9 June 2010

Call for papers: Enterprise Risk Management – Foundational Issues

A special issue of International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management

In recent years there has been an increased focus on enterprise risk management (ERM). There is a strong belief that ERM provides the adequate tool for balancing the conflicts inherent in exploring opportunities on the one hand, and avoiding losses, accidents, and disasters, on the other. Different standards and frameworks have been developed to effectively identify, assess and manage enterprise risk, including the COSO enterprise risk management framework and the ISO 31000 standard on risk management.

There is broad similarity when it comes to the basic underlying ideas of these frameworks and standards and considerable agreement exists on the steps needed for proper risk management, from the definition of critical functions to risk assessment, risk evaluation and risk control. However, there are a number of challenges related to the scientific basis of these frameworks and standards, for example related to how to define and describe enterprise risk, and how to deal with uncertainties in a practical ERM decision-making context. Further research is required. The present special issue addresses these challenges.

Suitable topics for papers include but are not limited to:
  • The definition and understanding of enterprise risk
  • How to express enterprise risk
  • Principles for assessing enterprise risk
  • How to deal with uncertainties in enterprise risk assessments and management
  • Use of risk acceptance criteria in ERM
  • Evaluations of ERM frameworks and standards
  • ERM and value generation
  • Communicating risk and uncertainties in an ERM context
  • Case studies
Important Dates
Submission of manuscripts due: 10 October 2010
The review process will be fast and the aim is to produce a set of papers ready for the publishing process before the end of February 2011.

Special issue:Advanced and innovative supply chain optimisation

International Journal of Value Chain Management 4(3) 2010
  • Performance evaluation of inventory replenishment strategies in a capacitated supply chain under optimal parameter settings
  • An integrated multi-plant aggregate production-distribution plan generated using memetic algorithm
  • Optimisation of supply chain performance using MCDM tool – a case study
  • Assessing the service quality of container shipping lines in the international supply chain network – shippers' perspective
  • Integrated production-inventory-distribution optimisation in a multi-echelon, multi-product, multi-carrier, multi-period system
  • Comparing and improving value chain-supply chain in the three most important wine regions of New Zealand

8 June 2010

Special issue: Networking, sensing and control

International Journal of Advanced Mechatronic Systems 2(4) 2010

Selected papers from the 2009 IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control (ICNSC’09) held in Okayama, Japan, 26-29 March.
  • Hydrogen gas diffusion imaging using multiple FET type gas sensors
  • Adaptive control scheme achieving smooth control input in the presence of input saturation
  • Road edge recognition for mobile robot using laser range finder
  • Body-conducted speech retrieval from a noisy environment using differential acceleration
Additional papers
  • Mechatronic design and control of a planar cooperative robot
  • Behaviour based planning and control of leader follower formations in wheeled mobile robots

7 June 2010

Special issue: Leveraging workplace diversity: multiple settings, professions, strategies, and theoretical perspectives

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management 10(3) 2010
  • Leveraging diversity through faculty perception of their power to influence diversity
  • Leveraging diversity through career development: social and cultural capital among African-American managers
  • Leveraging diversity by exploring intraracial discrimination in the workplace
  • Leveraging diversity through raising awareness: sexual orientation discrimination in the Thailand workforce: implications for human resource management
  • Leveraging diversity through employee resource groups in the USA: implications for human resource development practitioners in South Africa
  • Leveraging diversity through a psychological perspective on managing innovation in a diverse workplace

Special issue: Intrapreneurship

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business 10(3) 2010
  • Entrepreneurial spirit and corporate entrepreneurship in large companies
  • Intrapreneuriality and the perceived autonomy indicators
  • Intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs and spin-off entrepreneurs: similarities and differences
  • The impact of regional innovation systems on the level of corporate entrepreneurship activity
  • Corporate entrepreneurship and small firms growth
  • Hybridisation of the profiles of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs: the case of French biotechnology SMEs

