Crossposted from the SIGCIS list; may be of interest to STSers and 
modelling theorists -- JS

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[SIGCIS-Members] CFP: special issue of IEEE Software on
"Climate Change: Software, Science and Society"
Date: 	Tue, 28 Dec 2010 08:30:35 -0500
From: 	Paul Edwards <[log in to unmask]>

*
Please forward widely. I'm a co-editor on this special issue; happy to
answer any questions about scope.
*
*

- Paul Edwards
*
*
IEEE Software Special Issue on Climate Change: Software, Science and
Society*

Submission Deadline: 8 April 2011
Publication (tentative): Nov/Dec 2011

A vast software infrastructure underpins our ability to understand
climate change, assess the implications, and form suitable policy
responses. This software infrastructure allows large teams of scientists
to construct very complex models out of many interlocking parts, and
further allows scientists, activists and policymakers to share data,
explore scenarios, and validate assumptions. The extent of this
infrastructure is often invisible (as infrastructure often is, until it
breaks down), both to those who rely on it, and to interested observers,
such as politicians, journalists, and the general public. Yet weaknesses
in this software (whether real or imaginary) will impede our ability to
make progress on what may be the biggest challenge faced by humanity in
the 21st Century.

This special issue of IEEE Software will explore the challenges in
developing the software infrastructure for understanding and responding
to climate change. Our aim is to help bridge the gap between the
software community and the climate science community, by soliciting a
collection of articles that explain the nature and extent of this
software infrastructure, the technical challenges it poses, and the
current state-of-the-art.

We invite papers covering any of the software challenges involved in
creating this technical infrastructure, but please note that we are not
soliciting papers that discuss the validity of the science itself, or
which take sides in the policy debate on climate change.

We especially welcome review papers, which explain the current
state-of-the-art in some specific aspect of climate software in an
accessible way, and roadmap papers, which describe the challenges in the
construction and validation of this software. Suitable topics for the
special issue include (but are not restricted to):

- Construction, verification and validation of computational models and
data analysis tools used in climate science;
- Frameworks, coupling strategies and software integration issues for
earth system modeling;
- Challenges of scale and complexity in climate software, including high
data volumes and throughputs, massive parallelization and performance
issues, numerical complexity, and coupling complexity;
- Challenges of longevity and evolution of climate models codes,
including legacy code, backwards compatibility, and computational
reproducibility;
- Experiences with model ensembles and model inter-comparison projects,
particularly as these relate to software verification and validation;
- Meta-data standards and data management for earth system data,
including the challenge of making models and data self-describing;
- Coordination of cross-disciplinary teams in the development of
integrated assessment and decision support systems;
- The role of open science and usable simulation tools in increasing
public accessibility of climate science and public participation in
climate policy discussions;
- Case studies and lessons learned from application of software
engineering techniques within climate science.

Manuscripts must not exceed 4,700 words including figures and tables,
which count for 200 words each. Submissions in excess of these limits
may be rejected without refereeing. The articles we deem within the
theme's scope will be peer-reviewed and are subject to editing for
magazine style, clarity, organization, and space. Be sure to include the
name of the theme you are submitting for.

Articles should have a practical orientation, and be written in a style
accessible to software practitioners. Overly complex, purely
research-oriented or theoretical treatments are not appropriate.
Articles should be novel. IEEE Software does not republish material
published previously in other venues, including other periodicals and
formal conference/workshop proceedings, whether previous publication was
in print or in electronic form.

*Questions?
*
For more information about the special issue, contact the Guest Editors:

Steve Easterbrook, University of Toronto, Canada ([log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
Reinhard Budich, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Germany
([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
Paul N. Edwards, University of Michigan, USA ([log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
V. Balaji, NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, USA.
([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>)

For general author guidelines: www.computer.org/software/author.htm
<http://www.computer.org/software/author.htm>

For submission details: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>

To submit an article: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sw-cs


—————————————————
Paul N. Edwards, Professor of Information <http://www.si.umich.edu> and
History <http://www.lsa.umich.edu/history/>
Director, UM Program on Science, Technology & Society
<http://www.umich.edu/~umsts>
A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of
Global Warming <http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/vastmachine/index.html>
(MIT Press, 2010)

Terse replies are deliberate <http://five.sentenc.es/> (and better than
nothing)
University of Michigan School of Information <http://www.si.umich.edu/>
3439 North Quad
105 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285
(734) 764-2617 (office)
(206) 337-1523 (fax)
pne.people.si.umich.edu <http://pne.people.si.umich.edu>