Call for Papers-Special Issue on “Computing and Digitalization through a Multi-Disciplinary Lens”

Submission deadline: 30 September 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and the Internet of Things are among the most significant drivers of change worldwide. Recent years have witnessed explosive growth in computing services and computing-related infrastructure (data centers, energy generation and transmission, water conveyance, semiconductor manufacturing, and material supply chains), with disruptive implications for society. Given myriad uncertainties for the future, multi-disciplinary research is crucial to understanding developments in this space going forward.

This Special Issue welcomes accessible, decision-relevant research geared toward informing solutions and strategies relevant to overcoming the challenges linked with next-generation computing and digitalization, particularly implications for energy, climate change, and more broadly resources and the environment. The complexity of these inter-connected topics calls for research spanning diverse fields – from engineering to computer science, to the social sciences and humanities – and relying on a wealth of methods and approaches (e.g., modeling and simulation, geospatial and empirical analysis, use-cases and qualitative methods).

The Special Issue invites both full-length research articles and shorter perspective and commentary pieces. The latter, while still peer-reviewed, offers an outlet for making bigger-picture points, broaching nascent topics, and sparking new conversations, yet do not require original research.

Papers in the Special Issue will be reviewed, revised, and published on a rolling basis. The 2026-27 timeline ensures compatibility with the literature cut-off dates of the IPCC 7th Assessment Report process, and relevant papers are expected to form an important knowledge base for several chapters within the AR7.

Guest editors:

• David McCollum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN USA;
• Elena Verdolini, University of Brescia & CMCC, Brescia, Italy;
• Te Han, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China;
• Andrés Clarens, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA USA;

Special issue information:

Content for the Special Issue may fall into (but is not limited to) the following categories:

• Techno-process analyses, related to hardware-software-algorithmic innovations and their scaled impacts on efficiencies, costs, critical materials, and more; (e.g., techno-economic analysis, life-cycle assessment, technological learning and diffusion, digital twin simulation, advanced computing architectures);
• Socio-institutional analyses, concerned with behavior and decision-making of individuals, businesses, and governments in response to rising computing demand, AI-enabled services, digital infrastructure deployment, and related policies shaping energy use, resource consumption, climate impacts, workforce transitions and sustainable development (e.g., economics, legal studies, survey research, expert elicitation, content analysis, stakeholder engagement);
• Macro-systems analyses, exploring societal-scale and economy-wide interactions with future computing technology and digitalization paradigms (e.g., energy systems modeling, power grid analysis, integrated assessment, agent-based modeling, system dynamics, input-output material flows, decision-making under deep uncertainty)

The Special Issue purposefully casts a wide topical net and intentionally seeks contributions that transcend discipline-specific journals. Papers that cover more than one domain area and/or employ a combination of methodologies are particularly encouraged.

Manuscript submission information:

You are invited to submit your manuscript to the journal’s submission platform Editorial Manager before Sept 30, 2026. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript, and select the article type “VSI: Computing and Digitalization” when submitting your manuscript online.

For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, please contact the executive guest editor [David McCollum](mailto: mccollumdl@ornl.gov).

Additional information at https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/energy-and-climate-change