Announcements

Conference: The 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2022)
Date: 23–27 October 2022
Place: Kyoto, Japan

Machines (ISSN: 2075-1702) will be attending IROS 2022 as an exhibitor. This meeting will take place from 23 to 27 October in Kyoto, Japan.

IROS is one of the largest and most impactful robotics research conferences worldwide. It provides an international forum for the international robotics research community to explore the frontiers of science and technology in intelligent robots and smart machines. The theme of IROS 2022 is “Embodied AI for a Symbiotic Society”. In addition to technical sessions and multimedia presentations, IROS conferences also hold panel discussions, forums, workshops, tutorials, exhibits, and technical tours to encourage fruitful discussions among conference attendees.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Machines;
• Robotics;
• Sensors;
• Computers;
• Applied Sciences;
• Systems;
• Technologies;
• Inventions;
• JMMP;
• Fractal Fract;
• ASI;
• Smart Cities;
• AI;
• Automation.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please do not hesitate to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference and virtual booth, please visit the following website: https://iros2022.org/.

The 2021 citation metrics have been officially released in Scopus!

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

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

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

Source: 2021 CiteScores™ (Elsevier)

1. “Introducing the “15-Minute City”: Sustainability, Resilience and Place Identity in Future Post-Pandemic Cities”
Carlos Moreno et al.
Smart Cities 2021, 4(1), 93-111; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4010006.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/1/6

2. “A Review on Electric Vehicles: Technologies and Challenges”
Julio A. Sanguesa et al.
Smart Cities 2021, 4(1), 372-404; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4010022.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/1/22

3. “IoT in Smart Cities: A Survey of Technologies, Practices and Challenges”
Abbas Shah Syed et al.
Smart Cities 2021, 4(2), 429-475; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4020024.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/2/24

4. “Application of Deep Learning on UAV-Based Aerial Images for Flood Detection”
Hafiz Suliman Munawar et al.
Smart Cities 2021, 4(3), 1220-1242; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4030065.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/3/65

5. “Cloud-Based IoT Applications and Their Roles in Smart Cities”
Tanweer Alam
Smart Cities 2021, 4(3), 1196-1219; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4030064.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/3/64

6. “Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Smart Grid: A Survey”
Olufemi A. Omitaomu and Haoran Niu
Smart Cities 2021, 4(2), 548-568; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4020029.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/2/29

7. “IoT-Enabled Solid Waste Management in Smart Cities”
S. Vishnu et al.
Smart Cities 2021, 4(3), 1004-1017; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4030053.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/3/53

8. “Smart Cities and Big Data Analytics: A Data-Driven Decision-Making Use Case”
Ahmed M. Shahat Osman and Ahmed Elragal
Smart Cities 2021, 4(1), 286-313; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4010018.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/1/18

9. “A Review of Car-Following Models and Modeling Tools for Human and Autonomous-Ready Driving Behaviors in Micro-Simulation”
Hafiz Usman Ahmed et al.
Smart Cities 2021, 4(1), 314-335; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4010019.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/1/19

10. “Concept Drift Adaptation Techniques in Distributed Environment for Real-World Data Streams”
Hassan Mehmood
Smart Cities 2021, 4(1), 349-371; https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities4010021.
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2624-6511/4/1/21

Conference: The 30th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED 2022)

Date: 28 June–1 July 2022

Venue: Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso, Athens, Greece

Machines (ISSN: 2075-1702) will be attending the 30th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED 2022) as an exhibitor and will be sponsoring a Best Paper Award. This meeting will take place from 28 June to 1 July 2022, at the Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso seaside resort in Vougliameni, Greece.

MED 2022 is co-sponsored by the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS), the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), and the ICUAS Association, Inc.

The theme of MED 2022 centers on control and automation challenges and opportunities in the 21^st century and focuses on system design for autonomy and resilience in high-confidence cyber physical systems. The international conference committee is soliciting technical papers as well as inviting sessions, workshops, and tutorial proposals.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Machines;
• Systems;
• Robotics;
• Automation;
• Smart Cities;
• Applied sciences;
• Applied System Innovation (ASI);
• AI;
• Standards;
• Technologies;
• Big Data and Cognitive Computing (BDCC);
• Modelling.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please do not hesitate to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference and virtual booth, please visit the following website: https://www.med-control.org/med2022/.

Smart Cities (ISSN 2624-6511) released its inaugural issue in 2018 and is now published quarterly. Since it was established, Smart Cities has aimed to provide a professional publishing service to the scientific community, and has strived towards the effective dissemination of high-quality scientific work. Moreover, in 2021, Smart Cities has been accepted for coverage in Scopus (Elsevier) and the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) in the Web of Science.

In order to support the scientific community and contribute to the faster distribution of important scientific research, Smart Cities has cooperated with various academic conferences and now is seeking cooperation with additional academic conferences. The journal is open to a diverse range of collaborations, such as media partnerships, awards, exhibitions, and publications, amongst others.

Smart Cities (ISSN 2624-6511) is an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open access journal containing research on the science and technology of smart cities. The scope of Smart Cities includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Information and communication technology (ICT) in the smart city;
• Internet of Things (IoT) for smart cities;
• Smart sensing;
• Smart grids and smart infrastructures;
• Smart transportation and mobility;
• Smart energy;
• Smart buildings;
• Smart food and agriculture;
• Smart governance;
• Smart people;
• Smart economy;
• Smart healthcare;
• Smart living.

