Feature Papers to Celebrate the Inaugural Issue of Standards

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to present the inaugural issue of Standards journal. The journal is a scientific journal on standardization, assessment, verification, inspection, certification, testing, quality control, rating, and all other related topics. It is covering all scientific, engineering, and technology fields.

Standards can be international (ISO, IEC, WHO, EN, etc.), national (ASTM, DIN, BS, UNE, etc.), regional or corporate ones. They are covering production and consumption: management systems, security management, risk management, anti-bribery management systems, energy management, life cycle assessment, environmental management, social responsibility, occupational health and safety, food safety management, quality management, quality control, testing and calibration laboratories, quantities and units, diverse devices and equipment to mention the most popular ones. They are basic for our everyday activities: ambient air and water quality, information security, date and time format, currency codes, country codes, language codes, medical devices. International accounting standards (AS), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), 30 ISO standards, related to COVID-19 exist, etc.

In spite of the great number of different standards, new ones are appearing daily. The standardization process includes the development, acceptance and implementation of new or improved standards. The stakeholders can include companies, standardization institutions, governments, users, interest groups, professionals and scientists. International organization for standardization, ISO, has a guidance document on new work with three parts: 1) new standardized areas, 2) new fields of work, and 3) new work item proposals within existing committees [3]. New standards need to be inspected, verified, their quality has to be assessed, and they can be improved if found suitable.

Besides the technical standards, other standards, norms, conventions and requirements exist, e.g., credentials, certificates, patents, permits, etc. They are improving quality, reliability, efficiency, durability and other properties of goods and services. They can be voluntary or obligatory, used internally or externally.

A rapid development of standards is expected in the future. Climate change with the planned carbon neutrality by 2050, population growth and demographic trends will require rigorous changes to the ways in which we live, eat, dress, travel, produce and use energy. As raw materials are scarce, renewable energy sources will demand higher energy efficiency and circular economy with materials reuse. Standardization will play an important role in process and product design, production, distribution, consumption and recovery.

From 26 April 2021 to 30 April 2022, all submissions (once accepted after peer review) to Standards will be published free of charge. To take advantage of this opportunity, please submit before the deadline.

Prof. Dr. Peter Glavič
Guest Editor
Editor-in-Chief of Standards

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Standards is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.