Announcements

Our portfolio of journals available for publishing up-to-date research in immediate open access format has been further expanded. In June 2026, eleven new journals released their inaugural issues and two transferred journals released their first issue as part of MDPI, covering the subjects of environmental & earth sciences, chemistry & materials science, public health & healthcare, engineering, medicine & pharmacology, and biology & life sciences. 

We extend our gratitude to the Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editors, and Editorial Board Members who will shape the future course of these new journals. Each journal is dedicated to upholding strong editorial standards through a thorough peer review process, enabling impactful open access scholarship. 

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

We would like to thank everyone who has supported the development of open access publishing. If you would like to create a new journal, you are welcome to send an application here or contact the New Journal Committee (newjournal-committee@mdpi.com).

Peer review is the invisible foundation of academic progress. The 2025 MDPI Top Reviewers are some of the key experts who helped build it.

We are honored to recognize 1000 individuals from our global community of 210,000 reviewers across 67 countries and territories—chosen for their commitment to rigorous, constructive peer review and the consistency of their contributions throughout 2025.

The Top Reviewers provided constructive and impartial feedback that makes research stronger and more impactful, and we are grateful for it.

The names of these reviewers are listed below in alphabetical order by first name:

(Note: we respected all privacy preferences, with part of nominees opting for limited attribution.)

Conference: Symmetry 2027—The 6th International Conference on Symmetry
Date: 25–28 June 2027
Location: Shanghai, China

We invite you to submit your abstract and participate in the upcoming Symmetry 2027 - The 6th International Conference on Symmetry, organized by MDPI Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994, IF: 2.2). The conference will be held from 25 to 28 June 2027 in Shanghai, China.

We invite you to join us in Shanghai for what promises to be an enriching exchange of ideas and knowledge. Together, let us continue to unravel the mysteries of symmetry and its profound impact on our understanding of the natural world.

Event Chairs:

• Prof. Dr. Chengping Shen (Fudan University, China);
• Prof. Dr. Jie Yang (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China);
• Prof. Dr. Sergei Odintsov (Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC), Spain).

Topics of interest:

S1. Particle Physics and Nuclear Physics;
S2. Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology;
S3. Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Interdisciplinary Applications;
S4. General Topics in Symmetry.

Important Dates

Deadline for abstract submission: 26 February 2027;
Abstract acceptance notification: 25 March 2027;
Deadline for Early Bird registration: 17 April 2027;
Deadline for covering author registration: 24 April 2027.

Guide for authors:

To submit your abstract, please click the following link: .

To register for the event, please click the following link: .

For details regarding abstract submission, poster and slide submission, and publication opportunities, please refer to the “Instructions for Authors” section: https://sciforum.net/event/symmetry2027?section=#instructions.

For more information, please click to the following link: https://sciforum.net/event/symmetry2027.

For any inquiries regarding the event, please contact icsymmetry@mdpi.com.

Please feel free to share information about this conference with your colleagues and students. We look forward to receiving your submissions and learning about your research at Symmetry 2027!

Welcome message from the webinar Chair: 

Dear colleagues,

Thank you very much for joining us and for sharing such a broad spectrum of ideas on how we can advance our understanding of strong interactions in the regime of large QCD running coupling—the so‑called strong QCD regime—through studies of nucleon resonance (N*) structure. Experiments at high‑luminosity facilities equipped with large‑acceptance detectors have opened new opportunities to explore N* structure by determining N* electroexcitation amplitudes from exclusive meson‑electroproduction data. Extensive research efforts during the 6-GeV era with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab (JLab) have provided most of the world’s data on exclusive meson electroproduction in the resonance region. These efforts have enabled the determination of N* electroexcitation amplitudes for most resonances up to a mass of 1.8 GeV for photon virtualities of Q² < 5.0 GeV². This important body of work will be discussed in the talk by Prof. R. W. Gothe. At present, the CLAS12 detector at JLab, operating with an electron‑beam energy of 11 GeV, is the only facility capable of extending measurements of the evolution of N* electroexcitation amplitudes up to Q² ≈ 10 GeV². The status of N* structure studies in this new 12-GeV era—and prospects beyond this era—will be reviewed in the talk by Dr. D. S. Carman.

