Editor-in-Chief

Carlos Vaz de Carvalho
Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto

Baltasar Fernandez Manjon
Department of Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence (DISIA), Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)

Journal Email Contact

gbl@icst.org

ISSN# 2034-8800

Scope

Games are structured contexts where players have clear objectives, with victory as end goal. In a game, players must overcome challenges and face opponents (real or game characters) but always respecting a clearly-defined set of rules. Failure to follow these rules implies a punishment or penalty. Games can involve one player acting alone, two or more players acting cooperatively, or players or teams of players competing between themselves. Computer games are played through a computer, on a standalone or networked form. They are highly interactive and motivating products.
The use of games for learning is effective because they create rich contexts where educational objectives can be defined and theoretical concepts can be applied in practical situations. Furthermore, educational games promote the development of personal and social skills because they favor cultural awareness, socialization, respect for others, teamwork, leadership, decision making and collaborative learning. It is therefore possible to get a convergence of games and learning in three distinct areas: training (professional and social context); formal education (classroom and school context), non-formal education (outside the school context).
However, there is still a limited use of game-based learning in formal education. This has mainly to do with social concerns and stereotypes about the relation of games and education. Other issues relate to physical and cost barriers, hardware and license cost, access (for online games), maintenance and support, teachers’ confidence in using the game for a specific curriculum goal. But this limited use is also related to the lack of extended evidence of effective application. Therefore a dedicated journal is necessary to demonstrate the validity of this learning methodology.
The ICTS Transactions on Game-Based Learning is a multidisciplinary approach to the presentation of research, theory, application, practice and validation in the field of Game-Based Learning for any level and any area of education. As such it will cover areas like cognition, psychology, technology-enhanced education, evaluation and assessment, multimedia and information technology. By Game-Based Learning, are considered all forms of formal or informal learning which are supported by digital (or not) simulations, games, modeling, virtual and augmented reality, new interaction devices, toys and playthings.

Keywords

Game-based Learning, Games, Simulations, Serious Games, Learning Games, Training Games, Edutainment.

Editor-in-Chief

Carlos Vaz de Carvalho has a Master’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and a Ph.D. in Information Systems and Technology by the School of Engineering of the University of Minho.
He has been a Professor for the last 19 years in the Computer Engineering Department of Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), the School of Engineering of the Porto Polytechnic. He was responsible for several disciplines in the fields of Algorithms, Programming and Multimedia and responsible for introducing innovative online components and methodologies (e-learning/b-learning) in these disciplines. He participated in several processes of curricular reform, like the one resulting from the Bolonha Declaration, where he was the lead promoter of the Graphics and Multimedia branch of the Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering.
He has, in parallel, remarkable activity in short-term/vocational training with emphasis on actions related to e-learning, in collaboration with outstanding organizations in this area.
Scientifically, he was researcher at INESC (Group on Computer Graphics), a private R&D organization, between 1988 and 1996. From that moment he developed his scientific career, in the field of e-Learning, at ISEP where he is currently the Director of the R&D Group GILT (Graphics, Interaction and Learning Technologies). He tutored/is tutoring seven PhD theses and 30 Master theses, has authored over 100 publications and communications, including nine books (as author and editor) and participated in more than 20 national and European projects, assuming the coordination of five of them.
He served as Vice President of Computer Engineering Department from 2000 to 2001 and Head of that Department between 2003 and 2005. He was e-learning Director (2001-2005) of ISEP and directed (1997-2000) the Distance Education Unit of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto. He was also a member of the Scientific Council in the ISEP between 1994 and 2009.

