CFP: Topical Collection on Explainable Sequential Decision-Making

[Sarath Sreedharan]

Url: https://link.springer.com/journal/521/updates/26316146

We are happy to announce a new venue for your work on explainable AI involving autonomous agents or sequential decision-making settings in the widest sense: the 𝙏𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙣 𝙀𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝘿𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣-𝙈𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 in Neural Computing and Applications (impact factor 6.0).

The focus of this topical collection is on XAI for systems that are required to make a sequence of decisions to achieve their goals or objectives. This stands in contrast to the substantial existing work on interpretable machine learning, which generally focuses on the single input-output mappings of "black box" models such as neural networks. While such ML models are an important tool, intelligent behavior extends over time and needs to be explained and understood as such.

This topical collection targets high-quality original papers covering all aspects of explainable sequential decision-making. Manuscripts that extend a previous conference or workshop publication are welcome, provided that there is a significant amount (at least 30%) of new material in the submission. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

 • Explainable/interpretable/intelligible reinforcement learning
 • Explainable planning and search
 • Explainability in Multi-Agent Systems
 • Explainability for and through negotiations or argumentation
 • Extended explanatory dialogue with users
 • Modeling users over extended interactions
 • Explanation-aware sequential decision-making
 • Foundational frameworks for formalizing and evaluating explainable agency in sequential decision-making settings
 • Integration of explainable agents and explainable deep learning, e.g. when DL models are guiding agent behaviors
 • User interfaces/visualizations for explaining agent behavior, learning or planning
 • Evaluation methods for explainable sequential decision-making systems
 • Explainability for embodied systems/robotics
 • Other practical applications for explainability in sequential or goal-oriented tasks, e.g., in planning/scheduling, pathfinding, etc.
 • Policy/plan summarization
 • Cognitive theories
 • Empirical studies in explainable sequential decision-making

Timeline:
Manuscript submissions will be considered for publication on a continuous basis until the submission deadline. We aim for a first decision within three months of submission, and manuscripts accepted for publication will be available on the journal website shortly after acceptance. The final submission deadline is 1st January 2025.

Submission procedure:
Please check https://link.springer.com/journal/521/updates/26316146
If you are considering submitting to the TC, we would appreciate it if you could send a brief email to h.j.s...@tue.nl with a tentative title and tentative list of authors. Announcing your intention to submit to the TC is entirely optional, although it will help us greatly with planning for the review and publication process for the TC in the coming months.

Guest Editors:
Hendrik Baier (Lead Guest Editor), Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, h.j.s...@tue.nl
Sarath Sreedharan, Colorado State University, USA, ssre...@colostate.edu

Looking forward to your submissions! Please direct any questions to the Lead Guest Editor at h.j.s...@tue.nl