Special issue: Usability and privacy issues in electronic government

Electronic Government, an International Journal 7(3) 2010
  • A user-centric and federated Single-Sign-On IAM system for SOA e/m-frameworks
  • Quantifying ergonomic quality of governmental websites
  • A framework for accessible m-government implementation
  • An examination of privacy policies of US Government Senate websites
  • A mobile taxing system from usability perspective

5 June 2010

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing

Extending the pervasive computing vision of everyday objects communicating and collaborating to provide intelligent and context-aware information and services to users in larger geographical spaces, space-based and situated computing has an ultimate goal to build context-aware global smart space and location-based service applications that integrate information from independent systems, such as sensor, actuator or mobile information systems. International Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing - to begin publication in 2011 - will publish the latest research in the area.

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Planning and Scheduling

Covering theoretical and applied research that encompass theoretical advances, new solution methods, modelling, complexity analysis, algorithms, and applications for complex planning and scheduling problems, International Journal of Planning and Scheduling - to begin publication in 2011 - will consider planning and scheduling problems from various fields including operations research and management, computer science, manufacturing, services, projects, transportation, supply chains, logistics, telecommunications, and networks.

Forthcoming journal: International Journal of Computational Medicine and Healthcare

Previously announced as International Journal of Computational Medical Engineering, International Journal of Computational Medicine and Healthcare - to begin publication in 2011 - will deal with medical scientific discoveries, innovative engineering design and applications for healthcare system improvement using data and computational systems at a large scale.

First issue: International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics

Dedicated to interdisciplinary research on artificial intelligence, cognitive science, knowledge engineering, information technology, and engineering management International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics will focus on new techniques and systems using these cognitive and intelligent paradigms, with application to engineering management activities.


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

Call for papers: Food Defence

A special issue of International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health

Immediately after the 9/11 attack, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stressed the risk “of deliberate contamination of food for human consumption with biological, chemical and physical agents or radionuclear materials for the purpose of causing injury or death to civilian populations and/or disrupting social, economic or political stability”. Thereafter, many countries started developing “food defence strategies” and have classified the food supply chain as a nationally critical structure. These strategies encompass methodologies, tools and procedures to prevent, contrast and repress any malicious manipulation or alteration of food done by terrorists, criminals, mythomaniacs and also by disgruntled internal company staff.

This special issue aims at setting the state of the art, both in research and application, by providing an opportunity for presenting recent achievements with regard to the development and application of models and techniques for the analysis of the threats, vulnerabilities and counter measures developed for improving the safety and the continuity of the food supply chain with respect to any type of malicious manipulation or attack.

In the contest of this issue, original research papers, innovative application results and reviews are solicited in relevant aspects of food defence, including but not limited to:
  • Food defence/food security strategies and policies
  • Anti-tampering systems and technologies
  • Risk analysis of the food supply chain
  • Impact analysis of food contamination
  • Technologies and procedures to prevent, deter and contrast food manipulation
  • Threats analysis of contaminating agents
  • Social implications of food insecurity
  • Case studies on risk analysis for malicious manipulation of food supply chains
Important Dates
Deadline for draft manuscript submission: 15 October, 2010
(Please inform the Guest Editors about your intention to contribute at your earliest convenience)
Notification of review results: 30 January, 2011
Deadline for revised manuscript submission: 28 February, 2011

Call for papers: Risk Analysis of Critical Infrastructures

A special issue of International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management

The continuous supply of goods and services by distributed interconnected infrastructure systems forms the backbone of all activities in modern industry and society. As a consequence, the robustness, safety and security of such infrastructures have become critical issues, calling for further improvement and optimization.

On the other hand, the current quantitative methods of risk analysis are challenged by the level of complexity and interconnectedness inherent in such systems, and the emergent behaviour therein.

Additional societal concerns and analysis complexities are brought into the picture by the threats coming from malicious/terrorist attacks and the hazards induced by extreme events (i.e. low probability, high impact events).

