Announcements

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

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

We invite you to view the event recording:

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

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

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

You can find the Podcast here.

We hope you enjoy the contents!

Applications for editor positions are now open for Pharmacoepidemiology (ISSN: 2813-0618). You can find the responsibilities and opportunities for these positions below:

Editorial Board Member:

• Providing occasional feedback on the journal scope and performance;
• Pre-screening and making decisions regarding new submissions related to your research interests;
• Setting up at least one Special Issue during your term (2 years) on a topic related to your research interests;
• Helping to promote the journal among your peers or at conferences;
• Reviewing a couple of manuscripts per year;
• Publishing one paper per year, free of charge, in the journal, as well as receiving certain discounts for papers invited from your scientific network.

If you are interested in the position above, please send your full academic CV and a short cover letter that details your interest and enthusiasm for the position to pharmacoepidemiology@mdpi.com. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Guest Editor:

• Preparing the Special Issue title, aim and scope, summary, and keywords;
• Soliciting contributions or suggesting potential contributors;
• Pre-screening, supervising the whole peer review process, and making decisions regarding new submissions in your Special Issue;
• Promoting the Special Issue at conferences, on social media, and on other relevant platforms;
• Publishing one paper within the Special Issue, as well as receiving certain discounts for papers invited from your scientific network.

If you are interested in leading a Special Issue, please complete and submit your application via: https://www.mdpi.com/journalproposal/sendproposalspecialissue/pharmacoepidemiology.

Pharmacoepidemiology (ISSN: 2813-0618) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal that publishes original articles, critical reviews, and short communications on high-quality studies across the fields of pharmacoepidemiology, clinical pharmacology, and epidemiology. The aim of Pharmacoepidemiology is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in as much detail as possible. Therefore, the journal has no restrictions regarding the length of papers. Full experimental details should be provided so that results can be reproduced. For more information, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/pharmacoepidemiology.

Pharmacoepidemiology Editorial Office

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

We warmly congratulate the awarded young investigators for their outstanding contributions. MDPI will continue to provide support and recognition to the academic community.

Biomedicines:

• Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong
• Mateusz Maciejczyk, Medical University of Bialystok, Poland

Current Oncology:

• Matteo Lambertini, University of Genova, Italy

Dentistry Journal:

• Helen Rogers, Newcastle University, UK

Healthcare:

• Amir Karami, University of South Carolina, USA

Journal of Clinical Medicine:

• Andrea Palermo, Campus Bio-Medico University, Italy

Journal of Personalized Medicine:

• Simone Di Franco, University of Palermo, Italy
• Catriona Hippman, University of Calgary, Canada

Medicina:

• Veeru Kasivisvanathan, University College London, UK
• Andrea Cortegiani, University of Palermo, Italy; University Hospital Policlinico Paolo Giaccone, Italy

Pharmaceutics:

• Qi Zhou, Purdue University, USA

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

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

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

We would like to warmly congratulate the Travel Awards winners for the year 2021 and wish them the greatest success with their future research endeavors. MDPI will continue to enhance communication among scientists.

Biomedicines:

• Soheil Saeedi, University of Zurich, Switzerland

Dentistry Journal:

• Shawn Alexander Hallett, University of Michigan, USA

Medicines:

• Claire Albert, Yale University, USA

Pharmaceuticals:

• Raquel Filipa da Costa Viveiros, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
• Patrick Jim Küppers, University Hospital Bonn, Germany

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

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

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

Cancers:

• Antonio G. Solimando, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy
• Chenghui Li, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, USA
• Joaquim Carreras, Tokai University, Japan
• Pierfrancesco Franco, University of Turin School of Medicine, Italy
• Laurentiu Pop, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA

Current Oncology:

• Margaret Fitch, University of Toronto, Canada
• Caroline Mariano, BC Cancer Agency, Canada; University of British Columbia, Canada

Healthcare:

• Naser Alsharairi, Griffith University, Australia
• Peter W. Choate, Mount Royal University, Canada
• Qin Xiang Ng, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Journal of Clinical Medicine:

• Giulio Francesco, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
• Sebastian Schnaubelt, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
• Olga Kislitsina, Northwestern University, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, USA

Journal of Personalized Medicine:

• Onofrio Laselva, University of Foggia, Italy
• Ping-Hsun Wu, Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan
• Vladimir Vladimirov, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
• Mauro Giuffrè, University of Trieste, Italy

Medical Sciences:

• Erika Palmieri, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, USA

Tomography:

• Anjul Khadria, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA

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

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

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

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

Antibiotics:

• “Antimicrobial and Synergistic Effects of Commercial Piperine and Piperlongumine in Combination with Conventional Antimicrobials”

by Eunice Ego Mgbeahuruike, Milla Stålnacke, Heikki Vuorela and Yvonne Holm

Antibiotics 2019, 8(2), 55; doi:10.3390/antibiotics8020055

• “Antibiotic Discovery: Where Have We Come from, Where Do We Go?”

