31 July 2014

Call for papers: "Coopetition and Innovation"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Technology Management.

Inter-firm relationships have become an important means to cope with ever-intensifying business dynamics and higher uncertainties (e.g. Renna & Argoneto, 2012). In this context, coopetition has been gaining momentum. Coopetition is a combination of collaboration and competition taking place in the context of a relationship, a business strategy or a business model, in which firms compete and cooperate with each other at the same time (Bengtsson & Kock, 2000; Gnyawali and Park, 2009; Ritala et al., 2014). Therefore, it is clear that collaboration and competition are not mutually exclusive, but actually often coexist and even create benefits from their joint dynamics.

Practical examples of coopetition and innovation are numerous. For instance, Toyota and General Motors in their joint development of fuel cell-powered cars; Sony, Sharp and Samsung in TV sets; Hewlett Packard, IBM and Seagate in their Linear Tape-Open (LTO) programme. Despite these examples and the rapidly growing number of related scientific publications (Bengtsson and Kock, 2014), scholars agree that coopetition as a research field is still in its infancy stage, as the body of literature is fragmented and limited in the sense that some research avenues have been explored very well while others have been almost neglected (Kock et al., 2010; Osarenkhoe, 2010). One of the less explored ones is the complex relationship between coopetition and innovation.

Compared to simple alliances among market players, coopetition entails crucial benefits for innovation activities, even though the risk of competitive (re)actions and opportunism are high in the complex and uncertain innovation process. Several empirical studies already stress the positive relationship between coopetition and various types of innovativeness (Quintana-Garcia and Benavides-Velasco, 2004; Gnyawali and Park, 2011; Bouncken and Fredrich, 2012; Ritala, 2012; Bouncken & Kraus, 2013).

However, despite the tempting advantages, firms need to consider specific risks and challenges when it comes to coopetition focused on innovation activities, too. Due to its inherently competitive nature, coopetition is fraught with the risk of opportunism and knowledge leakage (Ritala and Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, 2009). Both issues are of particular importance when dealing with coopetitive innovation as they can hamper the generation of radical innovations (Cassiman et al., 2009). Coopetitive dynamics represent a certain vulnerability for firms who need to carefully balance knowledge sharing against knowledge withholding (Baumard, 2009). Additionally, the conflicting logics of cooperation and competition imply that firms are friends and rivals at the same time: friends who share and rivals who withhold and protect information and knowledge. Therefore, there is a need for various types of research within the domain of coopetition and innovation, in order to shed more light to this multifaceted and complex phenomenon.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Coopetition and different types of innovation performance for firms, relationships and networks
  • Governance models of coopetition and innovation
  • Knowledge sharing and protection in innovation-related coopetition
  • Simultaneously creating and appropriating value from innovation in coopetition
  • Business models for coopetition and innovation
  • Coopetition and innovation within networks and ecosystems
  • Risks of coopetition in innovation context
  • Coopetition in the innovation process in diverse industries
  • Management of separation and integration alternatives in coopetition
  • Economic, cognitive and emotional tensions in coopetitive innovation processes
  • Inter-national stimuli and challenges of coopetition innovation
  • Coopetitive innovation behaviour and inter-cultural influences
Empirical (qualitative and quantitative) and theoretical/conceptual papers are welcome.

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 30 November, 2014
Notification to authors: 31 January, 2015
Final versions due: 31 March, 2015

Int. J. of Computational Vision and Robotics to publish expanded papers from IC-MACS 2015

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Mathematical and Computational Sciences 2015 (22-24 January 2015, Kannur, Kerala, India) will be published by the International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics.

The spread of misinformation online

The spread of misinformation through online social networks is becoming an increasingly worrying problem. Researchers in India have now modeled how such fictions and diffuse through those networks. They described details of their research and the taxonomy that could help those who run, regulate and use online social networks better understand how to slow or even prevent the spread of misinformation to the wider public.

Krishna Kumar and G. Geethakumari of the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, at BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, in Andhra Pradesh, India, explain how we are increasingly reliant on information we obtain from online sources. However, our implicit faith in the validity of that information can be counterproductive and can make some people and organizations vulnerable to exploitation, perhaps by those spreading the misinformation and others. The team refers to this as a “semantic attack” and regards it as the “soft underbelly of the internet”.

The team suggests that online social networks have added an additional layer of challenges for the detection of such semantic attacks above the conventional world-wide web and other internet services. As such, the rate of diffusion of misinformation can be very rapid as evidenced by recent events driven by panic spreading online regarding so-called “swine” flu in 2009 and a mass exodus from an Asian nation also driven by unnecessary online panic.

As with the transfer of information through any network, the nodes (the users in a social network) and how they are connected to each other is also critical to the diffusion of misinformation, the researchers report. For example, friendship links on Facebook and the follower/followee relationship on Twitter affect the impact and reach of given updates on those services from particular users.

Connections and connectivity have been well studied in recent years, but the concept of a semantic attack in which misinformation is deliberately seeded into a social network with the aim of affecting the behavior of the maximum number of people possible has only recently emerged as a troubling concept that requires detailed study. While there are firewalls, antivirus programs and other technological diagnostics and defenses to ward off attacks on servers, operating systems and software, defending against the impact of a semantic attack on human emotions and behavior is an entirely different matter.

Kumar, K.P.K. and Geethakumari, G. (2014) ‘A taxonomy for modelling and analysis of diffusion of (mis)information in social networks’, Int. J. Communication Networks and Distributed Systems, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp.119–143.

The spread of misinformation online is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1k9fvTr

Call for papers: "Advances in Mathematical Computational Sciences"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics.

Computational mathematics has taken a considerable lead in present research endeavors. Fast, accurate and speedy computation for various scientific and industrial applications is a need of the hour. Many researchers have contributed their ideas and thoughts enormously for improving the area of scientific computing.

The aim of this special issue is to bring together active researchers from various disciplines such mathematics, computer science and electrical and electronics engineering to share their state-of-the-art research results and hopefully to forge new cross-disciplinary interactions among them. The issue is expected to provide a unique opportunity for in-depth technical discussions and the exchange of ideas in mathematical and computational sciences.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Mathematical and Computational Sciences (ICMACS 2015) but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in these events to submit articles for this call.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Numerical analysis
  • Functional analysis and operator theory
  • Mathematical methods and applications
  • PDE methods in computation
  • Inverse problems and applications
  • Graph theory and applications
  • Image, speech, signal and video processing
  • Pattern recognition and analysis
  • Computer and social networks
  • High-performance computing
  • Data mining applications
  • Neural network applications
  • Computer graphics, cloud computing

Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 30 April, 2015
Notification to authors: 30 June, 2015
Final version due: 30 August, 2015

Call for papers: "Wine"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

Wine markets have experienced dramatic evolutions in the past decades. Wine markets like many others have become global and nowadays old world producers (France, Italy, Spain, mostly) have to deal with increased competition from producers coming from all over the world (Australia, South Africa, New-Zealand, United States, Chile, Argentina mostly). One distinguishing feature of this global market is that the smallest family businesses regularly compete with the largest worldwide operating companies in different places (wine stores, restaurants, supermarkets, etc.) around the world.

Recent market evolutions point in the direction of a clear concentration movement leading to an increase of the average size of wineries (Anderson, 2004). We also observe a sort of homogenization of taste, which is commonly believed to be the result of the emergence of super dominant wine experts such as Robert Parker, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, etc. These different evolutions have shaped, as shown by many studies in wine economics and wine business, the success or failure of many family and non-family wine businesses in the recent years.

These observations naturally lead to several questions regarding the future of small wine businesses (SWB) in this new economic environment. How do SWB compete with the largest wineries? Is this business model efficient and sustainable in the long term? How can SWB compete in a world dominated by large wine companies, wholesale merchants, middlemen, wine retailers? What are the necessary market evolutions for SWB to keep competitive in the long run? Will the number of SWB increase or decrease in the coming years? Does the emergence of a "global taste", somehow dictated by a handful of experts, endanger or, on the contrary, favor SWB?

