Since it was established, “Editor’s Choice” has always been welcomed by researchers. Editors-in-Chief have selected about 300 papers to display here. All of them have gained significant influence.

In April 2021, the Editorial Office selected another 15 papers among the most downloaded publications. The following is the paper list.

Inter-Comparison and Evaluation of Remote Sensing Precipitation Products over China from 2005 to 2013 Qiaolin Zeng et al.	Realistic Forest Stand Reconstruction from Terrestrial LiDAR for Radiative Transfer Modelling Kim Calders et al.
Assessing Correlation of High-Resolution NDVI with Fertilizer Application Level and Yield of Rice and Wheat Crops Using Small UAVs Senlin Guan et al.	30 m Resolution Global Annual Burned Area Mapping Based on Landsat Images and Google Earth Engine Tengfei Long et al.
Canadian Wetland Inventory using Google Earth Engine: The First Map and Preliminary Results Meisam Amani et al.	Overall Methodology Design for the United States National Land Cover Database 2016 Products Suming Jin et al.
Deforestation and Forest Degradation Due to Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon: A 34-Year Perspective Jorge Caballero Espejo et al.	Satellite Derived Bathymetry Using Machine Learning and Multi-Temporal Satellite Images Tatsuyuki Sagawa et al.
Landslide Detection Using Multi-Scale Image Segmentation and Different Machine Learning Models in the Higher Himalayas Sepideh Tavakkoli Piralilou et al.	A New Algorithm for the On-Board Compression of Hyperspectral Images Raúl Guerra et al.
East Africa Rainfall Trends and Variability 1983–2015 Using Three Long-Term Satellite Products Elsa Cattani et al.	Impacts of Climate Change on Tibetan Lakes: Patterns and Processes Dehua Mao et al.
Landsat Super-Resolution Enhancement Using Convolution Neural Networks and Sentinel-2 for Training Darren Pouliot et al.	A Comparative Assessment of the Performance of Individual Tree Crowns Delineation Algorithms from ALS Data in Tropical Forests Mélaine Aubry-Kientz et al.
The GFZ GRACE RL06 Monthly Gravity Field Time Series: Processing Details and Quality Assessment Christoph Dahle et al.

 We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the research groups of the exceptional papers for their contributions to Remote Sensing. We would appreciate it if you would circulate this document among your colleagues or through your network. 

If you want to learn more about the contributions published in “Editor’s Choice”, please read here.

 

Since it was established, “Editor’s Choice” has always been welcomed by researchers. Our Editors-in-Chief have selected more than 200 papers to display here. All of them have gained significant influence.

Recently, the Editorial Office selected the following papers among the most downloaded publications from Volume 12, Issues 9–14. The following is the paper list.

Mapping Floristic Patterns of Trees in Peruvian Amazonia Using Remote Sensing and Machine Learning Pablo Pérez Chaves et al.	Deep Learning Approaches Applied to Remote Sensing Datasets for Road Extraction: A State-Of-The-Art Review Abolfazl Abdollahi et al.
Integrating National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Airborne Remote Sensing and In-Situ Data for Optimal Tree Species Classification Victoria M. Scholl et al.	Object Detection and Image Segmentation with Deep Learning on Earth Observation Data: A Review-Part I: Evolution and Recent Trends Thorsten Hoeser et al.
LiDAR-Based Estimates of Canopy Base Height for a Dense Uneven-Aged Structured Forest Alexandra Stefanidou et al.	Compatibility of Aerial and Terrestrial LiDAR for Quantifying Forest Structural Diversity Elizabeth A. LaRue et al.
U-Net-Id, an Instance Segmentation Model for Building Extraction from Satellite Images—Case Study in the Joanópolis City, Brazil Fabien H. Wagner et al.	60 Years of Glacier Elevation and Mass Changes in the Maipo River Basin, Central Andes of Chile David Farías-Barahona et al.
From Monitoring to Forecasting Land Surface Conditions Using a Land Data Assimilation System: Application over the Contiguous United States Anthony Mucia et al.	Enhancing Methods for Under-Canopy Unmanned Aircraft System Based Photogrammetry in Complex Forests for Tree Diameter Measurement Sean Krisanski et al.
Aboveground Biomass Estimation in Amazonian Tropical Forests: a Comparison of Aircraft- and GatorEye UAV-borne LiDAR Data in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in Acre, Brazil Marcus V. N. d’Oliveira et al.	Analysis and Assessment of BDS-2 and BDS-3 Broadcast Ephemeris: Accuracy, the Datum of Broadcast Clocks and Its Impact on Single Point Positioning Guoqiang Jiao et al.
Remote Sensing Support for the Gain-Loss Approach for Greenhouse Gas Inventories Ronald E. McRoberts et al.	An Estimation of Top-Down NOx Emissions from OMI Sensor Over East Asia Kyung M. Han et al.
Evaluating the Performance of Sentinel-3A OLCI Land Products for Gross Primary Productivity Estimation Using AmeriFlux Data Zhijiang Zhang et al.	High Quality Zenith Tropospheric Delay Estimation Using a Low-Cost Dual-Frequency Receiver and Relative Antenna Calibration Andreas Krietemeyer et al.
Surface Temperature of the Planet Earth from Satellite Data over the Period 2003–2019 José Antonio Sobrino et al.	Sea Level Variability in the Red Sea: A Persistent East–West Pattern Cheriyeri P. Abdulla et al.
Identification of Short-Rotation Eucalyptus Plantation at Large Scale Using Multi-Satellite Imageries and Cloud Computing Platform Xinping Deng et al.	Contribution of Remote Sensing Technologies to a Holistic Coastal and Marine Environmental Management Framework: A Review Badr El Mahrad et al.
Adaptive Modeling of the Global Ionosphere Vertical Total Electron Content Eren Erdogan et al.	Satellite-Based Drought Impact Assessment on Rice Yield in Thailand with SIMRIW−RS Mongkol Raksapatcharawong et al.
EANet: Edge-Aware Network for the Extraction of Buildings from Aerial Images Guang Yang et al.	Development of the Chinese Space-Based Radiometric Benchmark Mission LIBRA Peng Zhang et al.
Carbon Dioxide Retrieval from TanSat Observations and Validation with TCCON Measurements Shupeng Wang et al.	Sentinel-2 Data for Land Cover/Use Mapping: A Review Darius Phiri et al.
Gas Emission Craters and Mound-Predecessors in the North of West Siberia, Similarities and Differences Alexander Kizyakov et al.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the research groups behind these exceptional papers for their contributions to Remote Sensing. We would appreciate it if you would circulate this document among your colleagues or through your network.

If you want to learn more about the contributions published in “Editor’s Choice”, please read here.

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)

We are pleased to announce that the First Photographic Exhibition is open for application for authors that have papers published in Remote Sensing. You can apply to exhibit a striking picture to summarize the content of your publication and represent the topic of the article in an attention-grabbing way, or an introduction video to show your published research. We believe that the exhibition will establish further communications between authors and readers.

The details about the application can be found below. If your pictures/videos are selected to be posted online, it will be available for all scholars within two months.

Website Link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/photography_exhibition

Please see below for instructions on application steps.

Step 1: Click the “Submit Your Image/Video”. If you have not registered an account with MDPI, you will be asked to register one.

Step 2: Select one article you have published in Remote Sensing and select which type you want to submit, then click “Submit”.

Step 3: We will explain what information you need to provide and which requirements you need to be aware of, based on three types.

1. Picture
   Title (it will be displayed to the public)
   Image (jpeg, png), minimum size: 250px*166px
   Copyright holder (please state who owns the copyright of your item(s).)

2. Video with a cover
   Title (it will be displayed to the public)
   Video (mp4), (1–4 minutes, maximum: 200 MB)
   Cover image (jpeg, png), minimum size: 250px*166px
   Copyright holder (please state who owns the copyright of your item(s).)

3. Picture with a story or introduction
   Title (it will be displayed to the public)
   Image (jpeg, png), Minimum Size: 250px*166px
   Description, maximum: 500 characters with space
   Copyright holder (please state who owns the copyright of your item(s).)

Step 4: When you finish uploading the files, please click “Submit” and there will be preview data if you submit your application successfully.

Once your application is submitted, you will receive an email alert after it has been approved or rejected.

If you are interested in the exhibition, please do not miss this chance to share your research results with us.

Remote Sensing Editorial Office

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.

The article entitled "A Satellite-Based Spatio-Temporal Machine Learning Model to Reconstruct Daily PM_2.5 Concentrations across Great Britain", co-authored by Guest Editor Dr Itai Kloog, was published in the Remote Sensing Special Issue The Use of Earth Observations for Exposure Assessment in Epidemiological Studies has been discussed in various media outlets. Dr Rochelle Schneider and her team aimed to develop a multi-stage satellite-based technique that uses artificial intelligence to estimate daily fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) levels across Great Britain during 2008–2018.

In their press release entitled "AI-driven map could link UK air quality to health”, The Engineer declared that "the output reveals the shifting patterns of air pollution across Great Britain and in time with extraordinary detail. We now hope to use this information to better understand how pollution is affecting the nation’s health, so we can take steps to minimize the risk. The vast amount of data produced will provide a vital tool for public health researchers investigating the effects of air pollution". As first author of the article, Dr Rochelle Schneider said in the interview, "this research uses the power of artificial intelligence to advance environmental modelling and address public health challenges".

"This study demonstrates how cutting-edge techniques based on artificial intelligence and satellite technologies can benefit public health research," according to Antonio Gasparrini, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at LSHTM and senior author of the study.

Mirage News announced it as "a novel method that combines artificial intelligence with remote sensing satellite technologies has produced the most detailed coverage of air pollution in Britain to date." (https://www.miragenews.com/artificial-intelligence-and-satellite-technologies-reveal-detailed-map-of-air-pollution-across-great-britain/)

The report included an interview with Dr Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), who declared “this innovative method has combined the strengths of different data sources to give accurate and comprehensive estimates of air pollution exposure, including ground-based sensors, satellite data, and model reanalyses developed by ECMWF as part of the EU Copernicus programme. Dr Schneider and co-authors convincingly demonstrate its performance over Great Britain, paving the way for many future studies into the health effects of air pollution”.

Dr Pierre-Philippe Mathieu, Head of the Phi-lab Explore Office at the European Space Agency (ESA), said "it’s exciting to see data from Earth observation satellites being used in public health research to advance our understanding of the intricate relationship between health and air quality, improving lives in Great Britain, Europe and the rest of the world".

Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292, IF 4.509) is a peer-reviewed open access journal on the science and application of remote sensing technology, and is published semi-monthly online by MDPI. Remote Sensing publishes regular research papers, reviews, letters, and communications covering all aspects of remote sensing science, from sensor design and validation/calibration to its application in geosciences, environmental sciences, ecology, and civil engineering. Its aim is to publish novel/improved methods/approaches and/or algorithms of remote sensing to benefit the community, open to anyone in need of them.

An article entitled “A Satellite-Based Spatio-Temporal Machine Learning Model to Reconstruct Daily PM_2.5 Concentrations across Great Britain”, co-authored by Guest Editor Dr Itai Kloog, was published in the Remote Sensing Special Issue The Use of Earth Observations for Exposure Assessment in Epidemiological Studies on November 20, 2020, and has already been shared by numerous media outlets.

Dr Rochelle Schneider and her team aimed to develop a multi-stage satellite-based technique that uses artificial intelligence to estimate daily fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) levels across Great Britain during 2008–2018.

In their press release entitled “AI-driven map could link UK air quality to health”, published on the same day as the article, The Engineer declared that “the output reveals the shifting patterns of air pollution across Great Britain and in time with extraordinary detail. We now hope to use this information to better understand how pollution is affecting the nation’s health, so we can take steps to minimize the risk. The vast amount of data produced will provide a vital tool for public health researchers investigating the effects of air pollution”.

As first author of the article, Dr Rochelle Schneider said in the interview, “this research uses the power of artificial intelligence to advance environmental modelling and address public health challenges”.

“This study demonstrates how cutting-edge techniques based on artificial intelligence and satellite technologies can benefit public health research,” according to Antonio Gasparrini, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at LSHTM and senior author of the study.

Mirage News announced it as “a novel method that combines artificial intelligence with remote sensing satellite technologies has produced the most detailed coverage of air pollution in Britain to date.” (https://www.miragenews.com/artificial-intelligence-and-satellite-technologies-reveal-detailed-map-of-air-pollution-across-great-britain/)

The report included an interview with Dr Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), who declared “this innovative method has combined the strengths of different data sources to give accurate and comprehensive estimates of air pollution exposure, including ground-based sensors, satellite data, and model reanalyses developed by ECMWF as part of the EU Copernicus programme. Dr Schneider and co-authors convincingly demonstrate its performance over Great Britain, paving the way for many future studies into the health effects of air pollution”.

Dr Pierre-Philippe Mathieu, Head of the Phi-lab Explore Office at the European Space Agency (ESA), said “it’s exciting to see data from Earth observation satellites being used in public health research to advance our understanding of the intricate relationship between health and air quality, improving lives in Great Britain, Europe and the rest of the world”.

Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292, IF 4.509) is a peer-reviewed open access journal on the science and application of remote sensing technology, and is published semi-monthly online by MDPI. Remote Sensing publishes regular research papers, reviews, letters, and communications covering all aspects of remote sensing science, from sensor design and validation/calibration to its application in geosciences, environmental sciences, ecology, and civil engineering. Its aim is to publish novel/improved methods/approaches and/or algorithms of remote sensing to benefit the community, open to anyone in need of them.

Since it was established, “Editor’s Choice” has always been welcomed by reseachers. Editors-in-Chief have selected more than 200 papers to display here. All of them have gained significant influence.

In Novemeber 2020, the Editorial Office selectd 15 papers amoung the most downloaded publications. The following is the paper list.

A Global Analysis of Sentinel-2A, Sentinel-2B, and Landsat-8 Data Revisit Intervals and Implications for Terrestrial Monitoring Jian Li et al.	Individual Tree Detection and Classification with UAV-Based Photogrammetric Point Clouds and Hyperspectral Imaging Olli Nevalainen et al.
Nominal 30-m Cropland Extent Map of Continental Africa by Integrating Pixel-Based and Object-Based Algorithms Using Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 Data on Google Earth Engine Jun Xiong et al.	Estimation of Winter Wheat Above-Ground Biomass Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Snapshot Hyperspectral Sensor and Crop Height Improved Models Jibo Yue et al.
Monitoring Rice Agriculture across Myanmar Using Time Series Sentinel-1 Assisted by Landsat-8 and PALSAR-2 Nathan Torbick et al.	An Automatic Random Forest-OBIA Algorithm for Early Weed Mapping between and within Crop Rows Using UAV Imagery Ana I. De Castro et al.
Soil Moisture Mapping from Satellites: An Intercomparison of SMAP, SMOS, FY3B, AMSR2, and ESA CCI over Two Dense Network Regions at Different Spatial Scales Chenyang Cui et al.	Co-Orbital Sentinel 1 and 2 for LULC Mapping with Emphasis on Wetlands in a Mediterranean Setting Based on Machine Learning Andromachi Chatziantoniou et al.
Monitoring Groundwater Storage Changes Using the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Satellite Mission: A Review Frédéric Frappart et al.	Deep-learning Versus OBIA for Scattered Shrub Detection with Google Earth Imagery: Ziziphus lotus Case Study Emilio Guirado et al.
Urban Land Extraction Using VIIRS Nighttime Light Data: An Evaluation of Three Popular Methods Yinyin Dou et al.	Survey of Hyperspectral Earth Observation Applications from Space in the Sentinel-2 Context Julie Transon et al.
Assessment of Canopy Chlorophyll Content Retrieval in Maize and Soybean: Implications of Hysteresis on the Development of Generic Algorithms Yi Peng et al.	UAV-Based High Resolution Thermal Imaging for Vegetation Monitoring, and Plant Phenotyping Using ICI 8640 P, FLIR Vue Pro R 640, and thermoMap Cameras Vasit Sagan et al.
Unveiling 25 Years of Planetary Urbanization with Remote Sensing: Perspectives from the Global Human Settlement Layer Michele Melchiorri et al.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the research groups of the exceptional papers for their contributions to Remote Sensing. We would appreciate it if you would circulate this document among your colleagues or through your network.

If you want to learn more about the contributions published in “Editors’s Choice”, please read here.

Agriculture comprises vital economic sectors producing food, agro-industrial feedstock, and energy and provides environmental services through managing soil, water, air and biodiversity holistically. Agriculture and forestry also contribute to managing and reducing risks from natural disasters such as floods, droughts, mudslides and avalanches. Farming with its close contact to nature provides the socio-economic infrastructure to maintain cultural heritage. Farmers are also conservers of forests, pastures, fallow lands and their natural resources and, in turn, of the environment. Agriculture today is a composite activity involving many actors and stakeholders in agri-food chains that produce and provide food and agricultural commodities to consumers. In addition to farmers there are farm input suppliers, processors, transporters and market intermediaries each playing their roles to make these chains efficient.

The agriculture sector is under the strong influence of a number of different external drivers, which will have more and more influence on all agriculture and food sectors. As main drivers for changes in the agriculture sector the following factors were recognised – climate changes, demographic (growing population, urbanisation and land abandonment), energy cost, new demands on food quality (food quality and safety, aging population and health problems, ethnic and cultural changes), innovative drivers (knowledge based bio economy, research and development, information and communication, education, investment), – policies (subsidies, standardisation and regulation, national strategies for rural development), economy (economical instruments, partnerships, cooperation and integration and voluntary agreements), sustainability and environmental issue (valuation of ecological performances, development of sustainable agriculture), public opinion (press, international organisation, politicians).

These changes are inevitable and many forces conspire to bring them about. The common and future position of each important driver can be different in reality. In many cases, two drivers can stand against each other and their future influence on the agri-production and food market depends on regulations and a common policy.

These topics have become more relevant which is confirmed by the fact that they are strongly addressed in the European Green Deal and in the global scale by the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

The European Green Deal is a package of European Commission’s measures announced on 11th December 2019 that should ensure citizens and companies in the European Union the transition to a more sustainable and greener economy by 2050.

The Green Deal consists of a set of measures that enhances resource efficiency through the transition to a clean circular economy, prevents biodiversity loss and reduces pollution. These measures are related to following policy areas:

Similarly, this is related to a number of SGD goals of the UN:

Together with publishing the European Green Deal, the Commission is adopting  the EU industrial strategy to address the twin challenge of the green and the digital transformation.  The goal is to use the potential of the digital transformation, to be a key enabler for reaching the Green Deal objectives. The Commission is planning to initiate a ‘GreenData4All’, with focus on reviewing the Directive establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the EU (INSPIRE and combining it with the access to the Environment Information Directive). As part of this will be the ‘Destination Earth’ initiative. 

“The ‘Destination Earth’ initiative will bring together European scientific and industrial excellence to develop a very high precision digital model of the Earth. This ground-breaking initiative will offer a digital modelling platform to visualize, monitor and forecast natural and human activity on the planet in support of sustainable development thus supporting Europe’s efforts for a better environment as set out in the Green Deal. The digital twin of the Earth will be constructed progressively, starting in 2021”.

EUXDAT deployed a state of the art, big data and hybrid HPC/Cloud, data exploitation platform on top of the existing partners’ infrastructures. This EUXDATA e-Infrastructure enables users with different profiles (agriculture scientist and practices, planers, decision makers) to fully benefit from the underlying high processing capacities to explore new methods, build new innovative services and to perform predictions and simulations with extremely large and heterogeneous datasets.

The EUXDAT consortium could provide a follow up proposal and the EUXDAT results would fit into this Green Deal initiative, Destination Earth and SGD goals.

The EUXDAT team prepared for you a series of webinars at the end of October 2020, where all achievements in both the e-Infrastructure and also in different pilot implementations will be demonstrated.

Please register yourself for webinars of your interest and start discussing the topic of sustainable agriculture.

