WMSCI/ISAS Conferences started in Baden-Baden, Germany, in 1995; from then on, they have grown from 45 papers to an average, in the last 5 years, of 500 registered participants that participated in each of the yearly WMSCI and its collocated conferences. Nowadays, the conference has become an international forum where researchers and practitioners examine key issues in Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. As well as participants from universities, governments, and industries share ideas, knowledge and experiences among different disciplines.

Purpose

The purpose of WMSCI 2014 is to promote discussions and interactions between researchers and practitioners focused on disciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary issues, ideas, concepts, theories, methodologies and applications. We are particularly interested in fostering the exchange of concepts, prototypes, research ideas, and other results which could contribute to the academic arena and also benefit business, and the industrial community.

What is WMSCI 2014?

WMSCI 2014 is an international forum for scientists and engineers, researchers and consultants, theoreticians and practitioners in the fields of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. The forum focuses into specific disciplinary research, and also in multi, inter, and trans-disciplinary studies and projects. One of its aims is to relate disciplines, fostering analogical thinking and, hence, producing input to the logical thinking.

A Metaphor

Through WMSCI conferences, we are trying to relate the analytic thinking, required in focused conference´s sessions, with the synthetic thinking, required for analogies generation, which calls a for multi-focus domain and divergent thinking. We are trying to promote synergic relationships between analytically and synthetically oriented minds, as it is found between left and right brain hemispheres, by means of the corpus callosum. Then, WMSCI 2014 might be perceived as a research corpus callosum, trying to bridge analytical with synthetically oriented efforts, convergent with divergent thinking, and focused specialists with non-focused or multi-focused generalists


Why WMSCI 2014?


There are many good focused conferences in any one of the major themes of WMSCI Conferences. There are also very good conferences even in the more specific areas included in the major themes of WMSCI Conferences. There are also good general conferences, which have a wider scope and are more comprehensive. Each one of these kinds of conferences has its typical audience. WMSCI 2014 will bring together both kinds of audiences, so participants, with a focused research, will be able to:

1. Present their focused research in a specific area for scholars/researchers specialized in their paper discipline and, perhaps, for specialists from other related disciplines and generalists with a more comprehensive intellectual outlook.

2. Get feedback from researchers with the same specific background, as is usual in focused conferences.

3. Get possible feedback from scholars/researchers in related disciplines, thereby opening the possibility of analogies generation, new applications to/from different disciplines, business or industrial areas; and, possibly, new models for re-thinking anew some of their research problems.

4. Organize sessions where papers from related areas are presented, in order to increase the probability of getting the benefits mentioned in (3).

5. Attract speakers with a wider intellectual interest in order to get a more comprehensive conceptual framework and to give context to their research effort.

This would allow specialists and focused researchers, to see the forest besides the tree of their discipline, and to be aware about the neighboring trees.

WMSCI 2014 participants, with non-focused or multi-focused research or with a comprehensive intellectual, industrial or business interest, will be able to:

1. Present their research, ideas, reflections, new concepts/designs or industrial/business innovations to a similar or a specialized audience, so suggestions about possible improvements could emerge and possibly new research or development projects could come out into view.

2. Present ideas that would require multi-disciplinary or interdisciplinary efforts to be researched or developed in action-research programs.

3. Constitute international, multi- and/or inter-disciplinary teams or workgroups in order to conduct research requiring synergic relationships among different kinds of talents, cognitive styles, intellectual faculties and/or research/industrial interests.

4. Create new research areas, based on both: a general framework and various disciplines or focused research areas. This could be done by means of international research teamwork and/or by the elaboration and edition of a multiple-authors book in the Newly Created Field. The newly created Informing Sciences Field is one example on this issue. Our past conferences served to support the initial efforts of their proponents, and now the group has its own yearly conference, newsletter, etc.

Invited Sessions can be organized in a specific or a general theme. These Invited Sessions may grow to Focus Symposia, workshops, satellite events, micro-conferences or even conferences by their own in the context of WMSCI or as independent or associated spin offs from WMSCI. At least two independent yearly conferences and several associated conferences are actually spin offs from WMSCI conferences.

Organizational, Reviewing, and Selection of Best Papers Policies

Virtual sessions

Face-to-face sessions of all events will have associated virtual pre- and post-conference sessions where registered participants can comment each paper in a forum associated to it. Registered participant at any event will have a password to access any virtual session of any collocated event.

Technical Keynote Speakers

Technical keynote speakers will be selected from early submissions because this selection requires an additional evaluation according to the quality of the paper, assessed by its reviewers, the authors' CV and the paper's topic.

Reviewing Process

All Submitted papers/abstracts will go through three reviewing processes: (1) double-blind (at least three reviewers), (2) non-blind, and (3) participative peer reviews. Final acceptance depends of the three kinds of reviews but a paper should be recommended by non-blind reviewers AND blind reviewers in order to be accepted for presentation at the conference and to be included in the respective conference proceedings. A recommendation to accept made by non-blind reviewers is a necessary condition, but it is not a sufficient one. A submission, to be accepted, should also have a majority of its double-blind reviewers recommending its acceptance. This double necessary conditions generate a more reliable and rigorous reviewing than a those reviewing methods based on just one of the indicated methods, or just on the traditional double-blind reviewing. More details regarding this issue can be found at http://www.iiis.org/iiis/PeerReviewing.asp.

The three kinds of reviews mentioned above will support the selection process of those papers/abstracts that will be accepted for their presentation at the conference, as well as those to be selected for their publication in JSCI Journal. Details regarding the Acceptance Policy can be found at http://www.iiis.org/iiis/AcceptancePolicy.asp.

Authors of accepted papers who registered in the conference can have access to the evaluations and possible feedback provided by the reviewers who recommended the acceptance of their papers/abstracts, so they can accordingly improve the final version of their papers. Non-registered authors will not have access to the reviews of their respective submissions.

Virtual Participation

Submissions for Face-to-Face or for Virtual Participation are both accepted. Both kinds of submissions will have the same reviewing process and the accepted papers will be included in the same proceedings.
Pre-Conference and Post-conference Virtual sessions (via electronic forums) will be held for each session included in the conference program, so that sessions papers can be read before the conference, and authors presenting at the same session can interact during one week before and after the conference. Authors can also participate in peer-to-peer reviewing in virtual sessions.