31 October 2011

Call for Papers: Localisation, Positioning and Coverage in Wireless Sensor Networks

A special issue of International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing

In wireless sensor network (WSN) deployments, wireless sensor nodes should be strategically placed in order to maximise the sensed area while minimising the number of nodes to be placed in the field.

Moreover, wireless radio coverage distances should be taken into account in order to cover large areas. Wireless sensors may be located quite far from each other, allowing lower deployment costs, but this may increase wireless sensor node power consumption due to the energy needed to reach large distances.

Although many factors may affect the position of each wireless sensor node inside the WSN, there are two main ones: the radio coverage area, which allows the sensors to communicate, and the sensing coverage area, which gives the sensing region. Both types of coverage areas can be affected by the field where the WSN is deployed, but different factors affect each type of coverage. The goal is to maximise the coverage percentage, while coverage holes should be minimised.

This special issue is focused on sensor node location and positioning techniques, taking into account the aforementioned constraints.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • WSN radio coverage
  • WSN sensing fields
  • WSN deployment zones
  • Isotropic and sectorial sensing nodes
  • Positioning systems
  • Node location techniques
  • Analytical node placement systems
  • 2D and 3D regions of interest in WSNs.
  • Theoretical systems and analytical methods to maximise radio and sensing coverage
  • Sensing gain and power gain systems
  • Sleep scheduling techniques for enhancing WSN coverage
  • Self-organisation strategies
Important Dates
Submission deadline: 20 December, 2012 (extended)
Notification of acceptance: 29 February, 2013
Final papers due: 30 April, 2013

Special issue: Interactive experiences in multimedia and augmented environments

International Journal of Arts and Technology 4(4) 2011
  • Touch me if you dare: tactility in media art
  • Spiroraslaser: an interactive visual art system using hybrid raster–laser projection
  • ‘Breaking the glass’: preserving social history in virtual environments
  • Design and evaluation of mixed interactive museographic exhibits
  • Media richness, interactivity and retargeting to mobile devices: a survey
  • Games, narrative and the design of interface
  • Emotional control and visual representation using advanced audiovisual interaction

28 October 2011

Call for Papers: Technology Strategy in Family Business


A special issue of International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

Technology can be defined as a particular form of knowledge applied to the development and commercialisation of new products, services and processes. Technology strategy encompasses the long-term decisions that define how a firm builds, nurtures and exploits technology to sustain economic value creation.

 These strategic decisions concern, for example, the timing with which a new technology should be commercialised; under which conditions a technology should be out-licensed or sold; whether the firm should devote resources to the development of radically or incrementally new products and processes. Technology strategy decisions require the careful application of appropriate tools and methodologies, such as Intellectual Property (IP) management, technology foresight, technology evaluation and portfolio management techniques.

 One overlooked issue in existing research is how family governance affects technology strategy decisions. Besides the dominance of family businesses in economies all over the world, this gap is particularly critical because there are important theoretical reasons to consider family firms as differing from non-family enterprises in several aspects of technology strategy.

 For example, the typical family firm’s long-term orientation, parsimonious preservation of resources and limited use of external equity financing may cause family businesses, in comparison with non-family enterprises, to have a lower propensity and capacity to engage themselves in the exploration of radically-new technologies, rather than in the development of incremental technologies. Similarly, the family firms’ acknowledged aversion towards control losses in order to preserve their socioemotional wealth may reduce out-licencing and in-licensing of new technologies.

 Based on these premises, it is very surprising that theory building in technology strategy research has by and large overlooked the importance of the ‘family’ variable.

 The purpose of this special issue is to contribute to filling this gap, by encouraging theoretical and empirical studies at the intersection of the technology strategy and family business fields of research. The issue will hopefully provide evidence of the criteria on the basis of which technology strategy decisions are taken in family businesses, and the instruments and tools they apply to support decision making.

 Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  •  Timing. Do family firms compete by pioneering new technological areas, or do they tend to apply a second mover or late entrant strategy? Which criteria do family firms apply to make decisions regarding the timing of technology development and commercialisation? 
  •  Technology exploitation. Which strategies do family firms employ to transform technologies into cash flows? Do they out-license technologies that are old or outside of their strategic interest? How do family firms access the complementary assets they lack? 
  •  Radical new products and processes. Is family firms’ propensity toward radical new products and processes higher than non-family businesses’? Are family firms more successful in developing and commercialising radical new products than non-family companies? 
  •  Intellectual Property (IP) management. How do family firms manage IP? Are they willing to use patents to protect their knowledge basis? 
  •  Technology foresight, evaluation and planning. What methods for technology evaluation and planning do family firms apply? Are there significant differences in comparison with the tools applied by non-family companies? Are family firms more risk-averse than comparable non-family businesses when it comes to evaluating their technology portfolio? 
Important Dates
Submission deadline:  31 March, 2012
1st round review:  31 May, 2012
Revisions due:  31 July, 2012
Final acceptance:  15 October, 2012

Call for Papers: Emerging Markets and Sustainability

A special issue of International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets

Geo-political contexts and business opportunities are shaping EU, BRICS, IBSA, ASEAN and other economic groups in the global market. As a result, consumption-based markets are dominating the business rules, and sizable resourceful markets are potentially going to be the next locations of business capitals and business centres. In this context, global organisations are forced to shift their operations to low-cost production locations and high-density emerging markets.

However, the era of manpower optimisation of the past has shifted in the 21 st century to an era of natural resource optimisation. Therefore, sustainability – external and internal – is a concern for many organisations and communities, and thus is worthy of investigation, particularly in the contexts of conscious profit in the capitalist approach and economic justice in the socialist approach. The triple bottom line (3BL) is an approach that takes a holistic view of sustainability and measures it using economic (profit), social (people) and environmental (planet) indicators.