Another noticeable evolution over the last decade is that wine is now considered by many investors as a regular asset used to diversify a risky portfolio. Investments in wine are consistently outperforming traditional investments such as gold and stocks, with high returns alongside relatively low risks. Nowadays, some famous fine wines (including Bordeaux, Burgundy, Italian, California, and Australian wines) but not only these, are frenetically sought just for investment purposes. Indeed investors are now trying to diversify their wine funds further by including some other less famous wines into their wine fund to mitigate the large negative returns recently induced by famous Bordeaux wines. These recent evolutions could benefit some SWB producing high-quality wines perceived as connoisseurs as credible substitutes for the most celebrated first growths.

We welcome a wide range of topics, research methods commonly used in wine business and wine economics research. All questions dealing with industry organization and financial issues, innovation in the context of SWB will be considered.

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 5 January, 2015

30 July 2014

Call for papers: "Technology-Transformed Learning: Reflections and Future Research Agendas"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation.

Over the last decade, the advancement of mobile and ubiquitous technologies has greatly influenced all aspects of our life. The landscape of education has also changed significantly with the integration of various types of technologies, creating a new space for learners to share, build and create knowledge beyond formal learning contexts. Despite great enthusiasm towards the potential of emerging technologies for transforming learning environments, however, there has been a great disparity between the rhetoric and the reality of practices. Indeed, transforming a learning environment with technology is a complex process that inherently carries a plethora of complex issues and unforeseen variables.

This special issue intends to provoke our thinking about the fundamental role of technologies toward transforming learning environments, focusing on both reflections and future research directions. We believe that it is now opportune to reflect on what researchers have achieved and found about the role of technology for transforming learning practices in various contexts. The field of technology-transformed learning has constantly experienced some tension between technology and pedagogy. When considering how the field may progress to shape future learning environments, it is important to reflect on the current status of research findings and to articulate our lessons learned from the research trajectory.

The aim of this issue is to provide a forum where researchers around the world can share knowledge, experiences and concerns related to technology-transformed learning, and further explore directions for a future research agenda. We encourage authors to provide critical reflections on their research experiences and to articulate directions for future research that are important for the research community to pursue collaboratively. We welcome both evidence-based research and critical review/conceptual papers.

This special issue calls for papers from two tracks:
  • Track 1: Authors of selected outstanding papers published at the pre-conference workshop on the same theme at the International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE) 2014 will be invited to submit a revised and expanded version of their papers to this special issue.
  • Track 2: In addition, this special issue is open to any interested researchers to submit their work. For this case, authors are required to submit a proposal of 300-500 words, outlining the content of the proposed paper (with paper title and authors' names/affiliations) to icce1to1@gmail.com by 16 November, 2014. The Guest Editors will review and identify synopses that would be suitable to be submitted as full papers for this special issue.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Formal and informal learning processes with mobile technologies
  • Lifelong and lifewide learning in a ubiquitous learning environment
  • Design, implementation and evaluation of mobile learning applications
  • Innovative learning design integrating emerging types of technologies (e.g. sensor/gesture technologies, data mining, augmented reality, etc.)
  • Empirical study on mobile technologies to enhance 21st century skills
  • National policies on technology-transformed learning
  • Successful examples of large-scale implementation of technology-transformed learning
  • A critical review of challenges and future directions of technology-transformed learning

Important Dates
Submission of proposal: 16 November, 2014
Notification of proposal acceptance: 30 November, 2014
Submission of manuscripts: 16 February, 2015
Notification of paper acceptance: 31 March, 2015
Final versions due: 30 April, 2015

Inderscience is media partner for Trading Show New York 2014

Inderscience is a media partner for the Trading Show New York 2014 (8 October 2014, New York, USA).

The journals involved are:

Click here for more information on this event.

Call for papers: "Methodologies, Technologies and Tools Enabling e-Government"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Electronic Governance.

Public administration has made great effort to provide more sophisticated e-government services: for example, offering one-stop services and supporting personalisation. While strategies, methodologies and the realisation of e-government services vary significantly between the various actors and stakeholders, the alignment of IT with the processes and objectives of the service providers plays an increasing role in service management.

Major critical factors for the success of e-government services, in this context, include methodologies, technologies and tools. Methodologies play an increasingly important role in the management and definition of e-government initiatives. Technologies improve their efficiency and effectiveness while tools allow new specific services and functionalities. The alignment of methodologies, technologies and tools plays an increasing role in enhancing the dissemination, accessibility and acceptance of e-government by citizens and companies.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 8th International Conference on Methodologies, Technologies and Tools enabling e-Government, but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Methodologies for e-government
    • Smart cities and smart communities
    • One-stop government and services integration
    • Better distributed services provision
    • Enterprise architectures
    • Business-IT alignment modelling
    • Agility and reaction on change
    • e-participation
    • Pro-activeness
    • Greening government
    • Open government and transparency
    • Governance and policy modelling
    • Smart and personalised inclusion
    • Legal informatics and legal documents management
  • Technologies for e-government
    • Mobile public services
    • Cloud computing
    • Service oriented Aarchitecture
    • Semantic web Ttechnologies
    • e-government ontology and metadata
    • Interoperability and standards
    • Knowledge management and decision process support
    • Business processes management
    • Web 2.0 for e-government
    • Identity management and trust
    • Data and network security
    • PKI systems
    • GIS technologies
    • Emerging technologies
  • Tools for e-government
    • Web portals
    • e-ID systems
    • Electronic document management systems
    • e-voting
    • e-procurement
    • e-learning
    • Workflow management systems
    • Open source applications
    • Practices and experiences
    • Examples of public on-line services

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 28 February, 2015
Notification to authors: 30 April, 2015
Revised versions due: 30 June, 2015
Final notification to authors: 31 July, 2015
Final versions due: 31 August, 2015

29 July 2014

Call for papers: "Sustainability in Agribusiness"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business.

Regardless of the broad consensus on its importance, a high degree of variability can be observed both in how sustainability in agriculture is defined (Hansen, 1996; Lewandowski et al., 1999; Sands and Podmore, 2000; Heller and Keoleian, 2003) and how it is pursued in practice in the policy-making process. Moreover, the general public in developed countries tends to associate sustainable agriculture with a large set of values underpinned by conservation of the environment, safe food, animal welfare and economic support for small and family farmers (VanLoon et al., 2005).

Indeed, agribusiness companies face many incentives as well as pressures and challenges for pursuing sustainability, coming both from the marketplace where consumers demand agricultural goods and in the supply chain where organisations demand growing efficiency and effective communication (Rankin et al., 2011). Thus agribusinesses today must balance a wide and continually evolving array of demands and challenges deriving from environmental and social concerns.

The initial focus on conserving the natural resource base upon which agricultural activities depended has broadened to include a wide amount of priority areas, ranging from the impact of pesticides and fertilizers in fields to the release of particulate matter, odours and greenhouse gases in all steps of the production and distribution processes, to several social issues related to workers rights, local development, community welfare and so on. Therefore achieving the goal of long-term environmental, economic and social sustainability in the agriculture and agri-food sector has become a more pressing and increasingly complex challenge.

All of this has motivated the Research Committee in Agribusiness of the EuroMed Research Business Institute (EMRBI) to organise this special issue. Therefore academics interested in this topic are invited to submit papers related to the topics below.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Sustainability and value creation for consumers
  • Sustainability, firm organisation and network creation
  • Social sustainability and agribusiness: critical issues and opportunities
  • Economic sustainability and agribusiness: conceptualisation and operative tools
  • Individual and collective experience to improve sustainability in the agriculture and food industry
  • Sustainability labels: opportunities, risks and management
  • Sustainability and chain relations in the agribusiness
  • Politics and strategies to encourage sustainable consumption

Important Dates
Submission of long abstract (max. 1000 words): 15 October, 2014
Notification of acceptance of abstract: 15 November, 2014
Submission of full paper following acceptance of abstract: 31 January, 2015
Notification of acceptance, refusal or revision of full papers: 1 April, 2015
Final versions due: 1 June, 2015

Special issue published: "Advancing Logistics Systems and Management in the Current Market"

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management 18(4) 2014
  • Supply chain interface problems affecting productivity
  • The current status of the Slovenian logistics outsourcing market, its ability and potential measures to improve the pursuit of global trends
  • A planning model for the optimisation of the end-of-life vehicles recovery network
  • Contribution of supply chain to corporate strategy: a case study in agriculture machinery industry
  • Developments and prospects of freight railway transport in Northern Germany: a Delphi survey
  • System dynamics-based modelling and analysis of greening the construction industry supply chain
  • Automation in internal logistics: strategic and operational challenges
  • Characteristics of the Finnish transportation corridor for the Russian automotive industry
  • Service parts logistics network model selection for different industries in Asia

Int. J. of Information and Communication Technology to publish expanded papers from EIM-BDT

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Enterprise Information Management and Big data Technology (4-5 October 2014, RELC International Hotel, Singapore) will be published by the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology.

