Special issue on "New trends in Variable Neighborhood Search"

The Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) metaheuristic is based on systematic changes in the neighborhood structure within a search, and has been succesfully applied for solving various discrete, global optimization problems, and related tasks. This Call for Papers addresses the recently growing interest of the research community working on the VNS methodology. This special issue of the International Transactions in Operational Research (ITOR) is dedicated to contributions on theoretical, methodological, or applied aspects of the VNS metaheuristic. Its objective is to present recent advances in the VNS methodology and novel applications in industrial optimization problems, computer systems, engineering, and other areas. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2017. Although we strongly encourage authors who attended the 4th International Conference on Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS’16), which was held in Málaga, Spain, October 3–5, 2016, this Call for Papers is also open and welcomes submissions from the entire community of academics and practitioners. Each paper will be peer-reviewed according to the editorial policy of ITOR (http://www3. interscience.wiley.com/journal/118505725/home), published by the International Federation of Operational Research Societies – IFORS. Papers should be original, unpublished, and not currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. They should be prepared according to the instructions to authors that can be found on the journal homepage. Authors should upload their contributions using the submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/itor, indicating in their cover letter that the paper is intended for this special issue. Other inquiries should be sent directly to any of the Guest Editors in charge of this issue: Nenad Mladenović ([email protected]), Angelo Sifaleras ([email protected]), and Kenneth Sörensen ([email protected]).