Upcoming issues:

ERCIM News 141, April 2025; special theme: Cultural AI
ERCIM News 142, July 2025; special theme: Swarm Computing 

ERCIM News No. 140 (January 2025)

DEADLINE FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: Thursday 5 December 2024

Please read the guidelines below before submitting an article.

A Word template for ERCIM News articles is available for download.

The sections of ERCIM News 140 are :

  • Joint ERCIM Actions
  • Special Theme: Large-Scale Data Analytics  
  • Research and Innovation
  • Events
  • In Brief

The Special Theme and the Research and Innovation sections contain articles presenting a panorama of European research activities. The Special Theme focuses on a sector that has been selected by the editors from a short list of currently "hot" topics whereas the Research and Innovation section contains articles describing scientific activities, research results, and technical transfer endeavours in any sector of Information and Communication Science and Technology (ICST), telecommunications or applied mathematics. Submissions to the Special Theme section are subjected to an external review process coordinated by invited guest editors whereas submissions to the Research and Innovation section are checked and approved by the ERCIM News editorial board.

Special Theme: Large-Scale Data Analytics  

Guest editors: 

  • Andras Benczur, SZTAKI
  • Dominik Ślęzak, University of Warsaw

Large-scale data analytics empowers organizations to harness the full potential of the vast amounts of data they generate and collect. By driving innovation, enhancing business operations, personalizing customer experiences, and improving risk management, insights derived from large-scale data analytics are critical for gaining a competitive advantage and making informed, data-driven decisions.

The ERCIM News Special Theme on Large-Scale Data Analytics invites contributions that explore its application across diverse sectors, industries, and societal challenges. We also encourage submissions that focus on cutting-edge techniques, such as machine learning, predictive modeling, and advanced analytics methods. With the exponential growth of data generated by businesses, consumers, and connected devices, submissions should address key challenges in handling Big Data, processing real-time information, and enabling timely, actionable insights. 

Topics include, but are not limited to::

  • Big Data Infrastructure and Technologies
    • Distributed data processing
    • Edge-Cloud continuum
    • Federated data analysis
    • Data analytics on cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure)
    • Cloud-native data pipelines and ETL processes
    • Serverless data analytics architectures
    • Cost-optimization in cloud-based data analytics
    • Scalable Data Integration and ETL
    • Data integration from heterogeneous sources
  • Machine Learning with Large Datasets
    • Scalable, distributed, and federated algorithms and architectures
    • Language Modeling on Large Datasets
    • Large-Scale Graph Analytics
    • Multi-GPU computation, scaling machine learning with TensorFlow or PyTorch
    • Handling imbalanced large-scale datasets
      • Feature engineering and selection for massive datasets
    • Data Quality and Cleaning for Large Datasets
      • Distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Dask)
    • Data Visualization for Big Data
  • Streaming Data Analytics
    • Real-time data processing with Apache Kafka
    • Streaming analytics platforms (e.g., Apache Storm, Spark Streaming)
    • Event-driven architectures
    • Online learning and incremental algorithms
  • Data Governance, Privacy, and Security in Large-Scale Analytics
    • Data privacy challenges in big data
    • Anonymization and de-identification techniques for large datasets
    • Data governance frameworks (e.g., GDPR compliance)
    • Security challenges in large-scale distributed systems
    • Auditing and monitoring big data environments
  • Big Data Verticals: Healthcare, Finance, IoT, Retail and e-commerce, Supply chain, Social media
  • Big Data Ethics and Social Implications
    • Ethical concerns in big data analytics
    • Bias and fairness in large-scale machine learning models
    • Societal impact of mass data collection and surveillance
    • Transparency and explainability in large-scale data systems

All articles have to be sent to the local editor for your country (see About ERCIM News) or to the central editor This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Reviewing:
Articles submitted to the special theme and the research and society sections are subject to a review process.

Guidelines for ERCIM News articles

Style: ERCIM News is read by a large variety of people. Keeping this in mind the article should be descriptive (emphasize more the 'what' than the 'how') without too much technical detail together with an illustration, if possible.

Contributions in ERCIM News are normally presented without formulas. One can get a long way with careful phrasing, although it is not always wise to avoid formulas altogether. In cases where authors feel that the use of formulas is necessary to clarify matters, this should be done in a separate box (to be treated as an illustration). However, formulas and symbols scattered through the text must be avoided as much as possible.

Length: Keep the article short, i.e. 800 +/- 100 words.

Format: Submissions preferably in ASCII text or MS Word. Pictures/Illustrations must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in a MS Word file) in a resolution/quality suitable for printing.

Structure of the article:
The emphasis in ERCIM News is on 'NEWS'. This should be reflected in both title and lead ('teaser').
Also: NO REVIEW ARTICLES!

  • Title
  • Author (full name, max. two or three authors)
  • Teaser:
    a few words about the project/topic. Printed in boldface, this part is intended to raise interest (keep it short).
  • Details describing:
    what the project/product is
    which institutions are involved
    where it takes place
    why the research is being done
    when it was started/completed the aim of the project
    the techniques employed
    the orientation of the project
    future activities
    other institutes involved in this project
    co-operation with other ERCIM members in this field
  • References:
    • 1 - max. 3 references are mandatory for special theme articles. For articles for the section "Research and Development", you can give up to three references (not mandatory)
    • Authors should preferably refer to important sources only (i.e. journal papers, books) and avoid meaningless references such as article in preparation, unpublished presentations, personal communications, research reports, patents, or local conference publications not listed in the major scientific digital libraries (such as IEEE, ACM, Springer).
    • The selected EN style is the shortened IEEE Citation Style.
    • The references should be as concise as possible and restricted to the minimal information needed. Avoid all unnecessary words (pages x pp., year, editors, location,...). Use acronyms instead of full conference names - OOPSLA x Object-Oriented Programming Systems, abbreviations (e.g. Conf. x Conference, IEEE TPAMI x IEEE Transaction on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, etc.).
    • Use et al. when three or more names are given.
  • Useful Link(s) (URLs separated from the references)
  • Contact address with:
    - full name of the author
    - phone number
  • Photos, illustrations:
    ERCIM News is a full-color print magazine. Each article should be accompanied by an illustration (photos, graphics), for example of the product, applications mentioned in the article, people working on the project, etc. (avoid as much as possible flow charts and screen dumps).
    Photos should be submitted in jpg or tiff format in a resolution suitable for printing (pictures taken from the web are usually in a quality suitable for printing), graphics in a vector format (svg, eps, pdf).

A Word template for ERCIM News articles is available for download.

Publishing in ERCIM News offers several advantages:

  • ERCIM News represents an excellent opportunity to present your research to a broad audience, also outside your own research community
  • ERCIM News is published in print and online and reaches about 10,000 readers
  • ERCIM News is widely distributed in the European Commission
  • ERCIM offers a free professional proof-reading service
  • Authors can reuse their articles; the copyright of the articles remains with the authors.
  • Articles of the sections "Special Theme" and "Research and Innovation" are referenced by DBLP and by Web of Science (from issue 104 onwards)