28 July 2014

Call for papers: "New Knowledge Impacts on Designing Implementable Innovative Realities in Emerging Markets"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets.

Knowledge is a milestone on the road towards economic progress in emerging markets and it makes a huge contribution towards the quality and hopes of a sector, economy or even a country. Innovation helps to encourage competition, which leads to globalisation. Innovation is the business activity most closely related to economic growth. Although knowledge and innovation sometimes go hand in hand, it is possible to distinguish between the two concepts. Knowledge and innovation can therefore be viewed as different sides of the same coin.

There is, however, a shortage of studies documenting empirical evidence on the relationship between knowledge and innovation and the subsequent strengthening of emerging economy firm competitiveness. This special issue seeks to promote and publish research that addresses this void.

Theoretically grounded empirical studies are preferred. Carefully developed theoretical papers are also welcome. Studies can be focused on firms from one or more emerging economies. To maintain consistency and shared understanding, countries classified by the International Monetary Fund as emerging market and developing economies are considered emerging economies in this special issue.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • How do knowledge and/or innovation enhance the competitiveness of emerging economy firms in their home country markets and in international markets?
  • Does the relationship between knowledge and/or innovation and the subsequent enhancement of emerging economy firm competitiveness vary according to international knowledge?
  • Can we empirically document the relationship between different modes of knowledge and/or innovation and various measures of emerging economy firm competitiveness?
  • Does knowledge and/or innovation in advanced economies and other emerging economies contribute differently to the competitiveness of emerging economy firms?

Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 15 November, 2015

Special issue published: "Information, Communication and Energy Systems and Technologies – Part 2"

International Journal of Reasoning-based Intelligent Systems 6(1/2) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at Information, Communication and Energy Systems and Technologies 2012 (ICEST 2012).
  • Accuracy improvement of real-poles allpass-based digital Hilbert transformers
  • SPICE modelling of magnetoresistive sensors
  • Inverse pyramid decomposition of wavelet spectrum for image compression
  • Systems for electronic support of the educational process as a behavioural analyst
  • Multipoint video control and fall detection system applicable in assistance of the elderly and people with disabilities
  • Using data mining in the selection process of high performance managers
  • Adaptive multi-level 2D Karhunen-Loeve-based transform for still images
  • Statistics and linguistic rules in multiword extraction: a comparative analysis
  • Human action recognition in videos using structure similarity of aligned motion images

Int. J. of Entrepreneurship and Small Business to publish expanded papers from IECER 2015

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 13th Interdisciplinary European Conference on Entrepreneurship Research (25-27 February 2015, Montpellier, France) will be published by the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business.

Special issue published: "Machine Vision and Computational Intelligence in Recent Industrial Practice"

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 50(1/2) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference in Mechatronics and Machine 
Vision in Practice 2012 (M2VIP2012).
  • A review of the state-of-the-art distributed compressive video sensing architectures 
  • Wireless autonomic neural network in EEG signal extraction management
  • Genetic-fuzzy logic ramp metering control for ramp metering of motorway
  • Monitoring populations of solitary bees using image processing techniques
  • Automatic coke microstructures recognition using image segmentation
  • Vision-based approach for the localisation and manipulation of ground-based crop
  • Pause detection in continuous sign language
  • The development of EEG-based brain computer interfaces: potential and challenges
  • Unsupervised image analysis for zebrafish embryogenesis using lab-on-a-chip embryo arrays
  • Motion periodicity-based pedestrian detection and particle filter-based pedestrian tracking using stereo vision camera
  • Extension of automated melanoma screening for non-melanocytic skin lesions
  • A fast eliminating translational deviation method in template matching
  • CPG-based control of a swallowing robot
Additional paper
  • Research on congestible government production and welfare expenditure in stochastic endogenous growth model

27 July 2014

Special issue published: "Facets of Global Competitiveness"

Journal for Global Business Advancement 7(2) 2014
  • Supervisory behaviour and employee work engagement: interpersonal and institutional trust as mediator
  • The impact of government-funded programs on enhancing the internal capabilities of firms and universities
  • Issues in the rehabilitation of failed residential projects in Malaysia: clash between the interests of purchasers and secured creditor chargee
  • Firms' speed of adjustment and rational financing behaviour: Malaysian evidence
  • Impact of international careers in national innovation culture

26 July 2014

Special issue published: "Intelligent Assets through Condition Monitoring and Condition-Based Maintenance"

International Journal of Strategic Engineering Asset Management 2(1) 2014
  • A low-cost and effective automobile engine fault diagnosis using instantaneous angular velocity evaluation
  • Condition monitoring and remaining useful life prediction using switching Kalman filters
  • Selective maintenance considering two types of failure modes
  • Condition-based maintenance of wind power generation systems considering different turbine types and lead times
  • Availability and performability analysis for a service degradation process with condition-based preventive maintenance I - formulation and optimisation
  • Availability and performability analysis for a service degradation process with condition-based preventive maintenance II - estimation and simulation

25 July 2014

Call for papers: "Econometric and Computational Applications for the Brazilian Economy"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics.

Brazil has one of the most important developing economies today. In the last few years, the Brazilian economy has emerged as a big player in commodities markets and the manufacturing sector. Despite a democratic government and strong regional diversification, however, Brazil has challenges ahead in order to maintain and improve its share of the global economy.

From the macroeconomic aspect, Brazil should make economic policy more predictable and efficient so as to allow for lower inflation rates and higher GDP growth in the long term; from the microeconomic one, regulatory, educational and other sectoral policies are important to increase companies’ confidence and private investments that generate higher productivity rates over time.

The special issue invites high-quality original research papers on the topic. It is an attempt to explore and bring together practical, state-of-the-art applications of computational techniques and econometrics with a particular focus on Brazil.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Applied micro and macro econometrics with Brazilian data
  • Asset pricing and factor models with Brazilian data
  • Bayesian econometrics and statistics with Brazilian data
  • Credit risk, market risk and operational risk management with Brazilian data
  • Energy risk management with Brazilian data
  • Insurance models for Brazil
  • Portfolio optimisation with Brazilian data
  • Software development and implementation with Brazilian economic and/or financial data
  • Time series analysis and forecasting techniques for Brazil

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 31 December, 2014
Notification to authors: 30 April, 2015
Final versions due: 30 June, 2015

24 July 2014

Call for papers: "Challenges and Opportunities in Marketing in the Contemporary Technological Environment"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Technology Marketing.

In recent decades, information and communication technologies (ICTs), the internet, mobile and social media marketing have radically and unforeseeably changed society as a whole, especially since the Internet of Things emerged, making available multidimensional sets of data which are known as big data. The digital revolution and the convergence of information and communication technologies have ignited the development of new communication grids, thus challenging the marketing strategies and business models of companies in any sector with new opportunities and threats.

Currently, technology and the internet, as used through any device, provides companies with new venues and platforms to be used fo pricing, distribution, promotion and product policies. Technologies and the internet can be used for customer acquisition and profiling, customer engagement, brand reinforcement, reputation and image building, monitoring and complaint management, the co-creation of new products/services with consumers, quality control, analysis of competitive strategies and many others strategic purposes. Broadly, the contemporary technological environment has transformed the relationships in any B2B (business to business), B2C (business to consumer), C2C (consumer to consumer) or G2C (government to citizen) context.

In such a scenario, this special issue aims to provide a forum for original papers covering contemporary digital and technological marketing in any B2B, B2C, C2C and G2C context.