The aim of this special issue is to discover approaches and practices relating to sustainability that can lead to theory generation, empirical examination, and implications for managers. It therefore focuses on cross- and inter-disciplinary research on sustainability issues in emerging markets using theoretical frameworks and empirical analyses.
Suitable topics include but are not limited to: z Emerging market studies
  •  Economic and market integration 
  •  New sustainable models of organisations 
  •  Innovations and scalability in price sensitive emerging markets 
  •  Strategic behaviour of firms in markets 
  •  Sustainability-based practices and models 
  •  Integration of markets with sustainable practices 
  •  New directions in innovation, entrepreneurship in markets 
  •  Social business as risk diversifier of main profit business 
  •  Responsible business in emerging economies 
  •  Business collaborations in emerging markets 
  •  Economic entity, conscious capitalism and business socialism 
  •  Triple Bottom Line (3BL) 
Important Dates
Submission of abstracts: 1 February, 2012
Submission of manuscripts: 1 September, 2012
Notification of authors: 1 January, 2012
Submission of final versions: 15 March, 2013

Papers-in-progress or papers submitted earlier than the submission date will be put through the review process on rolling basis, and authors can thus expect communications from us sooner.

Newly announced title: International Journal of Convergence Computing

Beginning publication in 2013 International Journal of Convergence Computing will publish papers that address new theories and methods of optimal computing and their corresponding applications in the context of system science and engineering, information and control, algorithms and analysis, computer vision and pattern recognition, computational biology and genome informatics, etc.

Special issue: Applied topics in international money and finance

International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance 4(4) 2011

Includes papers presented at the 9th Annual Meeting of the European Economics and Finance Society (EEFS) International Conference, held in Athens, Greece, 3–6 June 2010.
  • New Keynesian aggregate supply in the tropics: food prices, wages and inflation
  • Impact of exchange rate and money supply on growth, inflation and interest rates in the UK
  • US and European stock market crashes: Any evidence of interdependence?
  • Causes of financial distress of Portuguese municipalities: empirical evidence
  • Dynamics of investor's behaviour: a survey-based study on Indian securities market
  • Exchange rate and exporting behaviour of Indian Textiles and Clothing sector across major destination countries

Special issue: Cyber harassment impacts on corporations

International Journal of Management and Decision Making 11(5/6) 2011
  • Negative comments online: SLAPPing the First Amendment in the USA
  • Interdependent risk networks: the threat of cyber attack
  • Reducing cyber harassment through de jure standards: a study on the lack of the information security management standard adoption in the USA
  • Erosion of a dental specialist's referral network: an economic loss template for cyber-defamation
  • A personality process model of cyber harassment
  • Corporate cyber smearing and the use of game theory in management decision-making
  • An exploratory study of culture and cyber harassment
  • Is Chinese business education ready for the era of services economy? – A survey into Chinese services management education
  • Probabilistic comparison of call centres in a group decision process

Special issue: Dynamic and declarative business processes

International Journal of Business Process Integration and Management 5(4) 2011
  • Enterprise process modelling complemented with business rules
  • A rule-based approach to model and verify flexible business processes
  • Policy-based customisation and corrective adaptation of composite web services
  • DYPROTO – tools for dynamic business processes
Additional Paper
  • Model-driven rule composition for event-based systems

Special issue: Technological entrepreneurship: opportunity for high growth firms

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing 3(4) 2011
  • An entrepreneurship policy framework for high-growth firms: navigating between policies for picking winners and market failure
  • Rapidly-growing firms and their main characteristics: a longitudinal study from the USA
  • Personal happiness and employment growth in new technology-based firms
  • High performance work systems, technological innovations and firm performance in SME: evidences from Italy
  • Developing innovation support services for small high-growth technology firms in Eastern Finland
  • Open innovation strategies in the UK biopharmaceutical sector
  • Strategic coopetition of global brands: a game theory approach to 'Nike + iPod Sport Kit' co-branding



Special issue: System modelling and optimal control – Part II

International Journal of Advanced Mechatronic Systems 3(4) 2011

Papers from the 2010 International Conference on Modelling, Identification and Control (ICMIC‘10), held in Okayama, Japan, 17-19 July 2010.

See also International Journal of Advanced Mechatronic Systems 3(1) 2011
  • A full order observer-based guaranteed cost controller for uncertain linear systems
  • Modular reinforcement learning for control problems with multi sensors
  • A neural network-based ensemble forecasting method for financial market prediction
  • Robust design of suspension parameters for high speed railway vehicle based on uniform design and kriging interpolation
  • Edge detection and feature extraction of gastrointestinal radiographs using adaptive differential filter and level set method
  • A development of signal control system for congestion length along arterials
  • Operator-based non-linear control system design for unstable plants with input saturation
Regular Papers
  • Passivity control of a haptic device for the simulation of knobs
  • High gain adaptive output feedback control of non-linear systems with a class of control uncertainties

27 October 2011

Newly announced title: International Journal of Financial Engineering and Risk Management

Beginning publication in 2013 the International Journal of Financial Engineering and Risk Management will cover all aspects of the theory and practice of financial engineering and risk management and will promote research related to the development and implementation of new quantitative models leading to operational decision aids in finance.

