CFP: Decision Support Systems Special Issue on "Business Applications of Web of Things"

http://www.journals.elsevier.com/decision-support-systems/call-for-papers/business-applications-of-web-of-things/

Guest Editors:
Guoqing Chen, Tsinghua University, chengq@sem.tsinghua.edu.cn
Paulo Goes, University of Arizona, pgoes@eller.arizona.edu
J. Leon Zhao, City University of Hong Kong, jlzhao@cityu.edu.hk

Managing Editors:
Harry Jiannan Wang, University of Delaware, hjwang@udel.edu
Qiang Wei, Tsinghua University, weiq@sem.tsinghua.edu.cn

According to Wikipedia, the Internet of Things (IoT) refers to uniquely identifiable objects (things) and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure. Radio frequency identification (RFID) is often seen as a prerequisite for the Internet of Things. Since its first use by Kevin Ashton in 1999, the term IoT has become popular and has been widely publicized in many countries including China and US through the applications of Auto-ID technology via RFID tags. If all objects of daily life were equipped with RFID tags, they could be identified and inventoried by computers. The IoT is a network of Internet-enabled objects and software components such as web services that interact with these objects. IoT is built upon the Internet protocols, sensory technologies, sensors, and smart phones. The terms of Cyber-physical systems (CPS) and Web of Things (WoT) are also used interchangeably with IoT.  However, WoT perhaps indicates a more advanced layer of networking, much like the difference between the Internet and the web.

The report on the roadmap of IoT by the European Commission in 2008 outlines the results of the workshop “Beyond RFID – The Internet of Things”.  The optimistic belief is that in the near future, smart objects will become identifiable and addressable, and smart components will be able to execute intelligent actions following the needs of tasks they are designed for. For instance, devices will be able to adapt to environments, self-configure, self-maintain, and self-repair. Another challenge of the IoT will be related to trust, privacy and security, not only for what concerns the technological aspects, but also for various business applications. The growing data demand and higher data transfer rates will require stronger security models to help business build trust and confidence.

Recently, business applications of WoT have been built and tested in various areas such as the Internet refrigerator and the water pipe monitoring system in Singapore. Imagine a refrigerator that monitors the food inside and notifies you when you are low on milk. It also perhaps monitors all of the best food websites, gathering recipes for your dinners and adding the ingredients automatically to your shopping list. This refrigerator knows what kinds of foods you like to eat, based on the ratings you have given to your dinners. Indeed the refrigerator helps you take care of your health, because it knows which foods are good for you.

This special issue will focus on exploring innovative business applications of WoT such as (1) tracking behavior of certain things, (2) enhanced situational awareness, (3) sensor-driven decision analytics, (4) process optimization, (5) optimized resource consumption, and (6) complex autonomous systems.  We expect that more types of business applications should emerge in this area of research that will be deployed in different categories to benefit the enterprise.  This special issue is to serve as a forum of exchange of new research results in WoT, focusing on business applications and the enabling technologies.

Topics of Interest:

• Business intelligence techniques in WoT
• Business models of WoT
• Case studies of WoT applications
• Consumer applications in WoT
• E-commerce applications in WoT
• Economic modeling and analysis in WoT
• Educational applications of WoT
• Emergency management supported with WoT
• Financial applications of WoT
• Government applications of WoT
• Healthcare applications of WoT
• Household applications of WoT
• Impacts of WoT in Business
• Integration of WoT and traditional WWW
• Inter-organizational applications of WoT
• Privacy and security in WoT
• Research on WoT architectures
• Research on WoT development toolkits
• Research on WoT standards
• Research and development of WoT testbeds
• Service modeling and management in WoT
• Surveillance techniques in WoT
• Theories and Methods for WoT applications in business
• Transportation applications of WoT
• User acceptance of WoT applications
• Workflow management under WoT
• WoT applications in Intelligent Campuses
• WoT applications in Smart Cities

Submission Requirements:

• Format requirements: Refer to the official DSS guide for authors at http://www.elsevier.com/ wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/505540/authorinstructions#20000.
• Presentation requirements: All submissions must be of high English standard.  Papers containing significant number of grammatical and wording problems will be rejected without review.  As such, authors are not well versed in English should seek help from professional English editors before submitting their manuscripts to avoid rejection due to language and presentation deficiencies.  (Note that fluent English speakers without significant editorial experiences are not qualified to serve as professional English editors.)
• Research requirements: A research paper should focus on discovery and resolution of one or more research issues/problems.  A project report that does not address important research issues is not a research paper. A research paper must also have a strong evaluation component that is supported by well known evaluation techniques including theoretical proofs, surveys, experiments, simulation, and data mining.

Papers (MS Word or PDF files) should be submitted electronically to the Managing Editors along with any questions or inquiries. Please submit two copies of the manuscript: one with author information and affiliation and the other without any author information for review purpose.

Review Policy:

Given that the research in the area of WoT is progressing rapidly, the special issue must also be reviewed in an expedited manner in order to be relevant.  As such, papers submitted to this special issue will be given the opportunity of one major revision followed by a possible minor revision.  Papers that will not meet the publication standard of DSS after the major revision will be rejected for the special issue but may be referred to the EiC of DSS as regular submissions.

Important Dates:

Submission due Date: October 15, 2012
Review Decision: December15, 2012
Revision Due: February 15, 2012
Final Decision: March 15, 2013
Final Version Due: April 28, 2013