Special Call - Example

Example of Proposal for Special Call.

  1. Title and a brief statement of the scope and focus of the special call
    (up to 150 words)

Interactive Systems for the next 10 years 

The SBC Journal on Interactive Systems had its first volume published in 2010. In the last 10 years, the social, political and economic scenario of Brazil has changed radically. The year 2020 has been completely different and challenging in terms of technology, policies, social, economic and specially sanitary situation. Interactive Systems (IS) have a key role to play to advance on these challenges. This special call seeks for contributions that offer a ‘landscape’ (i.e., the past and the present) and provide insightful discussion for the challenges and opportunities for IS design, evaluation and application for the next 10 years, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the United Nations.  

 

  1. Explanation of why it is opportune and important to announce the special call (less than 500 words)

I. The United Nations launched the SGDs initiative to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. Seventeen goals, from End poverty to Education and Gender equality, have been proposed and are expected to be achieved until 2030. At the same time IS are crucial for advancing in each goal, the SDGs offer a challenging setting that will require us to advance on the technical and formal aspects of IS. The time is now: 10 years ahead.

III. SBC JIS celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2020 and its time to understand the past and present to design the future. Since JIS’ first volume, profound changes have occurred in the Brazilian scenario and abroad. Technology has advanced and new topics and themes have emerged; the Brazilian scenario has changed radically; the world is facing a pandemic situation that requires advances in terms of science and technology and their application. Therefore, we are at the beginning of a new decade full of challenges and demands, in a fast changing and unpredictable scenario, and where IS have a critical role to play.

III. For the next decade, social issues involved in IS and their effects on society must be understood and addressed, requiring our theoretical, methodological and technical knowledge to be revisited and advanced. This special call invites experts in IS design, evaluation and application, to build a panorama on the field and draw its future, pointing out challenges and strategies to advance on them. Therefore, the Special Call has the potential to serve not only as research panorama and critical discussions, but also as an agenda for the next decade of IS research and practice to advance challenges we face. 

 

  1. Summary of the proposers’ editorial experience and their expertise on the theme

The editorial team has experience in different aspects of IS design and evaluation and their application in different domains and fields, such as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Extended Reality (XR) and Games. 

Roberto Pereira, Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), was program chair of the most important HCI conference in Brazil and chair of the GranDIHC-BR: an initiative that identified 5 grand challenges for HCI in Brazil (2012-2022). Roberto has been conducting research on different techniques and approaches for designing and evaluating IS from a sociotechnical perspective in different domains (education, health, fake news, inclusion). He has served as associate editor of the Brazilian Journal on Computers in Education (2015-2019) and as editor-in-chief of the SBC Horizontes Magazine.
CV Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/1607596289960868 

Luciana Salgado, Fluminense Federal University (UFF), was program chair of the most important HCI conference in Brazil, having published dozen of papers and a book on IS design and evaluation from a semiotic perspective. Luciana has advised research that involved IS design and evaluation in critical settings, such as health and education. Serving as JIS editor-in-chief, she had practical experience in conference and journal management and publication.
CV Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/9126192988265844 

Luciana Zaina, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), was program chair of the most important HCI conference in Brazil in 2017. Luciana Zaina has conducted research on techniques and approaches for supporting developers on the design of IS, working in close collaboration with industries. She has served as associate editor of the Brazilian Journal on Computers in Education since 2019.
CV Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/0192085115595443 

João Marcelo Teixeira, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), was program chair of the most important VR/AR conference in Brazil in 2019, having almost 100 publications including journals, full, short and posters in XR-related research. He is one of the six members of SBC-CERV, the special commission of the Brazilian Computer Society for Virtual and Augmented Reality. Currently he works as guest editor for Elsevier’s Computer & Graphics Journal and his main research areas are Computer Vision techniques applied to Computer Human Interaction and Embedded Systems/Robotics.
CV Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/3084098853925246 

Ingrid Teixeira Monteiro, Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), has been a member of the scientific committee of important events in the Human-Computer Interaction area. She has been chair of the Brazilian chapter of ACM SIGCHI for two terms. She is currently a member of the editorial board of JIS and conducts research and projects related to the design and evaluation of systems, involving themes like semiotic engineering, computational thinking, accessibility, user experience and digital design.
CV Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/6835701169389233 

Cléber Gimenez Corrêa, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), was assistant editor of the Journal on Interactive Systems (2017-2019), and worked in the team that organized the Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality 2018 (SVR'18), that was co-located with other events: the Conference on Graphics, Patterns and Images (SIBGRAPI) and the Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames). He has been conducting research on HCI and software testing for Virtual and Augmented Reality applications.
CV Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/0521761025000380 

 

  1. List of key potential submitters to/authors for the proposed special call

This call is of potential interest to all those involved with IS design, evaluation and application. Therefore, researchers from HCI, VR and Games communities are potential authors to this call, as well as authors from other communities, such as Collaborative Systems, Software Engineering and Information Systems.

There are important authors in the different communities conducting long-term research on interactive systems. 

  • The list of potential authors was omitted for the public version of this document. 

 

  1. Call for Papers

    The “call for papers” message that will be published and distributed worldwide, describing the technical focus of the special call, important dates and other relevant information (less than 1000 words);

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) proposed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives of everyone, everywhere. 

