The organization of this Special Track on “Case Studies and Methodologies,” has been inspired by professor T. Grandon Gill’s book Informing with the Case Method (2011, Informing Science Press). From this book it becomes evident that “Case Studies and Methodologies” are probably one of the best means to effectively relate different disciplines and integrate research, education, and consulting activities.

This fact motivated the program co-chairs of this special track on “Case Studies and Methodologies” (stCSM 2025) to organize it via invited session(s), and conversational session(s), jointly with:

• Special Track on Integrating Research, Education, and Problem Solving IREPS 2025, and
• Special Track on Interdisciplinary Research, Education, and Communication: IDREC 2025

Publications

All accepted and presented articles will be included in the IMSCI 2025 proceedings. IMSCI proceedings have been indexed by Elsevier-Scopus since 2007. A special issue of the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics will be published on Case Studies if an adequate number on submission are submitted, accepted and presented at the special track. Otherwise, best papers will be published in regular issues. JSCI is indexed by EBSCO, Cabell, DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), Academic Journals Database, and Google Scholar and Listed in
Cabell Directory of Publishing Opportunities and in Ulrich’s Periodical Directory.

Synergic relationships with IDREC/IREPS 2025

Since “Case Studies and Methodologies” nurture, and are nurtured by, processes of 1) integrating academic activities and 2) Interdisciplinary Research, Education, and Communication, the purpose of co-organizers of this special track is to generate synergic relationships among the three events: IDREC 2025, IREPS 2025, and stCSM 2025. Figure 1 schematically shows the relationships among the three kinds of activities to be presented at the three mentioned events. Cybernetic loops of regulative and positive feedback might generate synergic effects among the three of them.

Figure 1

Figure 2 shows the positioning of research in “Case Studies and Methodologies” with respect to other form of research.

The Co-Organizers are planning to include in the program of the collocated events, at least, traditional sessions where peer-reviewed-papers will be presented and/or a conversational session(s).

The number of invited sessions with presentations of articles will depend on the number of submissions made as a result of this call for participation and on those which are accepted for their presentation at the respective breakout session.

The main areas/Topics of stCSM 2025 are the following:

• Case Methods and Methodologies
• Case Studies Research
• Case Studies in Education
• Case Studies in STEM Education
• Consulting Case Studies
• Business Case Studies
• Case Studies in Management
• Information Systems Case Studies
• Software Engineering Case Studies
• Engineering Case Studies
• Medical and Health Care Case Studies
• Case Studies in Science
• Ethical Case Studies
• Case Studies or reports related to any of the topics of the collocated events listed in the general call for papers at https://www.iiis.org/cfp-summer2025.asp

Virtual Sessions

Face-to-face sessions of all events will have associated virtual pre- and post-conference sessions where registered participants can comment each paper in a forum associated to it. Registered participant at any event will have a password to access any virtual session of any collocated event.

Technical Keynote Speakers

Technical keynote speakers will be selected from early submissions because this selection requires an additional evaluation according to the quality of the paper, assessed by its reviewers, the authors' CV and the paper's topic.

Reviewing Process

All Submitted papers will go through three reviewing processes: (1) double-blind (at least three reviewers), (2) non-blind, and (3) participative peer reviews. Final acceptance depends of the three kinds of reviews but a paper should be recommended by non-blind reviewers AND blind reviewers in order to be accepted for presentation at the conference and to be included in the respective conference proceedings. A recommendation to accept made by non-blind reviewers is a necessary condition, but it is not a sufficient one. A submission, to be accepted, should also have a majority of its double-blind reviewers recommending its acceptance. This double necessary conditions generate a more reliable and rigorous reviewing than a those reviewing methods based on just one of the indicated methods, or just on the traditional double-blind reviewing. More details regarding this issue can be found at https://www.iiis.org/iiis/PeerReviewing.asp.

The three kinds of reviews mentioned above will support the selection process of those papers/abstracts that will be accepted for their presentation at the conference, as well as those to be selected for their publication in JSCI Journal. Details regarding the Acceptance Policy can be found at https://www.iiis.org/iiis/AcceptancePolicy.asp.

Authors of accepted papers who registered in the conference can have access to the evaluations and possible feedback provided by the reviewers who recommended the acceptance of their papers/abstracts, so they can accordingly improve the final version of their papers. Non-registered authors will not have access to the reviews of their respective submissions.

Virtual Participation

Submissions for Face-to-Face or for Virtual Participation are both accepted. Both kinds of submissions will have the same reviewing process and the accepted papers will be included in the same proceedings.
Pre-Conference and Post-conference Virtual sessions (via electronic forums) will be held for each session included in the conference program, so that sessions papers can be read before the conference, and authors presenting at the same session can interact three days before and during the conference, as well as up to three weeks after the conference is over. Authors can also participate in peer-to-peer reviewing in virtual sessions.

Invited Sessions Organizers

Registration fees of an effective invited session organizers will be waived according to the policy described in the web page (click on 'Invited Session', then on 'Benefits for the Organizers of Invited Sessions'), where you can get information about the ten benefits for an invited session organizer. To propose the organization of an Invited Session, please visit the conference website, and go to the menu option “Invited Sessions” and then to the menu sub-option “Invited Sessions Organizers.”

Best Papers

Authors of the best 25%-30% of the papers presented at the conference (included those virtually presented) will be invited to adapt their papers for their publication in the Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics.

One best paper of each session included in the program will be selected by the respective session’s co-chairs after consulting with the session’s audience. Invited Sessions organizers will select the best paper of the session they organized. If there is a tie in a given session, the paper that will be selected as the best session’s paper will be the one which have had the highest quantitative evaluations average according to its double-blind and non-blind reviews.

The selection process of the best 25%-30%, to be also published in the Journal, will be based on the sessions' best papers and the quantitative evaluation average made by its anonymous and non-anonymous reviewers. The later will be applied to papers which acceptance was based on reviews made to draft papers. Reviews of abstracts and extended abstracts will not be valid for selecting best papers according to the quantitative evaluation of the respective submissions.