REGISTRATION FORM: https://forms.gle/ybqyRMTDKM6FbZhD7

Programme

19. 10. 2020 2:30 PM CEST	The EUXDAT e-infrastructure
10 min	Introduction of Series EUXDAT Webinars. Karel Charvát (CoO)
20 min	Green Deal, Destination Earth and EUXDAT. Nieto De Santos, Francisco Javier (ATOS)
50 min	The EUXDAT End user Platform. Anne Haugommard, Fabien Castel (ATOS France)
20 min	The orchestrator, parallelization, monitoring, and accounting in EUXDAT. Jesus Gorroñogoitia Cruz,  Paolo Marangio (ATOS Spain)
30 min	Parallelizing with Python-MPI. Jose M. Montañana (HLRS)
15 min	Discussion and feedback analysis. Karel Charvát (CoO), Jorge Lopez (ATOS)
22. 10. 2020 2:30 PM CEST	Pilots’ session 1
10 min	EUXDAT relevance towards Farm to Fork and Towards a Green Cap. Karel Charvát (CoO)
45 min	Crop Climate Risk Analysis, Monitoring, and Prediction. Nicoletta Addimando, Christoph Ramshorn (meteoblue)
15 min	Discussion and feedback analysis. Karel Charvát (CoO),  Jorge Lopez (ATOS)
23. 10. 2020 10:30 AM CEST	Pilots’ session 2
10 min	EUXDAT relevance towards Achieving Climate Neutrality. Karel  Charvát (CoO)
20 min	Agro-Climatic Zones Scenario. Karel Jedlička, Pavel Hájek (WirelessInfo)
20 min	Field Accessibility Tool and its Components. Marcela Doubková (PESSL Instruments)
15 min	Discussion and feedback analysis. Karel Charvát (CoO),  Jorge Lopez (ATOS)
27. 10. 2020 2:30 PM CET	Pilots’ session 3
10 min	EUXDAT relevance towards Biodiversity. Karel Charvát (CoO)
35 min	Open Land Use Map Scenario. Dimitri Kozhukh (Plan4all)
20 min	Crop Monitoring Pilot. Dimitrios Moshou, Ioannis Navrozidis (CERTH)
15 min	Discussion and feedback analysis. Karel Charvát (CoO),  Jorge Lopez (ATOS)

REGISTRATION FORM: https://forms.gle/ybqyRMTDKM6FbZhD7

Learn more about EUXDAT project at https://www.euxdat.eu/

The COVID19 INSPIRE Hackathon 2020 organized by Plan4all and Czech Center for Science and Society offers to its participants a wide range of challenges aiming to help the agri-food economy to recover from COVID19 crisis. In the following paragraphs, we would like to introduce you to three of the total of 13 challenges of this hackathon.

The first mentioned challenge called Citizen Science Network for Peer to Peer MapsSharing deals with the missing mechanism for sharing complex map compositions that combine data sharing services, cartography, visualizations and geospatial markup. There are a number of people producing „maps “ using desktop GI tools. However, limited skills, technologies, and infrastructure do not allow them to share the data with others. This challenge will support users of QGIS (Open Source GI desktop tool) to publish their data and share it with others including sharing on social media. It could be useful for students, local policymakers, companies in agriculture, and forestry. This challenge offers several portals for maps publishing and sharing. In addition to that, it provides also a full infrastructure that could be used regionally afterwards. We are looking for testers, users as well as people from the business sector.

The second challenge WhiteBoard – Future Collaborative Maps is the most innovative of all and offers unique technologies for collaborative working with maps. It is a real solution for the COVID 19 period as it allows common problems to be solved interactively. This is a new solution and we are also looking for adopters in various areas of activities.

The last highlighted challenge is dedicated to earth observation. The goal of the challenge no. 11 is to analyze how different climatic changes influence production in different years. The potential key for this analysis is the combination of long time trends in the fields, specifically a yield potential with multitemporal seasonal analysis, soil moisture data and climatic data. The aim of this challenge is also to integrate yield maps.

If you are interested in any of the challenges and you would like to participate in the hackathon, please register at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfBWFdIErX0BpjxJjz1945IBGiqFAnyTQc5bA_avtt5RHU3OQ/viewform and follow the www.plan4all.eu websites. 

We hope to call upon your expertise as a reviewer to help maintain the quality and efficiency of Remote Sensing.

We are particularly interested in recruiting reviewers in the following fields related to remote sensing. In recent decades, this area has attracted a lot of research interest, and significant progress has been made. We welcome scholars with research experience in topics including but not limited to the following:

• Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR);
• Glaciology, radar altimetry in the arctic, and the cryosphere;
• Artificial impervious surface percentage (AISP), feature fusion, and urban heat islands;
• Plant disease detection and vegetation dynamics;
• Satellite ocean color and total suspended matter;
• Image segmentation/processing, target detection, and data fusion;
• Sonar;
• Precipitation, rainfall, and cloud retrieval;
• Imagery and validation;
• CryoSat and ICESat-2;
• GEE.

We will extend the following benefits to reviewers:

1. The Remote Sensing Editorial Board will acknowledge all reviewers in its annual reviewer list through a publication/announcement in the "Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Remote Sensing" editorial on the journal website.
2. Reviewer members who provide prompt, thorough, rigorous peer-review reports will receive a voucher that can be applied to reduce the cost of their next publication in an MDPI journal.
3. We hold an “outstanding reviewer award” yearly to acknowledge our reviewers who so generously give their time to review papers for the journal. There would be a chance for you to be awarded. Details can be found at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/awards/910.
4. Reviewers may be presented with the possibility to join the Editorial Board of the journal (subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief).

If you are interested in this work, please submit your information at https://susy.mdpi.com/volunteer/profile/edit. We would greatly appreciate your support. We hope you will join us on our team of reviewers!

Remote Sensing Editorial Office

We are glad to announce that we have established a new section "Satellite Missions" in Remote Sensing. This will enable more specific categorization of published papers according to its subject.

Satellite Missions

If you are an active researcher in a possibly related field, such as satellite systems, components, instruments, calibration and validation, data, etc., and are passionate about participating in the publication of cutting-edge research, please do not hesitate to get in touch about joining the Editorial Board. Editorial Board Members have the following responsibilities:

1. Conducting preliminary checks of submissions and making the final decision as to whether a paper can be accepted for publications following peer review and author revisions (when it suits your schedule);
2. To serve as Guest Editor of a Special Issue on the topic related to your research;
3. To review a couple of manuscripts per year.

Editorial Board Members are entitled to publish one paper free of charge in Remote Sensing each year. Further information about the Editorial Board may be found at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/sectioneditors/satellite_missions. If you are interested in becoming an Editorial Board Member for Remote Sensing, please send the following files to our section managing editor Aurora Wang ([email protected]).

• A full academic CV;
• A short cover letter that details your interest and enthusiasm for the position.

Remote Sensing Editorial Office

Published in Remote Sensing, the paper by Rudiyanto et al. forms the basis of Paddy Watch, a project that won funding from the Group on Earth Observations and Google Earth Engine. Paddy Watch will develop the world’s first real-time monitoring platform for rice fields globally. This ambitious project will help realise the Zero Hunger target of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals.

We gladly invite you to read this article:

Automated Near-Real-Time Mapping and Monitoring of Rice Extent, Cropping Patterns, and Growth Stages in Southeast Asia Using Sentinel-1 Time Series on a Google Earth Engine Platform

by Rudiyanto, Budiman Minasny, Ramisah M. Shah, Norhidayah Che Soh, Chusnul Arif, and Budi Indra Setiawan.

The authors said:

“Accurate and up-to-date information on how much rice has been planted and how much harvest can be achieved is crucial to achieving global food and water security Working with our partners (Sydney Institute of Agriculture, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, IADA Ketara Malaysia, Indonesian Center for Agricultural Land Resources Research and Development, The Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences,  Indian Agricultural Research Institute, and Remote sensing-based Information and Insurance for Crops in Emerging Countries Vietnam), we will use the Google Earth Engine to build the first real-time mobile application that will allow farmers, agricultural scientists, non-government organisations and government planners to manage land use to ensure food security in the world’s rice bowls.”

If you would like to learn more about this award, please click here: https://www.earthobservations.org/article.php?id=447

Top row, left to right: Researchers: Budiman Minasny (Sydney Institute of Agriculture), Rudiyanto (Universiti Malaysia Terengganu), and Jose Padarian (Sydney University).

Bottom row, left to right: Field validation team: Ramisah Mond Sah and Norhidayah Che Soh (Universiti Malaysia Terengganu), and Shukran Abdul Rahman and Mohd Rosmaini Bin Mat Nawi (IADA Ketara, Malaysia).

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®.

In April 2020, the Japan Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (JSPRS) became affiliated to Sensors and Remote Sensing. As part of this collaboration, all members of JSPRS enjoy a discount on the article processing charges (APC) when submitting articles to these two journals.

The Japan Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing was founded in 1962 and is a non-governmental organization devoted to the development of cooperation for the advancement of photogrammetry and remote sensing, as well as their applications.

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

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.

The values MDPI holds strongly are particularly important at the moment, and we will continue to publish relevant, peer-reviewed research as quickly as possible in open access format. This means that it will immediately be available for researchers, health professionals, and the general public to read, distribute, and reuse. We believe that scientific advancements will be crucial to overcoming this pandemic, and will do everything we can to support researchers working looking for solutions.

COVID-19 Academic Resources Center contains a variety of information related to COVID-19 available from MDPI, including journal articles, special issues, and preprints, among others.

For more information, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/covid-19

As a leading Open Access publisher, MDPI is committed to fostering open scientific exchange in all forms across all disciplines. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, many researchers have to stay at home and many academic conferences have been cancelled or postponed. In light of these changes, MDPI has adopted numerous initiatives that may help accelerate scientific exchange and provide support to the academics during this period.

Scholarly Community—Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia 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.

Comprehensive and Free Literature Database—Scilit

Scilit is a comprehensive, free database for scientists that uses a new method to collate data and index scientific material. Our crawlers extract the latest data from CrossRef and PubMed on a daily basis. This means that newly published articles are immediately added to Scilit.

Display Academic Achievements—SciProfiles

SciProfiles is an innovative social network for researchers and scholars that is developed by MDPI. In line with our broad mission, the purpose of SciProfiles is to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and providing opportunities for academic networking.

Organize and Participate in Conferences Online—Sciforum

Sciforum is an event planning platform that supports open science by offering the opportunity to host and participate in academic conferences. It provides an environment for scholarly exchange, discussion of topics of current interest, building of networks, and establishing collaborations.

Post Early Versions of Research Outputs—Preprints

Preprints is a platform dedicated to making early versions of research outputs permanently available and citable. We post original research articles and comprehensive reviews, and papers can be updated by authors at any time. Content on Preprints is not peer-reviewed, and feedback can be received from readers.

***

MDPI remains committed to open science and open data and has signed a statement, along with more than thirty scholarly publishers, showing our intention to facilitate sharing of new research findings as early on as possible. The initiative sees publishers collectively removing barriers to new research, in the face of a global healthcare crisis.

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.

Remote Sensing is recruiting Editorial Board Members for the following the new section:

AI Remote Sensing

This section will expand the Editorial Board and cover areas that are less well-represented by the current team. If you are interested in this position or have potential candidates to recommend, please reach out to us by 31 June 2020.

Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292) is a leading international, peer-reviewed, open access journal covering the science and application of remote sensing technology. It has an impact factor 2018 of 4.118. The website of Remote Sensing can be accessed at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing.

As an Editorial Board Member, you have the following responsibilities:

– To make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted or not based on the reports we collect;

– To serve as Guest Editor of a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is convenient for you;

– To promote Remote Sensing and increase its visibility at related academic conferences.

To apply or request further information, please contact the Remote Sensing Editorial Office ([email protected]). We look forward to hearing from you soon.

MDPI will be attending the IGARSS 2020, to be held in Hawaii, USA, 19–24 July 2020

Hosted by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, the 2020 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2020) will be held Sunday, 19 July through Friday, 24 July, 2020 at the Hilton Waikoloa Village in Waikoloa, Hawaii, USA. The main theme of the 2020 symposium is "Remote Sensing: Global Perspectives for Local Solutions".

GARSS 2020 is offering unique perspectives, discussions, research, solutions, and an opportunity to network in a beautiful environment.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Remote Sensing

Atmosphere

Land

Sustainability

Drones

IJGI

Sensors

Geosciences

Hydrology

Applied Sciences

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth # 82). 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://igarss2020.org/default.asp.

MDPI will be attending the AAG annual meeting, to be held in Denver, USA, from 6–10 April 2020

The AAG 2020 is joined by fellow geographers, GIS specialists, environmental scientists, and other leaders for the latest in research and applications in geography, sustainability, and GIScience. The meeting will be held from Monday, April 6 - Friday, April 10, 2020, and will feature over 6,900 presentations, posters, workshops, and field trips by leading scholars, experts, and researchers.

The Annual Meeting of the AAG is quite possibly the largest geography conference in the world, with over 8,500 geographers converging from the U.S., Canada, and nearly 60 other countries in a typical year. With thousands of different papers and presentations scheduled throughout the conference, you’ll find no shortage of activities that reflect your specific interests within the field of geography.

The 2020 Annual Meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency – Denver at Colorado Convention Center and the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel in Downtown Denver, Colorado. For more information, visit https://www2.aag.org/aagannualmeeting/.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information

Remote Sensing

Land

Sustainability

Sensors

Water

Urban Science

Climate

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #415). 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://www2.aag.org/aagannualmeeting/.

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

MDPI will be attending AGU Fall Meeting 2019 in San Francisco, USA, 9–13 December.

AGU Fall Meeting is the largest international Earth and space science meeting in the world. After two dynamic meetings in New Orleans and Washington, D.C., they return to the Moscone Centre in San Francisco.

This year’s meeting will prepare you for what’s ahead: rapid developments in our science, new approaches to observing our Earth and beyond, the introduction of new data streams, growing demand for accessible science, the expansion of convergent science, and more. AGU will celebrate the past and inspire the future by bringing together the people, the imagination, and the science that will ignite our next hundred years to make our planet safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Atmosphere
• Climate
• Geosciences
• Hydrology
• IJGI
• Resources
• Remote Sensing
• Water

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (#1248). 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.agu.org/Fall-Meeting.

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].

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

Remote Sensing is recruiting Editorial Board members for the following three new sections:

• Urban Remote Sensing
• Engineering Remote Sensing
• Environmental Remote Sensing

The three sections will expand the Editorial Board and cover areas that are less well-represented
by the current team. If you are interested in this position or have potential candidates to recommend, please reach out to us by 31 October 2019.

Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292) is a leading international, peer-reviewed, open access journal covering the science and application of remote sensing technology. It has an impact factor 2018 of 4.118. The  website of Remote Sensing can be accessed at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing.

As an Editorial Board member, you have the following responsibilities:

– To make decisions on whether a manuscript can be accepted or not based on the
reports we collect;
– To edit a Special Issue on a topic related to your research interests when it is
convenient for you;
– To promote Remote Sensing and increase its visibility at related academic
conferences.

To apply or request further information, please contact the Remote Sensing Editorial
Office ([email protected]). We look forward to hearing from you soon.

We are pleased to inform that Remote Sensing received an updated Journal Impact Factor of 4.118 in the recent release of the Journal Citation Reports®. The journal's 5-Year Impact Factor is 4.740. Remote Sensing now ranks 7/30 (Q1) in the category 'Remote Sensing'.

Evolution of Impact Factor, Citations and Publications for Remote Sensing:

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

Oceans is an international, peer-reviewed open access journal which is aiming to provide cutting-edge research related to all aspects of oceanography. We are now seeking a founding Editor-in-Chief to develop Oceans into a leading flagship journal in this field.

The main responsibilities of the Editor-in-Chief include the following:

• Setting the scope and direction of the journal
• Advising on the strategic development of the journal
• Ensuring the quality of the published content
• Coordinating the Editorial Board and stimulating their contributions to the journal
• Promoting the journal at scientific conferences and through other venues

A full application for evaluation should include these items:

• An up-to-date CV
• A description of the candidate’s vision for Oceans.

Applications are due by 9th July 2019. Please send your application or any questions to the Oceans Editorial Office ([email protected]).

As of April 2019, Remote Sensing is affiliated to The Remote Sensing Society of Japan (RSSJ). As part of this collaboration, all members of RSSJ enjoy a discount on the article processing charges (APC) when submitting articles to Remote Sensing.

The Remote Sensing Society of Japan (RSSJ) was established in 1981 with the aim of liaising and collaborating on remote sensing research and contributing to the development and generalization of its science and technology. The activities of RSSJ include a wide range of fields, such as environmental monitoring, weather, ocean, ecology, geography, surveying, geology, disaster prevention, resource exploration, agriculture and forestry, fishery, civil engineering, construction, space development, and administration, among others. Hundreds of studies are currently underway across these disciplines. In recent years, high observation frequency weather observation by Himawari, increases in freely available satellite data such as Landsat, and the wide application of drones have made remote sensing an increasingly familiar technology and discipline.

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

The XIX Brazilian Symposium on Remote Sensing (XIX SBSR) is the main scientific meeting in Latin America dedicated to the dissemination of remote sensing science and geotechnologies, organized biannually since 1978. The SBSR has been continuously improving to deliver the best scientific services to researchers, companies, and the education community in Brazil by incorporating the highest scientific standards. Today, the SBSR is perceived as a reference event to a wide spectrum of professionals from different areas, including biome monitoring, natural resources, agriculture, ocean, inland waters, and climate change, with a strong positive impact on the general well-being of our society. The SBSR are committed to stimulating the exchange of experiences among participants, disseminating the state-of-the-art of remote sensing applications, and enhancing the cooperation among institutions from Brazil and abroad.

The Brazilian Symposium on Remote Sensing has a target audience composed of Brazilian and international researchers, students, lecturers, and professionals from the public and private sectors, from a large array of interests including mineral resources, agriculture, hydrology and water resources, environment, government authorities, and a wide range of decision makers in Brazil.

A Special Issue linked with the conference is now open for submission in Remote Sensing. Despite the focus on the XIX SBSR, submissions are not limited to papers presented at the symposium. We seek original and innovative contributions that involve (but are not restricted to) sensor applications, sensing systems and principles, remote sensors, machine learning and modelling approaches, multispectral imaging, hyperspectral imaging, signal processing, data fusion and deep learning, and integrated sensor or internet-of-things technologies, among others. Papers that tackle complex Earth Observation issues by integrating traditional areas of application (e.g., agriculture, geology, oceanography) are also encouraged.

You are invited to submit your paper through the following link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors/special_issues/RS_AMALR

We will attend the Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2019 (JpGU 2019). It will be held at the Makuhari Messe, International Convention Complex in Chiba, Japan, on 26–30 May 2019, and will be organized by the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU). JpGU is an academic union that encompasses all the Earth and planetary sciences disciplines and related fields, and has been organizing annual meetings since 2005. JpGU 2019 will cover a wide range of Earth and planetary sciences, including space and planetary sciences, atmospheric and hydrospheric sciences, human geosciences, solid Earth sciences, and biogeosciences. The JpGU annual meeting provides participants with a good opportunity to become familiar with cutting-edge research and unique approaches to research objects within their own special field as well as beyond. Representatives of the following open-access journals will attend:

Minerals

Geosciences

Water

Atmosphere

Remote Sensing

Resources

Education Sciences

Climate

IJERPH

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (booth #Pub15). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit http://www.jpgu.org/meeting_e2019/index.php.

MDPI will be attending the 2019 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, to be held in Yokohama, Japan, 28 July – 2 August 2019.

This conference will be the 39th annual IGARSS symposium and will continue the excellent tradition of gathering world-class scientists, engineers and educators engaged in the fields of geoscience and remote sensing. We believe that the additional scientific themes of this event, focusing on 'Disasters and Environment' will allow the formation of an inspiring technical program.

IGARSS is recognized today as a premier event in remote sensing and provides an ideal forum for obtaining up-to-date information about the latest developments, exchanging ideas, identifying future trends in your research area and making contacts with the international remote sensing community. With intensive and careful planning underway we anticipate a technically outstanding and most pleasant symposium.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Remote Sensing
IJGI
Sensors
Water
Geosciences
Atmosphere
Land
Forests
JMSE
Sustainability

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth # 30). 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://igarss2019.org/CallForSponsorsExhibitors.asp.

It is a pleasure to invite you to take part in the 2019 ISPRS Geospatial Week (GSW 2019). The ISPRS Geospatial Week (GSW) is a combination of workshops organised by about 30 ISPRS Working Groups active in areas of interest of ISPRS. It is convened by the University of Twente acting as local organiser, and led by George Vosselman as GSW Director.

The ISPRS Geospatial Week’s general goals are to: increase the possibility of communication between the different workshop communities within ISPRS and beyond; increase the continuous visibility of ISPRS on a yearly basis, together with the Congress and the Commission Symposia, thus leading to larger impact for ISPRS activities; gives Sustaining Members a more attractive opportunity to participate in ISPRS events. For more information about the conference, please visit https://www.gsw2019.org/.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

IJGI
Remote Sensing
Atmosphere
Drones
Infrastructures
Information
Journal of Imaging
Water
Urban Science

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 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.

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.