Baltasar Fernandez Manjon Associate professor in the Department of Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence (DISIA) at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). Dr. Fernández-Manjón is also the Vice Dean of Research and Foreign Relationships at the Computer Science School of this university. He co-leads the Complutense e-learning research group (www.e-ucm.es) . He is the former Academic Director of the Computer Science Technical School of Centro de Estudios Superiores Felipe II (Aranjuez, Spain) (2001-2006). He received Bachelor in Physics (major in Computer Science) and a PhD in Physics from the UCM. He is member of the Working Group 3.3 “Research on the Educational uses of Communication and Information Tecnlogies” of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and of the Spanish Technical Committee for E-learning Standarization (AENOR CTN71/SC36 “Tecnologías de la información para el aprendizaje”). He is also liason person between IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology (LTTC) and IFIP WG3.3. His main research interests are e-learning technologies, educational uses of markup technologies, educational uses of serious games, application of educational standards and user modelling on which he has published more than 60 research papers. He is also co-organizer and program committee member of several conferences (e.g. SIIE, ICALT, SCORM) and associate editor of several special issues about e-learning: Journal of Universal Computer Science (Springer, 2005 and 2007), Computers In Human Behaviour (2008), Simulation and Gaming (2008).

Editorial Board

Janet C Read
University of Central Lancashire, UK

Pedro Latorre
Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain

Dr Margaret Linehan
Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland

Joze Rugeli
Faculty of Education University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Nicholas Mitchell
University of Central Lancashire, UK

Francisco Serón
Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain

Martin Sillaots
Tallinn University, Estonia

Hariklia Tsalapatas
University of Thessaly, Greece

Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin
Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland

Paula Escudeiro
Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Portugal

Olivier Heidmann
University of Thessaly, Greece

Nick Kearney
Andamio Education and Technology S.L., Spain

Romana Křížová
Accord International s.r.o., Czech Republic

Martin Kuštek
Cordia a.s., Slovakia

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Editors-in-Chief

Vic Callaghan
University of Essex, UK

Minjuan Wang
San Diego State University, USA

Juan Carlos Augusto
University of Ulster, UK

Journal Email Contact

tofiee@icst.org

ISSN# 2034-8819

Scope

As the world moves steadily to become a knowledge-based economy, education and learning have never been more important. Technology is playing an increasingly crucial role in the delivery of education, which in turn is driving research into the search for ever better technological solutions. Each wave of technological advance has opened new opportunities teachers and students. First the arrival of personal computers popularized computer aided learning, next the internet introduced eLearning; now the age of intelligent environments is bringing such pedagogical advances as smart classrooms, intelligent campuses, immersive reality, affective learning, mobile learning, intelligent learning clouds and personalised intelligent avatar-like tutors to revolutionize current learning practices, and to challenge the traditional notion of a university or school. Intelligent Environments have been heralded as a technology to radically transform our society, and the nature of teaching and learning. There is an urgent need for a journal that acts as a focus for researchers and practitioners to pool knowledge together and to advance the science and art of teaching, learning, and pedagogical practice, making it more efficient, cost-effective, and fun.

To achieve the above outcomes, this Journal (TOFIEE) will focus on showcasing new technologies that can help to make a difference to teaching and learning experiences, by enriching the learning process and the teaching infrastructure. Central to our forum will be enriched physical and environments such as smart classrooms, virtual / mixed reality environments, intelligent learning clouds or mobile and augmented reality systems that can interact with students and teachers at a pedagogical level, so as to bring true innovations to education. We will also include the systems that support the learning of practical skills, such as those typified by science and engineering laboratories that are critical to students following technology courses. The journal will also include consideration of the wider campus infrastructure which can also impact the cost and effectiveness of education. Examples include smart signage that can guide people around a campus or smart applications for timetabling or managing the environment of the teaching facilities. Education is increasingly global and multicultural in nature and thus, the cultural dimension is a topic we would seek to include.
This Journal will serve as a forum for researchers and practitioners to discuss the latest intelligent technologies that can support the development of new educational technologies and environments around the world. Given the multi-disciplinary nature of the areas involved, the journal aims to promote participation from several different communities covering a variety of topics: pedagogical strategies, technical (infrastructure), social-cultural influences; interaction, inclusion, and socialization in intelligent educational environments and systems, etc.

