It is our great pleasure to announce the winners of Metals 2019 Highly Cited Paper Award to recognize the most highly cited paper in the past three years. The prize started in the middle of 2020 and it has been awarded three winners.

There papers have been selected for this award assessed by the Editorial Office of Metals from the papers published in 2017 and 2018. The paper citation data are based on citations in Web of Science in 2019.

1st Prize (with 42 citations)
Corrosion-Resistant High-Entropy Alloys: A Review
Yunzhu Shi, Bin Yang, and Peter K. Liaw
Metals 2017, 7, 42; doi:10.3390/met7020043
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/7/2/43

“The paper ‘Corrosion-Resistant High-Entropy Alloys: A Review’ summarizes the investigation of the corrosion characteristics of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) during the last decade. The corrosion resistance of HEAs in various aqueous environments and the corrosion behavior of HEAs coatings are presented. Furthermore, the possible directions of future work regarding the corrosion study of HEAs are suggested.

It was a very pleasant experience to publish the present work with the cooperation of Metals. Hopefully, more and more influential articles will be published in Metals in the future.”

2nd Prize (with 22 citations)
The Prospects of Zinc as a Structural Material for Biodegradable Implants—A Review Paper
Galit Katarivas Levy, Jeremy Goldman, and Eli Aghion
Metals 2017, 7, 402; doi:10.3390/met7100402
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/7/10/402

“The past several years has seen rapid growth in research and development of zinc-based medical devices due to its biological and biodegradability properties that match the human body. Zn is one of the most abundant essential elements in the human body, playing essential roles in human health. Additionally, zinc overcomes many limitations inherent to iron and magnesium, both pure and alloyed. This paper provides an extensive literature review on the current research progress for zinc and the development of zinc-based alloys. We comprehensively summarized and compared between pure zinc and the currently researched zinc alloys in aspects such as biocompatibility, corrosion behavior and mechanical properties. We highlighted the important role of zinc in the human body, along with the side-effects of zinc deficiency and excess and we broadly discussed the degradation model of zinc in the physiological environment as a result of the corrosion process.

We appreciate being able to work with a high quality professional team at Metals, who rapidly moved us through the review and proof correction process.”

3rd Prize (with 18 citations)
A Review of Metastable Beta Titanium Alloys
Prakash Kolli and Arun Devaraj
Metals 2018, 8, 506; doi:10.3390/met8070506
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/8/7/506

“In this article, we provide a broad and extensive review of beta titanium alloys. Beta titanium alloys are an important class of alloys that have found use in demanding applications such as aircraft structures and engines, and orthopedic and orthodontic implants. The advantages of these alloys include their high strength, good corrosion resistance, excellent biocompatibility, and ease of fabrication compared to other high performance alloys. The ease of fabrication, which is due to their lower beta transus temperature, provides these alloys with an advantage compared to other Ti alloy classes. The authors would like to thank the Metals journal for the excellent experience during the editorial and publication process.”

These three outstanding papers are valuable contributions to Metals. On behalf of the Editorial Board and Editorial Office, we would like to congratulate these three teams for their excellent work. In recognition of their accomplishment, the first prize team will be granted 600 CHF, the second prize team will be granted 400 CHF, and the third prize team will be granted 300 CHF.