Databases: Their Creation, Management and Utilization

Information systems are the software and hardware systems that support data-intensive applications. The journal Information Systems publishes articles concerning the design and implementation of languages, data models, process models, algorithms, software and hardware for information systems.

Subject areas include data management issues as presented in the principal international database conferences (e.g., ACM SIGMOD/PODS, VLDB, ICDE and ICDT/EDBT) as well as data-related issues from the fields of data mining/machine learning, information retrieval coordinated with structured data, internet and cloud data management, business process management, web semantics, visual and audio information systems, scientific computing, and data science. We welcome systems papers that focus on implementation considerations in massively parallel data management, fault tolerance, and special purpose hardware for data-intensive systems; theoretical papers that either break significant new ground or unify and extend existing algorithms for data-intensive applications; and manuscripts from application domains, such as urban informatics, social and natural science, and Internet of Things, which present innovative, high-performance, and scalable solutions to data management problems for those domains.

All papers should motivate the problems they address with compelling examples from real or potential applications. Systems papers must be serious about experimentation either on real systems or simulations based on traces from real systems. Papers from industrial organizations are welcome. Theoretical papers should have a clear motivation from applications and clearly state which ideas have potentially wide applicability.

Authors of selected articles that have been accepted for publication in Information Systems are invited by the EiCs to submit the experiment described in their papers for reproducibility validation. The resulting additional reproducibility paper is co-authored by the reproducibility reviewers and the authors of the original publication.

As part of its commitment to reproducible science, Information Systems also welcomes experimental reproducible survey papers. Such submissions must:
(i) apply a substantial portion of the different surveyed techniques to at least one existing benchmark and perhaps one or more new benchmarks, and
(ii) be reproducible (the validation of reproducibility will result in a separate paper following the guidelines of our Reproducibility Editor).

In addition to publishing submitted articles, the Editors-in-Chief will invite retrospective articles that describe significant projects by the principal architects of those projects. Authors of such articles should write in the first person, tracing the social as well as technical history of their projects, describing the evolution of ideas, mistakes made, and reality tests.
We will make every effort to allow authors the right to republish papers appearing in Information Systems in their own books and monographs.

Special Issue on The 36th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering 2024 Best Papers
Submission Date: 2026-04-01

This special issue will cover extended versions of the best papers presented at the 36th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE 2024), held in Limassol, Cyprus, from June 3-7, 2024. For each selected paper substantial extension and refinement will be requested, followed by a rigorous review process, specifically for publication in this journal, ensuring its quality and contribution to the IS field.

CAiSE’24 was focused on the theme of Information Systems in the Age of Artificial Intelligence due to its emergence and relevant to IS Engineering. Artificial Intelligence is transforming Information Systems (IS) by streamlining operations, enhancing decision-making, and driving innovation. It enables predictive analytics, improves cybersecurity, and helps organizations adapt to market changes, among many other scenarios. On the other hand, its use also raises ethical concerns, such as data privacy, algorithmic bias, and transparency, which must be addressed to ensure trust and accountability. Three types of original and scientific papers were accepted: technical papers which describe original solutions; empirical papers which evaluate existing problem situations including problems encountered in practice, or validate proposed solutions with scientific means; and exploratory papers which describe completely new research positions or approaches.

Guest editors:

Dr. Flavia Maria Santoro (Executive Guest Editor)
Institute of Technology and Leadership/State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Email: flavia@inteli.edu.br 
Areas of Expertise: Information Systems, Business Process Management, Collaborative Systems

Dr. Giancarlo Guizzardi
University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
Email: g.guizzardi@utwente.nl 
Areas of Expertise: Formal and Applied Ontology, Conceptual Modelling, Information Systems Engineering, and Enterprise Computing/Business Informatic

Special issue information:

The topics of contribution included:

Novel Approaches to IS Engineering

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
• Big Data, Data Science and Analytics
• Blockchain applications in IS
• Simulation and Digital Twins
• IS for collaboration and social computing
• Virtual reality / Augmented Reality
• Context-aware, autonomous and adaptive IS

Domain-specific and Multi-aspect IS Engineering

• IT governance
• eGovernment
• Autonomous and smart systems (smart city management, smart vehicles, etc.)
• IS for healthcare
• Educational Systems and Learning Analytics
• Value and supply chain management
• Industry 4.0
• Sustainability and social responsibility management
• Privacy, security, trust, and safety management
• IS in the post-COVID world