This special issue aims at setting the state of the art, both in research and application, by providing an opportunity for presenting recent achievements with regards to the development and application of models and techniques for the analysis of the vulnerability, reliability and safety of distributed network systems and critical infrastructures and the continuous service they provide.

In the contest of this issue, original research papers, innovative application results and reviews are solicited in relevant aspects of risk analysis of critical infrastructures, including but not limited to:
  • Risk assessment and management of critical infrastructures
  • Risk analysis for networked systems
  • Impact analysis in complex scenarios
  • Asymmetric threats analysis and modelling
  • Extreme events modelling and analysis
  • Risk analysis for dependent and interdependent infrastructures and systems
  • Case-study of risk analysis, assessment, or management in critical infrastructures
  • Procedures, policies and strategies for risk analysis of critical infrastructure
  • Standardization of risk analysis for critical infrastructures
Important Dates
Deadline for draft manuscript submission: 1 October, 2010
[but please inform the Guest Editor about your intention to contribute as soon as possible]
Notification of review results: 10 January, 2011
Deadline for revised manuscript submission: 15 February, 2011

Call for papers: Global Products from Innovation Labs in Developing Countries

A special issue of International Journal of Technology Management

Global innovation used to be a phenomenon uniquely confined to the industrialized world until in the early 2000s emerging economies such as China, India and Eastern Europe became attractive as hosts for foreign R&D investment. A significant number of companies from developed countries now have set up and are continuously expanding R&D operations in these emerging economic powerhouses.

While in earlier years the purpose of most of these new units were tasks mainly relating to the adapting of products to local markets, tailored development of local products or support functions for other R&D locations throughout the world, in recent years there has been an increasing trend towards locally performing full-scale product development and innovation and then taking these products to other developing markets, as well as to the original home markets in developed countries.

At the same time, companies from developing countries are significantly expanding their own R&D activities, striving to move up the innovation value-chain and "export" their innovations to the rest of the world. Fuelled by extensive efforts from national, international and municipal governments aiming to establish conditions favorable for companies and their peoples to grow sustainably, and encouraging both indigenous as well as foreign R&D activities within their borders, China and India, especially, have the potential to become noteworthy centers of research and innovation in the future.

Pioneers in the disciplines of international business and technology and innovation management have proposed theories to describe and explain global innovation and R&D patterns. Bartlett and Ghoshal's global-local typology has built the intellectual foundations for a whole generation of international innovation researchers. Vernon's international product life-cycle has been verified over and over again in the practice of multinationals seeking to develop overseas markets. Substantial research has since gone into refining and extending their work with new dimensions and contingencies given the changing context for global innovation.

From a managerial point-of-view, the challenges identified as being rooted in differences between cultures, geographic locations, and communication, are yet to be adequately solved.

This special issue aims at contributing to this thought process in the area of global innovation management for yet one more step by collecting a set of high-quality papers examining these phenomena and its related dimensions as exemplified below. Contributions both from an academic-scientific point of view as well as from a managerial perspective are welcome.

Contributions may address but are not limited to the following topics:
  • Developing countries as lead markets
  • The extent of "export" of innovation from developing countries
  • Initiating and managing reverse innovation
  • The role of national, regional and sectoral innovation systems in encouraging or hindering global innovation from developing countries
  • Low-cost/high-quality R&D in developing countries
  • Input factors favouring R&D from developing countries
  • Studies comparing innovation activities from different BRIC countries, Eastern Europe, and other developing countries on topics such as scale and scope of activities, performance differences, R&D missions, etc.
  • R&D engineers from developing markets as members of global R&D teams
  • Multinational innovators from developing countries
  • The role of MNCs' R&D units in developing countries within global R&D networks
Important Dates
Submission deadline for abstracts: 31 August, 2010
Submission deadline for full papers: 31 December, 2010
Notification of acceptance: 30 April, 2011
Submission deadline for final version: 31 May, 2011