The issue will partially carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Contemporary Marketing Issues (ICCMI 2014). However, any researcher who would be interested in this special issue is strongly encouraged to submit an original paper covering one of the following suggested topics.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Social media marketing
  • Mobile marketing
  • Internet marketing and e-commerce
  • B2B marketing
  • B2C marketing
  • C2C marketing
  • G2C marketing
  • Customer relationship management
  • E-marketing in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
  • Online marketing in developing countries
  • Digital and social media marketing in the tourism sector
  • Online customer service
  • E-complaining consumer behavior
  • E-complimenting consumer behavior
  • Online co-creation and co-innovation
  • E-commerce
  • Social commerce
  • Web design and usability
  • Consumers' online search information behavior
  • Political/legal issues and agendas in the digital-technology marketing era
  • Digital business ecosystem
  • Smart cities and smart tourism destinations

Important Dates
Submission of papers: 15 December, 2014
Notification of acceptance: 15 February, 2015

Special issue published: "Building New Business Models for Success"

International Journal of Technology Marketing 9(3) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 5th (2012) and 6th (2013) Euromed Annual Conferences.
  • Determinants of user adoption of e-government services: the case of Greek Local Government
  • Mobile marketing: a contemporary strategic perspective
  • Sustainability, eco-innovation and technology - an Italian perspective
  • Gaining customer loyalty in the e-tailing marketplace: the role of e-service quality, e-satisfaction and e-trust
  • Determinants of online trust and their impact on online purchase intention
  • The impact of Facebook presence on brand image

First issue: International Journal of Big Data Intelligence (free sample issue available)

Big data is a rapidly expanding research area spanning the fields of computer science and information management, and has become a ubiquitous term in understanding and solving complex problems in different disciplinary fields such as engineering, applied mathematics, medicine, computational biology, healthcare, social networks, finance, business, government, education, transportation and telecommunications. The International Journal of Big Data Intelligence provides a vehicle for disseminating the latest research in big data research, development and applications.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

Special issue published: "The Global Business of Jute: Markets, Firms, Gender and Political Economy"

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy 8(2/3) 2014
  • Jute in the world, worlds of jute
  • A woman's industry? The role of women in the workforce of the Dundee jute industry c. 1945-1979
  • Gender and the jute industry: the Calcutta chapter, 1890-1990
  • Rhetoric of a troubled industry: the case of the Dundee jute industry during the inter-war period
  • The Dutch disease: the role of industrial policy for industrial transformation - the case of the jute industry
  • The decline of jute and the de-globalisation of Dundee
  • Indian jute manufactures: adaptation and survival in a 'sunset' industry

Plants protect against radiotherapy

Plant-derived natural product chemicals could offer protection to the skin from the harmful effects of gamma radiation during cancer radiotherapy.

Radiotherapy for cancer involves exposing the patient or their tumor more directly to ionizing radiation, such as gamma rays or X-rays. The radiation damages the cancer cells irreparably. Unfortunately, such radiation is also harmful to healthy tissue, particularly the skin over the site of the tumor, which is then at risk of hair loss, dermatological problems and even skin cancer. As such finding ways to protect the overlying skin are keenly sought.

Writing in the International Journal of Low Radiation, Faruck Lukmanul Hakkim of the University of Nizwa, Oman and Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan, and colleagues there and at Macquarie University, New South Wales, Australia, Bharathiar University, India and Konkuk University, South Korea, explain how three ubiquitous and well-studied natural products derived from plants can protect the skin against gamma radiation during radiotherapy.

Hakkim and colleagues discuss the benefits of the organic, antioxidant compounds caffeic acid (CA), rosmarinic acid (RA) and trans-cinnamic acid (TCA) used at non-toxic concentrations. They tested the radio protective effect of these compounds against gamma-radiation in terms of reducing levels of reactive oxygen species generated in skin cells by clinical relevance dose of gamma ray in the laboratory and in terms of the damage to the genetic material DNA, specifically double strand breaks in laboratory samples of human skin cells (keratinocytes). They found that treating the human skin cells with CA, RA and TCA can protected the cells by 40, 20 and 15 percent respectively from gamma ray toxicity. They suggest that the protective effect arises because the compounds mop up the reactive oxygen species and chemically deactivate them as well as enhancing the body’s natural DNA repair mechanisms.

The team suggests that these compounds might best be used as skin protectants during combination chemo- and radio-therapy. Further work is under way to investigate the clinical potential of mixtures of the three natural products.

Lukmanul Hakkim, F., Miura, M., Matsuda, N., Alharassi, A.S., Guillemin, G., Yamauchi, M., Arivazhagan, G. and Song, H. (2014) ‘An in vitro evidence for caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid and trans cinnamic acid as a skin protectant against -radiation‘, Int. J. Low Radiation, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp.305-316.

Plants protect against radiotherapy is a post from: David Bradley's Science Spot

via Science Spot http://ift.tt/1nuGvff

23 July 2014

Special issue published: "Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing"

International Journal of Embedded Systems 6(2/3) 2014
  • Buffered FUSE: optimising the Android IO stack for user-level filesystem
  • MIMO radar antenna array synthesis with a hybrid approach based on GA and PSO
  • Progressive transmission based on wavelet used in mobile visual search
  • Communication-oriented performance optimisation during code generation from Simulink models
  • A new Wi-Fi fingerprint indoor localisation method for smart phone's heterogeneity
  • Lossy links diagnosis for wireless sensor networks by utilising the existing traffic information
  • JORCA: joint opportunistic routing and channel assignment
  • A calibration algorithm for maze micromouse continuous smooth turning
  • A real-time flash translation layer via adaptive partial garbage collection
  • A model-checking approach to schedulability analysis of global multiprocessor scheduling with fixed offsets
  • A ubiquitous communication architecture integrating transparent UPnP and REST APIs
  • A distributed resource conservation multicast and spectrum allocation algorithm in cognitive wireless mesh networks
  • Dynamic partially reconfigurable architecture for fast Fourier transform computation
  • Efficient fault-tolerant scheduling on multiprocessor systems via replication and deallocation
  • Achieving energy efficient advertisements traffic for smartphones
  • Lifetime enhancement in wireless sensor and actuator network using uniform energy consumption algorithm
  • Memory power optimisation on low-bit multi-access cross memory address mapping schema
  • A critical comparative evaluation on DHT-based peer-to-peer search algorithms
  • Low cost solutions for secure remote reconfiguration of FPGAs
  • Fixed-priority global scheduling for mixed-criticality real-time systems

22 July 2014

Inaugural issue call for papers for Int. Journal of Semantic and Infrastructure Services

The International Journal of Semantic and Infrastructure Services has released a call for papers for its inaugural issue.

Special issue published: "Nanomaternials for Energy Conversion and Storage"

International Journal of Nanotechnology 11(9/10/11) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the Symposium Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion and Storage.
  • High di-electric constant nano-structure ceramics synthesis using novel electric discharge assisted mechanical milling and magneto ball milling and its properties
  • Electrochemical properties of graphitic carbon nitrides
  • Highly crystalline hydrothermal ZnO nanowires as photoanodes in DSCs
  • Ultra-fast growth of the monocrystalline zinc oxide nanorods from the aqueous solution
  • Thermoelectric properties of bottom-up assembled Bi2S3xTex nanocomposites
  • Thermal annealing effects on silver nanowire networks
  • Use of energy-filtered photoelectron emission microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy to visualise work function changes on diamond thin films terminated with oxygen and lithium mono-layers for thermionic energy conversion
  • Self-assembled V3O7/graphene oxide nanocomposites as cathode material for lithium-ion batteries
  • Charge transport in hybrid solution processed heterojunction based on P3HT and ZnO from bilayer to blend
  • Kinetic behaviour of a metal-polymer composite suitable for hydrogen storage applications
  • Nanostructured oxyspinel multilayers for novel high-efficient conversion and control
  • Simulation and performance analysis of superstrate Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells using nanostructured Zn1−xVxO thin films
  • Tungsten trioxide nanostructured electrodes for organic dye sensitised solar cells
  • SnO2-Nafion® nanocomposite polymer electrolytes for fuel cell applications
  • Extraordinary electron and phonon transport through metal-semiconductor hybrid nanocomposite: decoupling electrical and thermal conductivities for thermoelectric application
  • Surface modified BaTiO3-polystyrene nanocomposites for energy storage
  • Synthesis and photovoltaic properties of CuInS2/CdS quantum dots co-sensitised TiO2 photo-anodes
  • Structure stability of LixHyV3O8 exposed to water-vapour
  • Comparative study of TiO2 films prepared by EPD and sol-gel techniques and their use in DSSCs
  • Bottom-up processing of PbTe-PbS thermoelectric nanocomposites
  • Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)-functionalised silica composite membranes for applications in proton exchange membrane fuel cells
  • Effect of various micro-porous layer preparation methods on the performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell
  • Prompting electron transport in mesoporous semiconductor electrode by simple film compression

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Higher Education and Sustainability

The International Journal of Higher Education and Sustainability proposes and fosters discussion on the evolution of higher education for sustainability, with emphasis on the three interconnected pillars, the environmental, the economic and the social, along with emerging dimensions of culture and politics. The incorporation of sustainability in higher education is critical in producing human resources, in terms of the essential skills, understanding and knowledge, in the 21st century. IJHES also considers the likely and actual implications for the workplace.