The journal will aim to attract reports on research and development related to a number of areas, including:

• Smart classrooms;
• Intelligent campus;
• Virtual & Mixed Reality Learning Environments;
• Digitally Enhanced Teaching Laboratories;
• Technologically supported Pedagogy;
• Affective Learning;
• AI Tutoring Systems;
• Learning clouds;
• Mobile Learning;
• Instructional design methods, models and Tools;
• Smart global and multi-cultural learning environments;
• Curriculum Development for Intelligent Education systems;
• Evaluation of intelligent learning environments;

Keywords

Technology supported education, assisted learning, smart classrooms, tutoring systems, intelligent interaction, intelligent campus, pervasive & ubiquitous education.

Editor-in-Chief

Victor Callaghan is Professor of Computer Science, leader of the Intelligent Environments Group (IEG) and a director of the interdisciplinary Digital Lifestyles Centre (DLC) at Essex University. He established and directed mobile robotics research at Essex before founding the intelligent environments group (IEG). Both areas now host world-class teams and facilities. In particular, the IEG hosts the iSpace which is a full size digital home, the iClassroom is a high tech teaching facility, the iCampus, a Living lab based on an instrumented campus and the iWorld, and online mixed –reality implementation of these spaces. Professor Callaghan holds a B.Eng and PhD in Electronics and Computing, respectively, from Sheffield University. In general terms, his main expertise concerns the application of pervasive computing technology to the creation of intelligent environments that range from smart classrooms to immersive educational technology environments. He works closely with colleagues in the Network Education College in Shanghai (the online education arm of Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and the Department of Educational Technology at San Diego State University. In addition he is one of the founding board members of the Creative Science Foundation, a collaboration with Intel for introducing creative methodology to regular science teaching. He is also working with other commercial companies on the development of cutting edge teaching technology such as the Immersive Displays Ltd range of immersive reality teaching desks and the FortTo Ltd range of student laboratory equipment for teaching embedded-computing. Professor Callaghan has authored around 200 papers in international journals, conferences and books and he holds 4 key patents in his field. He has been principal investigator on numerous international and national projects in the area of pervasive computing attracting over 2 million pounds in research funding. He is a founder and principal organiser of the international annual IEEE sponsored conference, Intelligent Environments, a key member of the organizational team for the Pervasive Computing & Applications, Ubiquitous Intelligence & Computing conferences, founder member of the Creative Science Foundation (and associated workshops) and a member of the editorial teams of the Intelligent Buildings International, Pervasive Computing & Communications, Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments journals.

Dr. Minjuan Wang is an Associate Professor of Educational Technology at San Diego State University (SDSU). Her current research specialties focus on the sociocultural aspects of online learning, mobile learning, intelligent systems, and Cloud learning.. Currently, she conducts research on teaching and learning in international multicultural settings and the use of mobile learning in formal and informal learning. Minjuan serves on the editorial boards for three outstanding journals: Open Education Research, International Journal on E-Learning (IJEL), and the Open Education Journal. She has also been a long-time reviewer for the premier journal—Educational Technology Research and Development, and a reviewer for more than 10 other international journals. In addition, she edited the Handbook of Research on Hybrid Learning Models. A winner of several research awards, Minjuan has more than 100 peer-reviewed articles published in premier journals, such as Educational Technology Research and Development, IEEE Transactions on Education, Computers and Education, British Journal of Educational Technology, and Educational Technology and Society. She has also published several book chapters on Best practices in teaching online or hybrid courses, Cross-cultural issues in online learning, Cybergogy for interactive learning online, and assessment of mobile learning in large classrooms. The Cybergogy for Engaged Learning Model she created has been recognized as an instructional design model (http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Cybergogy).

Juan Carlos Augusto has two decades of experience in teaching and R&D. His research has been recently focused on the development of Intelligent Environments, especially on their application to healthcare and education. Some of his latest publications include: the Handbook on Ambient Assisted Living (2012), the Handbook on Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments (2009), Human-Centric Interfaces for Ambient Intelligence (2009) and Advances in Ambient Intelligence (2007). He is also actively involved in the organization of events that can stimulate research in the area by contributing as a Steering/Scientific/Program Committee member in various relevant international conferences. His editorial experience includes being co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal on Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments (IOS Press), Editor-in-Chief of the Open Innovation Series (EAI Press), and Editor-in-Chief of the book series on Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments (IOS Press), as well as being a permanent Editorial Board member of four other journals.

