ERCIM News No. 138 (July 2024)
DEADLINE FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: Tuesday 28 May 2024
Please read the guidelines below before submitting an article.
A Word template for ERCIM News articles is available for download.
The sections of ERCIM News 138 are :
- Joint ERCIM Actions
- Special Theme: Sustainable Cities
- Research and Innovation
- Events
- In Brief
The Special Theme and the Research and Innovation sections contain articles presenting a panorama of European research activities. The Special Theme focuses on a sector that has been selected by the editors from a short list of currently "hot" topics whereas the Research and Innovation section contains articles describing scientific activities, research results, and technical transfer endeavours in any sector of Information and Communication Science and Technology (ICST), telecommunications or applied mathematics. Submissions to the Special Theme section are subjected to an external review process coordinated by invited guest editors whereas submissions to the Research and Innovation section are checked and approved by the ERCIM News editorial board.
Special Theme: Sustainable Cities
Guest editors: German Castignani (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) Georgios Mylonas (Industrial Systems Institute)
Urban environments, globally, are embracing the imperative shift towards sustainability. The "Sustainable Cities" Special Theme of ERCIM News invites contributions that provide insights into scientific activities and results at the nexus of ICT and mathematical sciences, which are paving the way towards more sustainable, resilient, and livable urban environments. Sustainable cities are not just a goal but an imperative, combining technological advancements and systemic innovations to ensure long-term viability, livability, and resilience become a reality in our cities. Utilizing ICT and mathematical modeling plays a pivotal role in creating data-driven, optimized, and scalable solutions for sustainable urban development. This Special Theme seeks contributions that explore, analyze, and showcase the scientific and technological advancements, challenges, and future directions to achieve the multi-dimensional goals of sustainable cities.
Topics of Interest
Contributions could span (but are not limited to) the following areas:
- Digital Twins and Simulations: Employing digital twins and simulation models to forecast, plan, and manage urban developments, or aspects such as Cultural Heritage protection, sustainably.
- Smart and Inclusive Urban Planning: Utilizing ICT and mathematical models for optimizing urban design and infrastructure for sustainability and inclusion.
- Energy Efficiency and Management: Designing algorithms, and systems and interventions for optimizing energy usage and promoting green energy sources in urban environments, fostering a sustainable energy transition.
- Sustainable Mobility and Transportation: Employing ICT and mathematical modeling to enhance urban smart mobility, reduce emissions, and ensure transportation equity.
- Urban Data Analytics: Leveraging big data analytics and AI for monitoring, managing, and optimizing urban processes and services.
- Climate-resilient Cities: Developing data-driven and mathematical models, and technologies to ensure cities can adapt and be resilient to changing climate patterns and extreme events.
- IoT for Urban Sustainability: Integrating Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in urban systems for enhanced monitoring and management.
- Waste Management and Circular Economy: Implementing intelligent waste management systems and promoting circular economy practices through ICT, as well as novel uses of AI/ML for such purposes, including applications in Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) within cities.
- Cyber-Physical Systems for Urban Operations: Designing and implementing cyber-physical systems for efficient urban operations and services.
- Urban Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Employing technological novel technologies and mathematical models to preserve and enhance urban biodiversity and ecosystem services.
- Security and Privacy in Smart Cities: Ensuring robust cybersecurity and privacy-preserving mechanisms in smart city applications and services.
- Design for educational activities/programs targeting sustainability and circularity within the European Technological Educational Space.
- Case studies for interventions based on ICT targeting/promoting sustainability within urban environments, including aspects such as citizen science and education for sustainability.
- Data Spaces: Making use of Data Spaces technologies to collect relevant data from cities for monitoring and modeling different sustainability issues.
- Data-driven decision-making: Enable sustainable policy decision-making in cities using data, analytics and Digital Twins.
All articles have to be sent to the local editor for your country (see About ERCIM News) or to the central editor
Reviewing:
Articles submitted to the special theme and the research and society sections are subject to a review process.
Guidelines for ERCIM News articles
Style: ERCIM News is read by a large variety of people. Keeping this in mind the article should be descriptive (emphasize more the 'what' than the 'how') without too much technical detail together with an illustration, if possible.
Contributions in ERCIM News are normally presented without formulas. One can get a long way with careful phrasing, although it is not always wise to avoid formulas altogether. In cases where authors feel that the use of formulas is necessary to clarify matters, this should be done in a separate box (to be treated as an illustration). However, formulas and symbols scattered through the text must be avoided as much as possible.
Length: Keep the article short, i.e. 800 +/- 100 words.
Format: Submissions preferably in ASCII text or MS Word. Pictures/Illustrations must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in a MS Word file) in a resolution/quality suitable for printing.
Structure of the article:
The emphasis in ERCIM News is on 'NEWS'. This should be reflected in both title and lead ('teaser').
Also: NO REVIEW ARTICLES!
- Title
- Author (full name, max. two or three authors)
- Teaser:
a few words about the project/topic. Printed in boldface, this part is intended to raise interest (keep it short). - Details describing:
what the project/product is
which institutions are involved
where it takes place
why the research is being done
when it was started/completed the aim of the project
the techniques employed
the orientation of the project
future activities
other institutes involved in this project
co-operation with other ERCIM members in this field - References:
- 1 - max. 3 references are mandatory for special theme articles. For articles for the section "Research and Development", you can give up to three references (not mandatory)
- Authors should preferably refer to important sources only (i.e. journal papers, books) and avoid meaningless references such as article in preparation, unpublished presentations, personal communications, research reports, patents, or local conference publications not listed in the major scientific digital libraries (such as IEEE, ACM, Springer).
- The selected EN style is the shortened IEEE Citation Style.
- The references should be as concise as possible and restricted to the minimal information needed. Avoid all unnecessary words (pages x pp., year, editors, location,...). Use acronyms instead of full conference names - OOPSLA x Object-Oriented Programming Systems, abbreviations (e.g. Conf. x Conference, IEEE TPAMI x IEEE Transaction on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, etc.).
- Use et al. when three or more names are given.
- Useful Link(s) (URLs separated from the references)
- Contact address with:
- full name of the author
- phone number - Photos, illustrations:
ERCIM News is a full-color print magazine. Each article should be accompanied by an illustration (photos, graphics), for example of the product, applications mentioned in the article, people working on the project, etc. (avoid as much as possible flow charts and screen dumps).
Photos should be submitted in jpg or tiff format in a resolution suitable for printing (pictures taken from the web are usually in a quality suitable for printing), graphics in a vector format (svg, eps, pdf).
A Word template for ERCIM News articles is available for download.
Publishing in ERCIM News offers several advantages:
- ERCIM News represents an excellent opportunity to present your research to a broad audience, also outside your own research community
- ERCIM News is published in print and online and reaches about 10,000 readers
- ERCIM News is widely distributed in the European Commission
- ERCIM offers a free professional proof-reading service
- Authors can reuse their articles; the copyright of the articles remains with the authors.
- Articles of the sections "Special Theme" and "Research and Innovation" are referenced by DBLP and by Web of Science (from issue 104 onwards)