Announcements

Since 1996, MDPI has been committed to supporting the research community by providing the latest research freely available and making relevant and useful research available as quickly as possible. The world is current experiencing a pandemic of COVID-19, and researchers are working extremely hard to understand it and find a cure.

The values MDPI holds strongly are particularly important at the moment, and we will continue to publish relevant, peer-reviewed research as quickly as possible in open access format. This means that it will immediately be available for researchers, health professionals, and the general public to read, distribute, and reuse. We believe that scientific advancements will be crucial to overcoming this pandemic, and will do everything we can to support researchers working looking for solutions.

COVID-19 Academic Resources Center contains a variety of information related to COVID-19 available from MDPI, including journal articles, special issues, and preprints, among others.

For more information, please visit: https://www.mdpi.com/covid-19

As a leading Open Access publisher, MDPI is committed to fostering open scientific exchange in all forms across all disciplines. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, many researchers have to stay at home and many academic conferences have been cancelled or postponed. In light of these changes, MDPI has adopted numerous initiatives that may help accelerate scientific exchange and provide support to the academics during this period.

Scholarly Community—Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia is an online reference created and curated by active scholars. It aims to highlight the latest research results as well as providing benchmark information for researchers and the general public interested in accurate and advanced knowledge on specific topics.

Comprehensive and Free Literature Database—Scilit

Scilit is a comprehensive, free database for scientists that uses a new method to collate data and index scientific material. Our crawlers extract the latest data from CrossRef and PubMed on a daily basis. This means that newly published articles are immediately added to Scilit.

Display Academic Achievements—SciProfiles

SciProfiles is an innovative social network for researchers and scholars that is developed by MDPI. In line with our broad mission, the purpose of SciProfiles is to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and providing opportunities for academic networking.

Organize and Participate in Conferences Online—Sciforum

Sciforum is an event planning platform that supports open science by offering the opportunity to host and participate in academic conferences. It provides an environment for scholarly exchange, discussion of topics of current interest, building of networks, and establishing collaborations.

Post Early Versions of Research Outputs—Preprints

Preprints is a platform dedicated to making early versions of research outputs permanently available and citable. We post original research articles and comprehensive reviews, and papers can be updated by authors at any time. Content on Preprints is not peer-reviewed, and feedback can be received from readers.

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MDPI remains committed to open science and open data and has signed a statement, along with more than thirty scholarly publishers, showing our intention to facilitate sharing of new research findings as early on as possible. The initiative sees publishers collectively removing barriers to new research, in the face of a global healthcare crisis.

The world is currently suffering from a global pandemic of the corona virus COVID-19. MDPI expresses its sympathies for all of those affected by the virus and stands in solidarity with medical staff and researchers treating patients and searching for scientific solutions.

MDPI has previously published papers covering corona viruses in addition to new papers on the current outbreak, see all papers here. In particular, Viruses has published a number of Special Issues and papers on the topic (see here, here, and here) as well as a forthcoming Special Issue.

Alongside journal articles, MDPI has been a strong supporter of preprints, which are increasingly being used to rapidly disseminate the latest research, and we run the preprint server Preprints.org. Our database of research articles, Scilit, is free to use and covers all publishers including preprint servers. New papers are often in search results within hours of publication and users can set up alerts for new papers.

Our main priority during this period has been the health and safety of staff, and we continue to allow staff to work at home and closely monitor the situation in all locations in which we work. Despite the restrictions, we continue to provide a full publication service and, by close collaboration with our editorial boards and making use our in-house teams, ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in publishing vital research. Fast and open publication has always been at the core of MDPI values and is now more important than ever.

We hope that a solution to the current situation will emerge soon. In the meantime, we will do our best to continue communicating vital research in all fields.

The advantages of the open access model of scientific publishing are being increasingly recognized in the scientific community. It allows new scientific evidence to be accessed from the moment of publication for free by anyone around the globe, boosting the impact of new research. In response, many funders, libraries and universities have been adopting new principles to accelerate the transition to open access.

Recently, “transformative agreements” have been negotiated between traditional publishers and various institutions. While increasing the number of open access papers, these agreements lack binding commitments to a full transition to open access, their conditions vary across different regions, and access is still limited for many users.

MDPI is a co-signatory of the recent position statement raising concerns about potential downsides of transformative agreements and how they may delay a full transition to open access. The statement highlights that these models “risk perpetuating current limitations on access, transparency and market competitiveness, while simultaneously facilitating excessive charges on the public purse”.

