Announcements

MDPI will be attending the 2024 Asian Plant Pathology Congress and Annual Academic Meeting of the Chinese Society of Plant Pathology in Changchun, China, which will take place from 3 to 7 August 2024. In order to strengthen academic exchange and promote the high-quality development of phytopathology in the country, we celebrate the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Phytopathology Society. It is hosted by the Chinese Phytopathology Society and organized by Jilin Agricultural University, Jilin University, the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Jilin Agricultural Technology Extension Station, and other units. The topics of the conference include plant pathogenic oomycetes, plant virology, plant pathogenic bacteriology, plant pathogenic nematology, plant disease control, etc.

The following MDPI journals will be represented at the conference:

• Agronomy (leading);
• Life (leading);
• Agriculture;
• Plants;
• Pathogens;
• IJPB;
• IJMS;
• CIMB;
• JoF;
• Seeds.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to engage with us at our booth #B09. Our delegates look forward to meeting you and answering any questions that you may have.

Conference: Plant Genomics in China XXII
Organization: Genetic Society of China
Date: 19–22 August 2024
Place: Haikou, Hainan, China

MDPI journals will be attending Plant Genomics in China XXII as exhibitors. This meeting will be held in Haikou, Hainan, China, from 19 to 22 August 2024.

In order to fully demonstrate the latest achievements and progress in the field of plant genome research and promote the in-depth research of plant genomics in the country and the rapid development of the agricultural biotechnology industry, the 23rd National Congress is scheduled to be held in Haikou, Hainan, from August 19 to 22, 2024. The conference will invite experts, scholars and outstanding young scientists at home and abroad who have made outstanding achievements in plant genomics-related fields and have important academic influence to give academic reports. The language of the conference report is English. The organizing committee invites domestic and foreign colleagues and graduate students from relevant universities and research institutes to participate in this conference. This conference is the largest high-level academic event in the field of genetics research in China. This conference invites famous scholars, experts, young talents and entrepreneurs in the field of genetics to conduct in-depth exchanges.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Plants;
• Genes;
• International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS);
• Life;
• Biomolecules;
• Current Issues in Molecular Biology (CIMB);
• International Journal of Plant Biology (IJPB);
• Agronomy;
• BioTech.

If you will be attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have.

MDPI will be attending the 5th Academic Forum on “Nitrogen Biogeochemical Cycle” in Wuhan, China, which will take place from 16 to 18 August 2024. The conference is organized by the Soil Science Society of China (SSSC). With the theme of “Global Change and Ecosystem Nitrogen Cycle”, this academic forum will focus on important issues such as the farmland ecosystem nitrogen cycle, wetland and water nitrogen cycle, forest and grassland nitrogen cycle, atmospheric nitrogen cycle, nitrogen cycle microorganisms and nitrogen management and policy, and conduct in-depth discussions.

The top ten scientific advances of the year in research on the nitrogen cycle will also be released to promote cross-integration and independent innovation among disciplines.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Diversity;
• Sustainability;
• Ecologies;
• Environments;
• Land;
• Limnological Review;
• Nitrogen;
• Plants.

If you are planning to attend the conference, please visit our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://ncycle2024.aconf.cn/.

Five new journals covering multiple subjects have launched their inaugural issue in June 2024. We are excited to be able to share with you the newest research rooted in the value of open access.

We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all the Editorial Board Members and each journal will ensure its high-quality output using excellent editorial and rigorous peer review processes, to ensure that the articles achieve high impact and visibility.

Please feel free to browse and discover more about the new journals below.

Journal	Founding Editor-in-Chief	Journal Topics (Selected)
	Prof. Dr. Marco Ranucci, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, Italy | Editorial | view inaugural issue	anaesthetic medications; blood and fluid management; pain management; critical care; critical illness | view journal scope | submit an article
	Dr. Giovanni E. Cacciamani, University of Southern California, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue	surgical/procedural complications; complications; perioperative adverse events; postoperative adverse events | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr.  Gassan Hodaifa, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain | Editorial | view inaugural issue	laboratory management; laboratory safety; protective equipment; laboratory problems and challenges; laboratory Innovation | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Jan S. Suchodolski, Texas A&M University, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue	companion animals health and disease; veterinary care and nutrition; genetics and genomics; behavior and welfare; human-animal relations | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Pierfrancesco De Paola, University of Naples Federico II, Italy | Editorial | view inaugural issue	real estate appraisal; economic and financial valuation of real estate projects; sustainable real estate; housing and urban economics | view journal scope | submit an article

We wish to thank everyone who has supported the development of open access publishing. You are welcome to send an application here, or contact the New Journal Committee (newjournal-committee@mdpi.com) if you would like to create more new journals.

We are pleased to share that Plants (ISSN: 2223-7747) was awarded an impact factor of 4.0 in the 2023 Journal Citation Reports™ released by Clarivate in June 2024. Plants ranks Q1 (73 among 516 titles) in the “Plant Sciences” category.

For further statistics, please visit https://www.mdpi.com/journal/plants/stats. For more information about MDPI flagship journals' citation metrics, please see here.

At MDPI, our mission is simple yet powerful, and we strive every day to make scientific research freely accessible to everyone, everywhere. With over 3.5 million authors choosing MDPI, we have established ourselves as a key player driving the open access initiative.

Our journals have received over 13 million citations in Web of Science, making us the most cited open access publisher. With over 800 institutional partners, MDPI continues to demonstrate its dedication to providing reliable and collaborative publishing services.

Plants Editorial Office

MDPI is pleased to announce the inclusion of 237 journals in the 2024 release of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and share the key results (see above).