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/

MDPI will be attending the AAG Annual Meeting, to be held in Washington, DC, US, 3–7 April 2019.

Representing an international community of geographers, GIS specialists, and environmental scientists, the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers is an interdisciplinary forum open to anyone interested in geography and related disciplines. The AAG facilitates the exchange of the latest research and applications in geography and GIScience, with over 8,500 annual meeting attendees. Founded in 1904 as a scientific and educational society, the AAG is a growing body of leading scholars, researchers, professionals, and students. The AAG promotes networking and collaboration among its members through events such as its annual meeting, international workshops, specialty conferences, publications, and research programs. For more information, visit annualmeeting.aag.org

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

Remote Sensing
IJGI
Land
Genealogy
Quaternary

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth # 412). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit annualmeeting.aag.org.

 

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 were delighted with the visit of Dr. Andrea Buono, one of the best reviewers for Remote Sensing in 2017, and Dr. Emma Izquierdo-Verdiguier, one of the winners of Remote Sensing 2018 Travel Awards, to our booth at IGARSS 2018.  

Prof. Dr. Jose Moreno, general chair of the conference and associate editor of Remote Sensing presented the awards to the winners.

Dr. Andrea Buono (Best Reviewer Award), Prof. Dr. Jose Moreno (Associate Editor of Remote Sensing) and Dr. Jaime LLorca (Journal Editor)

Dr. Emma Izquierdo-Verdiguier (Travel Award winner), Prof. Dr. Jose Moreno (Associate Editor of Remote Sensing) and Dr. Jaime LLorca (Journal Editor)

We are pleased to inform that Remote Sensing received an updated Journal Impact Factor of 3.406 in the June 2018 release of the Journal Citation Reports®.The journal's 5-Year Impact Factor is 3.952. Remote Sensing now ranks 8/30 (Q2) in the category 'Remote Sensing.'

Overview of Citation Metrics:

• Journal Impact Factor, 2 yrs (2017): 3.406
• 5-Year Impact Factor (2017): 3.952
• CiteScore, 3 yrs (Scopus): 4.03
• SJR Scimago Journal Rank 2017(SJR): 1.386
• Source Normalized Impact 2017 (SNIP): 1.559

Evolution of Impact Factor, Citations and Publications for Remote Sensing:

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

MDPI will be attending the AGU 2018 Fall Meeting, to be held in Washington D.C, USA, 10‒14 December 2018.

The AGU 2018 Fall Meeting will mark another dynamic year of discovery in Earth and space science, serve as the advent of AGU’s Centennial year, and provide a special opportunity to share our science with world leaders in Washington, D.C. As the largest Earth and space science gathering in the world, the Fall Meeting places you in the center of a global community of scientists drawn from myriad fields of study whose work protects the health and welfare of people worldwide, spurs innovation, and informs decisions that are critical to the sustainability of the Earth.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Water
• Remote Sensing
• ISPRS International Journal of Geo-information
• Atmosphere
• Geosciences
• Resources
• Climate
• Environments

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth # 737). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may hace. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2018/

The International Conference on Advanced Remote Sensing will be held from 16-18 October 2018 at Wuhan University in Wuhan, China. The main purpose of the conference is to promote academic exchanges in remote sensing, to share the latest scientific progress, to discuss the challenging problems and to draw a better blueprint. This is a superb opportunity to communicate with the colleagues, which can both demonstrate your new experiment results and solve the problems encountered in the research. Welcome experts, scholars and users from all over the world to attend the meeting. We are looking forward to meeting you in the river city Wuhan.

All accepted abstracts will be published in the proceedings of the conference. A selection of invited and contributed talks presented during the conference will be invited to submit an extended version of their paper to the open access Journal Remote Sensing.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, we cordially invite you to join us at 2018 ICARS (https://icars2018.sciforum.net/).

We are pleased to report Remote Sensing received a CiteScore of 4.03 for 2017. The metric reflects citation activity in 2017 in Scopus for papers published in the period 2014‒2016.

Remote Sensing ranks among the Top 10% of journals in the 'General Earth and Planetary Sciences' category.

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

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

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

Edmond Sanganyado, Shantou University, China

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations to the journals Cancers, Diversity, Future Internet, Nutrients, Polymers, Pharmaceutics, Remote Sensing, Sustainability, Symmetry, Toxins and Water for publishing their 10th volume in 2018!

We would like to send warm wishes from the Editors-in-Chief of these journals and look to the future. Acknowledgement of our past achievements provides the strongest stimulus for future endeavor.

To date, the journal Cancers has published more than 1000 papers and will receive its first impact factor in June. This milestone could not be achieved without our readers, authors, peer reviewers, editors, and all the people working for the journal who, for years, have contributed their tremendous efforts.

— Prof. Dr. Samuel Mok
Editor-in-Chief of Cancers

Ten years is a long time but a short period for a new journal. When we started Diversity 10 years ago, we had hoped that a journal with such a broad coverage of topics would attract potential authors and good contributions. We are very satisfied that our vision became reality.
Today, Diversity is home to interesting studies on different aspects of diversity mainly in biology, ranging from systematics, phylogeny and evolution, to ecology, biodiversity and conservation issues. I am confident that the next 10 years will witness the further growth of Diversity both in quality and quantity.

— Prof. Dr. Michael Wink
Editor-in-Chief of Diversity

Ten years have passed from the foundation of the “Future Internet” MDPI journal. We have witnessed the positive evolution of our journal, with ever-increasing interest from potential authors. The increasing fundamental eco-systemic importance of the journal’s subjects has also had positive effects. Therefore, the journal is currently evolving to cope with the increasing interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary views.
Past achievements and future prospects give us reason to celebrate ten years since the journal’s foundation. We will also set up a commemorative Special Issue.

— Prof. Dr. Dino Giuli
Editor-in-Chief of Future Internet

It is with great pride that Nutrients enters its 10th year of publication. Through the hard work and dedication of its Editorial Board, journal staff, and individuals who have unselfishly given their time to peer-review manuscripts, the journal has grown to become a leading publisher of nutrition research. During this 10th Anniversary year of Nutrients, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all who have contributed to the journal during its first decade.

— Prof. Dr. Jonathan Buckley
Editor-in-Chief of Nutrients

I am pleased and honored to celebrate the first decade of Pharmaceutics, as the founding Editor-in-Chief. This is also an opportunity for me to thank our authors, readers, reviewers, and editorial board members for their continuous support. We will receive our first impact factor in June 2018, in recognition of the great efforts made in the past ten years. We shall strive to improve the journal in the next ten years.

— Prof. Dr. Yvonnne Perrie
Editor-in-Chief of Pharmaceutics

Since its foundation in 2009, Polymers has evolved into an internationally renowned and successful Open Access journal. The core concept, namely that Open Access publishing can stand for high-quality publications, is working well. On a daily basis, ever since the journal’s foundation, the editorial team and the editorial board dedicate themselves to ensuring a high-quality rigorous peer-review process: only 30 to 50% of the submissions will be published in Polymers. This strategy been complemented by, among other features, the increasing impact factor of Polymers, the most recent one being 3.364. On the occasion of Polymers’ 10th anniversary, we would like to thank all authors who have contributed to the success of the journal by submitting their high-quality research papers. We look forward to your continuous support and the continued growth of the journal in the next decade.

— Prof. Dr. Alexander Böker
Editor-in-Chief of Polymers

MDPI’s Open Access journal Remote Sensing is now one of the top international scientific journal 's in remote sensing science. Well known scientists in the subject, from all over the world, publish in it on a regular basis. It has an outstanding and dedicated editorial team, editorial office, and reviewers. We pride ourselves on publishing high-quality original scientific articles. Our goal remains to become # 1 Journal in Remote Sensing Science.

— Dr. Prasad S. Thenkabail
Editor-in-Chief of Remote Sensing

The tenth anniversary of Sustainability is a momentous milestone, and it has been a privilege for me to be a part of it as Editor-in-Chief. This anniversary demonstrates the growing interest in and recognition of the importance of sustainability. The journal has been able to showcase the many advances made over the last decade in the thinking, methods and applications surrounding sustainability. Recently, the content of the journal has reflected the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that was adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. Sustainability has had a notable impact and expects to have an even greater impact over its next decade through publishing research on new advances in sustainability and fostering critical discussion.

— Prof. Dr. Marc A. Rosen
Editor-in-Chief of Sustainability

Our journal Symmetry celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2018. During the last 10 years, the journal has become one of the leading journals among all multi-science journals. This shows the fundamental role played by the symmetries of nature in natural science. This also reflects the huge number of researchers whose work relates to symmetry. We hope to achieve even better results in the coming years.

— Prof. Dr. Sergei D. Odintsov
Editor-in-Chief of Symmetry

It is my honor as Editor-in-Chief of Toxins to inaugurate the 10th anniversary of the journal’s inception. From the founding EIC, Professor Florian Lang and EIC Vernon Tesh and the many Section EICs and Editorial Board Members, the combined leadership of this effort to provide an outstanding vehicle for the dissemination of the results of high-quality scientific investigations and in-depth, insightful comprehensive reviews has resulted in the flagship journal of toxinology as we know it today. The publication metrics associated with Toxins support this claim by virtue of our increase in manuscript submissions and publications and annual citation rate of articles published in Toxins. Importantly, the impact factor for Toxins remains strong and representative of the significance of the science published in Toxins. As we progress in this anniversary year, we will celebrate the 10th anniversary with a continuation of our acclaimed travel award program for Post-Doctoral Fellows in the field of Toxinology as well as our soon to be announced “Toxins' 10th Anniversary Top Cited Researcher Award” program.
Thus, 2018 will be an exciting year, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Toxins, but also a year of looking forward for the best practices by which the journal can serve the toxinology community. With that in mind, please join us in celebrating the journal by submitting your work to Toxins and as always I welcome your suggestions for the improvement of “our” journal.

— Prof. Dr. Jay W. Fox
Editor-in-Chief of Toxins

Thank you to all the dedicated researchers, reviewers and editors who have made Water a success. The journal has become a popular outlet for cutting-edge research in the broad field of water science, technology, management and governance. The Open Access format has proven to be attractive, and authors highly value the quick handling of papers. After ten years, Water has become an established journal in the field.

