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Editorial Board Member of Data & Policy (Cambridge University Press)

Anastasija Nikiforova 1 Comment

Since July 2022, I am elected by Syndicate of Cambridge University Press as an Editorial Board Member of the Cambridge University Journal Data & Policy. Data & Policy is a peer-reviewed, open access venue dedicated to the potential of data science to address important policy challenges. For more information about the goal and vision of the journal, read the Editorial Data & Policy: A new venue to study and explore policy–data interaction by Stefaan G. Verhulst, Zeynep Engin, and Jon Crowcroft. More precisely, I act as an Area Editor of “Focus on Data-driven Transformations in Policy and Governance” area (with a proud short name “Area 1“). This Area focuses on the high-level vision for philosophy, ideation, formulation and implementation of new approaches leading to paradigm shifts, innovation and efficiency gains in collective decision making processes. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Data-driven innovation in public, private and voluntary sector governance and policy-making at all levels (international; national and local): applications for real-time management, future planning, and rethinking/reframing governance and policy-making in the digital era;
  • Data and evidence-based policy-making;
  • Government-private sector-citizen interactions: data and digital power dynamics, asymmetry of information; democracy, public opinion and deliberation; citizen services;
  • Interactions between human, institutional and algorithmic decision-making processes, psychology and behaviour of decision-making;
  • Global policy-making: global existential debates on utilizing data-driven innovation with impact beyond individual institutions and states;
  • Socio-technical and cyber-physical systems, and their policy and governance implications.

The remaining areas represent more specifically the current applications, methodologies, strategies which underpin the broad aims of Data & Policy‘s vision: Area 2 “Data Technologies and Analytics for Policy and Governance“, Area 3 “Policy Frameworks, Governance and Management of Data-driven Innovations“, Area 4 “Ethics, Equity and Trust in Policy Data Interactions“, Area 5 “Algorithmic Governance“, Area 6 “Data to Tackle Global Issues and Dynamic Societal Threats“.

Editorial committees of Data & Policy (Area 1)

For the types of submission we are interested in, they are four:

  • Research articles that use rigorous methods that investigate how data science can inform or impact policy by, for example, improving situation analysis, predictions, public service design, and/or the legitimacy and/or effectiveness of policy making. Published research articles are typically reviewed by three peer reviewers: two assessing the academic or methodological rigour of the paper; and one providing an interdisciplinary or policy-specific perspective. (Approx 8,000 words in length).
  • Commentaries are shorter articles that discuss and/or problematize an issue relevant to the Data & Policy scope. Commentaries are typically reviewed by two peer reviewers. (Approx 4,000 words in length).
  • Translational articles are focused on the transfer of knowledge from research to practice and from practice to research. See our guide to writing translational papers. (Approx 6,000 words in length).
  • Replication studies examine previously published research, whether in Data & Policy or elsewhere, and report on an attempt to replicate findings.

Read more about Data & Policy and consider submitting your contribution!

Moreover, as a part of this journal, we (Data & Policy community) organize a hybrid physical-virtual format, with one-day, in-person conferences held in three regions: Asia (Hong Kong), America (Seattle) and Europe (Brussels). “Data for Policy: Ecosystems of innovation and virtual-physical interactions” conference I sincerely recommend you to consider and preferably to attend! While this is already the seventh edition of the conference, I take part in its organization for the first year, thus am especially excited and interested in its success!

Data for policy, Area Editors

In addition to its six established Standard Tracks, and reflecting its three-regions model this year, the Data for Policy 2022 conference highlights “Ecosystems of innovation and virtual-physical interactions” as its theme. Distinct geopolitical and virtual-physical ecosystems are emerging as everyday operations and important socio-economic decisions are increasingly outsourced to digital systems. For example, the US’s open market approach empowering multinational digital corporations contrasts with greater central government control in the Chinese digital ecosystem, and radically differs from Europe’s priority on individual rights, personal privacy and digital sovereignty. Other localised ecosystems are emerging around national priorities: India focuses on the domestic economy, and Russia prioritises public and national security. The Global South remains underrepresented in the global debate. The developmental trajectory for the different ecosystems will shape future governance models, democratic values, and the provision of citizen services. In an envisioned ‘metaverse’ future, boundaries between physical and virtual spaces will become even more blurred, further underlining the need to scrutinise and challenge the various systems of governance.

