OSNEM Special Issue: Disinformation, toxicity, harms in Online Social Networks and Media (Deadline: March 31st, 2025)

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Elsevier Online Social Networks and Media Journal (OSNEM)

Special issue on
Disinformation, toxicity, harms in Online Social Networks and Media

Submission Deadline: Continuous submissions until March 31st, 2025
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/online-social-networks-and-media
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Online Social Networks and Media have revolutionized society, and are now a=
 key part of how most people work, live, socialize, find information and en=
tertain themselves. But whilst they have generated huge benefits, leading t=
o unprecedented connectivity across the globe, online social networks have =
also enabled the spread of hazardous and dangerous behaviours. Chiefly, thi=
s is generated by disinformation campaign and fake news, generation and spr=
ead of toxic content, deliberate or unconscious generation and spreading of=
 harmful content. Generative AI is exponentially exacerbating the diffusion=
 of toxic content, while, quite interestingly, not being equally used to co=
unteract harmful behaviours. On the other hand, content moderation techniqu=
es are emerging, aiming at providing practical tools to fight against onlin=
e harms driven by toxic content.

This special issue seeks high-quality scientific articles which examine, vi=
a a data-driven approach, the emergence of harmful behaviours in OSNEM, as =
well as tools and methods to fight against them. We particularly encourage =
papers which focus on online hate, misinformation, disinformation, toxic co=
ntent. Data-driven approaches, supported by existing or new publicly availa=
ble datasets, are strongly encouraged. Within this framework, topics includ=
e, but are not limited to:

- The efficacy, usability and appropriateness of different technological co=
unter measures to tackle online harms;
- The impact of large trigger events, such as COVID19.
- Niche and smaller online platforms, including how they differ from mainst=
ream spaces.
- Modelling and analysis techniques to predict online harms, as well as the=
ir dynamics and associated factors.
- Modelling and analysis techniques to study the dynamics of disinformation=
 and harms spread;
- Techniques to detect and categorise online harms.
- The role of (generative) AI with respect to online harms creation and fig=
hting.
- Biases in methods and analyses, including how explainable, accessible, fa=
ir, transparent and interpretable they are.
- Integrated analysis of different online harms (e.g. studying how misinfor=
mation, hate and extremism intersect).
- Cross-platform and inter-platform dynamics, such as user migration from m=
ainstream to niche or emerging spaces.
- Strategies for online harm dissemination used by malicious actors and oth=
ers.
- Reputation systems to support the detection - or mitigate the effects - o=
f online harms.
- Computational fact-checking for OSNEM.


Online Social Networks and Media is a multidisciplinary journal for the wid=
e community of computer and network scientists working on developing OSNEM =
platforms and services and using OSNEM as a big data source to mine, learn =
and model the (online) human behaviour. Manuscripts only based on questionn=
aires, even focused on the reported use of social media, are outside the sc=
ope of the journal. On the other hand, the journal welcomes papers which pr=
esent analyses based on big data mined from social networks/media.

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Schedule=20
  Manuscript submission deadline: continuous submission until March 31st, 2=
025 (*)
  First notification: two months after the submission
  Expected publication: papers are published a few weeks after acceptance.

Guest Editors
  Marco Conti, IIT-CNR, Italy
  Andrea Passarella, IIT-CNR, Italy
  Arkaitz Zubiaga, Queen Mary University of London, UK
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Instructions for submission

Manuscripts must not have been previously published nor currently under rev=
iew by other journals or conferences. If prior work was published in a conf=
erence, the submitted manuscript should include a substantial extension of =
at least 35% novel contributions. In this case, authors are also required t=
o submit their published conference articles and a summary document explain=
ing the enhancements made in the journal version.

The submission website for this journal is located at https://www2.cloud.ed=
itorialmanager.com/osnem/default2.aspx. Please select ''VSI:disinformation-=
toxicity-harms'' when you reach the ''Article Type'' step in the submission=
 process. To ensure that all manuscripts are correctly identified, for cons=
ideration by the special issue, the authors should indicate in the cover le=
tter that the manuscript has been submitted for the special issue on =E2=80=
=9CDisinformation, toxicity, harms=E2=80=9D.

(*) Manuscripts can be submitted continuously until the deadline. Once a pa=
per is submitted, the review process will start immediately. Accepted paper=
s will be published continuously in the journal (in the first issue availab=
le as soon as the paper is accepted). All accepted papers will be listed to=
gether in an online virtual special issue published in the journal website.

For further information, please contact the guest editors at {m.conti,a.pas=
sarella} at iit.cnr.it, a.zubiaga at qmul.ac.uk

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