Special issue: Command and control ontology

International Journal of Intelligent Defence Support Systems  4(3) 2011
  • Creating an extensible command and control ontology
  • A novel ontological approach to semantic interoperability between legacy air defence command and control systems
  • Defining C2 semantics by a platform-independent JC3IEDM
  • Management of C2 data standards with modular OWL ontologies

Special issue: Mobile and fixed infrastructure in the light of service developmentInternational Journal of Management and Network Economics 2(2) 2011

International Journal of Management and Network Economics 2(2) 2011

Papers from the 21st European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society held in Copenhagen in September 2010.
  • Mobile broadband expansion calls for more spectrum or more base stations: analysis of the value of spectrum and the role of spectrum aggregation
  • Investment in telecommunications infrastructure, growth and employment – recent research
  • Challenges of fibre-based infrastructures: a review of the NGA debate in Europe
  • Fixed-to-mobile substitution in Turkey: a policy perspective
  • Measuring network effects in mobile telecommunications markets with stated-preference valuation methods

Special issue: Groundwater and surface water interaction (GSWI): 2. Case studies

International Journal of Water 6(1/2) 2011
  • GIS DRASTIC model for groundwater vulnerability estimation of Astaneh-Kouchesfahan Plain, Northern Iran
  • Large scale groundwater withdrawal and its consequences on the closing of the upper Musi basin in India
  • The application of groundwater modelling to simulate the behaviour of groundwater resources in the Ramhormooz Aquifer, Iran
  • Estimating water yield response to land use in the Namoi catchment of the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia
  • Water resources in Korisos basin, NW Greece: interactions between surface and ground water
  • Water salinity investigation in the Sundarbans rivers in Bangladesh
  • Water resources and management in Tunisia
  • A country case study comparison on groundwater and surface water interaction

Special issue: Contemporary issues in international development

International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies 4(4) 2011

Papers from the Association of Indian Economic and Financial Studies (AIEFS) sessions at the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) meetings held in Denver, USA, 6–9 January 2011
  • Institutional quality, knowledge spillovers and entrepreneurship
  • Wealth of recent immigrants to the USA
  • Brain gain (drain), immigration and global network: Nepalese students in the UK
  • Exchange rate volatility and Foreign Direct Investment in South Asia
  • Women in the IT sector: Is there an English language premium?
  • Does gender discrimination contribute to India's population imbalance? A household level analysis

Special issue: Advanced vehicle handling dynamics and control

International Journal of Vehicle Design 56(1-4) 2011
  • Static and dynamic wheel alignment analysis of steering drift under straight braking
  • Relationships between lane change performance and open-loop vehicle handling metrics
  • Influence of front/rear drive force distribution on the lateral grip and understeer of all-wheel drive vehicles
  • A driver model for vehicle lateral dynamics
  • Uncertain analysis of vehicle handling using interval method
  • Measurement and fatigue damage evaluation of road profiles in customer operation
  • Application of subspace-based method in vehicle handling dynamic model identification and properties estimation
  • Study on soft computing arithmetic for vehicle yaw rate based on ANFIS
  • A variable structure adaptive extended Kalman filter for vehicle slip angle estimation
  • Design of unknown inputs robust fuzzy observer for lane departure detection
  • A novel sensor design for the tyre load monitoring: overall design and analysis
  • Design of electronic stability control for rollover prevention using sliding mode control
  • Integrated AFS/DYC sliding mode controller for a hybrid electric vehicle
  • Optimal control of an On-Demand All-Wheel Drive system (ODAWD) for vehicle traction enhancement
  • Application of switching traction and braking systems in longitudinal control for series–parallel hybrid electric buses
  • Active roll control and integration with electronic stability control system: simulation study
  • Modelling and simulation of sensor-guided autonomous driving

Special issue: Interdependent global practices and learning opportunities

Journal for Global Business Advancement 4(3) 2011
  • Contagion of the US subprime mortgage crisis to emerging and transitional economies: experience and possible lessons
  • The Java automotive industry: between Keiretsu and Learning Region
  • The success of born global firms: a conceptual model
  • An experimental study on the role of store benefit and information search by shoppers towards in-store communication
  • Dwarika Prasad Uniyal
  • Organisational characteristics and quality improvement: an exploratory investigation
  • Employment discrimination and Muslims in the USA

22 October 2011

First issue: International Journal of Cloud Computing

Covering the most innovative developments, research issues and solutions in cloud computing and its related technologies, International Journal of Cloud Computing will aid professionals working in the field, academic educators and policy-makers to contribute, to disseminate knowledge, and to learn from each other's work.

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

Call for Papers: Assessing the Risks of Climate Change for Water Resources and Coastal Environments


A special issue of International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management 

Climate change is now widely recognised as one of the major challenges facing the world. This phenomenon refers to a statistically significant variation in weather patterns leading to a long-term shift in weather conditions. While we are certain that climate change is in our future, our ability to predict the magnitude of these changes is limited due to uncertainties in forecasting anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

 We expect climate change to have wide-ranging effects on the environment and on socioeconomic factors. For densely populated urban areas, the impact of climate change on water resources and coastal zones is of critical importance for the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the region. This reinforces the need to assess the risks of and vulnerability to climate change and formulate adaptation strategies to address the impending changes.

 The objective of this special issue is to invite original research papers focused on the risks of climate change for water resources and coastal environments. We hope this will promote the advancement and propagation of knowledge in this field and provide a resource for policy makers involved in regulating the increasing demands of climate change.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • Coastal and/or inland inundation associated with storm surges and sea-level rise 
  • Salinity intrusion of surface water or ground water due to rising sea levels 
  • Hydrologic response to changes in temperature, precipitation patterns and snowmelt 
  • Wetland and estuarine habitat restoration in adapting to climate change 
  • Climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for coastal seaports 
  • Application of risk assessment methods in the context of climate change 
  • Challenges of freshwater availability and quality due to climate change 
  • Effects of climate change on marine and/or freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity 
  • Changes to lake dynamics due to climate change
Important Dates
Submission deadline: 1 March, 2012
Notification of acceptance: 1 May, 2012
Final paper due: 1 July, 2012

Special issue: RFID and adaptive technologies

International Journal of Manufacturing Research 6(4) 2011
  • RFID opportunities within manufacturing SMEs
  • Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) enabling lean manufacturing
  • Web-DPP: towards job-shop machining process planning and monitoring
  • Engineering management education for advanced manufacturing: a North American survey
  • Systematic studies on fractal scan model for Flat Panel Display (FPD) controllers
  • Model-based energy consumption optimisation in manufacturing system and machine control

