MDPI Reviewer Club 2025 | Biology and Life Sciences Session 1
MDPI Reviewer Club 2025 | Biology and Life Sciences Session 1
Part of the MDPI Reviewer Club series
11 September 2025
Peer Review, Ethics in Peer Review, Best Practices in Reviewing, Research Integrity, Scholarly Publishing Standards, Manuscript Evaluation, Science Communication
Welcome from the Chair
Welcome to the MDPI Reviewer Club 2025 | Biology and Life Sciences Session 1.
At MDPI, we recognize that peer review is the foundation of scientific progress. The integrity, transparency, and quality of our journals depend on the careful evaluations provided by our reviewers. In 2024, more than 215,000 reviewers contributed over 1.2 million reports to MDPI journals. This achievement reflects the strength of our community, and it is through the expertise and dedication of reviewers like you that scholarly communication continues to advance worldwide.
The MDPI Reviewer Club series was created to acknowledge this important role and to provide a space for sharing experiences, exchanging best practices, and building connections within our reviewer community.
If you are not yet part of this community, we warmly invite you to apply to join us as a reviewer here. For further details about reviewing with MDPI, please also visit our Guidelines for Reviewers, where you will find information on reviewer responsibilities, ethics, and the peer review process.
We also encourage you to subscribe to the Reviewer Club series to o receive the latest updates and notifications about upcoming sessions, by visiting this link. Each edition will spotlight a different discipline, creating opportunities to learn across fields and continue strengthening the role of peer review together.
Date: 11 September 2025
Time: 5:00 p.m. CEST |11:00 a.m. EDT | 11:00 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 810 4184 5246
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Keynote Speakers
Insights and Best Practices in Peer Reviewing: Lessons from an Outstanding Reviewer
Dr. Yegin is a pioneering scientist and engineer specializing in sustainable innovation across the chemical and food sectors. With a foundational background in food engineering beginning at the undergraduate level, and advanced degrees from Texas A&M University, followed by extensive postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she combines deep expertise in food engineering, green chemistry, and materials science to develop solutions that advance food safety, extend product shelf life, and reduce food waste—while promoting environmental responsibility. Dr. Yegin’s work focuses on creating safe, biodegradable antimicrobial sanitizers and microplastic-free packaging technologies designed to revolutionize material safety and sustainability. Her innovations replace harmful synthetic components with environmentally friendly alternatives, bridging the gap between cutting-edge science and practical applications to drive sustainability in complex systems. She has authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and patents, and has received numerous honors and awards for her contributions to sustainability, materials science, and food engineering. Dr. Yegin is widely regarded as a thought leader who inspires innovation and progress in the science and engineering communities.
Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
The Peer-Review Process as a Means to Improve Readability
Mark Wiser was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He studied Biology at Franklin College in Indiana and subsequently obtained a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Minnesota where he started studying the cell biology of the malaria parasite. Research on the cell biology of the malaria parasite continued at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology in Heidelberg Germany as a postdoc and after that at Yale University as research faculty. He joined the faculty at Tulane University in 1989 and is currently Vice Chair of the Department of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease and the director of the MPHTM program. He has also had visiting professor appointments at the National University of Colombia in Bogota and Cartagena.
Policy, Response, and Engagement, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), New York City, New York, USA
The Role of Peer Review in Strengthening Science Communication
Dr. Lockwood has a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology from Wesleyan University and a doctorate in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. He was Assistant Professor in the psychology departments of Washington University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is currently a Fellow of the Oxford (UK) Centre for Animal Ethics. Dr. Lockwood was a Vice President at the Humane Society of the United States from 1984 to 2005 and joined the staff of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in 2005. He retired as Senior Vice President for ASPCA’s Anti-Cruelty Special Projects in 2019. He continues to serve as a consultant to the ASPCA on Policy, Response and Engagement. For over 40 years, Dr. Lockwood has worked with humane societies, veterinary groups and law-enforcement agencies worldwide, serving as an expert on the interactions between people and animals. Dr. Lockwood has published over 100 papers in professional journals in a variety of fields.
Registration
This is a FREE webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.
Certificates of attendance will be delivered to those who attend the live webinar.
Can’t attend? Register anyway and we’ll let you know when the recording is available to watch.
Programme
|
Speaker / Presentation |
Presentation Title |
Time (CEST) |
Time (EDT) |
|
Introduction |
5:00 – 5:10 pm |
11:00 – 11:10 am |
|
|
Dr. Rosie Yagmur Yegin |
Insights and Best Practices in Peer Reviewing: Lessons from an Outstanding Reviewer |
5:10 – 5:30 pm |
11:10 – 11:30 am |
|
Prof. Dr. Mark Wiser |
The Peer-Review Process as a Means to Improve Readability |
5:30 – 5:50 pm |
11:30 – 11:50 am |
|
Dr. Randall Lockwood |
The Role of Peer Review in Strengthening Science Communication |
5:50 – 6:10 pm |
11:50 am – 12:10 pm |
|
Q&A |
6:30 – 6:55 pm |
12:30 – 12:55 pm |
|
|
Closing of Webinar |
6:55 – 7:00 pm |
12:55 – 1:00 pm |
Sponsors and Partners
Organizers