— Prof. Dr. Arjen Y. Hoekstra
Editor-in-Chief of Water

To mark the anniversaries, we have established a Special Issue to look back over the previous decade of outstanding accomplishments and highlight innovative frontier research perspectives. We encourage you to keep an eye on the publications in this Special Issue and this journal, and hope you consider it as a venue for your future publications.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dear colleagues,

We are very pleased to announce that the 2nd International Electronic Conference on Remote Sensing (ECRS-2) will be held online between 22 March and 5 April 2018.

Today, remote sensing is already recognised as an important tool for monitoring our planet and assessing the state of our environment. By providing a wealth of information that is used to make sound decisions on key issues for humanity such as climate change, natural resource monitoring and disaster management, it changes our world and affects the way we think.

Nevertheless, it is very inspirational that we continue to witness a constant growth of amazing new applications, products and services in different fields (e.g. archaeology, agriculture, forestry, environment, climate change, natural and anthropogenic hazards, weather, geology, biodiversity, coasts and oceans, topographic mapping, national security, humanitarian aid) which are based on the use of satellite and other remote sensing data. This growth can be attributed to the following: large number (larger than ever before) of available platforms for data acquisition, new sensors with improved characteristics, progress in computer technology (hardware, software), advanced data analysis techniques, and access to huge volumes of free and commercial remote sensing data and related products.

Following the success of the 1st International Electronic Conference on Remote Sensing (https://sciforum.net/conference/ecrs-1), ECRS-2 aims to cover all recent advances and developments related to this exciting and rapidly changing field, including innovative applications and uses.

We are confident that participants of this unique multidisciplinary event will have the opportunity to get involved in discussions on theoretical and applied aspects of remote sensing that will contribute to shaping the future of this discipline.

ECRS-2 (https://sciforum.net/conference/ecrs-2) is hosted on sciforum, the platform developed by MDPI for organising electronic conferences and discussion groups, and is sponsored by MDPI and the Remote Sensing open access Journal.

It should be noted that there is no cost for active participation and attendance of this virtual conference. Experts from different parts of the world are encouraged to submit their work and take the exceptional opportunity to present it to the remote sensing community.

Contributions to ECRS-2 should be submitted in one of the following sections:

• New Platforms and Sensors
• Big Data Handling
• New Image Analysis Approaches
• Applications
• Product Validation
• Operational Applications and Services
• Recent Trends in UAV Remote Sensing
• Posters

Accepted papers will be published in the ECRS-2 proceedings at no-cost, while full-versions of selected papers will be considered for publication in the Remote Sensing journal (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing) at a discounted fee (20% off the APC).

We hope that remote sensing experts from all over the world will share our enthusiasm and benefit from participation at this second ECRS!

Best regards,
Ioannis Gitas

Two Editorial Board Members, Prof. Dr. Eyal Ben-Dor and Prof. Dr. José Demattê, together with their colleagues, Prof. Dr. Marcos Rafael Nanni, are pleased to invite you to participate in the first "Symposia of Remote Sensing" as part of the World Congress of Soil Science, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 12–17 August 2018. All researchers and users are encouraged to register (at www.21wcss.org, select "Registration process/Send Abstract/Division 1/C1.2-Soil geography/C1.2.2-Remote sensing applied to soil science) and be part of the event and contribute to the Special Issue. Deadline for registration for the Congress: 20 January 2018. In addition to the publication of abstracts at the Congress, selected papers will be invited for publication in full-paper form in a Special Issue of Remote Sensing.

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

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

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

We will be attending the AAG Annual Meeting 2018, which will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 10–14 April 2018. The American Association of Geographers' (AAG) Annual Meeting is an interdisciplinary forum open to anyone with an interest in geography and related disciplines. Representatives of the following open access journals will attend:

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (IJGI)
Sustainability
Remote Sensing
Religions
Data
Land
Social Sciences
Climate
Geosciences
Quaternary
Societies
Water

If you are also attending this conference, please stop by our booth (Booth #202). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have concerning open access publishing and our journals. For more information, please visit www.aag.org/annualmeeting.

Conference address:
Sheraton/Marriott, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Conference date:
10–14 April 2018

Sensors are vital components of smart manufacturing, artificial Intelligence, Cyber–Physical System (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT) for industry 4.0. For more advanced creations, biologists, engineers, physicists and chemists are all endeavoring to provide innovative technical sensors. In 2018, the journal Sensors is going to hold an international conference in Kenting, which is located in the south of Taiwan; the conference is taking place in Asia for the first time.

I3S embraces all professionals from industry, academia and government to discuss the latest developments and breakthroughs of sensor technology and related subjects. During the conference, attendees, from a range of research areas, will all gather together to share different aspects and establish new mutually beneficial collaborations across different fields.

Conference scope: Physical Sensors; Sensor Networks; Sensors Application; Biosensors; Chemical Sensors; IOT sensor and application.

We sincerely look forward to your participation in I3S2018.

 

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

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

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

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

We are pleased to welcome new participants to MDPI's Institutional Open Access Program (IOAP), designed to help institutions manage the transition to the Open Access publishing model. Researchers affiliated with participating universites benefit from a 10% discount on the Article Processing Charges (APC) for any paper published in an MDPI journal, while the participating library or university incurs no basic fee for participating in the program.

The IOAP set of free services, provided by MDPI to institutions that sign up, include:

• No fee for participants and no obligation to prolong after the initial 12 months. The participants may withdraw from the programme at any time, and we will also keep it free for the library for as long as they continue in the programme.
• Authors affiliated with the university will receive a 10% discount on the APC.
• The institution is granted free access to the MDPI submission system and can receive free alerts of new submissions to our journals.
• By default, authors from the institution will continue to be invoiced directly unless the institution opts for central billing.
• Auto-archiving of papers into the institutions´ repository as long as it supports SWORD 1.3.

More details about the programme and a list of our current participant institutions can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap

Institutions which are interested to participate may do so online at: https://www.mdpi.com/ioap-form

The following North American universities have signed up to the IOAP program recently:

Connecticut College, USA
Emory University, USA
Florida International University, USA
Johns Hopkins University, USA
Mississippi State University, USA
Northeastern University, USA
Rice University, USA
University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada
University of Rhode Island, USA
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, USA
University of Toronto, Canada
University of Windsor, Canada
University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA
Wellesley College, USA
West Virginia University, USA

Many prestigious institutions from Europe and Asia have joined as well:

Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation, Malaysia
Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
Gdansk University of Technology, Poland
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
Newcastle University, UK
Northumbria University, UK
Southwest University, China
Technical University of Crete, Greece
University Malaya, Malaysia
University of Antwerp, Belgium
University of Cyprus, Cyprus
University of Manchester, UK
University of Reading, UK
University of Sussex, UK
University of Warwick, UK
West Pomeranian University of Technology Szczecin, Poland

We offer a warm welcome to the new participants!

In order to reward the academic community, especially young researchers, and enhance communication among scientists, MDPI journals regularly offer various awards to researchers in specific fields, for example, Young Investigator Awards, Travel Awards, Best Paper Awards, and Best Poster Awards, etc. The awardees range from PhD students to junior scientists.

Currently, the following 44 awards given by MDPI journals are accepting applications. Please click on the award title below to check whether you are eligible for it and start the application process.

Subject	Journal	Award	Intended Awardee
Biology & Life Sciences	Animals	Travel Award 2018	PhD students or postdoctoral researchers
	Antioxidants	Travel Awards 2018	Postdoctoral researchers or PhD students
	Biology	Travel Award 2018	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Forests	2019 Travel award	Postdocs or PhD students
	International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS)	Outstanding Contribution Awards 2018	Ground-breaking contribution in the fields of Molecular Biology, and Molecular Pathology
	Journal of Fungi (JoF)	Travel Awards 2018	PhD graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows
	Life	Travel Award 2018	PhD students or postdoctoral fellows
	Metabolites	Travel Award 2018	PhD students
	Pharmaceuticals	Travel Award 2018	PhD students
	Toxins	Travel Award 2018	Postdoctoral fellows
	Viruses	Best Oral Presentation Award 2018	Viruses 2018 participants
	Viruses	Best Poster Award 2018	Viruses 2018 participants
	Water	2018 Young Investigator Award	Young investigators
Chemistry & Materials Science	Biomimetics	Travel Award 2018	Graduate Student or Postdoctoral Trainee / Research Associate
	Catalysts	Travel Award 2018	PhD students
	Chemosensors	Travel Award 2018	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Entropy	Young Investigator Award 2018	Young investigators
	Fibers	2018 Travel award	Postdocs or PhD students
	Magnetochemistry	Travel Award 2018	Postdocs
	Materials	Travel Award 2018	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Metals	Travel Award 2018	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Minerals	Travel Awards 2018	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Sensors	Travel Award 2018	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Sensors	Outstanding Reviewer Awards 2017	Sensors' reviewers in 2017
	Sensors	Young Investigator Award 2018	Young investigators
	Technologies	Travel Award 2018	PhD students
Computer Science & Mathematics	Multimodal Technologies and Interaction (MTI)	Travel Awards 2018	Postdoctoral researchers or PhD students
	ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information(IJGI)	2018 Travel Award	Postdocs
	Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks (JSAN)	Travel Award 2018	Postdoctoral fellows and PhD students
	Journal of Imaging	Travel Award 2018	Postdoctoral fellows and PhD students
Engineering	Actuators	Travel Award 2018	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Remote Sensing	Best Paper Awards 2019	Authors
	Machines	Travel Award 2018	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Micromachines	Travel Awards 2018	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Fluids	Travel Award 2018	Postdoctoral fellows and PhD students
	ChemEngineering	Travel Award 2018	Postdoctoral researchers and PhD students
Environmental & Earth Sciences	Diversity	Travel Awards 2018	Postdoctoral fellows
	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)	Best Paper Award 2018	Authors who submit from 1 Nov 2017 to 31 Oct 2018
	Resources	Travel Award 2018	Postdocs or PhD students
	Geosciences	Travel Award 2018	Postdoctoral fellows and PhD students
Physical Sciences & Astronomy	Galaxies	Travel Award 2018	Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, or lecturers in cosmology or galaxies physics
	Applied Science	Travel Award 2018	Postdocs
Medicine & Pharmacology; Public Health & Healthcare	Journal of Clinical Medicine (JCM)	2018 Travel Award	PhD or postdoctoral fellows
	Medicines	Travel Award 2018	Postdocs

The Jussieu Call aims to develop and implement alternative models to meet the aims of open science while promoting bibliodiversity. In particular it wishes to promote new business models for funding open access publication. It was drafted on the Jussieu campus in Paris by a group of French researchers and scientific publishing professionals.