The observed Q² evolution of N* electroexcitation amplitudes provides a unique window into many facets of strong interaction dynamics, particularly the transition from the perturbative to strongly coupled regimes, as reflected in the generation of N* states with different masses, spin–parity quantum numbers, and structural features. Within QCD‑rooted continuum Schwinger methods (CSM), analyses of these amplitudes have demonstrated a powerful capability to reveal the underlying strong‑QCD dynamics responsible for the emergence of ~98% of hadron mass. The remarkable progress achieved in understanding the emergence of hadron mass and N* structure within CSM will be discussed in the talk by Prof. C. D. Roberts.

Future high‑luminosity, large‑acceptance facilities with 22 GeV electron beams will offer unique capabilities to investigate the full distance–scale range governing the emergence of hadron mass and internal structure. The success of this ambitious scientific program will rely critically on synergy between experiment, phenomenology, and QCD‑connected hadron‑structure theory. We hope this webinar will help strengthen those synergistic efforts. Finally, participants are invited to contribute to a Topic Issue of Symmetry dedicated to the outcomes of this webinar. Details of this Special Issue and of Symmetry will be presented by Ms.  Isabella Theodora Toth. The audience is warmly encouraged to contribute. 

Keywords: nucleon resonances, exclusive meson electroproduction, hadron structure, electromagnetic probes, emergence of hadron mass, continuum Schwinger function methods.
Date: 28 July 2026
Time: 2:00 p.m. CEST | 8:00 a.m. EDT | 8:00 p.m. CST (Asia)
Webinar ID: 890 3654 6859
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Website: https://sciforum.net/event/Symmetry-20

Register now for free!

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email on how to join the webinar. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.

Unable to attend? Register anyway, and we will let you know when the recording is available to view. 

Webinar Chair and Keynote Speakers:

• Prof. Dr. Victor I. Mokeev, ¹ University of South Carolina, USA; ² Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, USA;
• Prof. Dr. Craig D. Roberts, Institute for Non Perturbative Physics, Nanjing University, China;
• Prof. Dr. Ralf W. Gothe, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, USA;
• Dr. Daniel S. Carman, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, USA. 

Relevant Topical Collection:
“Emergence of Hadron Mass from Experiments at High Luminosity Facilities”
Collection Editors: Prof. Dr. Victor I. Mokeev, Prof. Dr. Craig D. Roberts and Dr. Daniel S. Carman

Conference:  SigmaPhi 2026
Organization: European Physical Society
Date: 6–10 July 2026
Place: Kolymvari Chania, Crete, Greece

The conference covers the full spectrum of Statistical Physics through four major themes: Foundations and Theoretical Aspects, Applications to Physical Systems, Applications to Non-Physical Systems and Statistical Mechanics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Topics include mathematical aspects and methods, formalism, rigorous results, exact solutions, connections with the methods of high energy physics, string theory, black-hole entropy, cosmological theories, quantum systems, soft condensed matter, liquid crystals, plasmas, fluids, surfaces and interfaces, disordered and glassy systems, percolation, spin glasses, structural glasses, applied networks, biophysics, genomics, environments, climate and earth models, artificial neural networks using physics principles, neural networks as spin systems, Hopfield models, Boltzmann machines and machine learning.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Entropy;
• Plasma;
• Fluids;
• International Journal of Topology (IJT);
• Surfaces;
• AppliedMath;
• Condensed Matter;
• Particles;
• Modern Mathematical Physics;
• Atoms;
• Symmetry;
• Fractal Fractional;
• Quantum Reports;
• Physics;
• Complexities;
• Dynamics;
• Magnetism;
• Foundations;
• Mathematics;
• Axioms.