Special issue: Empirical, experimental, exploratory and analytical research for the smarter supply chain – service and manufacturing industry

International Journal of Value Chain Management 5(3/4) 2011
  • Simultaneous scheduling of machine and tool in automated manufacturing system using genetic algorithm
  • Enablers of supply chain competitiveness: an interpretive structural modelling approach
  • Performance measurement for sustainable supply chain in automotive industry: a conceptual framework
  • A literature view on the application of failure mode and effects analysis in tea industry
  • Supply chain risk management: an exploratory research in Brazilian aerospace industry
  • DIALING: heuristic to solve integrated resource allocation and routing problem with upper bound
  • The macro vs. micro approach to integrating Six Sigma in the supply chain

Special issue: Non-destructive characterisation of materials

International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties 6(3/4) 2011

Papers given at the European NDT days in Prague at the end of 2007 and 2009. These were organised by the Czech NDT Society under the auspices of the European Federation for Non-Destructive Testing.
  • Expert AE signal arrival detection
  • Non-linear time reversal ultrasonic pseudo-tomography
  • Acoustic emission diagnosis system and wireless monitoring for damage assessment of concrete structures
  • Studies of the effect of surface roughness in the behaviour of ultrasonic signals in AISI-SAE-4340 steel: spectral and wavelets analysis
  • Visualised NDT for concrete cracking by SiGMA-AE and SIBIE
  • AE signal measurements during laser cutting of structural steel sheet and deep-drawn parts
  • Cycle induced microstructural changes
  • Some considerations on the magnetoacoustic effect of ferromagnetic elastic carbon steel rods
  • New possibilities to increase sensitivity of the ultrasound non-linear modulation methods
  • Quantitative NDT structuroscopy of cast iron castings for vehicles
  • Eddy current examination of steam generator tubes from PHWR power plants using rotating magnetic field transducer


Special issue: Health, disease, environment and longevity

International Journal of Society Systems Science 3(4) 2011
  • Longevity in the 21st century: a global environmental perspective
  • Pandemic of chronic diseases, its roots and policy development
  • Longevity in Nepal: health, policy and service provision challenges
  • Introducing an interval efficiency for each candidate in ranked voting data using data envelopment analysis
  • Humanitarian information exchange network: why do international humanitarian organisations collaborate?
  • An exploratory study of Spanish households' WEEE disposal behaviour

Special issue: Innovative product development

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management 5(2-4) 2011

Papers from the CIRP-sponsored 6th International Conference of Digital Enterprise Technology (DET 2009), held in Hong Kong, China, 14-16 December 2009
  • Taking into account geometrical variation effect on product performance
  • Data-driven through-life costing to support product lifecycle management solutions in innovative product development
  • Decision-making in product quality based on failure knowledge
  • Design for sustainable manufacturing: applying modular design methodology to manage product end-of-life strategy
  • Functional reverse design for secondary innovation
  • Requirement driven knowledge management system design to support automotive product development
  • Impacts of project team and innovation process on new product development
Additional Papers
  • Total object unified model driven architecture of product lifecycle management
  • Life-cycle and information management of products – a case study of concrete element industry
  • Specifications and development of interoperability solution dedicated to multiple expertise collaboration in a design framework
  • A PLCS framework for PDM/ERP interoperability

19 October 2011

Special issue: Innovation design and sustainable development in the automobile industry (Third part)

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management 11(4) 2011

Papers from the 18th International GERPISA Colloquium: The Greening of the Global Auto Industry in a Period of Crisis,  held in Berlin, Germany, 9-11 June 2010.
  • Three possible scenarios for cleaner automobiles
  • Leapfrogging to electric vehicles: patterns and scenarios for China's automobile industry
  • The social construction of the market for electric cars in France: politics coming to the aid of economics
  • Priorities and practises for developing low carbon vehicle networks in small open economies
  • What will happen to Brazilian automotive subsidiaries after their parent companies make the transition to electric mobility?

Special issue: on Recent advances on intelligent information systemsInternational Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems

International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems 5(6) 2011
  • The convergence analysis of artificial physics optimisation algorithm
  • Computing optimal coalition structures in non-linear logistics domains
  • Comprehensive analysis for modified particle swarm optimisation with PD controllers
  • Particle swarm optimiser with hybrid multi-parent crossover and discrete recombination
  • Multi-swarm co-evolutionary paradigm for dynamic multi-objective optimisation problems

17 October 2011

First issue: International Journal of Electronic Transport

Dealing with electronics-enabled logistics International Journal of Electronic Transport covers applications of information and communication technology, RFID technology, global positioning systems, electronic road pricing  and barcode technologies in the logistics and transport sector, thereby improving supply chain efficiency by reducing the carbon footprint, inventory and cost.

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

Call for Papers: Cultural Mappings and Diversity Configurations


 A special issue of European Journal of Cross-Cultural Competence and Management

There are strong indications of changing values in present day societies worldwide. Around the world, people are struggling with ongoing financial, economic and political crises. Not only in Mediterranean countries, uprisings and widespread strikes signal the need for change. In times of uncertainty, young people tend towards pragmatism.

 In a world that is perceived as being full of uncertainty yet also full of unknown opportunities, survival, achievement and fun have become drivers of patterns of behaviour among young people. Organisations, institutions and political parties, which are perceived as drivers of uncertainty and partly responsible for the current crises, cannot count on loyalty any more.

 Different traditional value studies had indicated these emerging changes, too. For instance, since the mid-1980s, World Values Survey Research had shown some – perhaps temporary – breaks in long term trends towards stronger self-expression values and secular rational values. Under the impact of Michael Minkov’s research, Geert Hofstede and colleagues decided to add two new cultural dimensions to the Value Survey Module of 2008.

