Announcements

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.

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 AGU Fall Meeting is the largest international Earth and space science meeting in the world. This year, for the first time, the conference is being held in virtual form.

AGU20 is scheduled from 1 to 17 December 2020 to accommodate over a thousand hours of virtual content and minimize conflicts while maximizing global engagement. The scientific program content will be available on demand, with pre-recorded oral presentations and virtual posters available for attendees to view and peruse outside of the scheduled live Q&A sessions during the meeting. Click here for a program overview and more AGU20 details.

Water (ISSN 2073-4441), MDPI’s open access journal on water science and technology, has published more than 10,000 papers since its inception in 2009. On behalf of the editorial team, we would like to express our gratitude to the Editor-in-Chief of Water, Dr. Jean-Luc Probst,  the Editorial Board members, as well as to Guest Editors of Special Issues and Topics Board members who have ensured the continued success of the journal through their hard work and diligence.

Water is covered in the Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science), Scopus, Ei Compendex and PubMed, with a 2019 Impact Factor of 2.544, which corresponds to rank 31/94 (Q2) in the JCR category “Water Resources”. The journal’s Citescore is 3.0, which equals rank 82/217 (Q2) in ‘Water Science and Technology’, rank 88/219 (Q2) in ‘Aquatic Science’ and rank 147/679 (Q1) in ‘Geography, Planning and Development’ according to Scopus data. 

On 18 November 2019, Prof.Dr.Ir. Arjen Y. Hoekstra unexpectedly passed away. The Water Editorial Office and the tenured staff in his research group have set up a Special Issue, ‘In Memory of Prof. Arjen Y. Hoekstra’, in order to commemorate his scientific legacy in the field of water footprint assessment and the global dimension to water management.

On 18 November 2020, from 4pm to 5pm CET, a public memorial event, moderated by Dr.Ir. Rick Hogeboom (University of Twente), director of the Water Footprint Network and one of the Guest Editors of the memorial Special Issue, will be held in virtual form. We are sincerely inviting you to participate in this memorial event.

All the people close to him will always miss him. He is with us in spirit.

Climate variations have always impacted our ocean and coastal systems. A global concern is that the near-future rate of climate change may reach levels of which the impact is beyond our capacity to respond. Is it possible to make our oceans and/or coasts climate proof or if not can we achieve successful adaptation and mitigation measures? The webinar will address these issues albeit in a focused sense. Three contributions will be presented on (1) impact of climate change on our oceans, (2) impact of climate change on the Venice Lagoon and (3) impact of climate change on the Mississippi Delta.

Date & Time: 15 July 2020 16:00 pm (CEST) | 10:00 am (EDT) | 10:00 pm (CST Asia)

Duration: Maximum 2 hour

Webinar ID: 812 8179 9326

Register for Free Here: https://water-2.sciforum.net/

Chair:

Speakers:

For any questions about the webinar, please send an email to water.webinar@mdpi.com.

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 helen.dobson@jisc.ac.uk.

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 ioap@mdpi.com.

This scientific webinar aims to share and discuss the latest findings on Sars-Covid-2 in the aquatic environment and, particularly, in wastewater and recreational waters. Fecal-oral transmission has been already demonstrated for the new Coronavirus, but very little is known on the role of sewage as a pool for viral RNA or for intact viral infectious particles. Moreover, one of the potential ways to reach the aquatic environment is through the discharge of both treated and untreated urban sewage, but we are far from understanding how the viral genetic information may disseminates within the aquatic system. As the summer period in the Northern Hemisphere approaches, the potential risk in recreational waters (inland and costal) should be mastered.

Date & Time: 9 July 2020 16:00 pm (CEST) | 10:00 am (EDT) | 10:00 pm (CST Asia)

Duration: Maximum 2 hour

Webinar ID: 862 9233 3117

Register for Free Here: https://sciforum.net/conference/Water-1

Chair:

	Prof. Dr. Adriano A. Bordalo Section Editor-in-Chief of ‘Aquatic Systems—Quality and Contamination’ Guest Editor of ‘Coronaviruses and Water under the One Health Perspective’
	Presentation: "SARS-Covid-2 in the Aquatic Environment - What We Know so Far"

Speakers:

	Dr. Erica Gaddis
	Presentation: "Use of Wastewater Surveillance in Utah's Coordinated Response to COVID-19"
	Dr. Jennifer Weidhass
	Presentation: "Methods for Assessing SARS-CoV-2 Through Wastewater Epidemiology"
	Prof. Dr. James A. VanDerslice Guest Editor of ‘Risks from Emerging Pathogenic Organisms in Water’
	Presentation: "Trends in SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater with COVID-19 Disease in Utah"

For any questions about the webinar, please send an email to water.webinar@mdpi.com.

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

Updated Impact Factors