Announcements

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

It is our sincere pleasure and great honor to announce the 1st International Electronic Conference on Processes: Processes System Innovation (ECP2022), organized by the MDPI open-access journal Processes (ISSN: 2227-9717). This conference will be hosted online by https://sciforum.net/event/ECP2022 from 17 to 31 May 2022.

This conference will present the latest studies in process/system-related research in chemistry, biology, material, energy, environment, food, pharmaceutical, and allied engineering fields. The goal is to create an advanced forum for new development, challenges, and opportunities in process systems engineering.

All processes/system-related scientists or researchers are welcome to join this event and share their findings around the following general and related themes including, but not limited to:

• Experimental, theoretical, and computational research on process development and engineering;
• Process modeling, simulation, optimization, and control;
• Integrated process design and scaleup;
• Sustainable and renewable systems engineering;
• Supply chain management;
• Circular economies;
• Eco-friendly processes and methods.

Submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the conference committee. The authors of accepted contributions will be invited to produce an extended abstract for the conference proceedings along with a presentation slide of their work. Following the conference, selected contributions will be invited for submission to the journal Processes (Impact Factor: 2.847).

We look forward to having you join us at this exciting event.

Conference Chair:

Prof. Dr. Giancarlo Cravotto (University of Turin, Italy)

Conference Secretariat:

Ms. Wency Xiang
Ms. Susan Ji
Ms. Elena Shi
Email: ecp2022@mdpi.com

1. “Study of Activation Energy on the Movement of Gyrotactic Microorganism in a Magnetized Nanofluids Past a Porous Plate”
Muhammad Mubashir Bhatti et al.
Processes 2020, 8(3), 328. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8030328
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/3/328

2. “Alkaline Water Electrolysis Powered by Renewable Energy: A Review”
Jörn Brauns et al.
Processes 2020, 8(2), 248. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8020248
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/2/248

3. “Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Wastewater Sludge: A Review of Potential Co-Substrates and Operating Factors for Improved Methane Yield”
Wei Ling Chow et al.
Processes 2020, 8(1), 39. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8010039
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/1/39

4. “Review of Evidence Available on Hesperidin-Rich Products as Potential Tools against COVID-19 and Hydrodynamic Cavitation-Based Extraction as a Method of Increasing Their Production”
Francesco Meneguzzo et al.
Processes 2020, 8(5), 549. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8050549
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/5/549

5. “Current Advances in Biofouling Mitigation in Membranes for Water Treatment: An Overview”
Daniela Pichardo-Romero et al.
Processes 2020, 8(2), 182. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8020182
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/2/182

6. “Kinetics, Isotherms, and Thermodynamic Modeling of the Adsorption of Phosphates from Model Wastewater Using Recycled Brick Waste”
Uduakobong A. Edet et al.
Processes 2020, 8(6), 665. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8060665
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/6/665

7. “Thermodynamic Optimization of a Geothermal Power Plant with a Genetic Algorithm in Two Stages”
Mehdi A. Ehyaei et al.
Processes 2020, 8(10), 1277. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8101277
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/10/1277

8. “A Review on the Control Parameters of Natural Convection in Different Shaped Cavities with and without Nanofluid”
Sara Rostami et al.
Processes 2020, 8(9), 1011. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8091011
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/9/1011

9. “Available Technologies and Materials for Waste Cooking Oil Recycling”
Alberto Mannu et al.
Processes 2020, 8(3), 366. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8030366
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/3/366

10. “Plasma Agriculture from Laboratory to Farm: A Review”
Pankaj Attri et al.
Processes 2020, 8(8), 1002. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr8081002
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/8/8/1002

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.

It is our great pleasure to announce the launch of the Section “Catalysis Enhanced Processes”, which will provide a specific venue for this field of research in Processes (ISSN: 2227-9717).

We are now recruiting Editorial Board Members (EBMs) and Guest Editors (GEs) for this Section (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/processes/sections/catalysis_enhanced_processes). If you are an active researcher in the field and passionate about publishing cutting-edge research, please do not hesitate to contact us (processes@mdpi.com).

Responsibilities of Processes EBMs include the following:

• Making decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted or not based on the reports we collect;
• Suggesting special topics or editing a Special Issue on a topic related to your research;
• Promoting the journal and increasing its visibility at related academic conferences;
• Advising on the journal development.

Benefits for Processes EBMs include the following:

• Discounts on the papers you publish;
• A certificate in recognition of your role as an EBM of Processes;
• Additional sponsorships are offered by Processes for conferences that you organize.

Responsibilities of Processes GEs include the following:

• Defining the aims and scope of the Special Issue;
• Carrying out pre-checks and making final decisions as to whether a paper is acceptable (according to the review reports);
• Providing a potential author list and inviting some high-quality contributions.

Benefits for Processes GEs include the following:

• A discount for publication in your Special Issue;
• A certificate in recognition of your role as a GE of Processes;
• A book which could be published if more than five papers are published in the Special Issue;
• Consideration as a Processes Editorial Board Member candidate if the Special Issue is successful.

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.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Orazio Nicolotti has been appointed Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Section "Pharmaceutical Processes" in the journal Processes (2227-9717).

Prof. Dr. Orazio Nicolotti is a Full Professor of medicinal chemistry at the Dipartimento di Farmacia-Scienze del Farmaco of Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro”. His fields of research expertise are drug discovery; QSAR; predictive toxicology; combinatorial library design; evolutionary algorithms and artificial intelligence; and docking and molecular dynamics. He has published over 100 significant scientific papers, with more than 3000 citations (h-index 33).

We are confident that the strong academic background and connections of the new Associate Section Editor-in-Chief will continue to improve the reputation and quality of Processes.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Hoon Kim has been appointed Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Section "Pharmaceutical Processes" in the journal Processes (ISSN: 2227-9717).

Prof. Dr. Hoon Kim is a Professor at the College of Pharmacy, Sunchon National University. Since 1988, Hoon Kim has published over 100 significant scientific papers, with more than 1800 citations (h-index 26). His fields of research expertise are monoamine oxidase inhibitors; acetylcholinesterase inhibitors; β-secretase inhibitors; pharmaceutical biochemistry; cell wall lytic enzymes (cellulases, xylanases, β-glucosidases, esterases, protease, and chitinases); microbial metagenomes; and antibiotics.

We are confident that the strong academic background and connections of the new section Editor-in-Chief will continue to improve the reputation and quality of Processes.

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

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

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

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

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