Special issue published: "The Importance of People in the Entrepreneurship Processes"

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 22(3) 2014
  • The phenomenological method in entrepreneurship
  • Designing a phenomenological research model for entrepreneurship research
  • Business networks at start-up: Swedish native-owned and immigrant-owned companies
  • Financial institutions and the taxi-cab industry: an exploratory study in Canada
  • Mining and communities in the Arctic: lessons from Baker Lake, Canada
  • Gender innovation through the lens of effectuation
  • Current ventures of women entrepreneurs: relating performance and goals

21 July 2014

Editor's graphene car design research gets people talking

Prof. Ahmed Elmarakbi, Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Automotive Composites, has recently spoken on Canadian radio about incorporating graphene into car design to make cars safer, lighter and more environmentally friendly. The radio interview can be heard here. Prof. Elmarakbi has also gained the attention of several magazines and blogs, including E&T Magazine, The Journal, The Engineer and SR News.

Special issue published: "Interdisciplinary Aspects of Public Health and Environmental Justice"

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review 15(2/3) 2014
  • Nature or neoliberalism? Two views on science and the persistence of environmental controversies
  • Propaganda as an environmental justice issue
  • A concern about shifting interactions between indigenous and non-indigenous parties in US climate adaptation contexts
  • Food Sovereignty, Health Sovereignty, and self-organised community viability
  • Evaluating the impact of poor waste disposal management on environmental sustainability and human rights in Nigeria
  • Urban desertification and a phenomenology of sustainability: the case of El Paso, Texas 
  • Doing justice: the role of ethics in integrated ecosystem management and the implementation of the integrated assessment and ecosystem management protocol

New Editor for the International Journal of Dynamical Systems and Differential Equations

Dr Agnieszka Malinowska from Bialystok University of Technology in Poland has been appointed to edit the International Journal of Dynamical Systems and Differential Equations.

19 July 2014

Special issue published: "Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture Food and Environment"

International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology 10(2) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 6th International Conference on ICTs in Agriculture, Food and Environment (HAICTA 2013).
  • Could ICT contribute to the revival of family farming?
  • Greening the agrifood supply chain with lean thinking practices
  • Exploring the reproduction practices of dairy farms: a typology
  • An interactive application for Greek and European legal framework on environmental and ecological laws
  • Analysis of social network applications for organic agrifood products
  • Database management systems in wood entrepreneurship and marketing
  • Economic crisis and food selection: the financial, social and spatial dimension

Call for papers: "Machining of Composite Materials"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials.

Advanced composites have been extensively used in various fields including aerospace, automotive and other cutting-edge industries. There is however an urgent need to understand the machining and machinability of composites because they are typically difficult to machine due to their serious tool wear and poor surface integrity.
 
This special issue will focus on the machining (e.g. trimming, milling and drilling) of both polymer and metallic matrix composites.
 
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Mechanics modelling of composite materials
  • Testing of mechanical properties of composite materials
  • Simulation of machining processes of composite materials
  • Machining technology of advanced composite materials
  • Machine tools and tooling for composite materials
  • Machinability of composite materials
 
Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 31 October, 2014
Notification to authors: 31 December, 2014
Final versions due: 28 February, 2015

18 July 2014

Special issue published: "Human Capital Management in Asia"

International Journal of Management Practice 7(3) 2014
  • Development of measures of the software developer's competencies in Indian information technology industry
  • The effect of human capital management practices on employee positive behavioural outcomes
  • Human capital and organisational learning: a study of Indian microfinance institutions
  • Managing human capital during mergers and acquisitions: the Indian perspective
  • Managing culture shock and reverse culture shock of Indian citizenship employees
  • The relationship of human resource function's roles on high-involvement work practices and quality initiatives in Malaysian manufacturing companies

Call for papers: "Competitiveness of Agro Food Firms: Threats and Opportunities"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Management Practice.

Over the last few years, the agro food industry has been undergoing a process of accelerated change, consequent to incessantly changing food geography, both from the demand and the supply sides. Recent studies (Brasili and Fanfani, 2006; INEA, 2011; Vrontis et al., 2011; Rossi et al., 2014) analyse the strategic choices of agro food firms as well as their strategic management processes, performance and capital structures. These studies focus on competitive strategies.

Other studies examine the importance of applying strategic processes and business marketing techniques to agro firms (Antonelli and Viganò, 2000), the internationalisation process of Euro Mediterranean SMEs (Bertolini and Giovannetti, 2006), the structure and role of local institutions in an international competitive context, and the impact of geographical attributes on the internationalisation process of agro food SMEs. Scholars put forward the notion that protected designation of origins (PDOs) and protected geographical indications (PGIs) are important tools, but their effectiveness depends on several factors which rely on the characteristics of the product, the production system, the individual firm’s characteristics and the destination market (Belletti et al., 2007).

In this context it’s important to investigate the critical factors of success and/or failure of the Euro Mediterranean agro food industry, the strategies adopted by firms, their resulting performance, their capital structure and the actions necessary to increase competitiveness.

References
Belletti G., Burgassi T., Manco E., Marescotti A., Scaramuzzi S. (2007), “The impact of geographical indications (PDO and PGI) on the internationalisation process of agro- food products”, International Marketing and International Trade of Quality Food Products , 105th EAAE Seminar, University of Bologna (Italy), Bologna, 8-9 March
Bertolini P; Giovannetti E (2006) - Industrial districts and internationalization: the case of the agri-food industry in Modena, Italy, Entrepreneurship And Regional Development, Vol. 18, pp.279-304
Brasili C., Fanfani R. (2006), “The Italian Food Industry: Structure and Characteristics” in Soldatos P., Rozakis S. (2006), The Food Industry in Europe - Erasmus Intensive Programme in Agri-Business Management with emphasis, Food Industry Enterprises Editors.
INEA (2011), Italian Agriculture in Figures 2010, Rome
Rossi M., Vrontis D., Thrassou A. (2014), Agro Business in a Changing Competitive Environment – Campania firms’ strategic, marketing and financial choices, World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 10, 2/3, pp. 312-333
Vrontis D., Thrassou A., Rossi M. (2011), Italian wine firms: strategic branding and financial performance, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 19, 4, pp. 288-304

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Entrepreneurial characteristics of SMEs in the agro food sector
  • The innovation process, sources of innovation, and types of innovation
  • Networking in technology development
  • Internationalisation and marketing strategies and financial performances
  • Agro firms and wine tourism
  • Competition strategy

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 22 February, 2015
Notification to authors: 5 April, 2015
Submission of manuscripts for second round review: 5 May, 2015 (if necessary)
Notification to authors: 31 May, 2015
Final versions due: 20 June, 2015

Special issue published: "Role of Pricing and Trust in Chinese Economy"

International Journal of Services Technology and Management 20(1/2/3) 2014
  • Price dispersion under the adverse selection environment in e-commerce markets 
  • A multinational study of espoused national cultural and review characteristics in the formation of trust in online product reviews
  • The collaboration pattern, trust relationship, and transferring and learning willingness: evidence of China's agribusiness and farmers
  • Dual-channel pricing strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises
  • The pricing of single name credit default swap based on jump-diffusion process and volatility with Markov regime shift
  • An intelligent-ranking framework for web services selection process
  • Application of importance and satisfaction indicators for service quality improvement of customer satisfaction
  • Market orientation and business-to-business (B2B): a meta-analysis perspective
  • The rise and growth of entrepreneurial companies in China: case study of two ventures (1994-2010)

17 July 2014

Special issue published: "Cloud Computing Services"

International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management 7(2) 2014

Includes expanded versions of papers presented at the 10th IEEE International Conference on Services 
Computing.
  • Graph reduction for QoS prediction of cloud-service compositions
  • Cloud service negotiation: a research report
  • An SLA-based brokering platform to provide sensor networks as-a-service
  • PAPaS: peer-assisted publish and subscribe
  • Cloud security auditing based on behavioural modelling
  • Auditing and analysis of network traffic in cloud environment
  • Enforcing the Chinese wall model for tenant conflict of interest in the service cloud

Call for papers: "Economic Development and Wellbeing"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Happiness and Development.

