Announcements

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Xin Chen has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Agricultural Systems and Management” in Agriculture (ISSN: 2077-0472, IF 3.408).

She has published more than 60 papers in the field of ecology and agricultural systems in international journals including Science (2014), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2011, 2018), Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (2014), Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2004, 2013, 2016), Journal of Ecology (2017), etc. 

She is participating as a proposer of several projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, focusing on mechanisms underlying the effects of interspecific interactions on ecosystem functions in the integrated rice–fish system. 

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Xin Chen, who shared her vision for the journal with us, as well as her views of the research area and Open Access publishing: 

We wish Prof. Dr. Xin Chen every success in her new position, and we look forward to her contributions to the journal.

MDPI has just become the first open access (OA) publisher to reach the milestone of one million articles published. That is one million articles freely available to all, to circulate and build upon! We are proud to share this special moment with the global scientific community.

This landmark has been reached thanks to the immeasurable support of more than 600,000 expert reviewers, 66,000 editorial board members and 6700 hard-working colleagues across MDPI’s global offices.

Within more than 25 years of publishing, our journals received 2.1 million manuscripts and generated 4.6 million peer review reports to get to one million papers published.

Reaching the milestone of one million articles published reinforces our mission to remove any existing barriers and to make scientific research accessible to all. Since its inception, MDPI’s goal has been to create reliable processes to make science open. This is a path towards facilitating the dissemination of novel insights in scientific communities.

Regular feedback from authors and reviewers shows that our service is greatly appreciated and needed. At the same time, the feedback helps us identify areas for further improvement.

As it stands, a significant share of published research findings remain closed access. More than half of the content published with the most well-known legacy publishers stays behind a paywall, and that is not including articles published in hybrid OA journals, or made available months or years after publication.

A new policy announced by the US administration in August 2022 requires that, as of January 2026, all US federally funded research be made freely and immediately available after publication. While the new policy does not mandate articles be published under an open access license, it is aligned with the open access movement in removing all barriers to research. Similarly, some of the most advanced research institutions in the world intend to have all funded research articles published in open access by 2025.

MDPI is proud to be the leading agent of the transition to open access.

"Thanks a Million" to all the contributors!

We are pleased to announce that the website of the MDPI Sustainability Foundation has been revamped! For the past couple of months, our UX UI team and front-end developers have been working hard to launch the website in time for the opening of the Sustainability Awards nominations.

The website is not the only thing that has had a remodeling. Indeed, the format of the Emerging Sustainability Leader Award (ESLA) has been updated. ESLA is now a competition open to individual researchers or start-ups founded by researchers under the age of 35. Nominee applications will go through 2 rounds of selection until the final 3 are decided. The finalists will then be invited to give pitch presentations during the Award Ceremony to win either first place (10,000 USD) or runner-up (2 x 5000 USD).

The World Sustainability Award, on the other hand, remains the same: a total prize money of 100,000 USD is up for grabs by senior individual researchers or groups of researchers from the international research community.

Nominations for both the World Sustainability Award and the Emerging Sustainability Leader award are now open! Check out our new website for more information on how to nominate.

Peer Review Week began 19 September 2022 under the theme of “Research Integrity: Creating and Supporting Trust in Research”. Through various blog articles, podcast, and webinar, we discussed this crucial subject throughout the week, celebrating the essential role peer review plays in maintaining research quality.

To begin, we held a Webinar on the topic. Professor Peter W. Choate and Dr. Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi joined Dr. Ioana Craciun, one of MDPI’s scientific officers, for an in-depth discussion.

We invite you to view the event recording:

During the week, the MDPI Blog in a series articles highlighted how good Peer Review safeguards research integrity. The following topics were covered:

• Peer Review Week 2022
• Research Integrity
• What We’ve Learned About Peer Review Reports
• 4 Steps to the Perfect Peer Review Report
• How to Write the Perfect Peer Review Report: An Interview
• Inviting Great Peer Reviewers

In a new edition of Insight Faster, an MDPI podcast, we were delighted to talk to the co-chairs of the Peer Review Week committee, Jayashree Rajagopalan (Senior Manager of Global Community Engagement for CACTUS) and Danielle Padula (Head of Marketing and Community Development at Scholastica) to get their take on this year’s event and its related topics.

You can find the Podcast here.

We hope you enjoy the contents!

