2010 Impact factor now 0.948 Modern systems are becoming more and more complex and sophisticated in their demand for performance, reliability and increasing autonomy. Historically, highly analytic and numeric based methods have sufficed, frequently simplifying the problem to allow analytical tractability. Many manufactured and natural systems (biological, ecological and socio-economic) cannot be adequately represented quantitively alone; qualitations and heuristics, linguistics etc., knowledge is frequently required within a common information-processing framework. A wide range of new theories, methodologies and techniques are required to 'enable' such systems, and thus engineering and integration to deal with these demands. The primary aim of the International Journal of Systems Science is to become world leader in the exciting and demanding field of intelligent systems engineering and its applications. Disclaimer Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the 'Content') contained in its publications. However, Taylor & Francis and its agents and licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness or suitability for any purpose of the Content and disclaim all such representations and warranties whether express or implied to the maximum extent permitted by law. Any views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and are not the views of Taylor & Francis.
A fundamental, omnipresent feature of the global information age is that cyber-capabilities, e.g. computing, communication and control, are inherently embedded in numerous physical/engineered systems from the nano-world to large-scale systems-of-systems. Many scientific/technological challenges require intensive multidisciplinary studies, calling for new formulations, techniques and innovative solutions from a spectrum of communities in systems engineering/control/communications. IJSCC offers a vibrant discussion forum in this interdisciplinary area, especially communication systems augmented by control techniques and control systems whose components are interconnected via communication networks.