Special Issue of the Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis on
Better Decisions for a Better Tomorrow:
MCDM Approaches for Sustainability, Risk,
and Complex Systems
Call for Papers
Guest Editors
Salvatore Corrente, University of Catania, Italy, salvatore.corrente@unict.it
Birsen Karpak, Youngstown State University, US, bkarpak@ysu.edu
Michael Stiglmayr, University of Wuppertal, Germany, stiglmayr@uni-wuppertal.de
İlker Topcu, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, ilker.topcu@itu.edu.tr
In an era characterized by increasing complexity, systemic risks, and pressing sustainability challenges, decision-making processes must effectively integrate quantitative rigor with real-world constraints and stakeholder perspectives.
This Special Issue focuses on innovative applications and methodological advances in Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), with particular emphasis on their relevance for complex, real-world decision contexts. The aim is to highlight contributions that strengthen the connection between theoretical developments and practical implementation.
Particular attention will be given to submissions that demonstrate how MCDM approaches can
effectively support decision-making in domains such as sustainability, risk management, policy-making, engineering, and healthcare.
The goal of this Special Issue is to showcase how MCDM can bridge theory and practice, contributing to more informed, transparent, and impactful decision-making in complex systems. Interdisciplinary contributions integrating MCDM with fields such as data science, artificial intelligence, and behavioral decision making are especially welcome.
We welcome high-quality submissions including:
- application-driven studies addressing real-world decision problems involving multiple
stakeholders and conflicting objectives; - methodological and theoretical contributions that are clearly motivated by, or demonstrate
potential for, impactful applications; - works that incorporate real data, realistic scenarios, or validated case studies;
- approaches addressing complexity and uncertainty, including incomplete, imprecise, or largescale data;
- contributions providing robust validation, comparison, or implementation insights.
Authors should follow the journal‘s Guidelines for Authors and submit their high-quality manuscript by January 31, 2027 via the Wiley online system, selecting the appropriate Special Issue option.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for
publication elsewhere. The results included in the manuscripts shall be reproducible by others. Thus, we strongly encourage authors of algorithmic papers to share their implementations (e.g., via github).
Submitted manuscripts will be subject to a peer-review process according to the journal’s standards.
Submission Deadline
January 31, 2027