Call for papers: Too Far Down the Uncanny Valley? Or Bodily processes for Robots? (deadline: 1 June 2023)

Volume

4, 2 issue

Latest issue

3:2 online 07 October 2022

Next issue

4:1 scheduled for April 2023

Back volumes

1, 2020

ISSN print

2589-9953

ISSN online

2589-9961
Open Access

Aims & Scope

What will robots be like ten, twenty and more years from now? What will they be able to accomplish? How will human–robot relationships have advanced? What place in society will be occupied by robots? These are just some of the questions which will be debated in the pages of this new publication – the Journal of Future Robot Life.

Computer science and artificial intelligence (AI) have had a huge impact on society, an impact that will only increase with further advances in hardware and software technologies. Robots are the most remarkable product of these developments in computing and AI, many of them being designed in a humanlike form and endowed with humanlike capabilities: talking, hearing, seeing, moving and performing complex tasks such as dancing, conducting an orchestra, rescuing victims at disaster sites, playing musical instruments, and beating a world champion at chess.

As robots become more humanlike in their appearance and their capabilities, and as they come to be regarded more and more as our companions and assistants in all aspects of daily life, different questions beg to be answered. We need to contemplate what life will be like when robots can imitate human behavior sufficiently to be regarded, in some sense, as our equals. And when we humans have adapted our ways of life in order to interact fully with robots as alternative people, and to benefit fully from our relationships with them, such questions on the future of human–robot interactions and human–robot relationships are the raison d’etre of this journal. What civil rights and legal rights should robots be granted? What are the ethics of humankind’s interactions with robots? Will robots have empathy? Will their personalities and emotions mimic our own? Will robots be programmed with social intelligence, or can they acquire it through a learning process? Will robots be alive in any humanlike sense, and if so, how?

The Journal of Future Robot Life will attempt to answer these questions and many more. The topics which we group under the umbrella phrase “future robot life” are many and varied, and the list will doubtless expand with time. We shall start with the following:

Animal–robot interfaces
Are robots alive?
Biological behaviors
Companion robots
Evolutionary robots
Human–robot reproduction
Human–robot interfaces
Implanted cyborg technologies
Laws relating to robots
Nanorobots in medicine
Plant–robot interfaces
Robot emotions
Robot ethics
Robot personalities
Robot reproduction
Robot rights
Robot–human parents
Robots as doctors
Robots as economists
Robots as lovers
Robots as politicians
Robots as psychiatrists/therapists
Robots as spouses
Robots as teachers
Robots in Entertainment
Robots in government
Robots on the battlefield
Social intelligence in robots
Swarm robot behavior.

Editorial Board

Editors-in-Chief

Professor Adrian David Cheok
Imagineering Institute, Johor, Malaysia
i-University Tokyo

Japan
E-mail: adrian@imagineeringinstitute.org

Dr. David Levy
London NW3 2LD, United Kingdom
E-mail: davidlevylondon@gmail.com

Professor Thomas Heinrich Musiolik
University of the Arts Berlin
Germany
E-mail: t.musiolik@udk-berlin.de

Editorial Board

Dr. Maurizio Balistreri
Department of Philosophy and Educational Sciences
University of Turin, Italy

Dr. Phaedra Boinodiris
IBM Academy of Technology
USA

Dr. Alexios Brailas
Department of Psychology
Panteion University, Greece

Dr. Eva Cerezo
Department of Computer Science and Systems Engineering
University of Zaragoza, Spain

Dr. Paolo Ciancarini
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Bologna, Italy

Prof. Kevin Curran
Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Built Environment, Ulster University
Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Dr. Marta Ferraz
European Space Agency
The Netherlands

Prof. Andrea Gaggioli
Dipartimento di Psicologia
Università Cattolica di Milano, Italy

Dr. Ine Gevers
Niet Normaal Foundation
The Netherlands

Prof. Dr. Yutaka Ishibashi
Department of Computer Science
Nagoya Institute of Technology
Nagoya, Japan

Dr. Klara Kedem
Ben-Gurion University
Israel

Dr. Dominik Krężołek
Department of Demography and Economic Statistics
University of Economics in Katowice, Poland

Prof. Andy Miah
School of Science, Engineering, and Environment
University of Salford
Manchester, United Kingdom

Prof. Roger Moore
Department of Computer Science
University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Prof. Ryohei Nakatsu
Kyoto University
Kyoto, Japan

Laurent Patier
Centre national d'études spatiales
Toulouse, France

Prof. Marco Roccetti
Computer Science and Engineering Department
University of Bologna, Italy

Dr. Yorick Wilks
Department of Computer Science
The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Author Guidelines

Submission of Manuscripts

By submitting my article to this journal, I agree to the Author Copyright Agreement, the IOS Press Ethics Policy, and the IOS Press Privacy Policy.