If you attend this conference, please feel free to visit our booth. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have.

Impact Factors measure how often articles in scientific journals are cited—specifically, the average number of citations received in a given year by articles published in that journal over the previous two years, as tracked in the Web of Science. For researchers, the number answers a practical question: how often is work published in this journal being picked up and built upon?

The metric is assigned to the journal as a whole, not to individual articles. A high Impact Factor tells you something useful about a journal's place in its field; it tells you less about any single paper within it.

For a complementary, article-level view, MDPI lists an Altmetric score on each article page. Where the Impact Factor tracks academic citations, the Altmetric score captures broader online attention: how an article is being shared, discussed, and referenced beyond the journal literature. Together, they offer two different ways of asking the same question: is this research reaching people?

With 2025 CiteScores from Scopus published a few weeks ago, Clarivate has now released this year's Journal Impact Factors in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR).

254 MDPI Journals Saw a Rise in Impact Factor

This year's JCR include 330 MDPI journals across a wide range of disciplines. Of these, 231 journals are placed in the top 50% (Q1 or Q2) of their respective subject categories, a result that spans fields as different as materials science, public health, environmental studies, and mathematics. 78 journals hold a top-quartile position (Q1), and 33 journals have a JIF of 5.0 or above.

• 330 journals earned a Journal Impact Factor (JIF)
• 29 journals earned a first JIF
• 254 journals had an increase in JIF
• 71% of ranked journals are in Q1 or Q2

For the full metrics on any MDPI journal, visit our Web of Science journals overview page or a journal's individual statistics page.

29 MDPI Journals Received Their First Journal Impact Factor

A first Impact Factor is a confirmation for an emerging journal. It marks the point at which a journal has been publishing long enough, and cited broadly enough, to enter the formal record of scientific influence. For the research communities those journals serve, it signals that the work being published is being read and built upon.

This year, 29 MDPI journals received a Journal Impact Factor for the first time, across a range of emerging and established research areas. Each represents years of editorial development and peer review—recognized in 2026 for the first time in the JCR.

This is also part of a longer shift in how science gets indexed. When the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) launched in 2016, 24 MDPI journals were included. By 2024 that number had grown to over 200, reflecting a broader change in the visibility of open access publishing within major citation tracking systems, not just at MDPI but across the sector.

Open Access with Impact

MDPI journals have received a total of 25.2 million citations in Web of Science. That figure matters less as a measure of MDPI's reach and more as a measure of what happens when research is freely available: it gets found, read, and used. Open access is only meaningful if the work actually travels and citations are one indicator that it does.

More than 4.6 million authors have published with MDPI. That breadth, across disciplines, institutions, and geographies, is what makes open access at this scale worth doing.

Thank You to the MDPI Scholarly Community

These results belong to the people who do the actual work: the Editors-in-Chief who set the standards, the Editorial Board Members and reviewers who hold them, and the authors who choose open access for their research. The numbers in the Journal Citation Reports are the downstream effect of decisions made at the desk, in the review, and at submission. Thank you for making them.

Data: 2025 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports™ (Clarivate, 2026)

Conference: The 41st ICROS Annual Conference
Date: 1–3 July 2026
Location: EXCO, Daegu, Republic of Korea

MDPI will be participating in the 41st ICROS Annual Conference, which will take place from 1 to 3 July 2026 in Daegu, Republic of Korea.

Hosted by the Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems (ICROS), the Korean representative body of IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control), will be held under the theme “Control, Robots, and Systems Leading the AI 2.0 Era”. This event offers attendees a premier platform for sharing future technologies across various engineering fields, including electrical, electronic, mechanical, aerospace, and chemical engineering.

The following MDPI journals will be represented at the conference:

• Inventions;
• Symmetry;
• AI;
• Applied Sciences;
• Automation;
• Electronics;
• Mathematics;
• MTI;
• Processes;
• Robotics;
• Vehicles;
• Actuators;
• Algorithms;
• Logistics;
• Sensors.