Call for papers: Advances and Trends in Biometrics

A special issue of International Journal of Information Technology and Management

Biometrics is one of the automated identification methods and verifies or identifies the identity of a living individual based on physiological or behavioural characteristics.
  • Physiological characteristics or related organs include fingerprint, hand and palm geometry, face, ear, iris, retina, vein, body ordor, skin reflectance, thermograms, and DNA, etc.
  • Behavioural characteristics are related to the behavior of a person. Examples include, but are not limited to gait, signature, voice, lip motion, and keystroke or typing rhythm.
Biometrics has been used in criminal identification, homeland security, access control, and medical and health care systems, etc. The objective of this special issue is to address advances and trends in biometrics.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
  • New theories and algorithms in biometrics
  • Hardware and software of biometric systems
  • Networking in biometrics systems
  • Databases in biometrics systems
  • Biometrics standards and standardization
  • Information security and privacy issues of biometrics
  • Biometrics in verifying identity for access control
  • Biometrics in database access and computer login
  • Biometrics applications in military and homeland security
  • Biometrics in electronic passports and national ID cards
  • Biometrics applications in international border crossing control
  • Biometrics airline applications and airport security
  • Biometrics in government and business management
  • Biometrics in banking and finance applications
  • Biometrics in hospitals and healthcare services
  • Biometrics in criminal identification, FBI security and fighting against terrorists
  • Biometric encryption
  • Multi- biometrics and multi-model biometric fusion
Important Dates
Manuscript due date: 10 September, 2010
Notification of acceptance: 10 November, 2010
Submission of final manuscript: 10 December, 2010

Special issue: Trends in data mining techniques and applications

International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management 2(3) 2010
  • Visual clustering through weight entropy
  • Two-phase clustering based aggregation of sensor data
  • A data mining approach for efficient selection bitmap join index
  • Discovering exclusive patterns in frequent sequences
  • Classification of varying length multivariate time series using Gaussian mixture models and support vector machines
  • Extended K-modes with new weighted measure based on the domains
  • Towards a repository for scientific theory: development of a technical framework and prototype based on TheoryML

Special issue: Excellence and quality: timeless challenges in education

International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education 3(3) 2010

Papers from TL2009, the IASK (International Association for Scientific Knowledge) Teaching and Learning Conference, held in Porto, Portugal, 7-9 December 2009.
  • Cooperative learning: a methodological answer to instructional design based on competences in the university environment
  • Development of the competences of teamwork through cooperative learning at the university
  • Teaching and ICT in higher education: applications, training and needs perceived by the faculty at Complutense University
  • Differentiation in the assessment between different groups of students: are experience and maturity more important than learning time?
  • User-generated content in the digital identification of organisms: the KeyToNature approach
  • The use of feature films to promote entrepreneurship
  • External examination in France and Germany: recognition of informal learning from an institutional economic perspective

Special issue: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in accounting and finance

International Journal of Banking, Accounting and Finance 2(3) 2010

Papers from the 7th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, held in Durham, UK, 3-5 September 2008.
  • An empirical examination of moral beliefs of the Nigerian insurance managers and the moderating effects of corporate ethical values and some demographic factors
  • Polish corporate governance – the case of small and medium sized companies
  • Environmental degradation problems caused by human activities in Nigeria: enforced (taxation) versus voluntary (social responsibility) solution
  • Performance indicators and corporate social responsibility: evidence from Portuguese higher education institutions
  • Exploring the corporate social responsibility agenda of British credit unions: a case study approach
  • Analysing social responsibility in financial companies

Special issue: Air-cargo logistics and airport economics

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics 2(3) 2010
  • The air cargo and express industry in Hong Kong: economic contribution and competitiveness
  • An airfreight forwarder's shipment planning: simultaneous decisions on job, route and agent selection
  • Designing an e-business integrative platform: a case for the air cargo logistics industry
  • Estimating technical efficiencies of airports in the Greater China: stochastic output distance function method vs. data envelopment analysis method
  • Stakeholder-oriented performance measurement system framework for groundhandling

