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CALL FOR PAPERS

Journal of the American Society for Information Science 

Special Topic Issue on Individual Differences in Virtual Environments

Guest Editors: Chaomei Chen, Mary Czerwinski, & Robert Macredie

The next Special Topics Issue of the Journal of the American Society for
Information Science (JASIS), to be scheduled for late 1999 (vol. 50), will be
on the topic of Individual Differences in Virtual Environments. The guest
editors for this issue will be Dr. Chaomei Chen of Brunel University, Dr.
Mary Czerwinski of Microsoft Research, and Dr. Robert Macredie of Brunel
University.
The increasingly widespread use of virtual reality, visualisation and
simulation modelling techniques has highlighted the need for a better
understanding of a number of fundamental issues concerning human users in
a virtual environment. There is an urgent need for in-depth empirical studies
and methodologies for assessing the effectiveness and usability of a wide
variety of virtual environments in this context. For example, what are the
predominant human factors concerning the design of a virtual environment?
What is the role of individual differences in the use of a virtual
environment? How do we assess the effectiveness and usability of a virtual
reality application? How do we account for users' cognitive and behavioural
experiences in a virtual world? The aim of this special issue is to stimulate
inter-disciplinary interests in issues concerning human users in the design,
use, and evaluation of a virtual environment.
Specific topics of interest for this Special Topic Issue include, but are not
limited to, the following:
* individual differences in virtual environments,including spatial ability and
cognitive styles; 
* learning in virtual environments, including cognitive models, spatial
memory, incidental learning, categorisation and abstraction abilities; 
* usability and evaluation methodologies; 
* user preferences and satisfaction; 
* multi-user virtual environments, 3D interactive systems, spatial
hypermedia; 
* visualisation and simulation in virtual environments; 
* analysis and modelling of user behaviour, search strategies and navigation
heuristics; 
* automated virtual environment generation and transformation; 
* semantic structures and spatial structures in virtual environments.
Original papers relating to research in, but not restricted to, these topics are
invited for consideration for the special issue.
Inquiries (by voice, fax, or email) and manuscript submissions (four copies
of full articles) should be addressed to Dr Chen at the address below or (by
email) to the other guest editors at:
[log in to unmask]  or [log in to unmask] 
Manuscript submissions (four copies of full articles) should be addressed to:
Dr Chaomei Chen
Department of Information Systems & Computing
Brunel University
Uxbridge UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Tel: (+44) 1895 203080		Email:
[log in to unmask]		
Fax: (+44) 1895 251686		WWW:
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/~cssrccc2/
The deadline for accepting manuscripts for consideration for publication in
this special issue is September 30, 1998. All manuscripts will be reviewed by
a select panel of referees, and those accepted will be published in a special
issue of JASIS. Original artwork and a signed copy of the copyright release
form will be required for all accepted papers. A copy of the call for papers
will be available on the World-Wide Web, as is further information about
JASIS, at http://www.asis.org/. and at
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/~cssrccc2/cfp/jasis.html.

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