MDPI supports scholarly communities and initiatives that innovate and further promote Open Access publishing. There is a need to explore different frameworks to fund open access in ways that ensure that excessive funds are not diverted from research towards publishing. Many fair funding models already exist, and they can be further developed and extended. These include institutional support, library contributions or subsidies, premium services, participatory funding, etc. For this reason, MDPI has signed up to the Jussieu call and welcomes its aims.

More information can be found at http://jussieucall.org/ (archived here)

The Society for Scholarly Publishing’s popular blog about topics in academic publishing, Scholarly Kitchen, recently interviewed MDPI’s CEO, Dr. Franck Vazquez. He shared some thoughts and information on the past and future of MDPI and open access publishing in general:

“In the long run, we aim to anchor MDPI in research communities. We recently developed and launched the preprint platform Preprints, revamped our free-to-use conference hosting platform Sciforum, and are working on other projects, such as Scilit, our bibliographic database.”

Read the full interview here.

Members of the ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information and Remote Sensing editorial teams will be attending Pecora 20, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA (http://pecora.asprs.org/). The theme of Pecora 20 is “Observing a Changing Earth: Science for Decisions…Monitoring, Assessment, and Projection.” This conference will offer a session on applications of satellites and other Earth observations to monitor, assess, and perform projections of future land and water resources, as well as big data and other analytical technologies to improve decision making utilizing satellite data

Please come along to our booth (B21) to chat with our delegates about online publishing and any specific questions you may have regarding our journals. We look forward to meeting you in person!

For more information on the Pecora 20, please visit:
http://pecora.asprs.org/ and for information on our journals:

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijgi)
Remote Sensing (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing)

We are delighted to have welcomed 24 new participants to our Institutional Open Access Programme (IOAP) since the beginning of September this year. These are University libraries and Research Institutions located around the world; from the USA and Canada to the UK, and from Norway and Spain to Greece. Well respected Universities, such as the University of Denver, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Arizona in the US, have signed up, while their researchers can now benefit from a 10% discount on the Article Processing Charges (APC) for any papers they publish in MDPI journals, at no cost for the library or the University.

We are more than happy to see the Open Access movement growing stronger and wider every day and we appreciate the vital role which librarians, repository managers, and other scholarly communications professionals play in the field. Our communication with and service to this community is, therefore, one of our principal priorities. The IOAP is our way to support academic and scientific Institutions as well as their scholars in managing, administrating, and publishing research in an Open Access world.

The IOAP set of free services, provided by MDPI to institutions that sign up, include:

• No fee for participants and no obligation to prolong after the initial 12 months. The participants may withdraw from the programme at any time, and we will also keep it free for the library for as long as they continue in the programme.
• Authors affiliated with the university will receive a discount on the article processing charge (APC).
• The institution is granted free access to the MDPI submission system and can receive free alerts of new submissions to our journals.
• By default, authors from the institution will continue to be invoiced directly unless the institution opts for central billing.
• Auto-archiving of papers into the institutions´ repository as long as it supports SWORD 1.3.

More details about the programme and a list of our current participant institutions can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/about/ioap

Institutions which are interested to participate may do so online at: https://www.mdpi.com/ioap-form

 The full list of the Institutions that signed up in September is as follows:

1. University of Denver, USA
2. University of Colorado Boulder, USA
3. University of Arizona, USA
4. Institute of Metrology of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina
5. Middlebury College, USA
6. Touro College, USA
7. University of New Orleans, USA
8. University of Leicester, UK
9. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA
10. University of Strathclyde, UK
11. Cranfield University, UK
12. Hope College, USA
13. Oregon State University, USA
14. Drew University, USA
15. Swansea University, UK
16. University of South Florida, USA
17. University of Georgia, USA
18. Arizona State University, USA
19. University of Southern Mississippi, USA
20. Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Canada
21. Grinnell College, USA
22. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
23. University of Patras, Greece
24. Public University of Navarre, Spain

Congratulations to the authors Javier Monroy and Javier Gonzalez-Jimenez from Universidad de Malaga, Spain, Victor Hernandez-Bennets, Han Fan and Achim Lilienthal from Örebro University, Sweden for publishing the 100,000th peer-reviewed article.

The article is published in the Chemical Sensors section of Sensors.

GADEN: A 3D Gas Dispersion Simulator for Mobile Robot Olfaction in Realistic Environments

Evermore pressing environmental concerns have led global actors and decision-makers to search for stricter emission monitoring approaches. As part of novel monitoring systems, robots with gas and environmental sensors are a promising solution. However, validation of such robotic inspectors is expensive, time consuming, and plagued by repeatability issues. In this article, we present GADEN (the short form for Gas Dispersion Simulator for Mobile Robot Olfaction in Realistic Environments), which combines gas dispersion and robotics simulation in a common framework. Developed under the widely used Robot Operating System (ROS), GADEN enables validation of sensing strategies with gas dispersion being simulated using computational fluid dynamics and filament dispersion theory. GADEN allows simulating complex, realistic, 3D environments for reproducible testing of robotic gas sensing algorithms. Through qualitative and quantitative evaluations, we show that GADEN is a versatile and user-friendly evaluation tool and emphasize its enormous potential for the mobile robot olfaction community.

 

Read the full article here: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/7/1479/htm

We are pleased to inform that the updated Impact Factor of Remote Sensing has been released. According to the Journal Citation Reports®, published by Clarivate Analytics in June 2017, the new Impact Factor is 3.244, and the 5-Year Impact Factor is 3.749.

Remote Sensing now ranks 7/29 (Q1) in the ‘Remote Sensing’ category. It is the highest ranking Open Access journal in this field.

Evolution of Impact Factor, Citations and Publications for Remote Sensing:

 

The CiteScore, the new citation metric for journals covered in the Scopus® database, was released on 1 June 2017, reflecting the citation activity in 2016 for articles published during the three previous years. Please note that the list below does not contain all MDPI journals covered in Scopus. For the CiteScore to serve as a reliable metric at least three volumes of articles need to be indexed in Scopus; journals which have not met this criterion have been omitted here.

Ten MDPI journals received a CiteScore which is in the Top 10% of scores in at least one of the categories, while a further 21 journals exhibit scores that are in the first quartile of the respective categories.

CiteScore Data for MDPI Journals

Journal	Rank	Category	Link	CiteScore 2016	2015	2014
Algorithms	44/112 (Q2) 49/111 (Q2) 19/42 (Q2) 52/113 (Q2)	• Numerical Analysis • Computational Mathematics • Computational Theory and Mathematics • Theoretical Computer Science	Link	1.15	1.07	1.06
Animals	69/343 (Q1) 21/146 (Q1)	• Animal Science and Zoology • General Veterinary	Link	1.46	1.66	0.74
Biology	13/92 (Q1) 34/81 (Q1) 10/75 (Q1)	• General Agricultural and Biological Sciences • General Biochemistry, Gene- tics and Molecular Biology • General Immunology and Microbiology	Link	3.02	2.78	1.74
Biomolecules	234/382 (Q3) 260/353 (Q3)	• Biochemistry • Molecular Biology	Link	1.67	3.08	1.00
Biosensors	36/118 (Q2) 209/2156 (Q1)	• Clinical Biochemistry • General Medicine	Link	2.83	2.37	2.04
Cancers	29/196 (Q1) 27/321 (Q1)	• Cancer Research • Oncology	Link	5.02	4.07	2.31
Catalysts	18/44 (Q2) 27/144 (Q1)	• Catalysis • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry	Link	3.44	3.45	2.17
Crystals	70/270 (Q2) 25/64 (Q2) 118/398 (Q2) 131/424 (Q2)	• General Chemical Engineering • Inorganic Chemistry • Condensed Matter Physics • General Materials Science	Link	1.89	1.47	1.03
Diversity	10/41 (Q1) 9/25 (Q2) 76/291 (Q2) 24/109 (Q1)	• Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) • Ecological Modelling • Ecology • Nature and Landscape Conservation	Link	2.03	1.96	1.82
Energies	-	-	Link	2.50	2.87	2.66
Entropy	51/198 (Q2)	• General Physics and Astronomy	Link	1.87	1.99	1.69
Forests	17/127 (Q1)	• Forestry	Link	2.06	1.76	1.84
Games	204/398 (Q3) 83/181 (Q2) 48/105 (Q2)	• Applied Mathematics • Statistics and Probability • Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty	Link	0.87	0.57	0.64
Genes	62/300 (Q1) 18/90 (Q1)	• Genetics • Genetics (clinical)	Link	3.62	3.18	1.33
Geosciences	36/169 (Q1)	• General Earth and Planetary Sciences	Link	1.67	1.29	1.13
Information	156/237 (Q3)	• Information Systems	Link	0.78	0.94	0.74
Insects	28/131 (Q1)	• Insect Science	Link	1.81	1.38	1.23
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)	67/446 (Q1) 31/102 (Q2)	• Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis	Link	2.38	2.42	2.47
International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS)	23/157 (Q1) 8/64 (Q1) 90/353 (Q1) 22/144 (Q1) 16/44 (Q1) 8/62 (Q1)	• Organic Chemistry • Inorganic Chemistry • Molecular Biology • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry • Catalysis • Spectroscopy	Link	3.73	3.37	3.06
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information	12/29 (Q2) 28/79 (Q2) 96/587 (Q1)	• Computers in Earth Sciences • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) • Geography, Planning and Development	Link	1.62	1.52	-
Journal of Low Power Electronic Applications (JLPEA)	301/645 (Q2)	• Electrical and Electronic Engineering	Link	0.98	0.83	0.83
Life	65/525 (Q1) 36/186 (Q1) 5/92 (Q1) 20/80 (Q2)	• Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics • General Biochemistry, Gene- tics and Molecular Biology • Palaeontology • Space and Planetary Science	Link	2.95	1.68	1.20
Marine Drugs	18/145 (Q1)	• Drug Discovery	Link	3.83	3.66	3.59
Materials	63/424 (Q1)	• General Materials Science	Link	3.26	3.11	2.69
Membranes	103/424 (Q1)	• Materials Science	Link	2.19	2.95	2.42
Micromachines	173/645 (Q2) 69/211 (Q2) 113/526 (Q1)	• Electrical and Electronic Engineering • Control and Systems Engineering • Mechanical Engineering	Link	1.83	1.78	2.10
Minerals	45/206 (Q1) 29/167 (Q1)	• Geology • Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology	Link	2.13	1.77	-
Molecules	32/157 (Q1)	• Organic Chemistry	Link	3.09	2.65	2.62
Nutrients	12/247 (Q1)	• Food Science	Link	4.29	4.07	3.78
Pharmaceuticals	8/168 (Q1) 21/158 (Q1)	• Pharmaceutical Science • Molecular Medicine	Link	4.90	3.64	1.92
Pharmaceutics	19/168 (Q1)	• Pharmaceutical Science	Link	3.83	2.68	2.46
Polymers	13/138 (Q1) 44/354 (Q1)	• Polymers and Plastics • General Chemistry	Link	3.74	3.37	4.10
Remote Sensing	13/169 (Q1)	• General Earth and Planetary Sciences	Link	3.56	3.76	3.23
Sensors	25/96 (Q2) 25/159 (Q1) 124/382 (Q2) 103/645 (Q1)	• Analytical Chemistry • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics • Biochemistry • Electrical and Electronic Engineering	Link	2.78	2.21	2.40
Sustainability	49/129 (Q2) 68/587 (Q1) 56/236 (Q1)	• Renewable Energy, Sustai-nability and the Environment • Geography, Planning and Development • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law	Link	1.96	1.78	1.52
Symmetry	17/42 (Q2) 49/111 (Q2)	• Numerical Analysis • Computational Mathematics	Link	1.12	0.95	1.02
Toxins	16/102 (Q1) 16/108 (Q1)	• Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis • Toxicology	Link	3.34	3.76	2.85
Vaccines	146/184 (Q4) 151/250 (Q3) 93/145 (Q3) 186/299 (Q3) 130/232 (Q3)	• Immunology • Infectious Diseases • Drug Discovery • Pharmacology • Pharmacology (medical)	Link	1.23	3.76	2.85
Viruses	15/68 (Q1) 34/250 (Q1)	• Virology • Infectious Diseases	Link	3.60	3.74	3.80
Water	33/184 (Q1) 48/195 (Q1) 62/587 (Q1) 198/382 (Q3)	• Water Science and Technology • Aquatic Science • Geography, Planning and Development • Biochemistry	Link	2.05	1.96	1.45

