0.60	-	-	0.445
Sustainability	61/605 (Q1) * 55/261 (Q1) 60/140 (Q2)	• Geography, Planning and Development • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment	Link	2.37	1.96	1.78	1.030
Symmetry	44/327 (Q1) 17/45 (Q2) 16/40 (Q2) 14/25 (Q2)	• General Mathematics • Computer Science (miscellaneous) • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) • Chemistry (miscellaneous)	Link	1.32	1.12	0.95	0.802
Toxins	18/106 (Q1) 21/111 (Q1)	• Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis • Toxicology	Link	3.32	3.34	3.76	1.136
Vaccines	5/230 (Q1) * 13/263 (Q1) * 18/302 (Q1) * 11/146 (Q1) * 32/189 (Q1)	• Pharmacology (medical) • Infectious Diseases • Pharmacology • Drug Discovery • Immunology	Link	4.88	1.23	3.76	1.255
Viruses	29/263 (Q1) 16/68 (Q1)	• Virology • Infectious Diseases	Link	3.88	3.60	3.74	1.130
Water	66/605 (Q1) 37/191 (Q1) 43/199 (Q1) 193/398 (Q2)	• Geography, Planning and Development • Water Science and Technology • Aquatic Science • Biochemistry	Link	2.29	2.05	1.96	1.007