Call for papers: Special Issue on Semantic Technologies for Data and Algorithmic Governance

Call for papers: Special Issue on

Semantic Technologies for Data and Algorithmic Governance

Technology is playing a progressively important key role in enabling effective governance structures, processes, and frameworks. As society becomes increasingly dependent on complex systems ranging from simple ‘decision support systems’ to ‘systems of systems’ and ‘semi autonomous systems’, data and algorithmic governance are of utmost importance.

When it comes to data and algorithmic governance tools and techniques there are still many open questions. For instance, to what extent do these systems safeguard against privacy violations and honor intellectual property rights? Can granular consent be granted, and will the consequences be understood by its users? How can biases, discrimination, and censorship be identified and acted on? Do transparency and explainability lead to greater accountability? How can trust be woven into the fabric of these systems?

Towards this end, this special issue aims to explore the development and evaluation of semantic technologies with respect to the data and algorithmic governance mechanisms, processes and methodologies that are critically needed to support the development of trust-centric social and business applications alike.

Topics of Interest

We welcome original high quality submissions on (but are not restricted to) the following topics:

  • Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data management
  • Techniques for enabling ownership, control, and access
  • Identifying fake news and misinformation
  • Managing bias and ensuring fairness
  • Enabling transparency, explainability, and accountability
  • Methods for policy governance
  • Information flow control and accountability
  • Measuring data quality
  • Managing the data life cycle
  • Metrics for assessing the effectiveness of governance algorithms
  • Data privacy, regulations and compliance
  • Provenance, trust and metadata for authoritative sources
  • Privacy and security enforcement
  • Methods for information flow control and accountability
  • Frameworks and systems for personal data storage and control
  • Ensuring data authenticity and integrity
  • Privacy-preserving data mining and machine learning methods
  • Protecting against identity theft and data falsification
  • User-friendly interface design for data and algorithmic governance
  • Standards for data and algorithmic governance
  • Tackling legal issues with respect to data and algorithms
  • Law and governance in e-democracy and e-participation
  • Benchmarking approaches to data and algorithmic governance
  • Building trust and transparency mechanisms in the fabric of the Web
  • Participatory frameworks for fair and efficient algorithmic governance

Deadline

  • January 29, 2021 (extended!) - Paper submission deadline. Papers submitted before the deadline will be reviewed upon receipt.

Author Guidelines

Submissions shall be made through the Semantic Web journal website at http://www.semantic-web-journal.net. Prospective authors must take notice of the submission guidelines posted at http://www.semantic-web-journal.net/authors.

Note that you need to request an account on the website for submitting a paper. Please indicate in the cover letter that it is for the "Semantic Technologies for Data and Algorithmic Governance" special issue. All manuscripts will be reviewed based on the SWJ open and transparent review policy and will be made available online during the review process.

Submissions are possible in the following categories: full research papers, surveys, application reports and case studies. While there is no upper limit, paper length must be justified by content.

Guest editors

Michel Dumontier, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Sabrina Kirrane, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Oshani Seneviratne, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

The guest editors can be reached at swjgovernance@googlegroups.com.

Guest Editorial Board

Piero Bonatti, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Rob Brennan, Dublin City University, Ireland
Christopher Brewster, TNO, The Netherlands
Mathieu D'Aquin, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland
Andre Dekker, MAASTRO Clinic, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Mauro Dragoni, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy
RV Guha, Google, USA
Olaf Hartig, Linköping University, Sweden
Benjamin Heitmann, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Oana Inel, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Maxime Lefrançois, MINES Saint-Etienne, France
Jamie McCusker, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
Alessandra Mileo, Dublin City University, Ireland
Inah Omoronyia, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Julian Padget, University of Bath, United Kingdom
Harshvardhan Pandit, ADAPT Centre, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Tassilo Pellegrini, University of Alpied Sciences St. Pölten, Austria
Pierangela Samarati, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy
Stefan Schlobach, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Patricia Serrano-Alvarado, Université de Nantes, France
Simon Steyskal, Siemens AG, Austria
Chang Sun, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
Ruben Taelman, DLab, Ghent University — imec, Belgium
Allan Third, The Open University, United Kingdom
Ilaria Tiddi, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Serena Villata, CNRS, France