This special issue intends to bring together papers dealing with topics on (sustainable economic) development, wellbeing, and the relationships between the two. All too frequently the most appropriate approaches to achieving sustainable economic development are seen as lying with promoting investment in infrastructure, developing educational systems, expanding trade routes and relationships, promoting credit availability, establishing appropriate political and financial institutions, accessing aid and the like.

These and other factors play a crucial part in developing and maintaining economic development. But the question of interest to this issue is the nature of the relationship between the outcomes that flow from the above and notions of wellbeing. In other words, how is the relationship between creating sustainable economic development and achieving wellbeing formed in practice, if at all? What drives these relationships, to what extent, and in what ways?

This exploration comes at an important time given that macroeconomic indicators suggest the beginnings of an upward swing across many economic and geographical regions. There is no equivalent wellbeing indicator to help us track change and progress in this across time or space. Not only that, but the very definition of wellbeing varies significantly and range from discussions of physical and emotional health to less precise views on happiness and its formation. This special issue leaves discussion on the definition open but expresses a preference for notions of wellbeing that are closer to happiness.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Microeconomic and macroeconomic factors promoting economic development and their relationship with wellbeing
  • Definitions of wellbeing
  • Factors promoting wellbeing
  • Necessary conditions for the promotion and continuation of wellbeing
  • Historical and contemporary views on the relationship between economic development and wellbeing
  • National-level public policy in relation to promoting wellbeing
  • Influence of factors such as growth, trade, etc. on promoting wellbeing
  • Relevance of environmental links between pursuing economic development and wellbeing

Important Dates
Full paper submission: 15 March, 2015
Revised paper submission: 1 June, 2015
Final paper acceptance: 1 August, 2015

Inderscience journals to publish expanded papers from SEA 2015

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Soft Computing & Engineering Applications (6-7 June 2015, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India) will be published by the following journals:

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Smart Technology and Learning

The International Journal of Smart Technology and Learning focuses on the design, application and assessment of smart learning technologies, highlighting how smart learning technologies should be properly implemented in education to enhance smart learning, especially to help learners acquire higher-order thinking skills. This perspective acknowledges not only the significance of emerging smart learning technologies but also the importance of educational outcomes those technologies bring. IJSmartTL encourages researchers and educators to be reflective of the use of educational technologies and focus on its fundamental goals.

16 July 2014

Special issue published: "Turkish Accounting"

International Journal of Critical Accounting 6(2) 2014

  • The development of accounting as a scientific discipline in Turkey
  • Corporate gatekeeper liability in Turkey: auditors' case
  • Factors influencing the accounting profession career choice: evidence from an emerging economy
  • The effect of derivatives on the financial positions of banks in Turkey and in EU: a comparative analysis
  • The effect of corporate governance on firm performance: a case of Turkey

New Editor for the Int. J. Electronic Finance

Prof. Jiaqin Yangfrom Georgia College & State University in the USA has been appointed to take over the editorship of the International Journal of Electronic Finance.

Int. J. of High Performance Computing and Networking to publish expanded papers from CTCIS 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 8th Chinese Conference on Trusted Computing and Information Security (13-15 September 2014, Enshi, Hubei, China) will be published by the International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking.

Call for papers: "Nation Branding and Commercial Diplomacy: Actors, Strategies and Outcomes"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy.

Nation branding and commercial diplomacy have become increasingly established as fields of study in recent years. Scholars have noted the insights made available through considering nations as brands (Potter, 2004; Dinnie, 2008; Szondi, 2008). It is now rare to come across a country that does not engage in some form of nation branding. Likewise, the relevance and importance of commercial diplomacy has been demonstrated conceptually and empirically by Ruël (2012, 2013) in terms of linking international business to the politics of the global economy.

However, to date, there has been little or no attempt to view nation branding and commercial diplomacy as interlinked phenomena. This is despite both fields sharing an interest in the area of overlap between business and diplomacy, particularly with regard to trade and investment promotion. This special issue aims to reduce this gap in the literature and thereby contribute to increasing our understanding of the commonalities and differences between nation branding and commercial diplomacy.

All papers should address the relationship between nation branding and commercial diplomacy, e.g., conceptual similarities and differences, the fusion of nation branding and commercial diplomacy in practice, etc. Papers that fail to link the themes of nation branding and commercial diplomacy (i.e, by focusing only on one of the two themes) will not be accepted.

References
Dinnie, K. (2008), Nation Branding – Concepts, Issues, Practice, London: Routledge.
Potter, E. (2004) International Studies Perspectives article Ruël, H. (Editor)(2012) Commercial Diplomacy and International Business: A Conceptual and Empircal Exploration, Advanced Series in Management, Emerald.
Ruel, H. (2013) Diplomacy means business, Windesheimsreeks Kennis en Onderzoek nr. 46, Zwolle: Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands.
Szondi, G. (2008) ‘Public diplomacy and nation branding: Conceptual similarities and differences’, Discussion Papers in Diplomacy, Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Theoretical views on approaches to how nation branding and commercial diplomacy are related
  • Nation branding approaches for commercial diplomacy purposes
  • Interactions between nation branding actors and commercial diplomacy actors
  • Case studies of successful nation branding for commercial diplomacy purposes
  • Effects of nation branding strategies on commercial diplomacy
  • Organisations and structures for the implementation of nation branding and commercial diplomacy activities

Important Dates
Full paper submission deadline: 28 February, 2015
Notification to authors: 30 April, 2015
Revision deadline: 15 June, 2015
Acceptance notification: 30 June, 2015

15 July 2014

Int. J. of Sustainable Materials and Structural Systems to publish expanded papers from International Forum on Civil Engineering Reform

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Forum on Civil Engineering Reform: A Strategic Roadmap to Global Prosperity & Resiliency (11-12 October 2014, Nanjing, China) will be published by the International Journal of Sustainable Materials and Structural Systems.

Click here for more info on this event.

Special issue: "Cultural Variations and Mappings"

European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management 3(1) 2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the 10th IACCM Conference on Cultural Aspects of Cross-Border Cooperation: Competencies and Capabilities.

  • Cultural maps of the world
  • A semiotic and critical approach to teaching inter-cultural management
  • Challenging traditions from a management perspective: an Egyptian case study
  • Greek management and culture 
  • Conflict perceptions in top management teams: a cross-cultural study

Call for papers: "Cryptography and its Applications"

For a special issue of the International Journal of High Performance Computing and Networking.

With the rapid development of the latest information technologies and systems such as cloud computing, big data, internet of things and social networks, data is shared more ubiquitously and perceived more intelligently. Thus security and privacy issues have been cited as a major concern in our society. Fundamental security issues include data confidentiality, information privacy, data integrity, data traceability and service availability, etc.

Cryptography has made great strides in capability and variety over the past few years. It can be integrated with other information security technologies to solve the security issues mentioned above.

