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CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue on “Social Robotics Business and Computing”
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Information Systems Frontiers (ISF)

URL: https://www.springer.com/journal/10796/updates/17193440

Social robots, also called companion robots (or service robots), are a physical humanoid robot that connects through a network infrastructure to online services that enhance traditional robot functionalities. They offer features such as human facial, voice and emotion recognition, including adding human-like personality to their Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities to achieve better human-machine communication. Social robots can interact with humans by performing tasks that adhere to specific social cues and rules. To accomplish this, they can now easily capture a user’s physical activity state (e.g., walking, standing, running, etc.) and store personalized information (e.g., face, voice, location, activity pattern, etc.) through the camera, microphone, and sensors of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. As such, social robots can behave like natural partners for social interaction with humans, with features such as speech, gestures, and eye-gaze, that can be customized to a particular user and/or social context. 

Unfortunately, advances in robotics have far outpaced our understanding of the social implications of their use (You and Robert 2018). Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is a research area whose purpose is to addresses the large and important questions at the heart designing and evaluating robots for use by or with humans. This special issue will set the baseline for understanding how HRI is likely to influence and change our business practices and lifestyle. This special issue calls for research papers in the emerging area of the use of companion robots in different business application domains (e.g., customer service, healthcare management, etc.). 

In addition to this public call for papers, this special issue also invites selected best papers from the mini-tracks “Human-Robot Interactions” and "Social Robots - Robotics and Toy Computing" from the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Each invited paper will be requested to substantially extend its proceedings version by introducing (30% or more) new materials. Each submission will be reviewed by at least three reviewers.

Submission Instructions
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Manuscripts must be submitted in PDF format to the ISF-Springer online submission system at http://www.editorialmanager.com/isfi/ and the authors need to select "Special Issue: Social Robotics Business and Computing" during the submission process. Paper submissions must conform to the format guidelines of Information Systems Frontiers available at http://www.springer.com/business/business+information+systems/journal/10796. Submissions should be approximately 32 pages double spaced including references.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
* Data modeling, analytics, and algorithms for robotic computing
* Business models for robots
* The conceptual and technical architecture for robotic computing
* Security, privacy, and trust in robots
* Industry standards and solution stacks in robots
* Promoting cooperative and collaborative interaction with robots
* Uncanny Valley Theory in robots
* User experience in robotic computing
* Examining uncooperative and adversarial HRI
* The role of adoption and appropriation in HRI
* Empirical studies examining the cognitive, psychological, emotional, and social aspects of HRI
* The impact of haptic feedback and touch on HRI
* The role of robot attractiveness on HRI
* Ethics on HRI
* Social-emotional models of HRI
* Theoretical frameworks for HRI
* Design implications for robot interactions at home, work, and public spaces
* Human-oriented practices that promote HRI
* New methodological approaches to studying HRI
* Case Studies (e.g., healthcare, customer service, aviation, etc.)

Important dates (extended!)
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Paper submission deadline: March 1, 2021
Notification of first-round reviews: May 1, 2021
Revised manuscripts due: June 1, 2021
Notification of second-round reviews: August 1, 2021
Revised manuscripts due: September 1, 2021
Notification of final decision: November 1, 2021
Final version due: December 1, 2021

Guest editors
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Lionel P. Robert Jr., University of Michigan, USA 
Marcelo Fantinato, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Sangseok You, HEC Paris, France
Patrick C. K. Hung, Ontario Tech University, Canada