Announcements

Smart Cities (ISSN: 2624-6511) continues to be indexed in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) within the Web of Science Core Collection. This is the first time that Clarivate has awarded impact factors to journals outside of the core flagship indices, SCIE and SSCI, creating greater transparency around the citedness of ESCI-indexed journals.

Furthermore, according to the 2022 CiteScores™ (Elsevier) released in June 2023, Smart Cities received an updated CiteScore of 8.5, an increase of 54% compared with the 2021 metric. The CiteScore ranks 14 among 261 titles (Q1) in the “Urban Studies” category.

For further journal data, please visit https://www.mdpi.com/journal/smartcities/stats.

With the first issue released in June 2023, five new MDPI journals disseminating multi-disciplinary science are due to launch, which will cover the subjects of medicine & pharmacology, biology and physical sciences.

The newly launched journals will be overseen by professional Editorial Board Members and Editors to ensure an accurate and rapid publication, rigorous peer review and broad visibility.

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

Journal	Founding Editor-in-Chief	Journal topics (selected)
	Prof. Dr. Jun Ma, Peking University, China| Editorial | view inaugural issue	growth and development; diet and nutrients; school health promotion policies and practices; child health and care; adolescent health and wellbeing | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Bernd Rehm, Griffith University, Australia | Editorial | view inaugural issue	DNA and gene synthesis; synthetic transcription factors; protein engineering; viral engineering; metabolic engineering | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Varsha Gandhi, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue	lymphatics; cancers associated with lymphocytes and lymphoblasts; lymphatic tissues; lymphoma; lymphoid leukemia | view journal scope | submit an article
	Dr. Bradley Turner, University of Melbourne, Australia | Editorial | view inaugural issue	multiple sclerosis; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; primary lateral sclerosis; atherosclerosis; systemic sclerosis | view journal scope | submit an article
	Prof. Dr. Clemens Burda, Case Western Reserve University, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue	Gamma ray, X-ray, and UV–Vis spectroscopies; NIR/mid-infrared/Raman spectroscopy; microwave and THz spectroscopy; high-resolution gas-phase atomic, molecular, and cluster spectroscopy; MS, NMR, and EPR spectroscopy | view journal scope | submit an article

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

The 2022 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:

We are thrilled to announce that 90% of our ranked MDPI journals, specifically 86 out of 96 (captured in the table below), are performing above average in Q1 or Q2. This year, Clarivate has expanded its Impact Factor (IF) awards to include journals in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), providing greater transparency for the full set of journals indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. As a result, 111 of MDPI journals have received their first IF in 2023, with 37 journals surpassing an IF of 3.0. In total, 208 MDPI journals have been honored with an IF.

Clarivate explains that by "expanding the coverage but holding to highly selective standards, the [Impact Factor] is now a reliable indicator of trustworthiness, as well as a measure of scholarly impact, at the journal level."

Please visit our blog post where we discuss the release of the latest citation metrics with our Indexing Manager, Dr. Constanze Schelhorn, to find out what's different this time around and how to make use of different metrics available.

Note: The Journal of Personalized Medicine's Impact Factor was omitted in the original release and will be assigned separately. Please find the data on the journal webpage in due course.

Source: 2022 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2023)

1. “The Metaverse as a Virtual Form of Smart Cities: Opportunities and Challenges for Environmental, Economic, and Social Sustainability in Urban Futures”
by Zaheer Allam, Ayyoob Sharifi, Simon Elias Bibri, David Sydney Jones and John Krogstie
Smart Cities 2022, 5(3), 771–801; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5030040
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/3/40

2. “The Metaverse as a Virtual Form of Data-Driven Smart Urbanism: On Post-Pandemic Governance through the Prism of the Logic of Surveillance Capitalism”
by Simon Elias Bibri and Zaheer Allam
Smart Cities 2022, 5(2), 715–727; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5020037
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/2/37

3. “The Social Shaping of the Metaverse as an Alternative to the Imaginaries of Data-Driven Smart Cities: A Study in Science, Technology, and Society”
by Simon Elias Bibri
Smart Cities 2022, 5(3), 832-–874; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5030043
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/3/43

4. “Models for Supporting Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Design”
by Giuseppe Musolino, Corrado Rindone and Antonino Vitetta
Smart Cities 2022, 5(1), 206–222; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5010013
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/1/13

5. “Barcelona under the 15-Minute City Lens: Mapping the Accessibility and Proximity Potential Based on Pedestrian Travel Times”
by Carles Ferrer-Ortiz, Oriol Marquet, Laia Mojica and Guillem Vich
Smart Cities 2022, 5(1), 146–161; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5010010
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/1/10

6. “Participatory Governance of Smart Cities: Insights from e-Participation of Putrajaya and Petaling Jaya, Malaysia”
by Seng Boon Lim and Tan Yigitcanlar
Smart Cities 2022, 5(1), 71–89; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5010005
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/1/5