We are pleased to announce that the Goethe University of Frankfurt, the Technical University of Hamburg (TU Hamburg-Harburg), as well as the Humboldt University of Berlin, in Germany, have joined MDPI's institutional membership program: Primary authors from these instititions will benefit from a 10% discount on the article processing charges.

Additional details can be found on our institutional membership page.

          

 

As an open access publisher, we are keen to support openness and transparency in the research process. Citation data is very important for assessing the value of individual papers and the contribution of researchers. As such, we support the recently launched Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC). The initiative recognizes that citations should be freely available and machine-readable. By doing so, authors gain the maximum benefit from having their work cited.

MDPI now uploads citation data with metadata uploaded to Crossref when registering digital object identifiers (DOIs) for published papers. We are delighted to take this step to support a truly open research environment.

Getting high quality review reports is critical for any journal’s editorial process. At MDPI we have put in place several measures to motivate reviewers and reward them for their work. We are proud of the quality of reviewer reports we receive and grateful for the hours put in by active researchers from across the globe.

Reviewers of MDPI’s largest journals can get recognition via Publons, a website dedicated to rewarding peer reviewers. They have now taken this one step further and launched the Publons Reviewer Academy to help train reviewers to provide useful feedback. Through the academy, researchers can be trained and tutored in various aspects of how to provide structured feedback that will be of genuine help to editors and authors. We support this initiative and recommend it to potential MDPI reviewers, especially early career researchers. See the Publons announcement for further information.

More information on reviewing for MDPI, including how to volunteer as a reviewer, can be found here.

We are pleased to announce that the following universities have joined MDPI's institutional membership program: Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, USA and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. Primary authors from these instititions will benefit from a 10% discount on the article processing charges.

Additional details can be found on our institutional membership page.

     

 

Preprints.org is a platform run by MDPI that allows authors to make early versions of manuscripts available before peer review has been completed.

One of the major benefits of putting a preprint online is to get feedback before journal submission. Until now, however, the feedback has been on a voluntary basis. Preprints is delighted to be the first preprint server to collaborate with Publons to acknowledge substantial comments as reviews and give commentators the opportunity to receive credit for their efforts. 

When you add a comment to any article, there is a check box to click for it to appear on Publons. If you have already linked your account it will be passed on automatically. If you don't already have a Publons account, you will be contacted soon afterwards with instructions on how to create one.

We appreciate the enthusiasm and cooperation of Publons in this project and expect it to be of great benefit to authors and commenters alike.

We are pleased to announce that our annual report for the year 2016 has now been published. 

It contains information regarding company and journal performance, conferences and other publishing services that we provided throughout 2016. 

To read the report in full or download a copy, please click here.

After the 20th anniversary of MDPI in 2016, we will reach another milestone this year and will publish the 100,000th peer-reviewed article in one of our 170+ open access journals.

We would like you to be part of this great achievement and so are offering to publish the 100,000th accepted paper free of charge.

To be in with a chance, select a journal in one of our 10 scientific subject areas and submit your paper.

Access the live tracker on published articles here.

 

 

We are delighted that Preprints now has 1000 papers online since its launch on 3 May 2016.

For more information, see the editorial here.

 

We are pleased to announce that MDPI will be attending the 2017 AAG Annual Meeting (5-9 April 2017) and representing the following open access journals:

Remote Sensing
Sustainability
Land
Water
Humanities
Agriculture
Geosciences
Agronomy
Social Sciences
Administrative Sciences
Data
Climate
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Urban Science

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #422) and meet the representative editors.

Conference details:

2017 AAG Annual Meeting
5-9 April 2017
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, MA, USA
http://www.aag.org/annualmeeting

 

Earlier this week the Science Technology Park in Belgrade, Serbia was visited by Swiss Secretary of State Dr. Mauro Dell’Ambrogio, as well as Serbian Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Ana Brnabic, State Secretary Dr. Vladimir Popovic and Mayor of Belgrade Mr. Siniša Mali.

During the visit to the STP they had a short presentation from MDPI’s CEO Dr. Franck Vazquez and IT Manager Mr. Miloš Čučulović, and further discussed important issues such as Open Access and Open education. Dr. Dell'Ambrogio said he was impressed with the potential for development and ideas for business.

For more information please see:

http://bit.ly/2kpIu7k and http://bit.ly/2kpUQfz

   

We are pleased to announce that the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, the University of Manitoba, Canada and the Technical University of Cartagena, Spain, have joined MDPI's institutional membership program: Primary authors from these institutions will benefit from a 10% discount on the article processing charges.

Additional details can be found on our institutional membership page.

 

          

 

  

The 6^th World Sustainability Forum is currently being held at the Cape Sun Hotel until 28 January 2017. 

The Forum will showcase the work of internationally renowned researchers and include more than 150 presentations. During the conference dinner, the World Sustainability Award, associated with a US$ 100,000 prize, will be announced, as well as the Emerging Sustainability Leader Award, associated with a US$ 10,000 prize. The prizes are sponsored by the MDPI Sustainability Foundation and Sustainability, an academic open access journal by MDPI.

Here are some pictures from the forum so far:

To see the full WSF2017 program and schedule, please see here: https://sciforum.net/conference/wsf-6/page/schedule

Cape Town will host the 6^th World Sustainability Forum at the Cape Sun Hotel on 27 and 28 January 2017. This prominent event, held for the first time in Africa, will include many illustrious South African and international experts, such as Her Excellency Graça Machel (Sustainable Development Advocate for the United Nations, Mozambique), Joyene Isaacs (HoD Agriculture Western Cape Government), Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia University, USA), Max Bergman (SRaM, University of Basel), Mark New (Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town), Frans Swanepoel (FutureAfrica, University of Pretoria) and Francis Petersen (Vice-Chancellor-designate, University of the Free State). The Forum will provide a stage for national and international debates on sustainability in South Africa, the African continent, and about international perspectives on sustainability. It brings together researchers and representatives from government and the business sector to discuss a wide-ranging set of issues associated with sustainability, including food security, water and energy scarcity, mining, poverty reduction, climate change, and urbanisation.

The next few decades will be marked by profound changes in the relationships between global economics, national societies, and the environment. We have entered what some call the Anthropocene, an age in which human activity dominates the climate and the environment. These changes will have numerous consequences on societies around the globe. South Africa and Africa will play a central role, for better or worse, in creating opportunities and risks during these changing times as Africa is profoundly influencing and being influenced by global developments.

The adoption of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015 was accompanied by what insiders considered an optimism they have not experienced in relation to UN resolutions before. The relative efficiency in the drafting, the lack of trenches between East and West, or between North and South, and the unanimity of support of the 193 countries speak volumes. In stark contrast, sustainability seems to go against a changing economic and political tide, where waves of nationalism and protectionism from some of the most powerful countries risk the wellbeing of the rest of the world. The 6^th World Sustainability Forum will enable fruitful exchanges, which sensitise South African and international communities to the global urgency and specifics of sustainability.

The Forum will showcase the work of internationally renowned researchers and include more than 150 presentations. During the conference dinner, the World Sustainability Award, associated with a US$ 100 000 prize, will be announced, as well as the Emerging Sustainability Leader Award, associated with a US$ 10 000 prize. The prizes are sponsored by the MDPI Sustainability Foundation and Sustainability, an academic open access journal by MDPI. The World Sustainability Forum is preceded by the Postgraduate Forum on Sustainability, which will introduce more than 100 young scholars from South Africa and the African continent to sustainability research. Both events are organized and sponsored by the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape, the University of Basel, MDPI, and by the National Research Foundation of South Africa.

Contacts:

Scientific Matters: Prof Manfred Max Bergman, Social Research and Methodology Group (SRaM), University of Basel, Switzerland; Email:  [email protected]

Press Accreditation and General Enquiries: Mr Matthias Burkhalter, MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland; Email: [email protected]; Tel. +41 61 683 77 34 

Follow us on Twitter

#WSF2017SA

 

MDPI is now a proud supporter of the OA2020 Initiative.

Open Access 2020 is an international initiative that aims to induce the swift, smooth and scholarly-oriented transformation of today’s scholarly journals from subscription to open access publishing.

MDPI is participating in the upcoming Berlin13 conference in March 2017, where we are contributing to the initiative by aiding in the design of the roadmap which will make OA the default publishing model.

For more information please see here.