Authors are requested to submit their manuscript via: editorialmanager.com/jfrl.

The Journal of Future Robot Life is an open access journal. Published papers are currently not subjected to an open access fee. They will be published freely available, under the Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license, for download through content.iospress.com at no charge to the authors.

Required files
After an article has been accepted for publication the following electronic files are required: a text editable file of the article, such as MsWord or LateX. When using LaTeX, please use the JFRL style file available at: https://vtex-soft.github.io/texsupport.iospress-frl/. Also send a pdf version of the LaTeX file as well as separate files of all figures (if any); see "Preparation of Manuscripts" for the required file formats.

Color figures
In the online version all figures in an article will appear in color. 

IOS Pre-press
The corrected proof is published online in the journal’s pre-press module shortly after the proof is created and author corrections are implemented. This is not the final version. As soon as the article is assigned to an issue, the final bibliographic information will be added and the pre-press file will be replaced by the updated, final version. Pre-press articles are fully citable by using their DOI number.

Organization of the paper and style of presentation
Manuscripts must be written in English. Authors whose native language is not English are advised to consult a professional English language editing service or a native English speaker prior to submission.

Manuscripts should be prepared with wide margins and double spacing throughout, including the abstract, footnotes and references. Every page of the manuscript, including the title page, references, tables, etc., should be numbered. However, in the text no reference should be made to page numbers; if necessary, one may refer to sections. Try to avoid the excessive use of italics and bold face.

Manuscripts should be organized in the following order:

  • Title page
  • Body of text (divided by subheadings)
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
  • Tables
  • Figure captions
  • Figures Headings and subheadings should be numbered and typed on a separate line, without indentation. SI units should be used, i.e., the units based on the metre, kilogramme, second, etc.

Title page
The title page should provide the following information:

  • Title (should be clear, descriptive and not too long)
  • Name(s) of author(s); please indicate who is the corresponding author
  • Full affiliation(s)
  • Present address of author(s), if different from affiliation
  • Complete address of corresponding author, including tel. no., fax no. and e-mail address
  • Abstract; should be clear, descriptive, self-explanatory and not longer than 200 words, it should also be suitable for publication in abstracting services
  • Keywords.

Author contributions
Any author included in the author list should have contributed significantly to the paper, and no person who has made a significant contribution should be omitted from the list of authors. Please read the IOS Press authorship policy for further information.

Tables
Number as Table 1, Table 2, etc., and refer to all of them in the text. All tables should be contained within the manuscript itself, and embedded in the text. Each table should have a brief and self-explanatory title. Column headings should be brief, but sufficiently explanatory. Standard abbreviations of units of measurement should be added between parentheses. Vertical lines should not be used to separate columns. Leave some extra space between the columns instead. Any explanations essential to the understanding of the table should be given in footnotes at the bottom of the table.

Figures
Number figures as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc., and refer to all of them in the text. All figures and other graphics should be contained within the manuscript itself, and embedded in the text. Color figures can be included, provided the cost of their reproduction is paid for by the author. For the file formats of the figures please take the following into account: - line art should be have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi, save as EPS or TIFF - grayscales (incl photos) should have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi (no lettering), or 500 dpi (when there is lettering); save as tiff - do not save figures as JPEG, this format may lose information in the process - do not use figures taken from the Internet, the resolution will be too low for printing - do not use colour in your figures if they are to be printed in black & white, as this will reduce the print quality (note that in software often the default is colour, you should change the settings) - for figures that should be printed in colour, please send a CMYK encoded EPS or TIFF Figures should be designed with the format of the page of the journal in mind. They should be of such a size as to allow a reduction of 50%. On maps and other figures where a scale is needed, use bar scales rather than numerical ones, i.e., do not use scales of the type 1:10,000. This avoids problems if the figures need to be reduced. Each figure should have a self-explanatory caption. The captions to all figures should be typed on a separate sheet of the manuscript. Photographs are only acceptable if they have good contrast and intensity.

References
Authors are requested to use the APA (American Psychological Association) citation style. APA in-text citations should include the author's last name followed by the year of publication. All publications cited in the text should be presented in an alphabetical list of references at the end of the manuscript. Submitted articles can be listed as (author(s), unpublished data). See their website for more information. Authors are responsible for checking the accuracy of all references. Manuscripts will not be considered if they do not conform to the APA citation guidelines.