We warmly invite you to visit our booth to share your valued research experience. We look forward to meeting you in person and assisting with any questions that you may have. For more information regarding this conference, please visit the official website.

The 2025 CiteScore metrics have been officially released by Scopus, and the results confirm what has become a consistent pattern for MDPI's journal portfolio: broad recognition across disciplines, steady improvement across the majority of ranked titles, and a growing presence at the top of subject category rankings.

CiteScore, published annually by Elsevier's Scopus database, measures the average citations received by articles published in a journal over a four-year window. As a complement to the Journal Impact Factor, which uses a two-year window based on the Web of Science database, CiteScore provides an alternative, long-term perspective on citation performance.

The 365 MDPI journals in Scopus (as of May 2026) are indexed across a wide range of subject categories, ensuring that open access research remains highly discoverable to a global readership through one of the most widely used platforms in academic publishing.

Data Summary (2025 CiteScores)

• New Additions: 41 MDPI journals received a CiteScore for the first time.
• Trending Upward: 234 of 322 previously ranked journals (73%) saw an increase in their CiteScore compared to last year.
• High Visibility: 314 journals (86%) rank in Q1 or Q2 in at least one subject category.
• Elite Performance: 42 journals rank in the top 10% of their subject categories.

Portfolio Performance

Among the 322 journals that held a CiteScore in 2024, 234 saw an increase this year. Quartile improvements outnumbered declines across the portfolio, with 52 journals moving to a higher quartile and only 20 seeing a decline. Furthermore, no previously ranked journals were removed. The 42 journals now ranked in the top 10% of their subject categories are drawn from a strong foundation of 178 journals holding a Q1 position.

With the large majority of our indexed portfolio ranked in the top half of research fields, researchers can confidently choose MDPI to meet funder mandates for high-quality, fully compliant Open Access publishing.

Exceptional Achievements for Foods and Life

Notably, both Foods and Life achieved a 99th percentile ranking in their respective subject categories for the 2025 CiteScores. This outstanding placement positions them as leading journals in their fields and highlights the high visibility and global impact of the open access research they publish.

Journal Metrics and Beyond

Journal-level metrics describe outlets, not individual articles. An increasing number of funders and institutions—including signatories of DORA and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment—now explicitly encourage evaluation at the article level rather than by the journal in which research appears. MDPI supports this direction: we report CiteScore alongside the Journal Impact Factor, Journal Citation Indicator, and article-level usage data because no single number captures the full reach and contribution of published research.

Thank You

These results reflect the sustained effort of thousands of editors-in-chief, editorial board members, reviewers, and authors across every field MDPI serves. The metrics are the outcome; the work is yours.

Quantum metrology has long promised measurement precision beyond classical limits. Yet as quantum technologies move closer to real-world applications, a deeper question emerges: what kind of entanglement is actually useful?

Few researchers have shaped this field more profoundly than Prof. Augusto Smerzi, whose pioneering work on quantum phase estimation and quantum Fisher information has helped define the modern foundations of quantum-enhanced sensing.

As a plenary speaker at the 1st International Conference on Modern Mathematical Physics (ICMMP 2026), to be held in Hangzhou, China, from 30 October to 3 November 2026, Prof. Augusto Smerzi will join leading researchers from across quantum information, field theory, AMO physics, and mathematical physics for discussions on the future of modern theoretical physics.

Ahead of the conference, we invited Prof. Smerzi to share his perspectives on quantum metrology, the challenges facing young researchers, and why scientific understanding matters more than publication itself.

Speaker introduction:

Session 3. Quantum Information and Quantum Metrology
Presentation title: “Unveiling Useful Entanglement: Quantum Advantage in Sensing and Metrology”

1. You have helped bring the theoretical limits of quantum sensing — from the standard quantum limit to the Heisenberg bound — into experimental practice. What is the next major milestone for quantum metrology that you believe will arrive in the next five years?

