Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena – editorial update including the Coronavirus special issue

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Published on 27 January 2023

We are pleased to share the latest Editorial from Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena (MMNP) in which Editor-in-Chief, Vitaly Volpert, reflects on the past year and looks ahead to new horizons. We are also pleased to update you on the MMNP special issue, Coronavirus: Scientific insights and societal aspects, which began publishing articles in March 2020 just as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.

In the Editorial, Professor Volpert considers Subscribe to Open (S2O) which has allowed MMNP to be published in open access continuously for the past three years, entirely free of charge for authors and readers thanks to the generous support of subscribers. He also reflects on popular citation-based metrics which, last year, saw MMNP’s CiteScore reach the impressive heights of 5.7, firmly in the first quartile of its listed categories. Articles published in the Coronavirus special issue are highly cited and have contributed to MMNP’s recent impact as measured by citation-based metrics such as CiteScore and Journal Citation Reports.

The Editorial also highlights MMNP becoming the first “PCI-friendly” mathematics journal (it was also the first maths journal to adopt S2O). Through this partnership with PCI, MMNP continues to embrace progressive publishing practices and move towards open science. In the coming year, MMNP will evolve further to organize its content around permanent sections rather than temporary topical issues. The sections are Population dynamics and epidemiology, Mathematical physiology and medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Economics and Mathematical methods.

There are now 26 papers published in the special issue Coronavirus: Scientific insights and societal aspects. One of the most recent papers is by Professor Volpert and colleagues and looks at “Immuno-Epidemiological Model-Based Prediction of Further Covid-19 Epidemic Outbreaks Due to Immunity Waning” (available here). It is a timely topic as we find ways to manage Covid-19 so that we can emerge safely from the pandemic.

“We face now a paradoxical situation where collective immunity was reached but the epidemic continues because of the emergence of new variants partially escaping the acquired immunity through earlier infection and/or vaccination. Furthermore, the relaxation of social distancing and of other related measures, immunity waning and stagnating vaccination campaign can lead to strong epidemic bursts several months later.” (Vitaly Volpert et al.)