Natural Computing is a general term referring to computing going on in nature and computing inspired by nature. When complex phenomena going on in nature are viewed as computational processes, our understanding of these phenomena and of the essence of computation is enhanced. In this way one gains valuable insights into both natural sciences and computer science. Characteristic for man-designed computing inspired by nature is the metaphorical use of concepts, principles and mechanisms underlying natural systems. This type of computing includes evolutionary algorithms, neural networks, molecular computing and quantum computing.

The aim of the journal is (1) to provide a publication forum for, and to foster links and mutual understanding between researchers from various areas of natural computing, (2) to give researchers in natural sciences and computer science an insight into research trends in natural computing. The research in natural computing is concerned with theory, experiments, and applications, and the journal reports on each of these research lines. Moreover, the journal will cover natural computing in a very broad scope. Thus, e.g., the subarea of evolutionary algorithms will cover also very active research on the boundary of biology and computer science which views the evolution as a computational process, and the subarea of neural networks will also cover computational trends in brain research.

The journal is soliciting papers on all aspects of natural computing. Because of the interdisciplinary character of the journal a special effort will be made to solicit survey, review, and tutorial papers which would make research trends in a given subarea more accessible to the broad audience of the journal.