Editorial Board

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Scope

Studies of complex systems have attracted significant interdisciplinary interest in recent times. Such studies have had a major impact on disciplines as wide-ranging as physics, biology, economics, the social sciences, computer sciences, electrical, mechanical and civil engineering, etc. Complex systems science has the potential to revolutionize the way we understand and interact with the world.

This journal aims to be a platform for interdisciplinary studies of complex systems. The scope includes, but is not limited to:

• Complex networks
• Complex social systems
• Complex economic systems
• Complex biological systems
• Complex engineering systems
• Complex system methods
• Complexity in arts and music
• General complexity sciences
• New frontiers of complex systems

We are looking for innovative ideas and deep insights into complex systems and their applications. We welcome and appreciate contributions in theoretical research and potential and actual real-life applications. On a peer-review basis, we publish full papers, letters and surveys. We will publish brief work-in-progress reports and important preliminary research results. We also welcome comprehensive reports on finished projects. You are cordially invited to join us to make this journal a success.

Editor in Chief

Dr. Gaoxi Xiao, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Additional details regarding the scope of the journal, including the Editorial Board is available at the Journal homepage at http://icst.org/complex-systems/.

About ICST Transactions

ICST Transactions are powered by e-Scripts, which implements a speedy and effective review process allowing for faster publications.
ICST Transactions are Open Access journals, meaning you retain copyright and your articles are freely available to all without any subscription required. Open Access articles are known to enjoy a citation and dissemination advantage over other forms of research publication.
Not only does ICST submit its Transactions for inclusion in all the major indexing services, it also supports innovative web tools that enable researchers to better share, classify and disseminate articles via the many different social bookmarking and networking services.
For more details about ICST Transactions please visit http://icst.org/icst-transactions/.

Special Issues Proposals

ICST Transactions on Complex Systems is aiming at devoting space for special issues on specific topics proposed by Guest Editors. We welcome special issues proposals: for instructions on their submission, please contact complexsys@icst.org.

What to submit

Original unpublished contributions are solicited that can improve the knowledge and practice in the field. Tutorial and survey articles of permanent reference value are also welcome.

Submissions must be original and should not have been published, or submitted for publication, elsewhere. Authors are encouraged to submit extended versions of papers previously presented at a conference or workshop with clear indication of how the paper has been extended for the journal submission and cite the conference paper in the references.

When to submit

Authors can submit their work on e-Scripts at any time.

Remember that submitting your article by March 31st, 2012 will ensure the ability of publishing through the Open Access model without paying any editorial fees.

How to submit

To submit a paper to the journal, please register and submit your article via e-Scripts at http://escripts.icst.org/publication/complex-systems.
Manuscript preparation instructions may be found at http://icst.org/icst-transactions/.

For any further info, please feel free to contact complexsys@icst.org.

ICST Transactions are published in cooperation with European Alliance for Innovation (EAI). For more information on EAI and its Publications Program, please visit http://eai.eu/publications.

Scope

Collaborative software systems support networks of spatially dispersed actors (either humans or not) that play different roles and cooperate to achieve common goals, which are usually non-technological goals. On the other hand, collaboration is obviously enabled by the several technological building blocks that contribute to set up a collaborative software system.

Traditionally, most of the efforts in the context of collaborative software systems have mainly addressed technology issues, while collaboration issues have been dealt with at a very limited extent, more as a side effect of an innovative technology rather than as a driver that brings technology closer to people and organizational needs.

In this respect, the proposed journal fosters innovative research contributions addressing collaborative software systems that help to create the right conditions for effective cooperation and coordination, thereby boosting factors like productivity, innovation and creativity. The contributions must specifically address the impact on collaboration of the proposed solution.

