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Abstract

The Journal on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (JSCI) is a peer-reviewed open-access international publication in the areas of Systems Philosophy, System Sciences and Engineering (Systemics), Communication and Control concepts, systems and technologies (Cybernetics,) and Information Systems and Technologies (Informatics), as well as on, and especially on, the relationships among these areas and their Engineering applications. the main purpose of the Journal is to collaborate in the systemization of knowledge and experience generated in the areas of Systemics, Cybernetics (communication and control) and Informatics. This systemization process necessarily implies a progressive development and expansion of the relatedness among the associated areas, as well as among their respective disciplines. Since improvement in interdisciplinary communication would provide a very good support for the sought systemization process, the journal is a multi-disciplinary one oriented 1) to support inter-disciplinary communication, and 2) to offer a venue for publishing inter-, trans-, and cross-disciplinary research, enquiry, case studies, and reflections. We are trying to support the process of interdisciplinary communication among, and in, the areas included in Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, by means of: 1. providing a multidisciplinary forum in the related areas, 2. fostering interdisciplinary research in them, 3. publishing papers related to transdisciplinary concepts, allowing different disciplinary perspectives on the same concept, and 4. encouraging communication a) among disciplines by means of interdisciplinary tutorials, and b) among the academic, the public and the private sectors by means of publishing information related multi- and inter-disciplinary projects which involve at least two of these sectors. In the context of this main purpose, a basic immediate objective of the Journal is to provide a multidisciplinary vehicle for disseminating information about diverse but highly interrelated areas through a single medium. It covers a wide range of areas, sub-areas and topics related to Systems Science, Engineering and Philosophy (Systemics), Communications and Control of Mechanisms and Organisms (Cybernetics) and Computer Science and Engineering, along with Information Technologies (Informatics). These three major areas are continuously evolving into integrative means of diverse disciplines. • Informatics provides instrumental means for many disciplines and support processes of inter-disciplinary collaborative research. • Cybernetics showed to be fruitful in providing conceptual means for inter-disciplinarity as well as for analogy generation and cross-fertilization between mechanisms and organisms, in order o to improve our understanding of organic systems, o to enhance our designs of mechanical systems, and o to inspire the conceptualizations and the production of hybrid systems, as it is the case of cyborgs. • Systemics has been viewed by an increasing number of authors as one of the most fundamental trans-disciplines. Consequently, each one of these three major areas has been providing an increasing support for multidisciplinary problem solving research as well as for interdisciplinary communications and integrations among different academic disciplines and among academic, industrial and governmental organizations. Therefore, the basic aims of this Journal are To support multidisciplinary information dissemination related to different disciplines in the major areas of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SC&I). To foster interdisciplinary communication based on the integrative potential of these three major areas. Accordingly, the journal will include not just areas from SC&I, but also from the relationships among them, among their areas and sub-areas and between them and disciplines from other areas, especially in the form of applications of SC&I disciplines in other disciplines, and vice versa. Consequently, a strong emphasis is made on relationship areas and on what has been named as hyphened sciences, engineering and technologies, in order to refer to the inter-disciplines that are emerging as a consequence of multi- and inter-disciplinary real-life-problem-centered research. To foster and support inter-organizational R&D and enquiry among academy, industry and government; especially in the context of real life problems requiring multi- and/or interdisciplinary teams. The Journal will initially have a multidisciplinary orientation. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary sections will gradually grow. The multidisciplinary part of the Journal will be nourished, basically, from the best papers presented in conferences in the Journal’s areas, basically from the conferences or workshops organized by The International Institute of Informatics and Systemics (IIIS, www.iiis.org) which is also the sponsor of the Journal. The best 20%-25% of the papers presented at IIIS’s conferences (roughly equivalent to the 10%-15% of the articles submitted to the respective conference) will be published in the journal, after their respective authors had made the respective modifications and extensions pertinent to archiving and journals. The journal will also publish invited papers and papers submitted directly to the journal which will be reviewed by the journal reviewing methodology. Consequently, with this approach, we are hoping to produce a very high quality journal, because its basic content will be related to the best 20-25% of the papers presented in related conferences, which is the equivalent, though not exactly the same, at a rate of 75-80% of refusal. This way of achieving a high quality Journal, will not be based on a high number of actual refusals. With this strategy we will be avoiding being the cause of the hidden psychological and economical costs caused to the authors of refused papers. The greater the refusal rate, the greater the hidden costs caused, by the editors, to potential authors of refused papers by the editors. We are hoping, with our editorial strategy to minimize the hidden costs we might be causing by means of our editorial decision, while not compromising the journal high quality. Our methodological strategy will be an evolutionary and a systemic, not a systematic one. To organize the editorial process and to manage the publishing operational activities will be done with an open, elastic, adaptable and evolutionary methodological system. It will have the flexibility required to adapt the Journal, its editorial policy, its organizational process and its management to the dynamics of its related areas and disciplines, to changes produced by the inherent learning process involved, and to the uncertainty of the environment. The Peer Review Methodology Used in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics is Based on two-tier reviews: open (or non-blind) and the traditional double-blind reviews. Final acceptance depends of the two kinds of reviews but a paper should be recommended by non-blind AND double-blind reviewing in order to be accepted for publication. A recommendation to accept made by reviewers in the non-blind method is a necessary condition, but it is not a sufficient one. A submission, to be accepted, should also have a majority of the reviewers in its double-blind method recommending its acceptance. This double necessary conditions generate a more reliable and rigorous review than those reviewing processes based on just one of the indicated methods, or just on the traditional double-blind reviewing method.