Date: 11 October 2022
Time: 9:00 a.m. CEST | 3:00 a.m. EDT | 3:00 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 834 6228 4639
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7116617710050/WN_bjmRM2yATiWVbwMJk9N7jA
Participation fee: None
Language: English
Webinar keywords: soil; environmental toxicology; environmental fate; pollution; pesticide; perfluorocarbons
Related Special Issues:
“Impacts of Pesticides on Soil and Environment”

Webinar Chair and Speakers:

Chair:

Prof. Dr. Xingang Liu Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Speakers:

	Dr. Yue Geng Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin, China
	Dr. Zongsu Wei Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
	Dr. Lizhen Zhu Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

 If you have any questions about this webinar, please contact [email protected].

We look forward to your participation in this event.

Agriculture Editorial Office

MDPI will be attending the 2022 Joint Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, from 13 to 16 November 2022.

The 2022 Joint Annual Meeting will be hosted by the Entomological Society of America (ESA), Entomological Society of Canada (ESC), and the Entomological Society of British Columbia (ESBC). The theme for the Joint Meeting is “Entomology as Inspiration: Insects through Art, Science, and Culture”.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Agriculture (leading journal);
• Insects (leading journal);
• Crops;
• Agronomy;
• Animals;
• Biology;
• JZBG.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start a conversation with us at our booth: #616. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit https://www.entsoc.org/events/annual-meeting, or contact the Insects Editorial Office at [email protected].

Date: 12 October 2022
Time: 1:00 p.m. CEST | 7:00 a.m. EDT | 7:00 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 865 5114 7095
Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5816617754981/WN_A4_3W3nVQ4K20lpQ5JsYmg
Participation fee: None
Language: English
Webinar keywords: genomic selection; productive and adaptive traits; livestock reference populations; multi-disciplinary and multi-national collaborations; capacity-building opportunities
Related Special Issue: “Application of Genetics and Genomics in Livestock Production”

Webinar Chairs and Speakers:

Chairs:

Speakers:

If you have any questions about this webinar, please contact [email protected].

We look forward to your participation in this event. 

Agriculture Editorial Office

Horticulturae (ISSN: 2311-7524) will be attending the International Horticultural Congress 2022 as an exhibitor. This meeting will be held in the online person-to-person hybrid format from 14 to 20 August 2022.

The backbone of the congress will be based on the four following challenges:

1. Competitiveness and skills for horticultural value chains;
2. Food, human health and well-being of citizens;
3. Sustainability of production systems;
4. Adaptation to climate change and effect mitigation.

These will be the leading topics of the four planned plenary sessions and keynote speakers will be invited to discuss their critical views.

These four topics will be a common thread throughout the 25 symposia. In addition, many important and topical subjects will be addressed, including breeding, biodiversity, organic farming, urban horticulture, new technologies for phenotyping, precision horticulture, and so on.

We hope that IHC2022 will be an outstanding scientific event, as well as a unique opportunity for researchers within the industry and students to exchange, discuss and collaborate with scientists.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Horticulturae;
• Sustainability;
• Plants;
• Agriculture.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference and our virtual booth, please visit the following link: https://www.ihc2022.org/

The 2021 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:

For more information on Impact Factors and what it means to index academic journals, please visit our related blog posts.

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2022

Source: 2021 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2022)

The 15th International Conference on Precision Agriculture will highlight significant research and applications in precision agriculture and showcase emerging technologies and information management for agriculture. Oral and poster presentations and exhibits will be taking place to foster discussion and the exchange of the latest findings in precision agriculture. Sessions will present information on key topics for scientists, crop consultants, advisors, extension personnel, agronomists, producers, and other practitioners.

The ISPA aims to:

• Organize and conduct international conferences related to precision agriculture, such as the International Conference on Precision Agriculture, European Conference on Precision Agriculture, and other related events;
• Develop and maintain a web portal to communicate the latest developments in precision agriculture;
• Maintain a member list server to connect with society members;
• Publish regular ISPA e-newsletters for members and other subscribers;
• Provide members with opportunities for publication of original scientific research in the society’s sponsored, peer-reviewed journal (International Journal of Precision Agriculture).

We look forward to seeing you in Minneapolis from 26 to 29 June 2022!

Social Media Handles:
Twitter: @IntoSoPA
LinkedIn: International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA)