Special Issue of the Journal of Universal Computer Science on

Improving Social Aspects of the Software Development Process: Games, Gamification and Related Approaches

Call for Papers
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Social aspects of software development have gained an increasing attention among researchers. Recently, a number of researches have conducted to explore the potential factors that may affect the software process improvement tasks. Games are special kind of social activities, which can easily highlight the social interactions or engagements that could offer a variety of societal outcomes. Consequently, gamification (i.e. the use of game elements in business practices) becomes a trendy subject for improving the business processes. It is frequently used to align individuals’ motivations with the main theme of any business task.
This journal special issue intends to include original, pertinent and relevant contributions to cover diverse topics to outline the importance of social aspects of SPI, including but not limited to social factors affecting the software processes, the experience gained to cope with the social constraints during software development, the implications of social interactions or conflicting situations on all stages of the software development, and even the use of game elements in software process improvement and software development. The application or investigation of any social factors in software process improvement about productivity enhancement, motivation, training, innovation, and customer engagement are also welcome.

Theme and topics
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We encourage international researchers from both academia and industry to submit original papers, related to social aspects of software development including, but not limited to the following:
* Application of games/gamification in the software development process.
* Exploration of social factors affecting software development.
* Conflicting situations in software development landscapes.
* Sociotechnical systems.
* Games addressing social conflicts in software development.
* The effect of social issues on software process improvement.
* The application or investigation of any social factors in the field of SPI.
* The practical and industrial implications of games and game-like approaches in the field of SPI.
* Checkland's Soft Systems Approach for studying the interrelationships between the logical and social sub-systems of the software development processes as Human Activity Systems (HAS)
* Social agent-based simulations of software development process
* Actor Network Theory for accounting social influences in software development processes

Submissions
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All scientists interested in social aspects of software development are welcome to submit. However, the main focus of the articles is software development since the focus of the journal is computer science. In addition, this Special Issue will include extended submissions of selected papers of the EuroAsia Conference on Software Process Improvement 2016 (EuroAsiaSPI 2016).

All submitted papers will follow a peer review process. Active researchers in the area of software process improvement will act as reviewers for this Special Issue. Each submission will be reviewed by at least three reviewers.

The recommended length of a paper is of maximum 20 pages. The submissions should follow the formatting guidelines of the Journal of Universal Computer Science (http://www.jucs.org/jucs_info/submissions)

Paper submissions should be made by email to the following address: myilmaz@cankaya.edu.tr. Only papers received at this address will be considered for publication. Any questions regarding this special issue should be sent to the guest editors.

Important dates
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Submission Deadline: March 27, 2016
First Notification of Acceptance/Rejection: June 27, 2016
Revised Manuscripts Submission Deadline: September 27, 2016
Final Notification of Acceptance: December 27, 2016
Expected Publication Date: March 2017

Guest editors
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Rory O’Connor
Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland.
roconnor@computing.dcu.ie

Murat Yilmaz
Cankaya University, Ankara, Turkey
yilmaz@cankaya.edu.tr

Manuel Mora
Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, Mexico
mmora@securenym.net