Collaboration is a cross-domain issue and thus it is expected that the contributions will tackle collaborative software systems from different perspectives, such as collaborative development, collaborative learning, collaborative management, collaborative editing and tagging, collaborative modeling and simulation, collaborative gaming, etc.

From the system engineering point of view, collaborative systems should be investigated along the entire lifecycle, from requirements to operation and maintenance, by putting into evidence the collaboration enabling features of the research contributions.

In addition, collaborative software systems require multi-dimensional research approaches that encompass people, processes, products and their integration/interoperation.

Notwithstanding the multi-disciplinary nature of this research area, that spans from social sciences to organizational sciences, the journal specifically focuses on software-related research contributions. Nevertheless, contributions that put into evidence the multi-disciplinary aspects of collaborative software systems are also welcome.

An example short list of topics addressed by the proposed journal includes (but is not limited to): collaboration-aware software systems, collaboration services and their orchestration, collaboration platforms (e.g., P2P, agent-based, etc.), quality of collaboration, model-driven engineering of collaborative software systems, collaborative system requirements, ontology-driven collaboration, collaboration mining.

Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Andrea D’Ambrogio Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering University of Roma, Italy

Additional details regarding the scope of the journal, including the Editorial Board is available at the Journal homepage at http://icst.org/e-education-and-e-learning/.

About ICST Transactions

ICST Transactions are powered by e-Scripts, which implements a speedy and effective review process allowing for faster publications.
ICST Transactions are Open Access journals, meaning you retain copyright and your articles are freely available to all without any subscription required. Open Access articles are known to enjoy a citation and dissemination advantage over other forms of research publication.
Not only does ICST submit its Transactions for inclusion in all the major indexing services, it also supports innovative web tools that enable researchers to better share, classify and disseminate articles via the many different social bookmarking and networking services.
For more details about ICST Transactions please visit http://icst.org/icst-transactions/.

Special Issues Proposals

The ICST Transactions on Collaborative Software Systems journal is aiming at devoting space for special issues on specific topics proposed by Guest Editors. We welcome special issues proposals: for instructions on their submission, please contact the email address collabsys@icst.org.

What to submit

Original unpublished contributions are solicited that can improve the knowledge and practice in the field. Tutorial and survey articles of permanent reference value are also welcome.

Submissions must be original and should not have been published, or submitted for publication, elsewhere. Authors are encouraged to submit extended versions of papers previously presented at a conference or workshop with clear indication of how the paper has been extended for the journal submission and cite the conference paper in the references.

When to submit

Authors can submit their work on e-scripts. at any time.

Remember that submitting your article by March 31st, 2012 will ensure the ability of publishing through the Open Access model without paying any editorial fees.

How to submit

To submit a paper to the journal, please register and submit your article via e-Scripts at http://escripts.icst.org/publication/collaborative-software-systems.
Manuscript preparation instructions may be found at http://icst.org/icst-transactions/.

For any further info, please contact: collabsys@icst.org

ICST Transactions are published in cooperation with European Alliance for Innovation (EAI). For more information on EAI and its Publications Program, please visit http://eai.eu/publications.

Journal reviewers’ work is largely anonymous and unthanked. If done well it involves a lot of effort, but apart from the grateful thanks of editors it’s difficult to translate that into any kind of meaningful credit.

At the same time, editors need to know who are the good referees. In small numbers this can work via personal connections and experience, but as the referee database grows, there is more and more need for some quantitative measure of the track record of individual reviewers.

We’d like to do something to address these needs, which is why we’re introducing a new feature in e-Scripts — the UCount reviewer assessment — which will allow editors and (corresponding) authors to provide detailed feedback on reviews. This feedback, suitably anonymized, will be used both to help editors choose good reviewers and to offer a public ranking of the reviewers who have contributed the most through e-Scripts.