 These circumstances strongly suggest the need for a special issue on cultural mappings and diversity configurations, addressing present day societies around the world. It is timely to address trends in global cultural developments and engage in research into newly emerging patterns of culture from a global and regional perspectives.

 New dividing lines between young and old, genders and other configurations of diversity (e.g. under the impact of migration) may have a significant impact on these newly emerging cultural patterns, including value perceptions and patterns of behaviour. Traditional patterns of international communication and cooperation may not be useful any more.

 In times of uncertainty and unknown directions of change, new and old forms of ‘management of meanings’ and ‘management of relevance’ may be employed, challenging or defending dominant paradigms, employing fair and unfair forms of ante-narrative, storytelling and stereotyping across classes or large groups within societies, but also in international relations.

 Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

  •  Mapping culture from a global/regional perspective 
  •  Trends in global cultural developments 
  •  Relationships of cultural constructs and configurations of diversity 
  •  Impact of cultural differences on international cooperations 
  •  Cultural differences and communication in multi-cultural project settings 
  •  Stereotyping in international relations 

Important Date
Submission deadline: 31 January 2012 (revised date)

Special issue: Advances in machinability of titanium and its alloys

International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials 10(4) 2011
  • Study of phase transformation and work hardening phenomenon during drilling of Ti-5553 and Ti-64
  • Drilling of composite and titanium stacks with alternating machining parameters by PCD drill
  • Analysis of surface characteristics of titanium during ECM
  • Investigation into micro-hole geometrical accuracy during micro-EDM of Ti-6Al-4V employing different dielectrics
  • Ultrasonic machining of titanium and its alloys: a state of art review and future prospective

Special issue: Optimisation methodologies and finite element numerical simulation applied to metal forming industrial problems

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems 4(5) 2011

Papers from a symposium on ‘Optimisation methodologies and finite element numerical simulation applied to metal forming industrial problems’, within the 7th EUROMECH Solid Mechanics Conference ESMC2009  held in Lisbon, Portugal, 7-11 September  2009.
  • Development and determination of unified viscoplastic constitutive equations for predicting microstructure evolution in hot forming processes
  • Update of coarse finite elements structural models for dynamic analysis identified from reference responses
  • An evolutionary-inspired optimisation algorithm suitable for solid mechanics engineering inverse problems
  • Inverse method for flow stress parameters identification of tube bulge hydroforming considering anisotropy
  • Finite element analysis of incrementally formed parts

Special issue: The technology of innovation

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development  5(2/3)2011
  • Technology as system: towards an autopoietic theory of technology
  • The usage of boundary objects for the construction of organisational innovation processes
  • Direction or mediation? Nexus’ role in technology adoption
  • An agent-based method for planning innovations
  • The dimension of innovation in SME networks – a case study on Cloud Computing and Web 2.0 technologies in a textile manufacturing network
  • Electronic procurement of services and process innovation
  • Sustainability innovation contests: evaluating contributions with an eco impact-innovativeness typology
  • Crowdsourcing of inventive activities: definition and limits
  • Web 2.0 revisited: user-generated content as a social innovation
Additional Papers
  • Social value creation: outline and first application of a resource management approach to innovation
  • Open source: an opportunity structure for boundless innovation

13 October 2011

Call for Papers: Nanotechnology Health and Safety

A special issue of International Journal of Biomedical Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology allows for the manipulation of materials at the nanoscale, which leads to advances in diverse technologies such as electronics, energy, environmental remediation, medicine, security and space.

The novel properties associated with engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) entails both opportunities and potential health and safety risks due to lack of knowledge on their interactions with biological systems and the environment. Currently, there are major knowledge gaps in understanding and predicting the potential risks posed by ENMs.

Adding to this uncertainty is the fact that minor physical and chemical manipulations of a small class of parent ENMs can generate a wide variety of particles having unique characteristics, which makes it difficult for innovators and regulators to predict toxicity.

The aim of this special issue is to assess the state-of-the-art understanding of the health and safety aspects of ENMs with special emphasis on their physical and chemical characteristics. These efforts include development of reliable and reproducible test systems to predict toxicity and health effects of ENMs currently in use, using both in vitro and in vivo approaches, and integrating this data towards developing a paradigm for predicting the health and safety risks associated with ENMs. 

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  •  Research strategy for establishing the health and safety implications of ENMs
  •  ENM design and characterisation
  •  Reliability and reproducibility of biological outcomes
  •  Rational design of studies including routes of exposure and health effects prediction
  •  Dosing/animal and human and in vitro studies
  •  Development of reliable, computational predictive risk assessment models for nanomaterial toxicity and design of safer second generation ENMs
Important Dates
Deadline for submission of manuscripts:  31 January, 2012
Communication of peer reviews to authors: 30 April, 20112
Deadline for revised manuscripts:  31 June, 2012

Special issue: ISPIM special issue on social media and communities in innovation

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 14(4) 2011

Papers based on various presentations and discussions at events organised by the International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM).
  • Openness of innovating: the new roles of customers and users in business-to-business context
  • Exploring users motivation in innovation communities
  • The crowdsourcing process: an intermediary mediated idea generation approach in the early phase of innovation
  • The evolution of modularity and architectural innovation: web-enabled collective development of a tangible artefact
  • Potentials of knowledge management 2.0 and implications for corporate governance

International Journal of Nanotechnology included in Essential Science Indicators

Thomson Reuters' Essential Science Indicators has recently added new journals to its coverage. Inderscience's International Journal of Nanotechnology was one of these and had the highest citations of all the newly added journals in materials science.

International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics has highly cited papers.


Papers from the first two issues of the International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics have been selected by Thomson Reuters' Essential Science Indicators as Highly Cited Papers in shipping.

