CFP: Argument & Computation: Trust, argumentation and technology

Special issue of Argument & Computation
Guest edited by Fabio Paglieri (ISTC-CNR Roma)
Deadline for submission: 15 December 2013

RATIONALE
Trust and argumentation have both been explored extensively, for their own
sake as well as in the context of their relevance for technological
transformations. More recently, these topics have started to be studied
together, with an eye to their numerous and deep interactions. Trust and
argumentation converge independently from technology (e.g., trust in
speakers often affect our assessment of their arguments), but recent ICT
developments have greatly magnified their interplay. The Internet presents
new challenges for trust in agents engaged in dialogical interactions, and
this is true for both human users and artificial agents. Two main areas of
convergence between trust, argumentation and technology can thus be
identified.

At the technological level, argument-based systems can improve the automatic
assessment of trustworthiness of information sources and service providers,
whereas trust dynamics can be usefully integrated in argumentation models
and negotiation protocols to improve their reliability, flexibility, and
adequacy to the needs of human end-users. More generally, trust and
argumentation are two key elements in so called Agreement Technologies, a
rapidly growing nexus of related research areas in computer sciences.
From a socio-cognitive and philosophical perspective, new technologies
create novel forms of interaction, with the concomitant need for
understanding how they impact users' argumentative practices and trust
dynamics. Many of the cues relevant to assess the speaker trustworthiness
and the merits of his/her arguments are absent in online interaction,
whereas new ones become available: thus current theories of trust and
argumentation have to be revised and updated, to deal with these new
scenarios. Besides, a better understanding of trust and argumentation in
technology-mediated interaction has key ramifications, both societal,
economical, and political.

Scholarly submissions in one or both of these broad areas of inquiry are
invited for this special issue. They will complement the list of invited
contributions, authored by (in alphabetical order): Leila Amgoud, Cristiano
Castelfranchi, Robert Demolombe, Andrew Koster, Fabio Paglieri, and Douglas
Walton. While papers from all disciplines are welcome, it is a requirement
for any submission to address all three focuses of interest for this special
issue (trust, argumentation, technology), as well as their mutual interplay.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Submitted papers will be first screened for eligibility by the guest editor:
to minimize the likelihood of early rejection of the full paper, authors are
strongly encouraged to send the editor an abstract of their paper by e-mail
([email protected]) well in advance to the actual submission, in
order to verify whether it fits with the aim of the special issue.
Instead, all full paper submissions must be made through the journal online
manuscript submission site (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tarc), in
accordance with the guidelines detailed on the journal website. Submissions
of full papers via e-mail will NOT be accepted. All submitted papers will
undergo double-blind peer-reviewing.

Each paper must NOT exceed 5000 words (the length of a Research Note on
A&C), references included. All submissions must be in English and original,
i.e., they cannot be published, in publication, or submitted for publication
in other journals or volumes, while under consideration for this issue. In
particular, papers must be prepared in accordance with the journal
guidelines, available at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=tarc20&page=instructions

RELEVANT DATES
Paper submission:             15 December 2013
Notification of acceptance:        15 February 2014
Expected date of publication:        Late 2014

For further information on this call, contact the guest editor, Fabio
Paglieri ([email protected]).