References must be listed alphabetically in APA style:
[1] Anderson, A. K. (2005). Affective influences on the attentional dynamics supporting awareness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 154, 258–281.
[2] Anderson, A. K., Christoff, K., Panitz, D., De Rosa, E., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2003). Neural correlates of the automatic processing of threat facial signals. Journal of Neuroscience, 23, 5627–5633.
[3] Armony, J. L., & Dolan, R. J. (2002). Modulation of spatial attention by fear-conditioned stimuli: An event-related fMRI study. Neuropsychologia, 40, 817–826.
[4] Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Brown, G., & Steer, R. A. (1988). An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: Psychometric properties. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56,893–897.
[5] Calvo, M. G., & Lang, P. J. (2004). Gaze patterns when looking at emotional pictures: Motivationally biased attention. Motivation and Emotion, 28, 221–243.
[6] Carretie, L., Hinojosa, J. A., Martin-Loeches, M., Mecado, F., & Tapia, M. (2004). Automatic attention to emotional stimuli: Neural correlates. Human Brain Mapping, 22, 290–299.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright of your article
Authors submitting a manuscript do so on the understanding that they have read and agreed to the terms of the IOS Press Author Copyright Agreement.

Article sharing
Authors of journal articles are permitted to self-archive and share their work through institutional repositories, personal websites, and preprint servers. Authors have the right to use excerpts of their article in other works written by the authors themselves, provided that the original work is properly cited. The consent for sharing an article, in whole or in part, depends on the version of the article that is shared, where it is shared, and the copyright license under which the article is published. Please refer to the IOS Press Article Sharing Policy for further information.

Quoting from other publications
Authors, when quoting from someone else's work or when considering reproducing figures or tables from a book or journal article, should make sure that they are not infringing a copyright. Although in general authors may quote from other published works, permission should be obtained from the holder of the copyright if there will be substantial extracts or reproduction of tables, plates, or other figures. If the copyright holder is not the author of the quoted or reproduced material, it is recommended that the permission of the author should also be sought. Material in unpublished letters and manuscripts is also protected and must not be published unless permission has been obtained. Submission of a paper will be interpreted as a statement that the author has obtained all the necessary permission. A suitable acknowledgement of any borrowed material must always be made.

Proofs
The corresponding author will receive a PDF proof and is asked to check this proof carefully (the publisher will execute a cursory check only). Corrections other than printer's errors, however, should be avoided. Costs arising from such corrections will be charged to the authors.

Please visit the IOS Press Authors page for further information.

Abstracted/Indexed in

DOAJ
Google Scholar

The Journal of Future Robot Life is a new journal and we are currently in the process of applying to various Abstracting and Indexing databases. Information will be added here as it becomes available.

Peer Review

Journal of Future Robot Life Peer Review Policy

The Journal of Future Robot Life is a peer-reviewed journal. All articles submitted to the journal undergo a single blind peer review process. This means that the identity of the authors is known with the reviewers but the identity of the reviewers is not communicated to the authors. Please visit our reviewer guidelines for further information about how to conduct a review.

After automatic plagiarism screening through iThenticate, all submitted manuscripts are subjected to initial appraisal by the Editor-in-Chief and, if found suitable for further consideration, to rigorous peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees. Reasons to reject a paper in the pre-screening process could for example be because the work does not fall within the aims and scope, the writing is of poor quality, the instructions to authors were not followed or the presented work is not novel.

Papers deemed suitable to be reviewed will be assigned a handling editor. The handling editor will then invite reviewers to comment on the work. As a standard policy, decisions are based on a minimum of two reviews. The Editors-in-Chief strive to ensure a typical turnaround time of 1 month for a first decision.

Reviewers are asked to judge a paper on at least:

  • Relevance to the journal
  • Significance of results
  • Depth of results
  • Correctness of results
  • Clarity of presentation

Based on the received reviews the handling editor will propose to the Editors-in-Chief a recommendation:

  1. Accept
  2. Minor revisions required
  3. Major revisions required
  4. Revise and resubmit
  5. Reject

They mean the following:

  1. The manuscript is suitable for publication and only requires minor polishing; thus, no further reviews are requested.
  2. The authors are required to make moderate changes to their manuscript. The manuscript becomes acceptable for publication if the changes proposed by the reviewers and editors are successfully addressed. The revised manuscript will be examined by the Editors-in-Chief and possibly sent back to all (or a selection of) reviewers for a second round of reviews. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
  3. The manuscript cannot be accepted for publication in its current form. However, a major revision which addresses all issues raised by the reviewers may be acceptable for publication. The revised manuscript will undergo a full second round of review. Authors are requested to provide a letter to the reviewers detailing the improvements made for the resubmission.
  4. In its current form, the manuscript is not suitable for publication. A resubmission would require substantial revisions and is only encouraged in special cases.
  5. The manuscript is rejected as it is deemed to be out of scope, not relevant, or not meeting the journal’s quality standards in terms of significance, novelty, and/or presentation.

Authors are notified by the Editors-in-Chief, whose decision is final.

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