Editorial Purpose, Strategy and Methodology

As it was emphasized in the editorial of the first issue, 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:

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

1. To support multidisciplinary information dissemination related to different disciplines in the major areas of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SC&I).
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. 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 has been having 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 25%-30% 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 is also publishing invited papers and papers, mostly in special issues related to the plenary keynote addresses delivered at IIIS conferences. Regular papers in regular issues contain original research. Invited papers may also be oriented to 1) inter-disciplinary communication of original research, 2) experience or practice based-reflections, 3) literature review, and/or 4) ways of integrating research with practice, academy with industry, and different academic activities (research, educations, and real life problem solving or consulting). One of the functions of the Journal Editorial Board is to nominate potential authors of invited papers. Other possible authors for invited papers are selected from the top 5% of the best regular papers published in the regular issues of the journal which has been reviewed by the two-tier reviewing methodology of the journal (www.iiisci.org/journal/SCI/Methodology.pdf?var)

Most regular papers published in the regular bimonthly issues in the first 12 years of the journal papers (i.e. about the 95%) have been selected by the audience of IIIS' conference as the best of those presented in the respective sessions. Authors of all papers published in the first 12 years (about 1000 papers) had no Article Processing Charge because of the sponsorship of the IIIS. The plan for the next stage of the journal is to accept submissions which have not been selected among the best 25%-30% of those presented at conferences organized by the IIIS. Consequently, an Article Processing charge will be required for those papers that would be accepted via the two-tier reviewing methodology of the journal briefly described at www.iiisci.org/journal/SCI/Methodology.pdf?var.

Regular papers published since 2006 were accepted by means of the two-tier reviewing methodology, we just referred to, and the final selection was made by the respective conference audience regarding the best sessions' papers.

We think that with this approach we are publishing a very high quality journal, because its basic content will be related to the best 25%-30% 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. With the new stage of reviewing papers sent directly to the journal we will not be able to avoid these external hidden and implicit costs of a high percentage of refusals.

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. In the context of the methodological adaptability we are planning to initiate the second stage of the Journal.

A two-tier peer-reviewing methodology will also be used in the new second stage of the the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics. This methodology is based on two-tier reviews: open (or non-blind, non-anonymous) 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.