This special issue aims to provide a forum for researchers, practitioners, developers and users in trusted computing and information security areas to explore cutting-edge ideas and techniques, and exchange solutions, tools, experiences and results.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 8th Chinese Conference on Trused Computing and Information Security (CTCIS 2014), but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Cryptography and cryptanalysis
  • Content security of multimedia
  • Fault tolerance and disaster recovery
  • Network and communication security
  • Privacy in internet of things
  • Privacy in social networks
  • Security in cloud computing
  • Theory and technology of trusted computing

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 20 September, 2014
Notification to authors: 20 November, 2014
Final versions due: 20 January, 2015

14 July 2014

Special issue published: "Effective Engineering Teams Teaching, Facilitating and Learning"

International Journal of Collaborative Engineering 1(3/4) 2014
  • Potency beliefs in newly formed project teams: sources of initial group efficacy beliefs
  • Facilitating formation of shared mental models in interdisciplinary graduate student teams
  • A study on conflicts during an interdisciplinary capstone design experience
  • Engineering students' perceptions of team conflict and high-performance teams
  • A guidance framework for facilitating effective engineering student teams and its impact on individual learning
  • Engaging individual learning through collaborative knowledge building processes: a hybrid framework
  • Voting tools to support convergence process in collaboration
  • Learning objects for collaborative learning in engineering programmes

Int. J. of Learning and Change to publish expanded papers from ELLTA 3rd International Conference

Expanded versions of papers presented at the ELLTA 3rd International Conference, "Leadership and Learning in the Asian Century" (17-19 November 2014, Penang, Malaysia) will be published by the International Journal of Learning and Change.

Special issue published: "Pioneering Research on Actual Board Behaviour"

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics 9(2) 2014
  • What have we not researched? And why not? - some reflections on the 'blind spots' of corporate governance and board research
  • Opening the black box of nomination committees: a case study of non-executive director selections in German supervisory boards
  • Theorising director task performance over time: insights from capture theory
  • The glass ceiling in SMEs and its impact on firm managerialisation: a comparison between family and non-family SMEs
  • Board structures and board behaviour: a cross-country comparison of privately held SMEs in Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway

13 July 2014

Special issue published: "Preventing Road Crash Injury Through Vehicle Safety Design"

International Journal of Vehicle Safety 7(3/4) 2014

Includes expanded versions of papers presented at the Indo–US Symposium on Preventing Road Crash Injury through Vehicle Safety Design 2012.
  • Recent advancement on testing and modelling methodologies in rollover analysis
  • Failure biomechanical responses of isolated and intact human thoracic spine structures
  • Growing burden and impact of road crashes in India: need for a safe systems approach
  • Simulating the road forward: the role of computational modelling in realising future opportunities in traffic safety
  • Digital image correlation of low velocity impact on glass/epoxy composite
  • Energy absorption characteristics of rib reinforced thin-wall extruded structure subjected to axial crush
Regularly submitted papers
  • Driver braking behaviour under near-crash scenarios
  • Model-in-the-loop simulation of gap and torque tracking control using electronic wedge brake actuator
  • Determinants of carbon monoxide exposure inside a motor home during on-board generator use
  • Moving vehicle detection and tracking using monocular vision
  • Effect of humidity on quasi-static characteristics of foam CF-45 for TRL pedestrian legform impactor

Int. J. of Information and Communication Technology to publish expanded papers from ICCC-2014

Expanded versions of papers presented at the International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Communication & Convergence (27-28 December 2014, IIMT Research Network, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India) will be published by the International Journal of Information and Communication Technology.

Special issue published: "Recent Trends in Intelligent Information System for Convergence"

International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems 8(2) 2014
  • Development of a 3D tangible-serious game for attention improvement
  • Optimisation of the cascade correlation algorithm to solve the two-spiral problem by using CosGauss and Sec-service level agreement analysis of OFB mode in block cipher
  • Design of byzantine fault-tolerant transaction commit protocol for heterogeneous distributed databases 
  • A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of learning English vocabulary between smart device and printed material
  • The effects of syllable boundary and context on word recognition in Korean continuous speech
  • Study on watermarking scheme using threshold value and S-Box

Call for papers: "Recent Trends in Process Modelling, Simulation and Control"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling.

Control engineering is the engineering discipline that focuses on the mathematical modelling of systems of a diverse nature, analysing their dynamical behaviour and designing controllers that will cause the systems to behave in a desired manner.

In process control, the term process is used in a very general sense and some typical examples of processes are: energy generation, electric power transmission, distribution systems, chemical and petrochemical industry, metallurgical industry, traffic and transportation systems, paper and pulp processing industry, food and fermentation industry, environmental systems, mining instrumentation, innovation and engineering management, etc.

Simulation and process modelling have become some of the most exciting research topics in the broad area of process control. Recently, there is great research interest in areas such as big data, cloud computing, etc. and their applications in simulation and process modelling. Therefore, the purpose of this special issue is to focus on state-of-the-art solutions and recent advances in the field of simulation and process modelling and their applications in industry, science, engineering and commerce.

We welcome original research papers that describe new ideas and approaches in the theory and application of simulation and process modelling.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Design methods for processes
  • Distributed simulation and applications
  • Dynamic analysis of process using modelling
  • Innovation in process and engineering management
  • Modelling and simulation
  • Built environment
  • Business processes
  • Cloud computing and big data
  • Industrial processes
  • Production and healthcare processes
  • Public sector processes
  • Service and administrative processes
  • Supply chains
  • Performance optimisation through simulation
  • Process optimisation with simulation
  • Process synthesis, analysis and design
  • Reengineering of processes
  • Simulation in collaboration environments
  • Soft computing methods for processes
  • Web- and component-based simulation

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 30 June, 2015

12 July 2014

Special issue published: "Recent Trends in Intelligent Computation and Communication System Design"

International Journal of Information and Communication Technology 6(3/4) 2014
  • Algorithm research for capacity-constrained stochastic traffic assignment model
  • RC5 implementation in ARM platform for cryptographic applications
  • Investigation on cooperative contention-based bandwidth request mechanism for heterogeneous networks
  • Energy efficient and load balanced clustering algorithms for wireless sensor networks
  • A classification-based summarisation model for summarising text documents
  • A novel variable tap-length learning algorithm for low complexity, fast converging stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation
  • A novel approach for design of a speech enhancement system using auto-trained NLMS adaptive filter
  • Adaptive gain and variable effective aperture aided multi antenna set-ups for faded Rayleigh channels
  • Business process artefact adaptability approach based on artificial immune systems
  • Trust aware identity management for cloud computing
  • User experiences in the Official WikiLeaks Forum
  • Reliability factor-based mathematical model for isolating selfish nodes in MANETs
Regular paper
  • A new procedure of market segmentation for dynamic CRM systems: a case study of airlines in Taiwan

Inderscience is media partner for Monetising Mature Fields 2014 Summit

Inderscience is a media partner for the Monetising Mature Fields 2014 Summit (28-29 October 2014, Dubai, UAE).

The journals involved are:


New editor and title amendment for Int. Journal of Complexity in Applied Science and Engineering

The International Journal of Complexity in Applied Science and Engineering has slightly amended its title to the International Journal of Complexity in Applied Science and Technology and Dr. Hassan Qudrat-Ullah has been appointed its editor. Dr. Qudrat-Ullah is Associate Professor of Management Science at York University in Canada.

Call for papers: "Data/Information Management and Analysis for Disaster Management"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Information Technology and Management.

Disaster management has been attracting a lot of attention from many research communities, including that of computer science, which plays a key role in devising ways to manage and analyse data and is required for disaster management situations.

For this special issue we are particularly interested in original work (including significant works-in-progress) on the current state of research and developments in data management and analysis that will greatly benefit the disaster management community in the whole cycle of the detection, prevention, preparation, response and recovery from disasters. Contributions on information and data management that improves support for disaster management and emergency responses are solicited.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 1st IEEE International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Disaster Management (ICT-DM'2014), but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Querying and filtering of heterogeneous, multi-source streaming disaster data
  • Challenges of big data in disaster management
  • Context-awareness information analysis and extraction
  • Data mining from multiple-information and huge sources
  • Multi-sensor data fusion
  • Sensor data interoperability, analysis and interpretation
  • Semantic-based data mining and data pre-processing
  • Data acquisition, integration, cleaning and best practices
  • Mining and making decisions based on time-evolving and uncertain data
  • Human-system interactive information extraction
  • Uncertainty and possibly adversity in data handling and delivery
  • Crowd sourcing
  • Data management in the social web
  • Trust and information credibility in social networks
  • Damage and loss assessment
  • Post-disaster needs assessment
  • Spatiotemporal and stream data management
  • Geospatial data collection for disaster response
  • Cloud/grid/stream data mining

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 30 November, 2014
Notification to authors: 30 December, 2014
Final versions due: 2 March, 2015

11 July 2014

Int. Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering increases issues

The International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering has announced that it will be increasing issues from four to six from 2015 onwards.

