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** CALL FOR PAPERS - ACAN 2016
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** The Ninth International Workshop on Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiations (ACAN2016)
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** To be held in conjunction with AAMAS 2016, Singapore, May 9-10
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Website - http://www.uow.edu.au/~fren/ACAN2016/index.html
Submissions - http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acan2016

To be held in conjunction with the 15th International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2016), Singapore.
This workshop will be co-organised in conjunction with the Seventh International Automated Negotiating Agents Competition (ANAC 2016).

[Important dates]
−Submission deadline: February 1, 2016
−Acceptance notification: February 22, 2016
−Camera-ready deadline: March 7, 2016
−ACAN2016: May 9 or 10, 2016

[Submissions]
Submissions should conform to the ACM SIG style (see http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/proceedings-template.html for more details). The workshop welcomes submissions of original works relevant to the topics described above. The workshop will accept submissions of both full papers (maximum 8 pages) and short papers (maximum 4 pages).
For gathering high quality papers, each paper needs to be reviewed by at least three PC members or experts in the field. Acceptance standards include its technical soundness, novelty, impact and readability. The same publication procedure as our previous workshops, we are planning to publish a Post-Workshop book for ACAN2016 in Books Series Studies in Computational Intelligence, by Springer.


[Scope and Background]
Complex Automated Negotiations have been widely studied and are one of the emerging areas of research in the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. The complexity in an automated negotiation depends on several factors: the number of negotiated issues, dependencies between these issues, representation of the utility, negotiation procedural and protocol, negotiation form (bilateral or multi-party), time constraints negotiation goals, and so on. Complex automated negotiation scenarios are concerned with negotiation encounters where we may have for instance, a large number of agents, a large number of issues with strong interdependencies, real time constraints, concurrent and interdepended negotiation, and etc. Many real world negotiation scenarios present one or more of the mentioned elements. Software agents can support the automation of complex negotiations, by negotiating on the behalf of their owners and providing adequate strategies to their owners to achieve realistic, win-win agreements. In order to provide solutions in such complex automated negotiation scenarios, research has focused on incorporating different technologies including search, CSP, graphical utility models, Bayesian nets, auctions, utility graphs, optimization and predicting and learning methods. The applications of complex automated negotiations could include e-commerce tools, decision-making support tools, negotiation support tools, collaboration tools, as well as knowledge discovery and agent learning tools.
ACAN2016 will discuss, among others, the following aspects and topics of such complex automated negotiations within the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, which have distinct relationships with AAMAS main conference topics:
- Complex Automated Negotiations Frameworks and Mechanisms
- Bilateral and Multilateral Negotiations, High dimension Multi-Issue Negotiations, Large Scale Negotiations, Concurrent Negotiations, Multiple Negotiations, Sequential Negotiations, Negotiations under Asymmetric Information, and so on
- Prediction of Opponent's Behaviours and Strategies in Negotiations
- Simulation Models and Platforms for Complex Negotiations
- Coordination Mechanisms for Complex Negotiations
- Matchmaking and Brokering Mechanisms
- 2-Sided Matching
- Utility and Preference Representations in Negotiations
- Computational Complexity of Multi-Issue Negotiations
- Real-life Aspects of Electronic Negotiations
- Negotiations with Humans, Negotiations in Social Networks etc.
- Applications for Automated Negotiations (e.g. cloud computing, smart grid, electronic commerce etc.)
A considerable number of researchers in various sub-communities of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems are actively working on these and related issues. They are, for instance, being studied in agent negotiations, multi-issue negotiations, auctions, mechanism design, electronic commerce, voting, secure protocols, matchmaking and brokering, argumentation, co-operation mechanisms and distributed optimization. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers from these communities to learn about each other's approaches to the complex negotiation problems, encourages the exchange of ideas between the different areas, and potentially fosters long-term research collaborations to accelerate progress towards scaling up to larger and more realistic applications.


[Post-proceedings and Past Special Issues]
Studies in Computational Intelligence Series (Springer):
Rational, Robust, and Secure Negotiation Mechanisms in Multiagent Systems
Rational, Robust and Secure Negotiations in Multiagent Systems
Advances in Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiations
Innovations in Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiations
New Trends in Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiations
Complex Automated Negotiations: Theories, Models, and Software Competitions
Next Frontier in Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiation
Recent Advances in Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiation
Modern Approaches in Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiation
Journals and Special Issues
RRS2006 Special issue in Multiagent and Grid Systems
RRS2007 Special issue in the Journal of International Transactions on Systems Science and Applications
ACAN2008 Special issue on Journal of Multi-Agent and Grid Systems, 6(5-6), 2010
ACAN2009 Special issue in Computational Intelligence (to be published in 2012)
ACAN2010 and ACAN2011 Special issue in Decision Support System Journal (to be published in 2012-2016)


[Organizers]
Organizing Committee:
- Prof. Dr. Katsuhide Fujita (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan)
- Prof. Dr. Naoki Fukuta (Shizuoka University, Japan)
- Prof. Dr. Takayuki Ito (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan)
- Prof. Dr. Minjie Zhang (University of Wollongong, Australia)
- Dr. Quan Bai (Auckland University of Technology)
- Dr. Fenghui Ren (University of Wollongong, Australia)
- Dr. Chao Yu (Dalian University of Technology, China)
- Dr. Reyhan AydoÄŸan (Ozyegin University, Turkey & TU Delft, The Netherlands)

Senior Committee Members:
- Dr. Rafik Hadfi, (Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan)
- Dr. Valentin Robu (Heriot-Watt University, UK)
- Prof. Dr. Tokuro Matsuo (Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology, Japan)
- Prof. Dr. Miguel Angel Lopez-Carmona (Universidad de Alcala, Spain)
- Prof. Dr. Ivan Marsa-Maestre (Universidad de Alcala, Spain)


[Contact]
Katsuhide Fujita
Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Email: katfuji[at]cc.tuat.ac.jp