Editorial

Citation

Ramage, M. (2014), "Editorial", Kybernetes, Vol. 43 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-12-2013-0262

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Kybernetes, Volume 43, Issue 1

Welcome to the first issue of volume 43. In this volume, we plan to have five special issues and five general issues. The special issues will be concerned with tourism management, information, and cybernetics; the first of these was the result of a call for papers, while the second is the Proceedings of the Conference the Difference that Makes a Difference 2013, Milton Keynes, UK, April 2013, and third is the Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the American Society for Cybernetics, Bolton, UK, July-August 2013. The other five issues will continue the wide blend of cybernetics, systems thinking, and management science, that makes this journal distinctive.

At the start of this new volume, we would like to remind potential authors of the importance of adhering to the author guidelines when submitting manuscripts. These can be found inside the back cover of the printed journal and on the web site at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=k. Manuscripts which deviate too far from the guidelines will be returned without being reviewed.

We would also like to reemphasise the journal’s policy on readability and links to cybernetics. Kybernetes is a broad journal for a general readership in the fields of cybernetics, systems and management science. It is not a journal of applied mathematics or control theory, and articles which are purely focused within these areas will be rejected without review. We repeat here the following extract from our editorial in the first issue of volume 42 (Ramage et al., 2013):

We therefore ask that authors are always mindful of the non-specialist reader of their article, and we specifically ask authors to ensure that the introductory section of their paper provides a high level overview of the context, nature and significance of their paper, written in a style that should be accessible to all readers of the journal.

As a result of this view, we have also formulated an early editorial policy in one particular area. We will require highly mathematical articles to make the cybernetic context of the mathematics explicit. We will expect articles whose main focus is mathematical to demonstrate their connection to past work in cybernetics/systems through clear references (to this or other relevant journals, or established books in the field); or alternatively to give a clear demonstration of the significance of their work in an English-language description, which shows the application of the work to some practical area. Articles received which are purely mathematical with neither cybernetic nor practical contextualisation will be returned to their authors without review, with an explanation of this policy.

This does not mean we will reject papers with a strong mathematical content. Norbert Wiener himself was a mathematician, and there have been much excellent work in cybernetics and systems with considerable amount of mathematics. It merely means we wish to see mathematical articles in Kybernetes to be distinctively cybernetic, rather than those which could just as well fit into a maths journal.

The goal of this policy is to improve quality for all readers and among all articles. We would be happy to discuss this policy by email with any reader or potential author.

In this issue, we are pleased to present eight papers, three of which form a linked series of conceptual articles. Although the majority of our articles have a maximum of 6,000 words, we are occasionally are able to present longer work by means of a series of articles, of which this forms an example; although clearly the level of quality of such a series needs to be especially high to merit space across several articles.

Zhang et al. present a model of cost-effective decision-making, specifically around the investment to be made in an electrical power transformer. Their model is based on grey correlation analysis, a branch of grey systems theory concerned with the correlation between system samples in situations of missing or incomplete information. They apply their model to a specific example, of purchasing a new transformer in a power station in Wuhan, China.

Ahmad and Mat Tahar also analyse issues around electricity development. Their study concerns the development of renewable energy policy in Malaysia. Using system dynamics, they analyse the current state of energy policy in the country, and compare a range of possible renewable sources. Their analysis is specific to Malaysia but is generalisable to other developing countries.

Meng et al. discuss transport policy, and specifically planning for emergencies in railway networks. In a growing high-speed railway infrastructure, such as that found in China, serious consideration needs to be given to the correct handling of disasters. The authors present a model based on both optimisation and simulation for railway line planning. Although the article is focused on China, the current interest in high-speed rail in a number of other countries makes the work widely applicable.

Purushotham and Tripathy look at satellite imagery, and compare the effectiveness of a number of different algorithms for analysing such images, widely used for a range of applications. They particularly advocate a clustering algorithm by the name of rough intuitionistic fuzzy c-means (RIFCM). They analyse this algorithm in comparison to others across a range of metrics.

Berrar and Schuster discuss the potential for creativity in artificial intelligence, through an extension of the Turing Test. Starting with a discussion of various aspects of the Turing Test, they then consider requirements for a comparable test that would cover creativity, to understand the question: "can machines be creative?"

The issue concludes with a series of three conceptual articles by Yolles and Fink, which discuss personality, pathologies and mindsets. The series aims to develop a socio-cognitive theory of the personality of a social system consisting of multiple individuals (for example an organisation), drawing upon a number of sources. The series draws upon a body of theoretical ideas, including (among others) Yolles’ living systems theory, Maruyama’s mindscape theory, Sagiv and Schwartz’s work on organisational value systems, and Sorokin’s theory of cultural dynamics.

Part 1 of the Yolles and Fink’s series of articles is concerned with the nature of agency and personality as it applies in a multi-agent system; it also discusses the concept of mindscapes, a way of analysing the nature of a culture. Part 2 of the series extends the mindscape model into a set of mindsets, by looking at several different cultural traits through the work of a number of authors, each of which can be defined in terms of bi-polar values called enantiomers; the model explores the nature of each of these traits and their enantiomers, as well as the dynamic behaviour and relationship between the traits. Part 3 of the series draws the papers together by looking at pathological behaviour in cultural mindsets, looking at the reasons why pathologies arise, and the specific nature of corruption as a pathology; this article also draws the three parts together.

We hope you enjoy the range of ideas and in this issue, and look forward to many more interesting articles in this volume. We welcome responses or discussion pieces arising from any of these articles.

Magnus Ramage, Chris Bissell and David Chapman

References

Ramage, M., Bissell, C. and Chapman, D. (2013), "Living in a time of change", Kybernetes, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 5–12