by Bernardo Ribeiro da Cunha, Luís P. Fonseca and Cecília R. C. Calado

Antibiotics 2019, 8(2), 45; doi:10.3390/antibiotics8020045

Dentistry Journal:

• “Regeneration of the Periodontal Apparatus in Aggressive Periodontitis Patients”

by Zvi Artzi, Shiran Sudri, Ori Platner and Avital Kozlovsky

Dent. J. 2019, 7(1), 29; doi:10.3390/dj7010029

• “Treatment of Peri-Implant Mucositis with Repeated Application of Chlorhexidine Chips or Gel during Supportive Therapy—A Randomized Clinical Trial”

by Philipp Sahrmann, Cyrill Bettschart, Daniel B. Wiedemeier, Ahmed Al-Majid, Thomas Attin and Patrick R. Schmidlin

Dent. J. 2019, 7(4), 115; doi:10.3390/dj7040115

Healthcare:

• “Two-Year Use of Care Robot Zora in Dutch Nursing Homes: An Evaluation Study”

by Chantal Huisman and Helianthe Kort

Healthcare 2019, 7(1), 31; doi:10.3390/healthcare7010031

• “The Interlinked Rising Epidemic of Insufficient Sleep and Diabetes Mellitus”

by Vijay Kumar Chattu, Soosanna Kumary Chattu, Deepa Burman, David Warren Spence and Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal

Healthcare 2019, 7(1), 37; doi:10.3390/healthcare7010037

Journal of Clinical Medicine:

• “Periodontitis: A Multifaceted Disease of Tooth-Supporting Tissues”

by Eija Könönen, Mervi Gursoy and Ulvi Kahraman Gursoy

Clin. Med. 2019, 8(8), 1135; doi:10.3390/jcm8081135

• “The Immunomodulatory Functions of Mesenchymal Stromal/Stem Cells Mediated via Paracrine Activity”

by Yueyuan Zhou, Yusuke Yamamoto, Zhongdang Xiao and Takahiro Ochiya

Clin. Med. 2019, 8(7), 1025; doi:10.3390/jcm8071025

• “Optimizing Detection of Kidney Transplant Injury by Assessment of Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA via Massively Multiplex PCR”

by Tara K. Sigdel, Felipe Acosta Archila, Tudor Constantin, Sarah A. Prins, Juliane Liberto, Izabella Damm, Parhom Towfighi, Samantha Navarro, Eser Kirkizlar, Zachary P. Demko, Allison Ryan, Styrmir Sigurjonsson, Reuben D. Sarwal, Szu-Chuan Hseish, Chitranon Chan-On, Bernhard Zimmermann, Paul R. Billings, Solomon Moshkevich and Minnie M. Sarwal

Clin. Med. 2019, 8(1), 19; doi:10.3390/jcm8010019

Medicina:

• “Tumor Microenvironment”

by Borros Arneth

Medicina 2020, 56(1), 15; doi: 10.3390/medicina56010015

• “Comparative Epidemiology and Resistance Trends of Common Urinary Pathogens in a Tertiary-Care Hospital: A 10-Year Surveillance Study”

by Márió Gajdács, Marianna Ábrók, Andrea Lázár, and Katalin Burián

Medicina 2019, 55(7), 356; doi: 10.3390/medicina55070356

Pharmaceutics:

• “3D Printed Pellets (Miniprintlets): A Novel, Multi-Drug, Controlled Release Platform Technology”

by Atheer Awad, Fabrizio Fina, Sarah J. Trenfield, Pavanesh Patel, Alvaro Goyanes, Simon Gaisford and Abdul W. Basit.

Pharmaceutics 2019, 11(4), 148; doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics11040148

• “Mathematical Modeling of Release Kinetics from Supramolecular Drug Delivery Systems”

by Constantin Mircioiu, Victor Voicu, Valentina Anuta, Andra Tudose, Christian Celia, Donatella Paolino, Massimo Fresta, Roxana Sandulovici and Ion Mircioiu

Pharmaceutics 2019, 11(3), 140; doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics11030140

The 2021 citation metrics have been officially released in Scopus!

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

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

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

Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Cristina Bosetti has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of Pharmacoepidemiology (ISSN: 2813-0618, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/pharmacoepidemiology).

