The importance of Interdisciplinary Research and Education are being increasingly stressed by an increasing number of authors and scientific/academic organizations, and both require processes of Inter-disciplinary Communication. Hence, Interdisciplinary research, education, and Communication are inherently related to each other, potentially supported complexity studies and Information/Communication Technologies, and being the cause and effect of analogical learning.

Since Informatics and Cybernetics (communication and control) provide the most comprehensive and wide specter of multi-disciplinary techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, methodologies and/or theories for Interdisciplinary Research, Education, and/or Communication. Consequently, a conference related to Informatics, Cybernetics (Communication and Control), Complexity, and/or Systemics provide a very adequate context for the organization of a Symposium on Inter-Disciplinary Research, Education, and Communication. For this reason the Organizing Committee purpose is to provide multi-disciplinary forum and a fertile ground for the researchers, academics, and practitioners in Inter-disciplinary Research, Education, and communication.

The purpose of the International Symposium on Interdisciplinary Research, Education, and Communication: IDREC 2014 is to bring together academic disciplinarians and inter-disciplinarians as well as professionals, consultants, and practitioners to share their knowledge and experiences with regards to 1) Inter-disciplinary research, Education, and Communications, 2) the actual or potential integrative relationships among them, 3) their actual or potential conceptual and/or instrumental support, through Complexity Studies and ICT respectively, and 4) their mutual reinforcing with analogical learning and creative thinking.

Submissions will be accepted regarding thinking about and/or doing Inter-disciplinary Research, Education, and/or Communications, as well as regarding their relationships with analogical learning, creativity, Complexity Studies, Systemics, and the ways in which ICT might or actually does support them. In this context, case studies as well as general theories, methodologies, reflection (especially practice based reflections) might the content of submission to be made to IDREC 2014. Disciplinary research will also be accepted as long as at least a 25% of its content is written for Interdisciplinary Communication.

IDREC 2014’s meaning of Inter-Disciplinary Research includes the definition that The national Science Foundation adopted:
“Interdisciplinary research is a mode of research by teams or individuals that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research practice.” (National Academy of Science, The National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, of The National Academies, 2004, Facilitating interdisciplinary research. Washington: National Academy Press, p. 2).

The main areas/Topics of IDREC 2014 are the following:
Inter-disciplinary Research
Inter-disciplinary Education
Inter-Disciplinary Communication (which includes the communication of disciplinary research to other disciplines)
Relationships between Inter-disciplinary Research and Inter-disciplinary Education
Relationships between Inter-disciplinary Research and Inter-disciplinary Communication
Integration of Inter-disciplinary Research, Education, and Communication (IDREC)
Relationships between Complexity or Systemics and IDREC
ICT support of IDREC
Relationships between IDREC and Analogical thinking and/or Creative Thinking

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.

Organizational, Reviewing, and Selection of Best Papers Policies

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.

Invited Sessions Organizers

Registration fees of an effective invited session organizers will be waived according to the policy described in the web page (click on 'Invited Session', then on 'Benefits for the Organizers of Invited Sessions'), where you can get information about the ten benefits for an invited session organizer. To propose the organization of an Invited Session, please visit the conference web site, and go to the menu option “Invited Sessions” and then to the menu sub-option “Invited Sessions Organizers.”

Best Papers

Authors of the best 10%-20% of the papers presented at the conference (included those virtually presented) will be invited to adapt their papers for their publication in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics.

One best paper of each session included in the program will be selected by the respective session’s co-chairs after consulting with the session’s audience. Invited Sessions organizers will select the best paper of the session they organized. If there is a tie in a given session, the paper that will be selected as the best session’s paper will be the one which have had the highest quantitative evaluations average according to its double-blind and non-blind reviews.

The selection process of the best 10%-20% to be also published in the Journal, will be based on the sessions’ best papers and the quantitative evaluation average made by its anonymous and non-anonymous reviewers.