Call for papeers

Published: February 22, 2017

Guest Editors:

Richard E. Ferdig, Kent State University, USA

Kristine E. Pytash, Kent State University, USA

Elyse Graham, SUNY Stony Brook, USA

Glenn W. Muschert, Miami University, USA

A special issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research to be published 2017 Q2

Motivation and Scope

We live in an era of digitally-mediated relationships. From finding a spouse online to daily interactions facilitated through social media, it is difficult for many people to imagine building and sustaining both platonic and romantic relationships without technology. Virtual worlds are no strangers to these interactions. Virtual world inhabitants will often initially use the space to develop alternative self-portraits (e.g., Black, Ferdig, DiPietro, Liu, & Whalen, 2009). They then create and maintain relationships with those avatars and other human players out-of-world, with other human players in-world, and with non-player-characters in-world (Ferdig & Pytash, 2012). This can lead to even more complex relationships as they balance their lives and relationships in-world and out-of-world.

This special issue of Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is dedicated to an exploration of such topics in a collection of articles exploring “real virtual relationships” to be published in Q2 (2017). The issue editors welcome empirical and theoretical research from all fields interested in this innovative area including, but not limited to: education, psychology, sociology, digital media studies, computer science, public health, game studies, literature, counseling, religion, family studies, and business.

Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

• Relationship building and maintenance in virtual worlds
• Methods for studying digital relationships in virtual worlds
• Economic impact of virtual relationships
• Psychological impact of real-life events in virtual worlds (e.g. birth, marriage, death)
• Education and training through relationships in virtual worlds
• Virtual mentoring and collaboration
• Technological aspects that impact relationship creation, sustenance, and termination
• Love, hate, and other emotional responses to human and NPCs in virtual worlds
• Political ramifications of heterogeneity or homogeneity in virtual worlds
• Empirical case studies of player/user relationships
• The impact of innovative technologies (e.g. AR/VR) on relationships in virtual worlds
• Health and trust within medical virtual spaces
• Analysis of literature featuring characters and their relationships in virtual spaces

Authors are requested to submit an abstract of their proposed paper by March 15, 2017. Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words (references are not included in this word count). We welcome papers from a variety of disciplines and methodologies, and encourage graduate students to submit their research to this special issue. The guest editors are happy to discuss proposals for contributions, please contact Rick Ferdig at rferdig AT gmail.com for questions prior to submission.

Submission Instructions

Interested authors should submit a 500 word abstract via email to rferdig AT gmail.com. After review by the issue editors, authors will be invited to submit original scholarly papers of 4000-8000 words (including footnotes, references, and appendices) via the JVWR publishing system (see www.jvwr.net > About JVWR > For Authors). Shorter manuscripts are preferred. Longer ones are optional and should be discussed with the issue editors. Accepted papers will be published online in Volume 10, Number 2 (2017) of the Journal.

Deadlines and Timeline

• Authors submit abstracts: March 15, 2017 (via email to rferdig @ gmail.com)
• Editors return comments on abstracts: March 31, 2017
• Authors of invited papers submit full papers: June 1, 2017 (via JVWR system)
• Editors return review report and initial decisions: July 1, 2017
• Authors of accepted papers submit final versions: July 15, 2017

Publication: August, 2017

Review Process:

Abstracts will be considered by the guest editors.

Full papers will be reviewed by expert referees using the JVWR double-open policy. Double-open policy means that in general, authors do not need to anonymize their papers, and reviewers’ identity is also known to authors. For more details about it see JVWR site –> About JVWR –> For Authors –> Our double-Open Policy.

Further Information

The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (JVWR) (https://jvwr.net/) is an online, open access academic journal that engages a wide spectrum of scholarship. We welcome contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that intersect with virtual worlds’ research.

For additional information about the journal, please contact: [email protected]

Call for a Special Issue of the JVWR

Guest Editors:
Kelly Bergstrom (York University, Canada) & Marcus Carter (The University of Sydney, Australia)

The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (JVWR) (https://jvwr.net/) is an online, open access academic journal that engages a wide spectrum of scholarship. We welcome contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that intersect with virtual worlds’ research.

Breaking Conventions

EVE Online (EVE) — the space-themed massively multiplayer game released in 2003 by CCP Games — is a game with a reputation. Sometimes referred to as “Excel Online”, EVE has also become known as a game with a brutal learning cliff that is hostile to newcomers. And yet, it is also home to vibrant community of long term, dedicated players. In a number of important ways, EVE breaks from the conventions of the MMOG genre such as its single shard server, permanent death, robust in-game economy, and pervasive treachery. As a result, much of the research on other MMOGs is not necessarily applicable to this gameworld.

Motivation and Scope

For much of EVE’s history it has received little academic attention. Recent publications, including Internet Spaceships Are Serious Business (University of Minnesota Press, 2016), have only just begun to scratch the surface of EVE. This special issue of Journal of Virtual Worlds Research will serve as a collection of recent investigations into this MMOG and its community of players. Researchers currently working on EVE-related projects are invited to contribute to this special issue, to be published in Q4 2017.

Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

• The EVE metagame(s)
• The history of EVE and/or CCP Games
• EVE Online player communities
• EVE’s avatar creation tools
• Conflict and collaboration
• “Fun” or “play” in EVE
• EVE’s economy and/or its black/grey markets
• Methods for studying EVE
• Lessons from EVE

Authors are requested to submit an abstract of their proposed paper by May 15, 2017. Abstracts should be no longer than 500 words (references are not included in this word count). We welcome papers from a variety of disciplines and methodologies, and encourage graduate students to submit their research to this special issue. The guest editors are happy to discuss proposals for contributions, please contact Kelly Bergstrom at kellybergstrom AT gmail.com for questions prior to submission.

We are also open to alternative formats and shorter pieces such as “tales from the trenches” written from the perspective of players. Please contact the guest editors to discuss ideas for alternative submissions in advance of the abstract deadline.

Submission Instructions

Interested authors should submit a 500 word abstract by the deadline indicated below. After review by the guest editors, authors will be invited to submit original scholarly papers of up to 5000 words including footnotes, references, and appendices. Longer papers are optional and should be discussed with the issue editors. All submissions (abstracts and papers) should be made via the JVWR publishing system (see www.jvwr.net > About JVWR > For Authors). Accepted papers will be published online in the Volume 10, Number 4 (2017) of the Journal.

Deadlines and Timeline

• Authors submit abstracts: May 15, 2017
• Editors return comments on abstracts: May 30, 2017
• Authors submit full papers: July 1, 2017
• Editors return review report and initial decisions: September 1, 2017
• Authors submit revised papers: October 1, 2017
• Editors return final comments and decisions: November 1, 2017
• Authors submit final versions: November 30, 2017
• Publication: December 31, 2017

Review Process:
Abstracts will be considered by the guest editors.

Full papers will be reviewed by expert referees using the JVWR double-open policy. Double-open policy means that in general, authors do not need to anonymize their papers, and reviewers’ identity is also known to authors. For more details about see JVWR site –> About JVWR –> For Authors –> Our double-Open Policy.

Further Information

Please contact: [email protected]

Published: December 11, 2016

Call for papers – Futures of Real and Virtual Worlds

Published: March 10, 2015

A special exploratory issue edited by:
Yesha Sivan, Editor in Chief, the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research

The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (https://jvwr.net/) is an online, open access academic journal that engages a wide spectrum of scholarship and welcomes contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that intersect with virtual worlds research. Virtual worlds ignite a continuously evolving area of study that spans multiple disciplines and the JVWR editorial team looks forward to engaging a wide range of creative and scholarly research.

Design the future

This call is about the future or more so “possible futures“. We are looking for reflective papers (1000-3000 words) that will describe specific angles to the real and virtual worlds.  We are exploring and defining our future. The collection of reflective futures will help us design the next 7 years of the journal.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

•    3D fun
•    Mini robots
•    Social networks that change our mind
•    Artificial limbs
•    New forms of hardware
•    Augmented and mixed environments
•    Wearables
•    User generated content
•    3D printing
•    Visual data streaming
•    Immersive technologies
•    Shopping from home
•    Projections of the real
•    Wireless people
•    Portable friends
•    The Internet of Things
•    Virtual currencies
•    E-readers
•    …
•    And more

Motivation & Scope

The journal, JVWR, is celebrating its 8th year anniversary in 2015. In 2015 we will also publish** the book 3D3C Platforms: Applications and Tools for Three Dimensional Platforms for Community, Creation and Commerce published by Springer, as a summary of the field’s state of the art.

In 2008, when Jeremiah Spence founded the JVWR, the excitement of flexible, user-generated world was very high. It seemed that the world of Second Life have taken years of hardware, software, and social-ware experience into a new level; that it will “change” the world. This was yet another wave of promise of virtual reality.

In 2008, users, business analysts and academics alike used to be at awe because Second Life had millions of users; commerce was done virtually; there were grievers in virtual worlds, and people could create 3D objects by themselves. In 2015, today, 7 years later, Facebook has more than 1.35 billion monthly active users^*; commerce is done with a fingerprint via Apple pay; cyber criminals are attacking real companies, and people are printing their own outfits and objects.

Much has changed.  The virtual is becoming the real and the real is becoming the virtual. It seems that the term “virtual worlds” as a key term for an academic domain, does not make sense anymore.

It is time for us, as an academic journal, to take an “academic sabbatical” to define the future of our journal in light of the possible futures of both worlds (real and virtual). Of course, this will be an active Sabbatical where we try to grapple with several questions that revolve around the nature of the field, and on how we best advance it as an academic journal.

* http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

** Update from October 2015: the book was published with 2016 publishing date. See the Springer page about the book.

Submission Instructions

Authors are invited to submit original scholarly papers of 1000-3000 words including footnotes, references, and appendices. Interested authors should submit a full paper by the deadline indicated below. All submissions should be made via the JVWR publishing system (see www.jvwr.net > About JVWR > For Authors). All submissions will be peer reviewed. Accepted papers will be published online in the Volume 8, Number 2 (2015) of the Journal.

Deadlines and Timeline

Authors submit full papers: June 30, 2015
Editors return review report and initial decisions: July 15, 2015
Authors submit the revised papers: September 15, 2015
Editors return final comments and decisions: September 20, 2015
Authors submit final versions: October 20, 2015
Planned Publication: October 31, 2015

Further Information

Please contact:

Yesha Sivan yesha.sivan AT jvwresearch DOT org
Tzafnat Shpak tzafnat.shpak AT jvwresearch DOT org