7. “Implementing Data-Driven Smart City Applications for Future Cities”
by Yamuna Kaluarachchi
Smart Cities 2022, 5(2), 455–474; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5020025
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/2/25

8. “Technology Developments and Impacts of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: An Overview”
by Hafiz Usman Ahmed, Ying Huang, Pan Lu and Raj Bridgelall
Smart Cities 2022, 5(1), 382–404; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5010022
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/1/22

9. “Visual Communication in Shared Mobility Systems as an Opportunity for Recognition and Competitiveness in Smart Cities”
by Katarzyna Turoń, Andrzej Kubik, Martin Ševčovič, János Tóth and András Lakatos
Smart Cities 2022, 5(3), 802–818; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5030041
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/3/41

10. “Impact of the Use of Electric Scooters from Shared Mobility Systems on the Users”
by Andrzej Kubik
Smart Cities 2022, 5(3), 1079–1091; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5030054
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/3/54

11. “SmartNoshWaste: Using Blockchain, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing and QR Code to Reduce Food Waste in Decentralized Web 3.0 Enabled Smart Cities”
by Somdip Dey, Suman Saha, Amit Kumar Singh and Klaus McDonald-Maier
Smart Cities 2022, 5(1), 162–176; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5010011
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/5/1/11

The purpose of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide. 17 May marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

This year, World Telecommunication and Information Society Day focuses on “Empowering the least developed countries (LDCs) through information and communication technologies.” As the world becomes increasingly adept at leveraging the Internet for value creation, LDCs risk falling further behind. To further explore the information about digital transformation in these LDCs and communication technologies in the rest of the world on the 2023 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, we have gathered academic research from several journals on the topic of digital communication, all of which are open access, enabling practitioners, policymakers and people around the world to access and share up-to-date scientific knowledge.

Let us celebrate the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day together.

MDPI will be attending the 18th International Conference on Waste Management and Technology (ICWMT18), held in Sanya, China, from 20 to 23 May 2023. The theme of this year’s conference is “Synergizing the Reduction of Pollution and Carbon Emission”. Throughout the conference, prominent researchers and government officials will give keynote speeches on pressing issues of solid waste management. ICWMT18 provides an excellent opportunity for participants from industry and academia to keep up to date with the latest trends in solid waste management.

During this conference, MDPI will welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest views as well as research with us.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Sustainability;
• Environments;
• Atmosphere;
• Buildings;
• Resources;
• Smart Cities;
• Sustainable Chemistry;
• Pollutants;
• Microplastics.

If you are attending this conference, please stop by our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit the following link: http://www.bcrc.cn/icwmt-eng/.

As a leading open access publisher, MDPI provides scholars with a high-quality and rich academic exchange platform by continuously expanding into new and exciting research areas.

In December 2022, MDPI launched five new journals, covering multiple subjects such as life sciences, biology, medicine and pharmacology, social sciences and humanities. These new journals are being edited by established scholars across the world.

If you are interested in creating more open access journals with us to publish cutting-edge research, please send your journal proposal application to newjournal-committee@mdpi.com.

MDPI is pleased to announce that we now display the co-authors’ email addresses in addition to the corresponding author’s email address on the webpage of published papers, protected by Captcha. For more information about this change, please visit the journal’s instructions for authors page. 

We believe this change will facilitate academic discussions and advance our cause of open science and research. The corresponding authors are responsible for communicating with their co-authors and indicating in our system (https://susy.mdpi.com/) if co-authors would prefer for their email addresses not to be displayed.

On 9 February 2023, Clarivate, a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics, added the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science platform, streamlining the research process by allowing researchers to locate and link to preprints alongside other trusted content in the database.

The Preprint Citation Index will act as a bridge to connect cutting-edge preprints with peer-reviewed journal articles published within the Web of Science Core Collection. Alerts can be easily set to monitor new research across several repositories and authors will also be able to include preprints on their Web of Science Research Profile to more accurately display their various research outputs.

As of its launch, the Preprint Citation Index will provide nearly two million preprints from various repositories, including MDPI’s own Preprints.org.

MDPI's Preprints Platform – Preprints.org

To advance Open Science and the fast dissemination of research, MDPI offers researchers a free multidisciplinary preprint platform. Preprints.org accepts submissions from all research areas and offers authors high visibility, permanent archiving, article-level Metrics and immediately citable content by assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all preprints.

During submission to any MDPI journal, authors have the option to share their research as a preprint. After an initial screening, the manuscript is available online in 48 hours or less. Once online, preprints can be downloaded, shared, commented on, and cited, providing authors maximum visibility.

We invite you to join the ranks of the over 100k researchers using Preprints.org and share your research.

For more information, please visit Preprints.org.