How does it work? Opinions on reviews can be very subjective, so we went to the research literature and chose a feedback form especially developed for the objective assessment of review quality. This Review Quality Instrument asks the editor or author to rate the review according to 7 different criteria (such as the extent of discussion of different aspects of the paper, or the constructiveness of the reviewer’s remarks), together with an overall quality rating of the review.

Both editors and authors will be given the option to submit this feedback when they receive reviews via e-Scripts. At first we will merely be recording this information, but as the number of active reviewers in the system grows, we will start using it in other ways — to display top-5 rankings of the most highly rated reviewers according to different criteria, and to make recommendations to editors assigning reviewers to new submissions. We will also be carrying out detailed data analysis of the feedback to identify interesting trends or patterns.

More information about the UCount Reviewers model is provided in the EAI UCount for reviewers in EAI’s e-Scripts document. We welcome your feedback and remarks on the proposed plan!

Scope

Social networks provide a powerful abstraction of the structure and dynamics of diverse kinds of people or people-to-technology interaction. These social network systems are usually characterized by the complex network structures and rich accompanying contextual information. Recent trends also indicate the usage of complex network as a key feature for next generation usage and exploitation of the Web. This journal is focused on the foundations of social networks as well as case studies, empirical, and other methodological works related to the computational tools for the automatic discovery of Web-based social networks. This Journal provides an opportunity to compare and contrast the ethological approach to social behaviour in animals (including the study of animal tracks and learning by members of the same species) with web-based evidence of social interaction, perceptual learning, information granulation, the behaviour of humans and affinities between web-based social networks. The main topics cover the design and use of various computational intelligence tools and software, simulations of social networks, representation and analysis of social networks, use of semantic networks in the design and community-based research issues such as knowledge discovery, privacy and protection, and visualization.

We solicit original research and technical papers not published elsewhere. The papers can be theoretical, practical and application, and cover a broad set of intelligent methods, with particular emphasis on Social Network computing.

The scope of the journal includes (but is not restricted to) :

• Network evolution and growth mechanisms;
• On-line communities and computer networks;
• Information diffusion in social networks;
• Detection of communities by document analysis;
• Topology of real networks;
• Information diffusion in social networks;
• Recommendations for product purchase, information acquisition and establishment of social relations;
• Impact of recommendation models on the evolution of the social network;
• Classification models and their application in social recommender systems;
• Economical impact of social network discovery;
• Use of social networks for marketing;
• Web page ranking informed by social media;
• Search algorithms on social networks;
• Collaborative Filtering;
• Anomaly detection in social network evolution;
• Data protection inside communities;
• Crime data mining and network analysis;
• Modeling trust and reputation in social networks;
• Misbehavior detection in communities;
• Geographical clusters, networks, and innovation;
• International Collaborations in e-Social network;
• Automatic discovery and analysis of Web based social networks;
• Link Topology and Site Hierarchy;
• Web communities;
• Web-Based Cooperative Work;
• Benchmark creation;
• Measures and methodologies.

Editor-in-Chief

Katarzyna Wegrzyn-Wolska received a Master of Science degree in Electronic Engineering from the Silesian Technical University of Gliwice, Poland and a further M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Val d’Essonne, France. She received her Ph.D. degree (2001) in Automatics, Real Time Computing and Computer Science from the Ecole Superieur des Mines de Paris, France.

About ICST Transactions

ICST Transactions are powered by e-Scripts, which implements a speedy and effective review process allowing for faster publications.
ICST Transactions are Open Access journals, meaning you retain copyright and your articles are freely available to all without any subscription required. Open Access articles are known to enjoy a citation and dissemination advantage over other forms of research publication.
Not only does ICST submit its Transactions for inclusion in all the major indexing services, it also supports innovative web tools that enable researchers to better share, classify and disseminate articles via the many different social bookmarking and networking services.
For more details about ICST Transactions please visit http://icst.org/icst-transactions/.

Special Issues Proposals

ICST Transactions on Social Informatics is aiming at devoting space for special issues on specific topics proposed by Guest Editors. We welcome special issues proposals: for instructions on their submission, please contact si@icst.org.