I think the next milestone is to move from beautiful demonstrations to useful quantum sensors. We already know that entanglement can improve sensitivity in principle. The hard question is whether this advantage survives in real conditions: noise, losses, finite time, imperfect control, and limited information.

In the next five years I expect important progress in quantum-enhanced clocks, sensing applied to bio-physical and health monitoring sensors, and distributed sensor networks.

For me, the real success will be when quantum metrology will evolve from the theoretical quantum information framework to become a practical way to design better sensors.

2. Since joining Shenzhen Technology University, you have mentored and collaborated with young Chinese researchers. What impressions have they left on you, and what advice would you give to those who wish to pursue a career in quantum science?

My impression is very positive. I have met young Chinese researchers who are extremely motivated, technically strong, and willing to work very hard. They are also very aware that quantum science is not only an academic subject, but a frontier technology with real strategic importance.

My advice I give to all my students, regardless of whether they are Chinese or not, is to build a deep foundation. One needs a solid understanding of quantum mechanics, many-body physics, and experimental reality.

My second advice is: do not confuse publication with understanding. Publications are important, of course. They are how we communicate results. But the deepest result of science is not the paper itself. It is a clearer understanding of something that was not clear before. A good paper should be the natural consequence of this understanding. So, I would tell young researchers: do not start only from the question “Where can I publish this?”, start with the question “What is the real problem, and what can I understand that others have not yet understood?”

I would also emphasize communication. Science is not only doing good work; it also explains why the work matters. Young researchers should learn to write clearly, give clear talks, and become comfortable communicating in presence of large audiences. This is not a secondary skill. It is part of becoming an independent scientist.

Finally, I would encourage young scientists to be ambitious, but not only in the conventional way. Do not be afraid to explore directions where few people are going. Many important discoveries begin as strange questions. Curiosity, courage, and patience are still essential in science.

3. In your experience, what role do international conferences play in fostering collaborations that lead to real scientific breakthroughs?

International conferences are very important because science is not made only by papers. Papers communicate results, but conferences create trust, intuition, and sometimes friendship. Very often, a real collaboration starts from a simple conversation after a talk or during a coffee break.

For me, the best conferences are not only places where people present finished work. They are places where new questions are born. Sometimes the most important outcome of a conference is not a result, but a new direction.

4. Your plenary talk at ICMMP 2026 in Hangzhou is titled “Unveiling Useful Entanglement”. What do you hope the audience will take away from your talk?

The main message is simple: not all entanglement is equally useful. Entanglement is one of the most beautiful and mysterious features of quantum mechanics, but for quantum technologies we must ask a further operational question: what can this entanglement do?

In quantum metrology, useful entanglement is entanglement that helps us distinguish physical signals better. It allows a sensor to extract more information from the same system, or to reach a precision that would be impossible with separable states.

In my talk I will discuss how this usefulness can be identified and measured, especially through quantities such as the quantum Fisher information. I hope the audience will take away the idea that entanglement is not only an abstract mathematical property. It becomes truly meaningful when it gives us a new capability.

5. What is your one-sentence wish for this first International Conference on Modern Mathematical Physics?

My wish is that this conference becomes a place where deep mathematical ideas, physical intuition, and scientific curiosity meet, and where young researchers feel encouraged to explore questions that are not yet on the standard map.

Meet Prof. Augusto Smerzi at ICMMP 2026

Join us in Hangzhou this October to explore the latest developments in quantum metrology, entanglement theory, and modern mathematical physics together with leading researchers from around the world.

Conference location: Hangzhou, China
Conference date: 30 October–3 November 2026

Submit your work by 10 July 2026: https://sciforum.net/user/submission/create/1507.
Register now for early bird prices: https://sciforum.net/event/ICMMP2026?section=#registration.
Conference website: https://sciforum.net/event/ICMMP2026.

For any inquiries, please contact us at icmmp2026@mdpi.com.