As a pioneering open access journal publisher, MDPI is the first to promote the importance of science being made available to everyone. Our peer-reviewed journals, covering diverse academic disciplines, are fully accessible to the public free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). This is why, along with other open access publishers, MDPI is a proud signatory of the position paper and is committed to contributing to the replacement of weak transitional agreements with “agreements with publishers that are already fully committed to open science and who offer full, immediate and transparent Open Access”.

Read the position paper here

We are pleased to announce that Encyclopedia will be awarding five Outstanding Contributor Awards for researchers in 2020. The nominations and applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Encyclopedia Editorial Board.

Prize for Winners

1. An official certificate;
2. A cash award of 500 CHF or an MDPI discount voucher of 800 CHF.

Application Deadline

31 December, 2020 (Please send your application email with a list of all entries you contributed to our office before the deadline: office@encyclopedia.pub)

Candidate Requirements

1. Have a Ph.D. degree;
2. Have more than three qualified entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020.

Evaluation Standards

1. Number of entries published in Encyclopedia in 2020;
2. Quality of entries online (including length, figure quality, and novelty);
3. Impact of entries (including the number of likes, discussion contents, views, and downloads).

If you are a researcher and have not yet contribute entries to Encyclopedia, please do not miss this chance to highlight your research results.

MDPI will be attending EGU in Vienna, Austria on 3–8 May 2020.

The EGU General Assembly 2020 will bring together geoscientists from all over the world to one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary and space sciences. The EGU aims to provide a forum where scientists, especially early career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• water
• Atmosphere
• Resources
• Climate
• Environments
• Geosciences
• Land
• Galaxies
• Data
• IJGI

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jean-Luc PROBST has been appointed Editor-in-Chief for Water (ISSN 2073-4441). He joined Water in 2018 and has made a great contribution to our growth and development.

Jean-Luc PROBST is a senior scientist in Environmental Biogeochemistry at the French National Center for Scientific Research ( CNRS), CNRS Research Director (DR1). He received his PhD in 1983 at the University of Toulouse III-Paul Sabatier (France) and his Habilitation (Thèse d’état) in 1990 at the University of Strasbourg (France). In 2011–2015, he was the Director of the Laboratory of Functional Ecology and Environment (ECOLAB), a joint research laboratory CNRS- Paul Sabatier University (UPS)—Toulouse Institute of Technology (INPT). Since 2015, he has been the President of the CNRS-INSU/INEE Scientific Commission on "Continental Sufaces and Interfaces" (CS-SIC). He was also a professor for 4 years (2004–2007) at the INPT, and he has supervised 30 PhD and 60 Master Theses. Jean-Luc PROBST has published 440 papers, of which 130 in peer-reviewed journals, 80 book chapters, 190 proceedings of congress, and 40 scientific reports.

Website: http://www.ecolab.omp.eu/profils/PROBST_Jean-Luc
Interests: biogeochemitry; catchment hydrology; river transports; weathering; erosion; carbon cycle; major elements; nutrients; suspended matters; trace elements; rare earth elements; pesticides; stable isotopes; critical zone
Affiliation: ECOLAB, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Toulouse, campus ENSAT, Auzeville Tolosane, France

Jean-Luc PROBST was in charge of many national (PIRAT-GBF and ONT-Garonne of INSU/CNRS) and international projects and programmes: European projects ESCOBA-Biosphere “Continental Erosion and Global Carbon Cycle”, PARAT “A study of transfer of particulate and dissolved phases southern South America to the SW Atlantic ocean”, LOICZ/IGBP “Land Ocean Interactions in Southern America”, and IGCP 459-IUGS/UNESCO “Carbon Cycle and Hydrology in the Paleo Terrestrial Environments”.

He has been and continues to be a member of many Scientific Committees: CNRS Zones Atelier ORME and ZAAG, European Project CONCERT’EAU, European Network EUROLAT, international programme CHANGES, and INQUA Commission “Terrestrial Processes, Deposits and History”. He was also the president of the INQUA Carbon Commission (2003–2007). He is now a scientific expert member of the French Alliance for the Environment (Expert group on Water Sciences) which joins together all the French universities and research organisms. He is also a member of the board of directors of the World Competitiveness Cluster on Water.

He was a member of the French National Committee for Scientific Research (sections 12 and 46) during the period 2000–2004. He was a member of the Scientific Council of the Toulouse Institute of Technology (INPT) (2007–2015), member of the Toulouse Doctorate School Council “Sciences de l’Univers, de l’Environnement et de l’Espace” (2007–2015), member of the INPT Strategic Orientation Committee (2011–2015), member of the Direction Council of the Toulouse National School of Agronomy (ENSAT), and member of the INPT Research Commission (2011-2015).

