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Call for Papers
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15th Mini-EURO Conference
Theme: "Managing Uncertainty in Decision Support Models (MUDSM 2004)"
Where: Coimbra - Portugal
When: 22-24 September 2004

Formatting instructions for paper submissions are available at the Web page
www.inescc.pt/mudsm2004
 
Sponsoring institutions: EURO (The Association of European Operational
Research Societies), APDIO (Portuguese OR Society), Faculty of Economics at
the University of Coimbra, INESC Coimbra

Scope and objectives
Mini EURO Conferences are conferences allowing specialists of a particular
promising OR theme of research to participate in a meeting where the
screening of papers can be more effective and participation in the debates
can be more lively than at larger meetings.
The 15th Mini EURO Conference is aimed at providing an open forum in which
researchers coming from different scientific disciplines and operational
research areas can discuss and share their experience regarding
methodological approaches to tackle, in an explicit manner, uncertainty and
imprecision stemming from distinct sources, which have influence on
obtaining robust conclusions in decision support models with application to
several areas.
Particular attention will be paid to multicriteria evaluation models in
which distinct types of difficulties are associated with achieving robust
conclusions: the intrinsic incomplete nature of models, the imprecision
associated with input data, and the uncertainty associated with the
analytical representation of the structure of the decision maker's
preferences.
Contributions from decision theory, fuzzy sets, rough sets, risk analysis,
stochastic programming, sensitivity analysis, robustness analysis, interval
programming, inexact programming, etc. are expected both from methodological
and application perspectives, thus paving the way for a cross-fertilization
between distinct ways to incorporate uncertainty, imprecision and risk in
decision support models.

Organizing Committee
Luís Cândido Dias (Chair)
Carlos Henggeler Antunes, Maria João Alves, Ana Rosa Borges.

International Program Committee
Carlos H. Antunes (Chair, Portugal)
Alexis Tsoukiàs (France), Andreas Saltelli (Italy), Bernard Roy (France),
Carlos Bana e Costa (Portugal), Constantin Zopounidis (Greece), Danae
Diakoulaki (Greece), David Rios-Insua (Spain), Denis Bouyssou (France),
Efraim Turban (HK), Jacinto Gonzalez-Pachon (Spain), Jacques Teghem
(Belgium), Jean-Marc Martel (Canada), Jean-Pierre Brans (Belgium), João
Clímaco (Portugal), João Paulo Costa (Portugal), José Figueira (Portugal),
Kaisa Miettinen (Finland), Luís C. Dias (Portugal), Manuel Matos (Portugal),
Maria João Alves (Portugal), Mashahiro Inuiguchi (Japan), Pascale Zaraté
(France), Philippe Vincke (Belgium), Rudolph Vetschera (Austria), Raimo
Hamalainen (Finland), Richard Wendell (USA), Rita Almeida Ribeiro
(Portugal), Roman Slowinski (Poland), Ronald R. Yager (USA), Salvatore
Grecco (Italy), Simon French (UK), Theodor Stewart (South Africa), Tomas Gal
(Germany), Valerie Belton (UK)

Submissions
Three kinds of submissions are welcome:
· Proposal for a session of three papers dedicated to a given topic. After
acceptance, the promoter will be responsible for his/her session and will
chair it.
· Proposal for a panel discussion on a given topic. After acceptance, the
promoter will be responsible for his/her session and will chair it.
· Free submission of short papers (4-6 pages). The accepted papers will be
published as conference proceedings.

The official language of the conference is English.

Publication
We are pleased to announce that special issues of two leading journals - the European Journal of Operational Research and Decision Support Systems journal - will publish selected papers presented at the conference.
Authors present at
MUDSM 2004 will be invited to submit full versions of their papers to be
published on a Special Issue of EJOR or a Special Issue of DSS on the theme
of the conference.

Venue
The conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Economics, University of
Coimbra. Dating from 1290, the U. Coimbra is one of the oldest in Europe and
the oldest in Portugal. It now comprises eight faculties, including the
Faculty of Economics, which was established in 1972.
Coimbra is located in the centre region of Portugal, easily accessible by
car, bus or train from Lisbon (200 Km) or Oporto (130 Km) international
airports.

Registration fee
Type of registration / Until June 23, 2004 / After June 23, 2004
Normal(1)              /        240 Euro                /        300 Euro
Student(2)              /       120 Euro                 /        150 Euro
(1) Includes conference Proceedings and documentation, lunches, coffee
breaks, social program, and taxes (VAT).
(2) Includes all of the above, except the banquet comprised in the social
program. To qualify as a student, the delegate must present a student card.
Support from EURO may be granted to seven delegates from Eastern European
countries (300-600 Euro each).

Important dates
March 31, 2004: Submission of short papers (4-6 pages)
June 1, 2004: Notification of acceptance
June 23, 2004: Early registration deadline
June 30, 2004: Revised short paper due
July 25, 2004: Registration deadline
(to guarantee inclusion in the final program and proceedings volume)
October 2004: Submission of full papers to special issue of EJOR or DSS journals

Secretariat
MUDSM 2004
INESC Coimbra
Rua Antero de Quental, 199
3000-033 Coimbra, Portugal
mudsm2004@inescc.pt

Web page
www.inescc.pt/mudsm2004

 
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Luis M.C. Dias
Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra;
INESC Coimbra