Special issue: Intelligent-based modelling, control, fault simulation, detection, diagnosis and tolerant schemes in electrical and process automation

International Journal of Automation and Control 4(3) 2010
  • A simple self-tuning scheme using fuzzy logic for a non-linear pressure regulating system
  • Self-organised maps for online detection of faults in non-linear industrial processes
  • Failure detection schemes in control actuation systems for launch vehicles
  • Sensor location with respect to fault tolerance properties
  • Online implementation of wavelet-based identification and dynamic matrix control in a heat exchanger unit
  • Robust fault diagnosis of networked control systems via Kalman filtering

Special issue: New structures and new analysis methods

International Journal of Structural Engineering 1(3/4) 2010
  • Some issues on the design and analysis of pneumatic structures
  • Overall stiffness evaluation and shape optimisation of a tensegric structure
  • Composite stressed skin roofs for liquid design architecture
  • A review on conceptual design with morphological indicators
  • A bi-stable rolling hinge for variable geometry structures
  • Experiment and non-linear analysis of stainless steel columns having variable cross-sections
  • Free vibration analysis of multi-layered beam members including the effect of interlayer slip
  • Representation of connection behaviour for progressive collapse response
  • Renaissance of paper models and folded plate structures in glass
  • Scissor-hinged retractable membrane structures
  • Recent advances in configurations in spatial structures

Special issue: Sustainable practices for industrial sectors and regional development

International Journal of Sustainable Economy 2(3) 2010
  • Opportunities for biofuel sustainable development in Bulgaria
  • Evolution of environmentally sustainable practices: the case of the US carpet industry and CARE
  • Ecodesign for services: an innovative comprehensive method
  • Sustainability through the implementation of sustainable supply chain networks
  • Adopting lean principle as sustainable manufacturing strategy in an electronic-enabled supply chain environment
  • Collaborating for sustainability: strategic knowledge networks, natural resource management and regional development
  • From shareholders to stakeholders finance: a more sustainable lending model

Special issue: Generation C wireless networks

International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems 3(3) 2010

Papers from 1st IEEE International Workshop on Generation C Wireless Networks (GenCWiNets’08) and 1st IEEE International Workshop on Information and Data Assurance (WIDA’08) held in conjunction with 27th IEEE International Performance Computing and Communications Conference(IPCCC 2008) in Austin, Texas, USA, 7-9 December 2008.
  • Data filtering and dynamic sensing for continuous monitoring in wireless sensor networks
  • An S2P-based resource discovery mechanism for tuple-based pervasive systems
  • Exploring load balancing in heterogeneous networks by rate distribution
  • Universal classifier and synchroniser
  • A comparison of keying methods in the Hubenko architecture as applied to wireless sensor networks

Special issue: Modelling and analysis of supply chain network

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management 2(3/4) 2010
  • A conceptual framework for presenting and promoting human resource knowledge sharing in the supply chain as a social network
  • A multi-product lot size in make-to-order supply chain using discrete event simulation and response surface methodology
  • Literature review of covering problem in operations management
  • Aggregating performance measures of a multi-echelon supply chain using the analytical network and analytical hierarchy process
  • Research on job integration of multi-agent in multimodal transportation with time windows
  • Selection of partner companies in extended enterprise using fuzzy AHP
  • Ant colony optimisation based heuristic for one-sided time constraint vehicle routing problem
  • A decision-making framework for the selection of third-party reverse logistics provider
  • A DNA-based algorithm for capacitated vehicle routing problem using temperature gradient technique
  • Analysis of time delays for loss reduction in an automobile components manufacturing organisation using a proactive supply chain risk management model
  • A meta-heuristic for design of a capacitated production/inventory system