[agents] OSNEM Special Issue: Media: Information and Opinion Diffusion in Online Social Networks and Media - Deadline July 31st

[Andrea Passarella]

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Elsevier Online Social Networks and Media Journal (OSNEM)

Special issue on
Information and Opinion Diffusion in Online Social Networks and Media

Submission Deadline: July 31st, 2021
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/online-social-networks-and-media/
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Information diffusion in Online Social Networks and Media  (OSNEM) has a major role, among many others, for recommendation systems, advertising, and political campaigns. Moverover, the way information circulates in OSNEM impacts on the formation of opinions and on the social roles of users and their influence on others. The OSNEM role in information and opinion diffusion has dramatically increased since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many physical activities being "migrated" to the online world.

OSNEM are extensively used for spreading information, opinions and ideas, but also to propagate fake news and rumors and these threats to trust in information are posing even more serious socio-economic challenges during the pandemic. Therefore, prevention of spam, bots and fake accounts, information leakage,  trustworthiness of information and  trust between users are relevant research issues associated with information diffusion. Investigating ways through which information and opinion spread can be controlled (e.g., by modifying the underlying network structure) is also fundamental. 

This special issue seeks contributions pushing the state of the art in all facets of information and opinion diffusion in Online Social Networks and Media. We solicit manuscripts where quantitative and/or data-driven approach is used to investigate information and opinion diffusion in OSNEM.

Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Dynamics of trends, information and opinion diffusion in OSNEM
- Recommendations and advertising in OSNEM
- Spread of news, topics, and opinions
- Trust, reputation, privacy in OSNEM information and opinion diffusion
- Rumors and fake news spreading in OSNEM
- Information and disinformation diffusion in OSNEM at the time of COVID-19
- Opinion formation, diffusion and polarization related to COVID-19
- Bots and fake users detection
- Influence analysis and social influence
- Identification of diffusion sources and influencers
- Methods to modify/control/maximise information and opinion diffusion
- Measurements of information and opinion diffusion in OSNEM
- Models of information and opinion diffusion
- Data-driven approaches to study information and opinion diffusion in OSNEM

Online Social Networks and Media is a multidisciplinary journal for the wide community of computer and network scientists working on developing OSNEM platforms and services and using OSNEM as a big data source to mine, learn and model the (online) human behaviour. 
Manuscripts only based on questionnaires, even focused on the reported use of social media, are outside the scope of the journal. On the other hand, the journal welcomes papers which present analyses based on big data mined from social networks/media.

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Schedule 
  Manuscript submission deadline: July 31st, 2021
  First notification: September 30th, 2021
  Expected publication: Q4 2021

Guest Editors
  Marco Conti, IIT-CNR, Italy
  Andrea Passarella, IIT-CNR, Italy
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Instructions for submission

Manuscripts must not have been previously published nor currently under review
by other journals or conferences. Papers previously published in conference proceedings are eligible for submission if the submitted manuscript is a substantial revision and extension of the conference version. In this case, authors should indicate the previous publication(s) in the cover letter and are also required to submit their published conference article(s) and a summary document explaining the enhancements made in the journal version. The submission website for this journal is located at
https://www.editorialmanager.com/osnem/default.aspx. 

Please select ''VSI: Information and Opinion'' when you reach the ''Article Type'' step in the submission process.
To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified, for consideration by the special issue, the authors should indicate in the cover letter that the manuscript has been submitted for the special issue on ''info diffusion''.

Manuscripts can be submitted continuously until the deadline. Once a paper is submitted, the review process will start immediately. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (in the first issue available as soon as the paper is accepted). All accepted papers will be listed together in an online virtual special issue published in the journal website.

For further information, please contact the guest editors at
osnem at iit.cnr.it