This year, journals covered in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) received category ranks together with journals in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Overall, 139 MDPI journals indexed in ESCI are included in the new unified rankings for the first time.

Enhanced Comparability of Data

According to Clarivate, "the creation of unified category rankings [provides] a simpler and more complete category view for the evaluation of journal performance. [...] The category-first approach simplifies journal performance assessment with a holistic view of all journals in each subject category."

We are thrilled to announce that 72% of our ranked MDPI journals (171 of 237) are above average, in Q1 or Q2. Twenty-nine of our journals received their first Impact Factor this year, accounting for more than 5% of the journals accepted into the Web of Science last year.

MDPI Journals Ranked in JCR

The following data includes all MDPI journals indexed in SCIE, SSCI, ESCI and AHCI.

Source: 2023 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2024)

About MDPI

A pioneer in scholarly, open access publishing, MDPI has supported academic communities since 1996. MDPI is leading the transition to open science by making more research free and accessible to everyone. Over 3.5 million researchers have entrusted MDPI with publishing their scientific discoveries. MDPI’s editorial process is bolstered by a network of dedicated reviewers, a team of 6000 professional, well-trained staff members, and an in-house article submission platform that was designed to ensure efficient processes within its 440 fully open access titles.

Conference: XX International Botanical Congress—IBC 2024
Organization: International Association for Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS)
Date: 21–27 July 2024
Place: FEMA Madrid, Avda del Partenón, 5. 28042 Madrid, Spain

MDPI journals will be attending IBC 2024 as exhibitors. This meeting will be held in Madrid, Spain, from 21 to 27 July 2024.

The IBC takes place every six years under the supervision of the International Association for Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS). Rooted in the tradition of systematic botany, the IBCs have enlarged their scope over more than a century to become an integrated forum for knowledge on the plant and mycological worlds. The topics include the following: systematics; phylogenetics; biogeography and evolution; ecology, environmental, and global change, including invasive species and plant-animal interactions; biodiversity and conservation; structure, physiology, and development, including evo-devo genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics; and plants and society.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Plants;
• International Journal of Plant Biology (IJPB);
• Biology;
• Taxonomy;
• Agronomy;
• Diversity;
• Forests;
• Life;
• Ecologies;
• Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens (JZBG);
• Journal of Fungi (JoF);
• Conservation.

If you will be attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following website: https://ibcmadrid2024.com/.

We are pleased to inform you that Plants (ISSN: 2223-7747) has received a heightened CiteScore of 6.5.

CiteScore provides transparent metrics that enable well-informed publishing strategies, library collection development, and the benchmarking of journal performance. It is now a standard citation metric alongside SNIP and SJR that gives an up-to-date view of a journal’s impact.

The 2023 CiteScore provides an assessment of the scientific influence of journals in the 2020 to 2023 period. This is a reflection of the excellent performance, support, and dedication of all journal editors, reviewers, authors, and readers.

Plants’ CiteScore ranks as follows:

• Q1 (73 out of 516) in the “Plant Science” category; 
• Q2 (72 out of 461) in the “Ecology” category;
• Q2 (96 out of 721) in the “Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics” category.

For more journal statistics, please visit https://www.mdpi.com/journal/plants/stats.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the journal.

Plants Editorial Office

On UNESCO’s 2024 Oceans Day, MDPI encourages the scientific community to increase the accessibility of ocean research to accelerate ocean conservation.

Basel, Switzerland, June 7, 2024: MDPI, a leading open access (OA) publisher, is proud to announce its active support for World Oceans Day 2024, celebrated under UNESCO’s Ocean Decade framework. MDPI’s CEO, Stefan Tochev hopes that “the latest ocean research can be made freely accessible to help empower scientists and communities at large to save our oceans,” under UNESCO’s Ocean Decade until 2030.

Open Access: A Catalyst for Ocean Action

MDPI’s presence at the UNESCO Ocean Decade Conference 2024 highlights our unwavering commitment to using OA to advance ocean science, support research communities, and promote sustainable ocean management.

"Our involvement in the UNESCO Ocean Decade Conference underscores MDPI's commitment to the underfunded Ocean SDG. By promoting OA to scientific articles and books on SDGs, we aim to inspire critical actions," said Tochev. "Our initiatives, like the World Sustainability Award and Emerging Sustainability Award, further demonstrate our dedication to advancing sustainability.”

Showcasing MDPI’s Contributions to Ocean Research

Over the past three years, MDPI has published 30,000 papers focused on ocean research and related topics. Key MDPI journals contributing to this body of work include:

• Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (4.9k papers)
• Remote Sensing (2.6k papers)
• Sustainability (2k papers)
• International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS) (1.7k papers)
• Marine Drugs (1.5k papers)
• Water (1.5k papers)

These publications highlight MDPI’s contributions to ocean science, reinforcing our role in the broader sustainability agenda by promoting blue innovation and economy.

Additionally, MDPI has launched Oceans, an international, peer-reviewed forum specifically aimed at publishing studies related to all branches of oceanography with an emphasis on the functioning of the ocean and the sustainable use of its resources and ecosystem services.

Affirming MDPI’s Commitment to Ocean Science

MDPI’s commitment to OA is pivotal in addressing critical global challenges, from climate change to ocean sustainability. Our efforts resonate with Outcome 4 of the UNESCO Ocean Decade action roadmap: an accessible ocean with open and equitable access to data, information, technology, and innovation. By aligning with UNESCO’s goals, MDPI continues to contribute to shaping a sustainable future for our oceans, reinforcing our position as a forward-thinking publisher dedicated to environmental stewardship and scientific excellence.

For more information, contact Rui Duarte at rui.duarte@mdpi.com or +41764313242.

About MDPI