The 17 Goals are all interconnected. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, health, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice, education, infrastructure, cities and partnerships. 

A Decade of Action: 2030, the deadline for achieving the SDGs, is precisely 10 years from now. According to the UN, although progress has been made, actions to meet the Goals are not yet advancing at the speed or scale required.: “2020 needs to usher in a decade of ambitious action to deliver the Goals by 2030.” 

Undoubtedly, Computer Science and its application are crucial to achieve the SDGs, and the question this Special Call raises is: How can we advance on the SDGs with Interactive Systems (IS)? 

SBC JIS celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2020. Since JIS’ first volume, profound changes have occurred in the Brazilian scenario and abroad. Technology has advanced and new topics and issues have emerged; the social, political and economic scenario of Brazil has changed radically; the world is facing a pandemic situation that requires advances in terms of science and technology and their application. Therefore, we are at the beginning of a new decade full of challenges and demands, in a fast changing and unpredictable scenario. 

IS have permeated human life. From social interaction to education, from health to law, from industry settings to work from home, from leisure to therapy, from families and local communities to government, IS have been at the core of our modern life. However, several issues that have been a concern for different research fields for decades not only remain unsolved but may become even harder. Sociotechnical approaches, although clearly relevant and mandatory when we talk about IS, have not become dominant approaches for IS researchers and practitioners. Human-centred processes, products and computing, although widely announced and valued, have not become the mainstream even in academic forums. 

IS design, evaluation and application still presents plenty of challenges, not only in technical and methodological terms, but also in theoretical and mainly in social ones. If we are to help achieving SDGs for the next decade, social issues involved in IS and their effects on society must be understood and addressed, requiring our theoretical, methodological and technical knowledge to be revisited and advanced.

This special call invites experts in IS design, evaluation and application, to build a panorama on the field and draw its future, pointing out challenges and strategies to advance on them. Such advancements, however, must be situated in a socially responsible way in the scenario we live in, helping to advance our capacity to solve one or more SDGs via/supported by/with IS.

Topics of interest (not limited to) for this call:

  • Design issues, approaches, methods, techniques for IS 
  • Evaluation issues, techniques, strategies for IS
  • Theories, concepts and models for IS in HCI, VR, Games, and related fields (e.g., Collaborative Systems, Software Engineering, Information Systems);
  • Results from IS application to advance on SDG-related problems
  • Reviews on IS: Past, Present and Future

Papers are expected to cover the following items:

  1. Approach one or more SDGs
  2. Present the SDG in a situated context (e.g., the Brazilian one)
  3. Clearly present how IS can help us to advance on the SDG
  4. Discuss theoretical, methodological, technical or social issues in IS for the SDG
  5. Identify challenges and point out directions to overcome them 
  6. Call for action: presents a propositive agenda to work on the pointed directions  

Submissions must be in pdf, following the JIS LaTeX or MS Word templates. Papers are expected to have 10 to 20 pages length, including attachments and references. Papers outside this limit will be considered only in special cases. JIS is open access, free of charge for both authors and readers, and all papers published by JIS follow the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. 

Authors must follow JIS guidelines and checklist available at: https://sol.sbc.org.br/journals/index.php/jis/about/submissions

Review Process: manuscripts will be reviewed by at least 3 experts in the field. The review process will consider up to 3 review rounds for each manuscript: for the 1st and 2nd rounds, reviews will be sent to authors with an editorial decision: 1. Request a revised version for a new round, 2. Accept, or 3. Reject the manuscript. For the 3rd round, the editorial decision will be either 1. Accept or 2. Reject the manuscript. For each submission round, a cover letter must be included, presenting the paper and then indicating the improvements and answers to reviewers. 

Important Dates

  • submission deadline: 01 october 2020
  • notification 1st round: 26 october 2020
  • submission of revised versions deadline: 09 november 2020 
  • notification 2nd round: 23 november 2020
  • submission of revised versions deadline: 07 december 2020
  • notification 3rd round (final): 14 december 2020
  • camera ready submission deadline: 21 december 2020.
  • ultimate deadline for publication: 30 december 2020.

 

  1. Schedule and plan for the special call:

  • call for papers dissemination: the call for paper will be disseminated via mailing lists of different communities (HCI, Games, VR, Brazilian Computing Society); the call will be announced at SBC Horizontes and disseminated via social networks; editors will disseminate the list to their institutions and networks

  • selection process: manuscripts will be reviewed in a 3-round review process. For the 1st and 2nd rounds, each submission will be reviewed by at least 3 experts in the field; reviews will be sent to authors with an editorial decision: 1. Request a revised version for a new round, 2. Accept, or 3. Reject the manuscript. For the 3rd round, the editorial decision will be either 1. Accept or 2. Reject the manuscript. For each submission round, a cover letter must be included, presenting the paper and then indicating the improvements and answers to reviewers.
  • important dates:
    • submission deadline: 01 october 2020
    • notification 1st round: 26 october 2020
    • submission of revised versions deadline: 09 november 2020 
    • notification 2nd round: 23 november 2020
    • submission of revised versions deadline: 07 december 2020
    • notification 3rd round (final): 14 december 2020
    • camera ready submission deadline: 21 december 2020.
    • ultimate deadline for publication: 30 december 2020. 
  • prospective reviewers list
    • List of reviewer from our related communities (omitted for the public version of this document).