Models, Methods and Techniques in IS Engineering

• Ontologies and Ontology Engineering
• Conceptual modeling, languages and design
• Requirements engineering
• Process modeling, analysis and improvement
• Process automation, mining and monitoring
• Models and methods for evolution and reuse
• Domain and method engineering
• Product lines, variability and configuration management
• Compliance and alignment handling
• Active and interactive models
• Quality of IS models for analysis and design
• Visualization techniques in IS
• Decision models and business intelligence
• Knowledge graphs
• Human-centered techniques

Architectures and Platforms for IS Engineering

• Distributed, mobile and open architecture
• Big Data architectures
• Cloud- and edge-based IS engineering
• Service oriented and multi-agent IS engineering
• Multi-platform IS engineering
• Cyber-physical systems and Internet of Things (IoT)
• Workflow and Process Aware Information Systems (PAIS)
• Handling of real time data streams
• Content management and semantic Web
• Crowdsourcing platforms
• Conversational agents (chatbots)
• Microservices design and deployment

Manuscript submission information:

Important Dates:

    Submission Open Date: February 9, 2026
    Submission Deadline: April 1, 2026
    Editorial Acceptance Deadline: August 30, 2026

Submission Guidelines:

All manuscripts should be invited by the Guest Editors and submitted electronically through the link: https://submit.elsevier.com/INFOSYS. When submitting papers, please select the Article Type as "VSI: CAiSE 2024 Best Papers". 

Authors should prepare their manuscripts according to the "Guide for Authors" of the Information Systems outlined at the journal website. 

All papers will be peer-reviewed following a regular reviewing procedure. 

For any further information, the authors may contact the Guest Editors.

Keywords:

Advanced Information Systems Engineering; Predictive Analytics; Stochastic Process Discovery; Model-Driven Development (MDD); Security

Special Issue on Collaboration Process Mining for Distributed Systems
Submission Date: 2026-07-13

The Special Issue on Collaboration Mining for Distributed Systems aims to facilitate the sharing of research findings, ideas, and experiences on new process mining techniques and practices for analyzing collaboration processes. Process mining is a powerful tool for the analysis of business processes carried on by one participant. However, it lacks approaches able to deal with the analysis of collaboration processes implemented by many participants in a distributed system, e.g., supply chains involving manufacturers, producers, and retailers; healthcare scenarios involving patients, hospitals, and doctors; or even multi-agent systems and smart systems like multi-robot and IoT systems. Confidentiality, privacy, data heterogeneity, and case correlation are only a few of the issues related to these scenarios. At the same time, object-centric process mining extends the analysis to the interactions and dependencies between different objects across organizations. This is particularly important in inter-organizational process mining, where data is often spread across different domains with varying formats, structures, and privacy concerns. It helps to uncover hidden inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and coordination issues that arise when multiple entities are involved in a shared process.

To bridge this gap, specialized discovery algorithms, conformance techniques, and enhancement approaches are required. In this direction, the special issue points to creating a dialogue centered on the development of scientific foundations enabling the application of collaboration mining for distributed systems.

Guest editors:

Dr. Lorenzo Rossi (Executive Guest Editor), University of Camerino, Camerino, Italy; Email: lorenzo.rossi@unicam.it
Prof. Andrea Delgado, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay; Email: adelGADO@fing.edu.uy
Dr. Sara Pettinari, Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy; Email: sara.pettinari@gssi.it
Dr. Mahsa Pourbafrani, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany; Email: mahsa.bafrani@pads.rwth-aachen.de
Prof. Mathias Weske, Hasso-Plattner-Institut, Potsdam, Germany; Email: mathias.weske@hpi.de

Special issue information:

The main topics relevant to this special issue include, but are not limited to:

● Cross-organizational Process Simulations
● Distributed Event Logs Preprocessing
● Correlation Mechanisms for Distributed Event Logs
● Discovery of Collaboration Process Models
● Conformance Metrics and Techniques for Collaboration Process Models
● Multi-perspective Analysis of Collaborative Processes
● Privacy-preserving Process Mining for Distributed Systems
● Distributed Systems Monitoring and Repair
● Federated Process Mining
● Streaming Collaboration Mining
● Object-centric Process Mining for Distributed Systems
● Case notions for Collaboration Process Mining
● Collaboration Process Mining in application domains (e.g. healthcare, supply chain management)

Manuscript submission information:

Important Dates:

    Submission Open Date: December 8, 2025
    Submission Deadline: July 13, 2026
    Editorial Acceptance Deadline: December 14, 2026

Submission Guidelines:

All manuscripts should be submitted electronically through Editorial Manager® at https://www.editorialmanager.com/infosys/default.aspx. When submitting papers, please select the Article Type as "VSI: CoMinDS". 

Authors should prepare their manuscripts according to the "Guide for Authors" of the Information Systems outlined at the journal website. 

All papers will be peer-reviewed following a regular reviewing procedure. 