We welcome consultations with any conferences related to smart cities. If you are interested in collaborating with Smart Cities, please contact us at cities@mdpi.com.

We are pleased to inform you that the open access journal Smart Cities (ISSN 2624-6511) was accepted for coverage by Scopus in December 2021. We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to all the authors, reviewers, and editors who have contributed to this journal and made this achievement possible.

Smart Cities (ISSN 2624-6511) is an international, scientific, peer-reviewed open access journal on the science and technology of smart cities. Manuscripts are peer-reviewed, and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 15.1 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 3.6 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the first half of 2021).

To make the most of this opportunity, we would like to invite you to make a submission to Smart Cities. If you have a paper on any topic within the scope of the journal, please feel free to submit it here.

Smart Cities Editorial Office

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Founded in 1996, MDPI was one of the first fully Open Access publisher. Over 25 years MDPI has grown to become the largest Open Access publisher globally, publishing over 160,000 articles across more than 350 journals in 2020. At the core, MDPI was founded in response to a pressing need of fast publication and inclusion. The scholar was set at the centre of the publication process for the first time. Acting as a service provider, rather than a product provider, MDPI exists to help scientists achive their objective to disseminate research results. At MDPI, we believe scientists deserve a better service from the publishing world.

The International Open Access Week (Open Access Week), founded by the SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Alliance and student partners in 2008, has been successfully running for 13 years. As an advocate and pioneer of open access publishing, MDPI actively responds to the call of International Open Access Week. This year’s theme of “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity” highlights the Recommendation’s call for equitable participation from all authors and readers.

For the last 25 years, MDPI has been committed to disseminating open research. Here is a video showing MDPI’s Commitment to Equity, Inclusion and Diversity for More than 25 Years.

International Open Access Week is an important opportunity to catalyze new conversations, create connections across and between communities that can facilitate this co-design, and advance progress in the building of more equitable foundations for opening knowledge—discussions and actions that need to be continued, year in and year out. MDPI has always aimed to provide professional and efficient publishing services to scholars around the world.

Our mission is to make scientific research accessible to everyone; this year, we interview and hold discussions with open science ambassadors on how to build an equal and inclusive environment for open science. Academic editors help us collaborate with more institutions to advocate for open access ideas.

Read our anniversary blog post: "Sharing 'Collective Human Knowledge': The Benefits of Open Access Publication"

Besides this, our scientific community is a key driver of our success and MDPI’s remarkable growth. Despite the pandemic, we have prepared online conferences and workshops to gather scholars from different communities.

The Basel Sustainable Publishing online forum provides an equal opportunity for stakeholders and researchers from multi-cultural environments to exchange ideas and eliminate barriers to participation.

Conference date: 25 October 2021, online
Conference website: https://bspf2021.sciforum.net/
Main topics: MDPI discusses the current dilemma of open access science from various perspectives such as governments, libraries, and publishers, and related measures on how to change the status quo of discrimination from a global perspective.

We aim to support equality, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in scholarly communications. We collaborate with universities and key laboratories and have scholarly communications with researchers, teachers, and students on open access workshops.

• 25 October 2021
  Energies journal and Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

• 28 October 2021
  Machines journal and State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University

• 29 October 2021
  Processes journal and Beijing Institute of Technology

• 29 October 2021
  Coatings journal and Wuhan University of Technology

MDPI is committed to providing open access and high-quality publishing services for scholars and promoting rapid dissemination of academic achievements. We hope to promote the practices and policies of open access publishing and diversify the dissemination of academic achievements.

Rigorous peer-review is the cornerstone of high-quality academic publishing. Over 369,916 scholars served as reviewers for MDPI journals in 2020. We are extremely appreciative of all those who made a contribution to the editorial process in this capacity. At the beginning of every year, journal editorial offices publish a list of all reviewers’ names to express our gratitude. In addition, this year, the MDPI Top Reviewer Award was announced, to recognize the very best reviewers for their expertise and dedication, and their high-quality, and timely review reports. We are pleased to announce the following winners of the 2020 MDPI Top Reviewer Award:

• Adriana Burlea-Schiopoiu;
• Alban Kuriqi;
• Álvaro González-Vila;
• Alessandro Alaimo;
• Alexey Beskopylny;
• Alexander Yu Churyumov;
• Alberto Fernández-Isabel;
• Andrea Mastinu;
• Antonios N. Papadopoulos;
• Anton Rassõlkin;
• Antonio Humberto Hamad Minervino;
• Arkadiusz Matwijczuk;
• Artur Słomka;
• Baojie He;
• Bartłomiej Potaniec;
• Bojan Đurin;
• Camilo Arturo Rodriguez Diaz;
• Carmelo Maria Musarella;
• Chiachung Chen;
• Chiman Kwan;
• Cristian Busu;
• Danil Pimenov;
• Dan-Cristian Dabija;
• Delfín Ortega-Sánchez;
• Demetrio Antonio Zema;
• Denis Butusov;
• Elena Lucchi;
• Gaurab Dutta;
• Livia Anastasiu;
• M. R. Safaei.

For more information about how to become a reviewer of MDPI journals, please see: www.mdpi.com/reviewers.