Our world has been facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has been fought on many fronts and in many different ways. Signal, image and Video processing as well as Computer Vision (CV), Big Data (BD) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have much to offer, and can therefore help combat the virus, especially when combined with other research areas.

The SVIP Editorial Board has joined the fight against the virus by launching this call for papers for a Special Issue on Computer Vision, Big Data and AI research to combat COVID-19.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Datasets, data platforms, signal/data analysis and modelling approaches that facilitate our understanding of any aspect of the new coronavirus;
Signal and image processing techniques for COVID-19 detection and diagnosis from multimodal data, such as, voice, X-ray and CT images;
CV and AI techniques to ensure compliance with different measures, such as lockdowns, social distancing and facemask wearing;
CV and AI methods for COVID-19 detection and diagnosis;
Data analysis and AI approaches for tracking and predicting pandemic outbreaks;
AI for infodemiology and infoveillance;
Dynamic data assimilation models/Mathematical models;
Hybrid AI Neuro-symbolic models;
BD for outbreak detection and prediction;
BD for virus spread tracking;
BD for diagnosis and treatment;
BD for vaccine and drug discovery.
Guest Editors

Turgay Celik (Lead Guest Editor), University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, turgay.celik@wits.ac.za
A. Enis Cetin, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, aecyy@uic.edu
Juan Manuel Corchado Rodríguez, University of Salamanca, Spain, corchado@usal.es
Behcet Ugur Toreyin, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, toreyin@itu.edu.tr
Charis Harley, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, charley@uj.ac.za
Albert Ali Salah, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, a.a.salah@uu.nl

Deadline for Submissions: 30 June 2021

Submission Guidelines

Authors from academia and industry working on the above research topics are invited to submit original manuscripts that have not been published and are not currently under review by other journals or conferences. Previously published conference papers should be clearly identified by the authors at the submission stage and an explanation should be provided about how such papers have been extended. At least 30% of new content is expected.
All the papers will be peer-reviewed according to the SIVP reviewing procedure.

Paper submissions for the special issue should follow the submission format and guidelines of the journal (https://www.springer.com/journal/11760/submission-guidelines).

At the beginning of the submission procedure in Editorial Manager (https://www.editorialmanager.com/sivp/default.aspx), authors should select article type ‘SI: Computer Vision, Big Data and AI Research in Combating COVID-19'.