He is also a member of different Scientific Councils in French and foreign institutions (e.g., Polytechnic Institute LaSalle Beauvais,-France, Oceanographic Research Center (CRO) Abidjan—Ivory Coast).

Finally, he is an expert member of the French Agency for the Evaluation of Research and Teaching (AERES) and president of different AERES and HCERES evaluation committees.

We warmly welcome Jean-Luc PROBST in his role as Editor-in-Chief of Water and look forward to achieving further success under his lead.

MDPI will be attending the AAG annual meeting, to be held in Denver, USA, from 6–10 April 2020

The AAG 2020 is joined by fellow geographers, GIS specialists, environmental scientists, and other leaders for the latest in research and applications in geography, sustainability, and GIScience. The meeting will be held from Monday, April 6 - Friday, April 10, 2020, and will feature over 6,900 presentations, posters, workshops, and field trips by leading scholars, experts, and researchers.

The Annual Meeting of the AAG is quite possibly the largest geography conference in the world, with over 8,500 geographers converging from the U.S., Canada, and nearly 60 other countries in a typical year. With thousands of different papers and presentations scheduled throughout the conference, you’ll find no shortage of activities that reflect your specific interests within the field of geography.

The 2020 Annual Meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency – Denver at Colorado Convention Center and the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel in Downtown Denver, Colorado. For more information, visit https://www2.aag.org/aagannualmeeting/.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information

Remote Sensing

Land

Sustainability

Sensors

Water

Urban Science

Climate

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #415). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit https://www2.aag.org/aagannualmeeting/.

It was with shock and sadness that, on 18 November 2019, the editorial team of the journal Water and the staff of MDPI received news of the death of our Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. Arjen Y. Hoekstra.

Prof. Hoekstra was an outstanding contributor to his scientific community. He supported his community by leading the Editorial Board of the international scientific journal Water for almost four years.

Prof. Hoekstra invented the concept of the water footprint. He introduced ‘chain thinking’ into water management and pioneered the quantification of water use behind internationally traded goods, by which he demonstrated the relevance of a global perspective in the areas of water use and water scarcity. He led two Special Issues on water footprint over the years, in which 26 papers published:

Water Footprint Assessment

Progress in Water Footprint Assessment

Under his leadership, Water came into its own, developing into one of the most influential and largest journals in its field, with a continuous increase in impact factor and the number of published articles.

The Water editorial staff will remember him as a devoted, responsible, and engaged Editor-in-Chief. He was committed to innovation and never failed to find new ways to support eager young researchers. His death is a loss to the academic community as well as a personal loss to anyone who has come into contact with him.

We offer our condolences to his wife, children, family, friends, and colleagues.

Water Editorial Office

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of SciProfiles, its social network platform for researchers and scholars.

The purpose of SciProfiles is aligned with MDPI’s broad mission to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and to serve scholars and communities by providing opportunities for academic networking.

SciProfiles also ambitions to serve as a sustainable, transparent and community-driven research evaluation system aligned with the DORA principles (https://sfdora.org/). Through their scientific profiles, academics can highlight their contribution to research communities, and measure their impact on their field, beyond publication numbers and impact factors. SciProfiles is currently a beta version and will enrich to give researchers the possibility to highlight all of their contributions to science and their scientific communities as authors, reviewers, editors, conference organizers, conference panelists, conference keynote speakers, or even as lecturers or student mentors at their University.

The classic components of popular community social networks, including follower/following, classical metrics, endorsements and recommendations (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1690), comments (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397) are or will be very soon highlighted in SciProfiles as open science contributions.

To help increase the impact and visibility of articles and their authors to an appropriate audience, the platform offers a NewsFeed that includes recommendations of relevant content based on interests, publication history, saved searches or colleagues’ recommendations.

SciProfiles’ avatars are now being integrated on several MDPI platforms, meaning that you will directly access researchers’ profiles from any of the MDPI platforms:

MDPI's journal publishing website: www.mdpi.com
MDPI's conference hosting and management website: www.sciforum.net
MDPI's pre-print website : www.preprints.org
MDPI's knowledge sharing website : www.encyclopedia.pub
MDPI's books store: www.mdpi.com/books
MDPI's literature database : www.scilit.com

SciProfiles aims to serve scientific communities at large. It can be embedded into third-party websites and also welcomes integration of data from third-parties.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/2
Dr. Franck Vazquez: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/FranckVazquez
Dr. Martyn Rittman: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/martynrittman