Call for papers: "Intelligent Systems for Industry"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Embedded Systems.

With the rapid progress of industrialisation and civilisation, intelligent systems are emerging as a concept where every device, person, vehicle, building and street in the area can be used as a component to probe intelligent social information for serving people and their lives.

Intelligent systems aim to enhance both human life and environment smartly through a recurrent process of sensing, mining, understanding and improving. They also aim to deeply understand the nature and science behind the phenomena occurring in urban spaces, using a variety of heterogeneous data sources such as traffic flows, human mobility, geographic data, environment protection, energy consumption, economics, etc. In all of the above, intelligent systems can give rise to a richer user experience with a wide variety of interactive devices, from recommenders to storytelling platforms.

This special issue's objective is to provide a platform for researchers to share their thoughts and findings on various issues in intelligent systems. Our goal is to compile the latest advancements addressing the topic of intelligent systems.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Image Processing (ICISIP2014) and the 3rd International Conference on Industrial Application Engineering (ICIAE2015), but we also encourage researchers unable to participate in the conferences to submit articles for this call.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Smart sensors in science and engineering
  • Intelligent systems for social welfare
  • Intelligent interfaces and visualisation systems
  • Intelligent systems on small, mobile and wireless systems
  • Smart systems for energy exploration and environment protection
  • Electrical circuits and systems for sensor design
  • Control theory and methods for sensor systems
  • Imaging applications and system evaluation
  • Big data for multimedia systems
  • Vision sensors for robotics

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 1 April, 2015
Notification to authors: 1 July, 2015
Final versions due: 1 August, 2015

Special issue published: "Asiatic Entrepreneurship and Sustainability"

International Journal of Process Management and Benchmarking 4(3) 2014
  • Entrepreneurial drive beyond the need for achievement: a point of difference in South Asian entrepreneurial drive, inspiration and motivation 
  • Entrepreneurialism in discovering the role of inspiring shopping motivation in Australia and Indonesia
  • Power of being small and entrepreneurial and essentiality of innovation for excellence in performance and global competitiveness: a case of SMEs in a developing country context
  • Value driven Asiatic entrepreneurship: South Asian way of ethical entrepreneurship and sustainability
  • Motivation, perceived success factors and problems of entrepreneurs: evidence from a developing country in Asia
Research papers
  • Joint economic design of X-bar and R charts using simulated annealing
  • Business process reengineering in public sector: ranking the implementation barriers
  • Benchmarking as a measure of competitiveness

10 July 2014

Call for papers: "Advances in Evolutionary Computation, Fuzzy Logic and Swarm Intelligence"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Swarm Intelligence.

This special issue is dedicated to reporting research and new developments in the multidisciplinary fields of evolutionary computation, fuzzy logic and swarm intelligence. The issue invites original research articles and some reviews of theoretical, experimental and practical aspects of swarm intelligence and evolutionary computation. It will offer readers reports on advances in the understanding and utilisation of systems that are based on the principles of swarm intelligence and evolutionary computation along with fuzzy logic.

Preference will be given to topics such as the modelling and analysis of collective biological systems; the application of biological swarm intelligence models to real-world problems; and theoretical and empirical research in ant colony optimisation, particle swarm optimisation, swarm robotics, and other swarm intelligence algorithms.

The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the 1st International Conference on Computational Intelligence in Data Mining (ICCIDM 2014), but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit articles for this call.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Bio-inspired computing
  • Nature-inspired computing
  • Neural networks
  • Genetic programming
  • Hybridisation of swarm intelligence methods
  • Fuzzy and evolutionary computation
  • Fuzzy neural systems, neuro-fuzzy systems
  • Cultural algorithms
  • Classification and clustering
  • Machine learning and data mining
  • Applications of evolutionary computation in wireless sensor networks
  • Swarm and evolutionary computation
  • Hybrid fuzzy systems (fuzzy-neuro-evolutionary-rough)
  • Image processing
  • Human-machine interaction
  • Applications in biomedicine and biochemistry
  • Pattern recognition
  • Evolutionary neuro-computing
  • Optimisation algorithms

Important Dates
Article submission deadline: 30 April, 2015
Acceptance notification: 31 July, 2015
Revised article submission: 31 August, 2015
Notification of final decision: 30 September, 2015

Special issue published: "Religions and Finance"

International Journal of Behavioural Accounting and Finance 4(3) 2014
  • Investment principles of the Bible: How Christian businesses cultivate wealth and attain relevance in the 21st century
  • The influence of culture and religion on trust in the emerging financial market in Libya
  • Fair value and financial instability: comparative study between Islamic and conventional banks
  • The UK's banking system as financial hub for Islamic banking
  • Development of theory of Islamic economics: problems and proposals

Call for papers: "Operations Research Methods for Decision Support"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research.

Over the past few decades, decision making has gained popularity in the area of operations research (OR) due to its frequent implications in managerial domains as it enables decision makers to come up with preeminent decisions. Multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM) – a well-known decision making process – is based on the progress in introducing the methods and procedures of multiple conflicting criteria into management planning processes. MCDM is widely used by a large number of decision makers in a variety of fields, such as economics, financial analysis, flood risk management, housing evaluation, disaster management and customer relationship management.

Although MCDM has many diversified advantages, this highly useful decision-making methodology still contains certain unresolved issues. Decision making – either under multiple criteria or under risk – Is always burdened with uncertainty.

In their seminal work, Bellman and Zadeh distinguished between statistical randomness and fuzziness by asserting that the former has to do with uncertainty regarding membership or non-membership of an object to a set. In statistical analysis an object belongs to a set either perfectly or not at all. Fuzziness, however, relates to sets where grades, ranging from full membership to full non-membership, are possible. In analysis, it is of concern whether the object belongs strongly, moderately or weakly to a set. However, it is possible to combine both types of uncertainty; in decision models under risk, individual states of the world can be modelled through fuzzy sets and at the same time the probabilities of the states of the world can be fuzzy.

Uncertainty implies that there are specific, although unknown, outcomes or sets of outcomes associated with each action that the decision maker(s) can take. This concept of uncertainty assumes that a stochastic process underlies the connection between the actions and outcomes. Although this stochastic process may not be completely known to the decision maker, there is no question that it does exist uniquely. Fuzziness, on the other hand, is qualitatively different. Fuzziness stems more from the concept of imprecision stemming from the decision maker not being able to clearly distinguish between groups of possible outcomes. This difficulty is more consistent with the real-world situation presented by multiple-attribute, multiple-objective decision problems.

Decision making, one of the most crucial and omnipresent human activities in the real world, is characterised as a process of choosing the best alternative(s) or course(s) of action, from a set of alternatives, to attain a goal (or goals). It becomes a much more complex task when more criteria, more decision makers or different states of the world need to be taken into account. Classic mathematics provides various tools for multiple-criteria and group decision making and decision making under risk. Fuzzification of these methods is possible and desirable, because the models based on these fuzzified methods better capture the modelled reality. In this special issue we aim to map the state of the art in this area and showcase successful applications and promising new methods in mathematical decision support.

This special issue invites submission focusing on mathematical methods in multiple criteria decision making, group decision making and decision making under risk, and their applications to real life problems. Decision making is always based on evaluation; the multiple criteria evaluation itself can be the desired goal in many situations. Papers dealing with evaluation models are therefore also invited. Theoretical and practically oriented papers contributing to the field of evaluation and decision making are welcome, including papers on novel software implementations of these methods. Contributions from the broad field of operations research with an overlap to evaluation and decision making theory and applications are also invited.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
  • Decision making theory
  • Multiple criteria evaluation and decision making
  • Decision making under risk and uncertainty
  • Fuzzy methods of decision making
  • Decision support systems
  • Real world applications of evaluation and decision making models

Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts: 12 December, 2014
Notification to authors: 27 March, 2015
Final versions due: 29 May, 2015