What to submit

Original unpublished contributions are solicited that can improve the knowledge and practice in the field. Tutorial and survey articles of permanent reference value are also welcome.

Submissions must be original and should not have been published, or submitted for publication, elsewhere. Authors are encouraged to submit extended versions of papers previously presented at a conference or workshop with clear indication of how the paper has been extended for the journal submission and cite the conference paper in the references.

When to submit

Authors can submit their work on e-Scripts at any time. The next deadline is: 31st of January 2012.

Remember that submitting your article by March 31st, 2012 will ensure the ability of publishing through the Open Access model without paying any editorial fees.

How to submit

To submit a paper to the journal, please register and submit your article via e-Scripts at http://escripts.icst.org/publication/social-informatics/.
Manuscript preparation instructions may be found at http://icst.org/icst-transactions/.

For any further info, please feel free to contact: si@icst.org.

ICST Transactions are published in cooperation with European Alliance for Innovation (EAI). For more information on EAI and its Publications Program, please visit http://eai.eu/publications.

Scope

This journal provides a venue for publishing the latest research and developments in the area of ubiquitous environments. The journal deals with contributions in the topics of smart spaces with ambient intelligence where sensors in the environment help a system to appropriately react to people, context-aware pervasive computing systems where the current context enables the system to guide the user’s tasks, home area networking systems that can intelligently monitor, track and control a home’s environment, and vehicular sensor networks, where a collection of sensors monitor and control the vehicle’s well-being. The journal in particular welcomes contributions that deal with the various aspects of computing and communications that help achieve this goal. These include Ubiquitous Environments Infrastructure Design and Implementation, Operating Systems and Programming Environments for Smart Mobile Devices, Embedded Systems and Networking Support for Ubiquitous Environments, Middleware, Security and Privacy Support for Ubiquitous Environments, Human Computer Interfacing, Human-Centric Interaction and Hardware/Software Co-design principles. Papers that describe innovative applications and test-beds that demonstrate the utility of ubiquitous environments, and tools that enable development of novel applications are also welcome.

Editor in Chief

Dr. Krishna M. Sivalingam, Department of CSE, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, India

Additional details regarding the scope of the journal, including the Editorial Board is available at the Journal homepage at http://icst.org/ubiquitous-environments/.

About ICST Transactions

ICST Transactions are powered by e-Scripts, which implements a speedy and effective review process allowing for faster publications.
ICST Transactions are Open Access journals, meaning you retain copyright and your articles are freely available to all without any subscription required. Open Access articles are known to enjoy a citation and dissemination advantage over other forms of research publication.
Not only does ICST submit its Transactions for inclusion in all the major indexing services, it also supports innovative web tools that enable researchers to better share, classify and disseminate articles via the many different social bookmarking and networking services.
For more details about ICST Transactions please visit http://icst.org/icst-transactions/.

What to submit

Original article submissions are invited for the newly launched ICST Transactions on Ubiquitous Environments. The articles should NOT be concurrently submitted to another conference or journal. Concurrent submissions, once detected, will lead to immediate rejection of the submission. Authors are encouraged to submit extended versions of papers previously presented at a conference or workshop with clear indication of how the paper has been extended for the journal submission and cite the conference paper in the references.

When to submit

Authors can submit their work on e-Scripts at any time.

Remember that submitting your article by March 31st, 2012 will ensure the ability of publishing through the Open Access model without paying any editorial fees.

How to submit

Submit your article to ICST Transactions on Ubiquitous Environments at http://escripts.icst.org/publication/ubiquitous-environments/.

The manuscript format instructions are available at http://icst.org/icst-transactions/. The lenghts of the submitted manuscripts should not exceed 14 pages in this double-column format.

If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Prof. Sivalingam at skrishnam AT cse.iitm.ac.in and krishna.sivalingam AT ieee.org.

ICST Transactions are published in cooperation with European Alliance for Innovation (EAI). For more information on EAI and its Publications Program, please visit http://eai.eu/publications.