The papers involved are:
An empirical model of the bulk shipping market, by Y.H. Venus Lun and Mohammed A. Quaddus (vol. 1(1), 37-54, DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2009.021975)  

Fleet mix in container shipping operations by Y.H. Venus Lun and Michael Browne (Vol.1(2), 103-118, DOI: 10.1504/IJSTL.2009.024491)

12 October 2011

Call for Papers: New Competences in Tomorrow´s Automotive Management

A special issue of International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management

Competence-based strategic management (CSM), as developed for example in strategic competence-based management (strategisches kompetenz-management, or SKM) and international competence-based management (ICBM) research groups, presents a major challenge for automotive companies.

 The transition to electric mobility has already begun and demands new competences in tomorrow´s automotive management:
  • New competences have to be built into traditional internal combustion engine technology following the end of the race for economies of scale and scope, because vehicles using this technology will be used for at least another 30 years.
  • A competence gap has to be closed in new electric technology, since the hidebound competence profiles of traditional automotive companies are slow to change.
  • To minimise the coordination costs arising because the simultaneous exploitation of traditional internal combustion engine technology and exploration of new electric technology raises conflicting management logics, automotive companies have to build ambidextrous (management) competences.
  • To map the increasing international value added particularly in the growth markets of BRIC countries in multi-polar structures, automotive companies have to improve their global (management) competences.
Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  •  Lines of development of competence-based management in the automotive industry
  •  Competence gaps and competence loss in the transition to electric mobility (e.g. because of increasing modularisation)
  •  Continuous competence improvement in internal combustion engine technology
  •  Development of new competences in the transition to electric mobility
  •  Management of ambidexterity in the transition to electric mobility
  •  Improvement of global management competences with increasing value added in growth markets
 We propose to discuss the papers at special issue sessions at:
 20th GERPISA International Colloquium, 13-15 June, 2012 in Cracow
 4th Wissenschaftsforum Mobilität, 21 June, 2012 in Duisburg (in German language)

Papers will be reviewed and discussed by the special issue editor. While all submitted papers will go through the regular double-blind journal review process, we believe that a face-to-face encounter at one of the two proposed special issue sessions will result in better papers.
Participation in the sessions will not be a necessary condition for acceptance into the special issue, but we will strongly encourage all potential authors to attend these sessions.

Important Dates

Deadline for (extended) abstract submission (see below): 29 February, 2012
Response by guest editors: 15 April, 2012
Special issue session at GERPISA, Cracow: 13-15 June, 2012
Special issue session at the Wissenschaftsforum Mobilität, Duisburg: 21 June, 2012
Deadline for full paper submission incorporating discussant comments: 31 August, 2012

Call for Papers: Inspired by Silicon Valley: a Cheap Copy or a Masterpiece?

A special issue of International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

Ever since the success of Silicon Valley , especially with the growth of high-technology culture, other countries and regions have been trying to replicate its experience and to create dynamic entrepreneurial and innovative areas. Some of these attempts were successful, some of them not so much. It is therefore important to examine the factors crucial for the creation of successful technology districts.

The history of Silicon Valley can be traced back sixty years. What started as an attempt by Stanford University to resolve its problems by leasing part of the university grounds to high-tech companies became an industrial system that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship. The development of technoparks, science parks and technology districts usually requires an appropriate legal infrastructure and a strong presence of venture capital firms in the area, as well as a well-planned design (bottom-up, up-down or a mixture of two). The presence of all of these components, however, does not guarantee an immediate success.

The main aim of this special issue is to advance our theoretical and empirical understanding of technology districts and to examine the factors that played a key role in creation of technology districts in different countries. Theoretical, methodological, and/or empirical research papers are welcome.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:  
  •  Case studies of technology districts
  •  Role of social capital
  •  Relationship between universities and/or research centres and start-ups
  •  Venture capital and investment issues
  •  Technopark design: bottom up, top down or both
  •  Types of technology
  •  Legal issues
  •  Policy issues
Important Dates
Deadline for submission of proposals/abstracts (around 400 words): 15 March, 2012
Author notification: 15 April, 2012
Deadline for full paper submission: 15 October, 2012

Special issue: Community-based innovation: designing shared spaces for collaborative creativity

International Journal of Web Based Communities 7(4) 2011
  • Creating online collaborative environments for museums: a case study of a museum wiki
  • Planning innovative teaching practices in a community of practice: a case study in the context of the project IPEC
  • Using new tools to support creative community engagement with open educational resources
  • Leadership of shared spaces in online learning communities
  • A new approach to collaborative creativity support of new product designers
  • The road from community ideas to organisational innovation: a life cycle survey of idea management systems

Special issue: Information entropy models and applications

International Journal of Information and Decision Sciences 3(4) 2011
  • Using Shannon entropy as a systems' measure
  • Complexity metrics for mixed model manufacturing systems based on information entropy
  • Quasi-continuous maximum entropy distribution approximation with kernel density
  • Entropic measure of supply chain vulnerability
  • A maximum-entropy approach to minimising resource contention in aircraft routing for optimisation of airport surface operations

Special issue: Foresight – the foresight in e-era

International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy 7(4) 2011
  • Challenges to technological and economic foresight in the information society
  • Experimentation of trans-regional foresight: the case of the ForTransRis project
  • Applying grey prediction model for forecasting emerging technology
  • Identifying future fields of standardisation: methodology and empirical experiences
  • Post-evaluation of foresight studies: Turkish case
  • Scope and design issues in foresight support systems

Special issue: Enhancing the innovation environment

International Journal of Technology Management 56(2-4) 2011
  • High-end disruptive technologies with an inferior performance
  • The HRM practices of innovative knowledge-intensive firms
  • Innovation and network collaboration: an HRM perspective
  • Small enterprises as innovators: shift from a low performer to a high performer
  • Generating innovation opportunities: how to explore and absorb customer knowledge
  •  Reconfiguration or innovation in supply chains?
  • Change point analysis and assessment: an integrated methodological design
  • Open innovation in process industries: a lifecycle perspective on development of process equipment
  • Firm size and its impact on continuous improvement
  • Continuous innovation and improvement of product platforms
  • Competences and capabilities for innovation in supply chain relationships

11 October 2011

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Trust Management in Computing and Communications

Beginning publication in 2012, International Journal of Trust Management in Computing and Communications will consider theoretical and practical aspects of trust management techniques and their applications. Both research articles and research reviews will be included.

