<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Dear
colleagues,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">To avoid a
clash with the AAMAS deadline, the deadline for this special issue of JAAMAS on
Multi-Objective Decision Making has been extended until December 1, 2021.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"><a href="https://www.springer.com/journal/10458/updates/18060632" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">https://www.springer.com/journal/10458/updates/18060632</span></a></span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">In recent years there has
been a growing awareness of the need for automated and assistive decision
making systems to move beyond single-objective formulations when dealing with
complex real-world issues, which invariably involve multiple competing
objectives. The purpose of this special issue is to promote collaboration and
cross-fertilisation of ideas between researchers working in different areas of
multi-objective decision making and on the topics of interest below, and to
provide a forum for dissemination of high-quality multi-objective decision
making research.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">The special issue (SI) targets high-quality original
papers covering all aspects of multi-objective decision making, including, but
not limited to, the list of topics below. Manuscripts that extend a previous
conference or workshop publication are welcome, provided that there is a
significant amount of new material in the submission (i.e. the manuscript
should contain at least 50% new material).</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Topics</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"></span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">The following is a non-exhaustive list of topics
that we would like to cover in the special issue:</span></p>
<ul type="disc" style="margin-bottom:0cm">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Multi-objective/multi-criteria/multi-attribute
decision making</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Multi-objective reinforcement learning</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Multi-objective planning and scheduling</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Multi-objective multi-agent decision making</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Multi-objective game theory</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Multi-objective/multi-criteria/multi-attribute
utility theory</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Preference elicitation for MODeM</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Social choice and MODeM</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Multi-objective decision support systems</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Multi-objective metaheuristic optimisation
(e.g. evolutionary algorithms) for autonomous agents and multi-agent
systems</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Multi-objectivisation</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Explainable MODeM</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Applications of MODeM</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Timeline</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"></span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto;color:red">Submission deadline: December 1, 2021</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"></span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Manuscript submissions will be considered for
publication in the MODeM special issue on a continuous basis until the
submission deadline. Submissions accepted for publication before the completion
of the special issue will be available on the journal website shortly after
acceptance.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Submission procedure</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"></span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Before submitting, authors should read the JAAMAS
submission guidelines at <a href="http://www.springer.com/10458" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">http://www.springer.com/10458</span></a> in
full. To submit, you should visit the online system at <a href="https://www.editorialmanager.com/agnt/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">https://www.editorialmanager.com/agnt/</span></a> and
create a new account if you do not already have one. When creating your
submission on the system, select the submission type "Manuscript",
and then in the "Additional Information" section, answer
"Yes" when asked if your manuscript belongs to a special issue, then
select "S.I. : Multi-Objective Decision Making (MODeM)". If you do
not mark your manuscript correctly as belonging to the MODeM special issue, it
may not reach the correct editors.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">If you are considering
submitting to the special issue, we would appreciate it if you could send a
brief email to <a href="mailto:patrick.mannion@nuigalway.ie" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)">patrick.mannion@nuigalway.ie</a>
with a tentative title and tentative list of authors. Announcing your intention
to submit to the SI is entirely optional, although it will help us greatly with
planning for the review and publication process for the SI in the coming
months.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">MODeM 2021 workshop</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"></span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">In support of this special issue, an online workshop
on Multi-Objective Decision Making (MODeM 2021) was held on 14, 15 and 16 July
2021 (see <a href="http://modem2021.cs.nuigalway.ie/" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">http://modem2021.cs.nuigalway.ie/</span></a> for
full details). We anticipate that extended versions of a number of MODeM 2021
papers will appear in this SI. The JAAMAS MODeM special issue has an open call
for papers, so we would also very much welcome original manuscripts that are
not based on a MODeM 2021 paper (e.g. extended versions of relevant work that
was presented at another conference or workshop, or indeed entirely new work
that has not previously appeared in an archival forum).</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Editors’ CVs</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"></span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Patrick Mannion</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"> is a Lecturer in the School
of Computer Science at National University of Ireland Galway, and also serves
as Deputy Editor of The Knowledge Engineering Review journal. He is a former
Irish Research Council Scholar, and a former Fulbright Scholar. Dr Mannion
served as Co-Chair for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 editions of the Adaptive and
Learning Agents workshop series. He is a co-author of the survey on
multi-objective multi-agent decision making that was recently published in
JAAMAS (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-019-09433-x" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-019-09433-x</span></a>).
His main research interests include (sequential) decision making, multi-agent
systems, multi-objective optimisation, game theory and metaheuristic
algorithms.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Diederik M. Roijers</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"> is a Senior Lecturer in
Technical Computer Science, and member of the Microsystems Technology research
group at HU University Of Applied Sciences Utrecht in the Netherlands, and
Senior Researcher at the AI research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in
Brussels, Belgium. He is a co-author of the survey on multi-objective
multi-agent decision making that was recently published in JAAMAS (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-019-09433-x" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-019-09433-x</span></a>),
and first author of the seminal survey on multi-objective decision making in
JAIR (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1613/jair.3987" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">http://dx.doi.org/10.1613/jair.3987</span></a>) as well
as the book on this topic in the Synthesis Lectures on Artificial Intelligence
and Machine Learning series from Morgan and Claypool (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2200/S00765ED1V01Y201704AIM034" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">http://dx.doi.org/10.2200/S00765ED1V01Y201704AIM034</span></a>).
His main research interests are reinforcement learning, decision-theoretic
planning and multi-agent systems, especially with multiple objectives.</span></p>
<p style="margin-right:0cm;margin-left:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Peter Vamplew</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"> is an Associate Professor in
Information Technology within the school of Engineering, Information Technology
and Physical Sciences at Federation University. He is currently an Associate
editor for Neurocomputing journal. He has been a pioneer in multi-objective
reinforcement learning research for over a decade, including co-authoring a key
survey of multi-objective sequential decision-making (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1613/jair.3987" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">http://dx.doi.org/10.1613/jair.3987</span></a>). His main
interests are the development, evaluation and application of multi-objective
reinforcement learning algorithms, particularly in the context of developing
safe and ethical autonomous agents.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto">Richard
Dazeley</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Roboto"> is an
Associate Professor of Computer Science at Deakin University (Geelong) where he
is the Deputy Leader of the Machine Intelligence Lab and Director of the Master
of Applied Artificial Intelligence. Along with over a dozen papers in
multi-objective reinforcement learning and optimisation he is also the
co-author of the seminal survey on multi-objective decision making in JAIR (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1613/jair.3987" target="_blank" style="color:rgb(5,99,193)"><span style="color:rgb(26,115,232)">http://dx.doi.org/10.1613/jair.3987</span></a>). He was a
member of the IEEE P7001 Transparency of Autonomous Systems working group and
has organised and served on numerous program committees for many leading
conferences such as ACKMIDS, AAMAS, PRICAI, IJCAI, ALA and regularly reviews
for leading journals e.g. AIJ, Neurocomputing, TKDE, JRPIT and KAIS. His
current research interests are in applying reinforcement learning and
multi-objective principles in the development of interactive, safe, ethical and
explainable systems.</span></p></div>