Scope

Education is one domain that has accompanied civilization through the centuries, adapting its tools to fulfill the expectations of the students and the needs of the teachers. Such tools can be as obvious and traditional as pencils and a notebook, or as complex and innovative as websites and multi-user virtual environments. Typical in-person learning environments, such as classrooms and meeting rooms, are at times not the best solution to enable and maximize a student’s ability to learn. Although they do fulfill their purpose of giving students the possibility of reaching course material and instructors, they also create a barrier that cannot be easily overcome.

Web-based instruction and multi-user virtual environments break the time-limited barrier innate to typical lectures and explore, through innovative technologies, a concept as old as humankind: socialization and the feeling of belonging to a community. Many universities, public institutions and private businesses are projecting themselves on the Internet and in virtual worlds to reach the customer at any time, giving them the idea of virtual presence that cannot be delivered through a simple website.

Topics to be discussed in this journal focus on (but not limited to) the following concepts:
• Teaching / Educational Models and Frameworks
• Accessibility and usability of web-based instruction in the classroom
• Best Practices
• Developing courses and content to be used in on-line educational environments
• Student engagement
• Experiments
• Impacts of on-line on traditional teaching and learning strategies

Editors in Chief

Giovanni Vincenti, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA
James Braman, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA

Additional details regarding the scope of the journal, including the Editorial Board is available at the Journal homepage at http://icst.org/e-education-and-e-learning/.

About ICST Transactions

ICST Transactions are powered by e-Scripts, which implements a speedy and effective review process allowing for faster publications.
ICST Transactions are Open Access journals, meaning you retain copyright and your articles are freely available to all without any subscription required. Open Access articles are known to enjoy a citation and dissemination advantage over other forms of research publication.
Not only does ICST submit its Transactions for inclusion in all the major indexing services, it also supports innovative web tools that enable researchers to better share, classify and disseminate articles via the many different social bookmarking and networking services.
For more details about ICST Transactions please visit http://icst.org/icst-transactions/.

Special Issues Proposals

ICST Transactions on e-Education and e-Learning is aiming at devoting space for special issues on specific topics proposed by Guest Editors. We welcome special issues proposals: for instructions on their submission, please contact the giovanni.vincenti AT icst.org or eeel AT icst.org.

What to submit

Original unpublished contributions are solicited that can improve the knowledge and practice in the field. Tutorial and survey articles of permanent reference value are also welcome.

Submissions must be original and should not have been published, or submitted for publication, elsewhere. Authors are encouraged to submit extended versions of papers previously presented at a conference or workshop with clear indication of how the paper has been extended for the journal submission and cite the conference paper in the references.

When to submit

Authors can submit their work on e-Scripts at any time. The next deadlines are as follows:
January-March issue: February 28, 2012

Remember that submitting your article by March 31st, 2012 will ensure the ability of publishing through the Open Access model without paying any editorial fees.

How to submit

To submit a paper to the journal, please register and submit your article via e-Scripts at http://escripts.icst.org/publication/e-education-and-e-learning/.
Manuscript preparation instructions may be found at http://icst.org/icst-transactions/.

For any further info, please feel free to contact: giovanni.vincenti AT icst.org or eeel AT icst.org.

ICST Transactions are published in cooperation with European Alliance for Innovation (EAI). For more information on EAI and its Publications Program, please visit http://eai.eu/publications.

Paul Groth is postdoctoral researcher in the Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Group at the VU University of Amsterdam. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Southampton (2007) and has done research at the University of Southern California and the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. His research focuses on mechanisms for enabling multi-institutional systems especially in the area of science. This includes research in data provenance, scientific workflow and knowledge sharing with over 50 publications in these areas (H-Index 18). He currently works on the Semantically Mapping Science project (http://www.sms-project.org) developing new approaches for analyzing scientific fields based on Web activity. He writes the blog http://thinklinks.wordpress.com. More info at http://www.few.vu.nl/~pgroth/