Special issue: Reverse engineering

International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise 2(2/3) 2011
  • Reverse engineering system for generator engine parts
  • A drama theory analysis of supply chain collaboration
  • Inter-organisational collaboration: a conceptual model
  • Reliability growth planning for electronics design under distributed manufacturing paradigm
  • Data and ontological modelling approach to allowing traceability through freight transportation chain
  • Articulating knowledge sharing processes in multinational e-business product design

Special Issue: Advances in modelling and optimisation of materials and manufacturing processes

International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation 2(3/4) 2011
  • Finite element analysis of ultrasonic insertion of SiC fibre in aluminium alloy 6061
  • Multi-objective optimisation of electrical discharge machining process using Derringer's desirability function approach
  • Optimisation of flexing pattern for coated abrasive belt grinding of EN8 steel by Taguchi design
  • Multi-objective parametric optimisation during electrical discharge machining of Inconel 718 with different electrodes
  • Machinability study on reinforcement e-glass fibre (multi-filament) composite pipe using carbide tool
  • Multi-objective optimisation of parameters and indirect monitoring of objectives in turning – a cutting tool chatter approach
  • Developing parametric window and mathematical model to predict micro hardness of friction stir welded aluminium alloy AA6082
  • Multiple-response modelling and optimisation of micro-turning machining parameters using response surface method
  • Process capability study of ultrasonic machining for titanium alloys
  • An experimental study on precision grinding of silicon using diamond grinding pins

6 October 2011

Call for Papers: User-centred Health Informatics

A special issue of International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management

Modern healthcare systems are becoming increasingly complex and technology-dependent, with emerging trends incorporating advances in ubiquitous computing, intelligent systems, mobile technologies, knowledge engineering, data mining and enterprise information systems design in order to provide required levels of services.

 In addition to that, healthcare systems need to address usability and the decision support needs of a variety of patients – old, young and disabled – and other users, such as hospital clinicians and managers. There is therefore an increasing need for user-centred health informatics and approaches that seek to incorporate the experiences of patients, healthcare professionals, families and communities into the design of healthcare technologies.

 In order to address this challenge, conceptual and empirical work is needed to understand the influence of such factors as personal behaviour, patient demographics, clinical practice and organisational culture, geographical and social contexts of work and mobility on technology adoption for user-centred health informatics.

 Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  •  Modelling patient care and resources within a healthcare system
  •  Practice-based pervasive healthcare systems
  •  Intelligent e-health and context-aware medical decision support systems
  •  Cross-boundary decision support and knowledge management in e-health
  •  Data mining and knowledge discovery for patient-centred care
  •  Multi-level intervention models for health and well-being of children and young people
  •  Personalisation and adaptation of e-health information systems (including adaptive content, search and interface)
  •  Privacy and confidentiality issues for health-related user models
  •  Ontologies for user models for tailored healthcare delivery
  •  Technology adoption for e-health
  •  Culture-aware healthcare systems for e-health
  •  Design models and approaches for user-centred pervasive healthcare systems
Important Dates
Deadline for submission: 26 March, 2012
First reviews due: 30 April, 2012
Revised manuscripts due: 30 May, 2012
Final decision: 15 June, 2012

Call for Papers: In the Name of Sustainability

A special issue of International Journal of Sustainable Development

Over the past decades an enormous number of projects, enterprises and initiatives invoking sustainability objectives have multiplied in the most diverse domains: human health, agriculture, energy, climate engineering, information and communication technologies, aerospace, landscape, computer modelling, technological innovation, etc.

As many of these projects tend to become highly public and intensely politicised, it comes as no surprise that the recurring “technical progress” and “sustainable development” claims are often contested and criticised. Indeed, these technological initiatives, whether seen as effective vehicles for accelerating human development or for addressing local/global problems, draw attention to two different kinds of contemporary dilemma: the paradoxes of technology and the paradoxes (or contradictions) of sustainability, both of which demand a great deal of reflexivity.

By looking at projects that are rooted in sustainability objectives there is an opportunity to trace the ways in which sustainability narratives have been instrumental in justifying those projects. But more fundamentally, they also mandate that we rethink the very concept of sustainability.

By focusing attention on enterprises, initiatives or projects “in the name of sustainability”, this special issue seeks to promote a critical discussion around the contemporary and unsolved paradoxes of the technology-development-sustainability nexus

 Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:
  •  Human power and the changed nature of human action: new challenges in new human experiences of (for) living in the world
  •  Managing large-scale projects in an age of ignorance: seeking the truth behind techno-scientific promises
  •  Visions of the future of large-scale enterprises: between emotions, experience, expertise and utopia
  •  Authority, responsibility and accountability in the context of unintended consequences of well-intentioned mega-enterprises
  •  The social processes in which decision making of large-scale enterprises is embedded
  •  The complex moral dilemmas of large-scale enterprises
  •  Sustainable large-scale enterprises and the principle of safeguarding and promoting the needs of present and future generations
  •  Sustainable large-scale enterprises and the precautionary principle
  •  Sustainable large-scale enterprises and the principle of common but differentiated responsibility
  •  Sustainable large-scale enterprises and the principle of equitable access to scientific and technological developments
Important Dates
Deadline for paper submission:  30 January 2013
Notification of review results:  30 April 2013
Submission of revised manuscripts:  30 June 2013

Call for Papers: Computer-aided Tools and Methodologies for Early Design

A special issue of International Journal of Product Development

Rapid advances in technology and design tools are enabling engineers to design systems containing multiple and interacting components (software and hardware). Growing complexity and tightening time-to-market constraints result in an increasing design productivity gap. Mastering the complexity and risk associated with the design process is then of increasing importance.