For any further information, the authors may contact the Guest Editors.

Keywords:

Process Mining; Cross-organizational; Collaboration Process Mining

Special Issue on Best Papers of the EDOC 2025 conference
Submission Date: 2026-08-30

Enterprise Computing focuses on the design and operation of software systems and computer-based information system within large organizational settings. These systems include many interconnected applications that exchange information with one another. Their purpose is to support the activities of large enterprises by improving operational efficiency or enabling new business. Because such enterprises often span multiple organizational boundaries, enterprise computing solutions must also facilitate the exchange of information across those boundaries.

The EDOC conference series provides a key forum for researchers and practitioners in the field of Enterprise Computing. It addresses the full range of models, methodologies, and engineering technologies contributing to building and evolving intra- and inter-enterprise software systems. The EDOC conference series brings together leading computer science researchers, IT decision makers, enterprise architects, solution designers and practitioners to discuss enterprise computing challenges, models and solutions from the perspectives of academia, industry and government. The conference emphasizes a holistic view of enterprise applications engineering and management, fostering integrated approaches that can address and relate processes, people and technology.

The 29th edition of the EDOC conference (EDOC 2025) highlighted emerging research and practical advances in Enterprise Computing. Some contributions explored trending topics such as applied Agentic AI for enterprises. The field of Business Process Management saw advancements in business process governance, modeling and optimization, with particular focus on process mining. Research on Cyber-Physical Resilience high- lighted the crucial role of conceptual modeling in enhancing healthcare systems. Further topics included risk-aware enterprise architecture, sustainable transformation to reduce environmental impact, and innovative approaches to identity, accountability, and ontology-based security governance.

In this direction, the target of the special issue on ‘Best Papers of the EDOC 2025 conference’ is to select and publish the extended versions of the best papers presented at EDOC 2025, and focused on developing new theoretical, methodological, and technological solutions for enterprise design, operations, and computing.

Guest editors:

Alessandro Gianola
Tenure-Track Assistant Professor
INESC-ID/Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Email: alessandro.gianola@tecnico.ulisboa.pt
Fields of Interest: Formal Methods, BPM, process mining and Logic

Renata Guizzardi
Assistant Professor
Behavioral, Management and Social Sciences Faculty, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands
Email: r.guizzardi@utwente.nl
Fields of interest: Knowledge Management, Ontologies and Goal-oriented Modeling

Special issue information:

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Enterprise Architecture & Engineering

    Methods, Frameworks, Reference Models, and Tools, for Enterprise Architecture
    Enterprise architecture for networked organisations
    Architecture level concerns, such as interoperability, security, sustainability, etc.
    Architectural impact of new technologies, including AI, cloud computing, edge computing, blockchain, etc.

Service-Oriented Software System Architectures

    Service composition, orchestration and choreography
    Service policies, contract definition and enforcement
    Software & services modeling languages and approaches
    Architectures for cyber-physical systems
    Software architecture level concerns, such as interoperability, security, sustainability, etc.

Model-Based Software Engineering

    Software engineering methods for enterprise computing
    Model-driven architectures and software development
    Domain specific modeling languages (DSML)
    Engineering of digital twins
    Low code platforms

Enterprise Security

    Information Security
    Cybersecurity
    Sensing and Awareness
    Threat modeling, attack simulation, intrusion detection and prevention
    Access control & SOA security
    Blockchain and enterprise security
    Privacy Preserving Technologies

Business Process and Business rules

    Process modeling, verification, configuration, architectures and enabling infrastructures
    Process mining and robotic process automation
    Business process agility/flexibility and decision management
    Business rule languages and engines, process compliance

Semantics and Information Management

    Business object modeling methodologies and approaches
    Enterprise taxonomies, ontologies and business knowledge integration
    Master data management, data mining and (real-time) data
    Data quality and trustworthiness
    Combining data-driven and symbolic modeling approaches

Manuscript submission information:

Important Dates:

    Submission Open Date: January 20, 2026
    Submission Deadline: August 30, 2026
    Editorial Acceptance Deadline: October 30, 2026

Submission Guidelines:

All manuscripts should be invited by the Guest Editors and submitted electronically through Editorial Manager® at https://www.editorialmanager.com/infosys/default.aspx. When submitting papers, please select the Article Type as "VSI: EDOC 2025". 

Authors should prepare their manuscripts according to the "Guide for Authors" of the Information Systems outlined at the journal website. 

All papers will be peer-reviewed following a regular reviewing procedure. 

For any further information, the authors may contact the Guest Editors.

Keywords:

Enterprise Computing, BPM, Enterprise Architecture & Engineering, Agentic AI for Enterprises, Cyber-Physical Resilience