CFP: "Online Advertising and Sponsored Search" for JECR

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of
Journal of Electronic Commerce Research on
ONLINE ADVERTISING AND SPONSORED SEARCH


GUEST EDITOR
Kerem Tomak, Principal Research Scientist, Search and Marketplace Design,
Yahoo.com, [email protected]


OVERVIEW
According to a recent emarketer report, the number of US search engine
users in 2006 grew to 144.5 million and expected to increase to 166.2
million by 2010. This corresponds to a search engine user base of 50.5% of
the US population. Advertisers of all sizes see the opportunity in reaching
to this mass of consumers. They spent close to $10 billion in 2005 and
expected to spend double this amount in 2006.
Such monetization of search also attracts fraud. In recent lawsuits against
Google and Yahoo, advertisers aim to be guarded against fraudulent click
activity which leads to artificially inflated ad rates. Businesses around
the world can decrease rivals' margins and exhaust their advertising
budgets by repeatedly clicking on pay-per-click ads. Some estimates
indicate that  more than 15% of clicks are fake.  One way of detecting
click fraud is via data mining tools and techniques. Another way is by
changing pricing mechanisms and the way revenue is shared through user
activity on web sites.
Online advertising market is expanding at a warp speed yet, research on
search marketing as well as online advertising in general remains in its
infancy. There is a need for comprehensive research studies on, for
example, detecting click fraud, new pricing mechanisms to increase
incentives to participate in online ad markets, increasing search relevance
among many others. Another related and topical issue is how to design
market mechanisms which increase both search relevance and revenues for all
participants. In general, search marketing places new and challenging
demands on marketplace design in electronic commerce. The primary goal of
the proposed special issue of Journal of Electronic Commerce Research is to
foster research on the interplay between economics, marketing, computer
science aspects of online advertisement.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
We invite scholars and professionals from a broad range of disciplines to
submit to this Special Issue. Papers may encompass any or all of the
following: theoretical analyses, modelling, simulation, and empirical
studies. Authors may examine different aspects of sponsored search and
online advertisement in any of a variety of possible contexts. Special
topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
* Economic and computational design of sponsored search auctions
* Detecting Click Fraud
* Search relevance
* Online ad placement on search results
* Understanding why consumers click on sponsored search
* Bid ranking mechanisms
* Use of algorithmic mechanism design in sponsored search
* Pricing mechanisms for selling online ads
* Contextual online advertising
* Local search
* Search engine marketing
* Incentive compatible pricing of keywords online
* Marketplace design for sponsored search
* Efficiency of online advertisements in forming users’ purchase behaviour
* Understanding metrics for assessing conversions online
* Data mining for online advertisement and sponsored search
* Standards for click quality
* Use of machine learning in sponsored search, search relevance and related
topics

Important Dates:
Deadline for Submission: March 1, 2007
Paper acceptance/rejection: June 1, 2007
Revised paper submission: August 1, 2007
Final paper submission: September 15, 2007
Publication date: November 2007

Submission Guidelines:
JECR publishes original empirical research, theoretical and methodological
articles,
evaluative and integrative reviews, field research, business surveys, and
application papers of
interest to a general readership. A submission based on a paper appearing
elsewhere (such as
conference proceedings or newsletters) must have major value-added
extensions to the earlier
version. For conference papers, it should have at least 30% new material.
The submitted
manuscripts should follow the format as suggested in the Submission
Guideline found in the
journal website: http://www.csulb.edu/journals/jecr/s_guide.htm
Of particular note is that the manuscript should be prepared in Microsoft
Word format. The
names, affiliations, and contact information (i.e., phone, fax, email
addresses) of all authors
should be provided only on the cover page. The submitted paper will undergo
a double-blind
review. Contributing authors may be asked to serve as reviewers for the
special issue. Submitted papers will be screened for fitness and reasonable
quality; if a submitted paper does not fit the special issue or not in
publishable format, it will be returned right away.
 Authors may submit completed manuscripts electronically at any time prior
to the March
1st 2007 deadline. Manuscripts and any questions should be directed to:

Kerem Tomak, Ph.D.
Yahoo! Search and Marketplace
2811 Mission college Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95054
e-mail: [email protected]
Tel: (408) 349 6513
Fax: (408) 349 3301