 The past few years’ effort has been mainly directed towards the development of computer-aided tools dedicated to the embodiment and detail part of the design process. Methods and tools developed for the early design stage are highly empirical and characterised by a poor degree of measurability, repeatability and analysis of the potential variations affecting the early solutions. Therefore, developing new forms of computer-aided methodologies and tools dedicated to the early design stage are required because the initial phase of the design process is to a large extent still managed by rules of thumb and manual, poorly formalised design approaches.

 Furthermore, because of time-to-market constraints, there is today a crucial need for system design tools and methodologies to assist designers in designing and developing such systems. These issues need to be addressed under joint efforts from different areas, such as system engineering, software engineering, and mechatronic and mechanical engineering.

 This special issue aims to focus on the above issues and solicits papers that address theoretical and experimental work related to computer-aided tools and methodologies in early design stages of the development process.

 Suitable topics include but are not limited to the following:
  •  Modelling, simulation and synthesis
  •  Design space exploration tools
  •  Optimisation techniques
  •  Metrics and benchmarks
  •  Design knowledge and collaboration
  •  Evaluation and decision
  •  Applications and case studies
 Important Dates
 Deadline for submission of papers: 31 May 2012 (revised date)
 Notification of first decisions: 31 August 2012
 Revisions due: 15 October 2012
 Notification of final acceptance: 15 November 2012
 Final publication materials due from authors: 30 November 2012

Call for Papers: Supply Chain Risk Management

A special issue of International Journal of Applied Management Science

Today, rapid technological developments, organisational changes, increasing competition and demand for efficiency have all brought risk variability. Today’s supply chains are exposed to numerous risks, including supply interruption, volatility of demand and natural disasters. For better performance of supply chains, there is a need for supply chain risk management (SCRM).

 In past decades, researchers have focused on supply chain disruption, and many response measures in emergency management have been presented. However, further investigation is necessary for SCRM in many fields. On 11 March, 2011, a Japanese earthquake occurred without anticipation, causing a supply interruption to spare parts for several automobile manufacturers that lasted for months. Suppliers, manufacturers and retailers within automobile supply chains suffered from huge losses.

 In particular, due to the current economic recession and financial crisis, people have become more insecure and pay more attention to risk. Risk may mean different things to different people, and risk attitude and behaviour should be considered in SCRM. For a cleaner environment and sustainable development, a low-carbon economy is advocated, though there is still great uncertainty surrounding its establishment. As a result, more tools and methods for SCRM should be developed.

 This special issue is intended to publish and disseminate the newest state-of-the-art research on SCRM and its applications. While research in the area of SCRM encompasses a wide range of topics and methodologies, we expect this issue to provide a high-quality snapshot of current and emerging concepts, tools, approaches, issues and trends within the field. Authors are encouraged to submit papers that employ both quantitative and quality research methodologies such as modelling, optimisation, algorithms, simulation, questionnaire surveys, event studies, case studies, etc. addressing the theme of the special issue.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
  • SCRM tools and methods
  • Supply chain disruption and emergency management
  • Risk identification, analysis and control in SCRM
  • Assessment of supply chain vulnerability
  • Life cycle management in SCRM
  • Global SCRM and flexibility management
  • Quality risk and quality improvement in supply chains
  • Multi-criteria decision making in SCRM
  • Risk attitude and behaviour in SCRM
  • SCRM in a low-carbon economy
  • Case studies and event studies of SCRM
Important Dates
Deadline for submission of complete manuscripts: 1 September, 2012
Anticipated date for provision of first round decision to authors: 1 January, 2013
Deadline for submission of revised manuscripts: 1 March, 2013
Provision of final decisions: 15 May, 2013

Special issue: Management control systems and service operations

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management 3(4) 2011
  • The benefits of management accounting practices in manufacturing and service firms: a Finnish study
  • Proactive contracting + Service design = Success!
  • Modelling and discrete-event simulation for ski lifts service operations design
  • Using game theory and fuzzy MCDM to choose strategic orientation in uphold of private sector by approach balanced scorecard: Iranian industries
  • Co-creation of value for a public service
  • Understanding the human factor: the key to information systems implementation in service operations


Special issue: Visualisation of automatic free-text evaluation

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning 21(4) 2011
  • Ascertaining and graphically representing the logical structure of Japanese essays
  • Service-oriented flexible and interoperable assessment: towards a standardised e-assessment system
  • The concept map-based assessment system: functional capabilities, evolution, and experimental results
  • The representation of polysemy through vectors: some building blocks for constructing models and applications with LSA
  • Using latent semantic analysis to enhance the comprehensibility of hypertext systems
  • Integrating parallel analysis modules to evaluate the meaning of answers to reading comprehension questions

Special issue: Globalisation and strategies for success

International Journal of Business and Globalisation 7(4) 2011

Papers from the International Conference on Business Cases held in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, 2-3 December 2010.
  • Cochlear – hear now. And always?
  • Everyday low price – a blessing in disguise for Walmart during recessionCreating competitive advantage for an electric manufacturer using SCM
  • Understanding culture-specific leadership relationship in a multi-cultural virtual project team (MVPT): a case study
  • The value of sustainable practices: a climate of stakeholder engagement
  • Managing brand personality when brand undergoes sequential extension
  • Ingredient branding in sports markets: the case Makrolon and UVEX
  • Establishing a market niche: the case of Keystrox