Simulation-optimization is an active field of research and is also increasingly being used in practical simulation applications and incorporated into simulation software packages.
This Special Issue is devoted to report the recent advancements in simulation-optimization techniques for complex systems and how they are applied in practice. Many systems in several areas such as manufacturing, supply chain management, engineering, financial and service management are too complex to be studied analytically. Computer simulation has long been a useful tool for evaluating the performance of such systems. However, a simple evaluation of performance is often insufficient. A deeper exploratory process may be provided by simulation-optimization, which is the process of finding the combination of decision variables corresponding to the best performance of a system, evaluated through the output of a simulation model of this system.
There has been a great deal of work on simulation-optimization in the research literature, and optimization routines have been recently incorporated into several commercial simulation software tools. Techniques for simulation-optimization vary greatly depending on the problem setting and how the possible uncertainties are considered. There also appears to be a significant gap between those methods that have been extensively studied in the research literature and those that are commonly used in practice. Indeed, this difference is widely recognized, and this Special Issue aims to help bridging this gap.
Papers for the Special Issue must provide a substantial novel contribution, and authors must carefully situate their work with regard to the relevant scientific literature. They must clearly address research issues of simulation-optimization and how it can contribute to solve a real/realistic problem. Topics should cover methods and applications of simulation-optimization to production, transportation and logistics, energy management, supply chain management, finance, engineering, healthcare and other complex systems. Application oriented articles should also bring a scientific contribution and highlight the underlying theoretical issues in a suited way. The concrete benefits should be explained.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Manuscripts should be submitted online through the Elsevier Editorial System (EES) at the following
link: http://ees.elsevier.com/simpat. Authors must select Special Issue: Simulation-Optimization when they reach the “Article Type” step in the on-line submission process. Submitted manuscripts should present original contributions and must not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers will be peer reviewed according to the high standards of the Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory Elsevier journal.
Please feel free to contact the Guest Editors for any questions.

Important Dates
Manuscript submission deadline.................................... January 31, 2013
Manuscript reviews to authors....................................... May 31, 2013
Manuscript revision due................................................. August 31, 2013
Final notification of acceptance .................................... October 31, 2013
Camera-ready manuscript submission deadline ............ November 30, 2013
Expected publication of the special issue....................... January 2014


SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS:

Gabriella DELLINO
IMT Institute for Advanced Studies Piazza San Ponziano, 6
55100 Lucca - Italy g.dellino@imtlucca.it

Carlo MELONI
Polytechnic of Bari
Via E. Orabona, 4
70125 Bari - Italy meloni@deemail.poliba.it

Henri PIERREVAL
IFMA-LIMOS
Campus de Clermont-Ferrand Les Cézeaux - BP 265
27, rue Roche Genes
63175 Aubiere Cedex - France henri.pierreval@ifma.fr