Since 2017, Dr. Cristina Bosetti has been Director of the Head Unit Cancer Epidemiology, Laboratory of Methodology for Clinical Research, Department of Oncology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milan, Italy. She worked as a research fellow at the Laboratory of Mother and Child Health (1996-1997), the Laboratory of General Epidemiology (1998-2004), and the Department of Epidemiology (2005-2016) of the Mario Negri Institute. She has been a visiting scientist at: the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain (June 2010); “Life style and cancer group”, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Lyon, France (Oct 2009); “International Epidemiology Institute”, Rockville, MD, USA (2002-2009); Unit of “Field and intervention studies”, IARC, Lyon, France (Sept. 2000/June 2001); Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA (Sept-Nov 1998).

Her main field of interest is the epidemiology of cancer and other chronic conditions. In particular, she has extensive experience in the conduction and analysis of observational studies investigating the role of lifestyle habits, personal and familial medical history, use of drugs, hormonal and reproductive factors, and other environmental exposures on cancer and other chronic conditions; the analysis of temporal trends and geographic patterns of mortality and incidence from cancer and other chronic conditions; the conduction of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on various environmental exposures and disease risk; the conduction of pharmacoepidemiologic studies; and the conduction of clinical studies in the field of pain treatment and palliative care. She has participated in research projects supported by the Italian Association for Research on Cancer (AIRC), the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA), the Italian League Against Cancer (LILT), and the European Commission (EC). Moreover, she is a member of the following international consortia: Bladder Cancer Consortium (BLADDER), International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology (INHANCE), and Pancreatic Cancer Case-Control Consortium (PANC4). She has authored/co-authored over 422 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals cited in PubMed/MEDLINE (H-index: 81).

The following is a short Q&A with Dr. Cristina Bosetti, who shared her vision for the journal with us as well as her views on the research area.

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

What attracted me is the possibility to contribute in an active way to a new journal, specifically focused on pharmacoepidemiology. There are, in fact, only a few scientific journals in this field, but there is an increasing necessity to publish data on the utilization and effects of drugs conducted on large numbers of individuals, for integrating the evidence from clinical trials. Therefore, I believe this new journal is a good opportunity for many researchers working in this field and I am pleased to collaborate in its launch as an Editor-in-Chief.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

The journal should give space to epidemiologic studies conducted in the real world on the beneficial effects of drugs on the population and their potential adverse effects, in order to integrate the evidence from clinical trials. The journal should consider studies focused on many pharmacological treatments for which there is the need to provide novel and up-to-date data, conducted in a rigorous way, using proper but also innovative (epidemiologic) methods to answer the research questions in the best way possible. The studies will span from clinical pharmacology and epidemiology and will be focused on understanding the determinants of beneficial and adverse drug effects, duration–response relationships, clinical effects of drug–drug interactions, effects of genetic variation on drug effect, and the effects of non-adherence to treatments. Studies on the population-level monitoring for unwanted effects and other safety concerns arising in drugs that are already on the market, as well as studies on the conduct and evaluation of programmatic efforts to improve medication use on a population basis should also be envisaged.

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

Pharmacoepidemiology has been largely developing over the last two decades, and I believe it is a growing field of research, which is envisioned to make further progress in the near future. This is also thanks to the availability of large and integrated healthcare data, which include clinical and pharmacological information on a large number of patients, routinely collected for clinical but also administrative purposes.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?

Open access journals offer the possibility of making research available to institutes and countries, mainly in the developing world, which cannot afford to pay for journal subscriptions. Thus, it will make research findings more accessible. It is important, however, to avoid the risk that payment for the publication of a scientific manuscript necessarily implies that the paper should be published independent of its quality.

We are currently recruiting a founding Editor-in-Chief for our new journal, Pharmacoepidemiology (ISSN 2813-0618; https://www.mdpi.com/journal/pharmacoepidemiology), which is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal that publishes original articles, critical reviews, and short communications on high-quality epidemiological, clinical research across the fields of clinical pharmacology and epidemiology. The multidisciplinary journal welcomes manuscripts which cover a wide range of aspects involving pharmacoepidemiology and its development.

The detailed responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief are as follows:

• Acting as an ambassador for the MDPI journal;
• Making scientific decisions based on the journal's scope;
• Inviting distinguished scientists to join the Editorial Board;
• Suggesting relevant topics for Special Issues;
• Providing support and guidance to the Section Editors-in-Chief, Editorial Board Members, and editorial staff when required;
• Maintaining oversight of the editorial process for individual manuscripts (mainly by making the final decision regarding whether or not a paper can be published after peer review and revisions);
• Understanding, leading and upholding MDPI’s peer-review and ethics guidelines;
• Performing pre-checks for new manuscripts, and making final decisions after peer review and revisions when requested;
• Chairing the annual Editorial Board meeting.

To apply for this position, recommend potential candidates, or request further information, please contact the Pharmacoepidemiology Editorial Office (pharmacoepidemiology@mdpi.com), or the Managing Editor, Ms. Fendy Fan (fendy.fan@mdpi.com).

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

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

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

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