The Data for Policy conference series is the premier global forum for multiple disciplinary and cross-sector discussions around the theories, applications and implications of data science innovation in governance and the public sector. Its associated journal, Data & Policy, published by Cambridge University Press has quickly established itself as a major venue for publishing research in the field of data-policy interactions. Data for Policy is a non-profit initiative, registered as a community interest company in the UK, supported by sustainer partners Cambridge University Press, the Alan Turing Institute and the Office for National Statistics.

Read more about Data for Policy and become a part of it!

Editorial Board Member of eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government (JeDEM)

Anastasija Nikiforova 1 Comment

Since June 2022, I am an Editorial Board Member of the eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government (JeDEM) – a platinum/diamond scholarly-led Open Access e-journal managed by an interdisciplinary team of scholars at the Department for E-Governance and Administration at Danube University Krems, Austria. Its new Chief Editor – an external scholar in the journal’s key area, who is invited every 4 years to advice on the journal’s strategy – is Anneke Zuiderwijk with whom I was proud to collaborate very actively as part of my research visit to Delft University of Technology, Faculty Technology Policy and Management.

JeDEM is interested in both theoretical, practical and empirical research in the categories Research Papers, Invited Papers, Project Descriptions and Reflections. Within this scope, JeDEM particularly welcomes, but is not limited to, submissions related to the following topics:

  • e-Democracy
    • ICT and communication technologies to promote democracy or (re-)democratization;
    • Digital Divide, social inclusion and related political strategies;
    • Data Divide and algorithmic accountability;
    • policy analysis;
    • the role of security and privacy;
    • democratic innovation, governance models and alternative solutions.
  • e-Society and e-Participation
    • civic technologies and platforms (e.g. evaluation, critical and innovative approaches, national or international solutions);
    • collaborative decision-making and participatory budgeting;
    • the role of civil society and organizations;
    • stakeholder analysis, tool assessment and evaluation (e.g. political parties, government);
    • analysis of platform engagement (e.g. semantic analysis, computational or discourse analytical approaches);
    • co-decision, co-creation, co-production, decision-making and e-voting.
  • e-Government
    • general government services, evaluation of public policies (e.g. platforms for digital communication, virtual organizations and solutions, organizational training);
    • decision-making, Artificial Intelligence and automatization;
    • environmental, social and smart governance solutions;
    • governmental innovation.
  • Open data, including both social and technical aspects and the intersection between them 
    • open data policy, governance, decision-making and co-production;
    • technical frameworks for open data and metadata (e.g. ontologies, data formats, standards and APIs; data visualization; data quality);
    • evidence and impacts of open data: on society and/or public administration; value of real-life applications based on open data, costs and benefits of providing or using open data; emerging good practices; value generation (e.g. transparency, accountability, economic value, public service provision).
  • Data sharing and use, including but not limited to:
    • data with different levels of openness;
    • the role of public, private and societal stakeholders in data sharing and use, data end-users and intermediaries;
    • challenges and solutions for data sharing and use by various actors, including governments, researchers, companies, citizens, journalists, students, NGOs, librarians and intermediaries.
  • Open science, open access and open source software, including but not limited to:
    • best practices of open science;
    • benefits and challenges of scholarly publication, publishing data, information, articles and code through portals and platforms with different levels of openness;
    • safe and responsible sharing of data, information, articles and code with others
    • communication platforms to get more exposure and enhance usability of (open) data information, publications and code.

We encourage a diversity of methods and theoretical lenses, including critical studies in the above-mentioned thematic fields. It is the journal’s mission to encourage interdisciplinarity, unconventional ideas and multiple perspectives, and to connect leading thinkers and young scholars in inspiring reflections. JeDEM is an innovative journal that welcomes submissions from all disciplines and approaches. We publish both theoretical and empirical research, both qualitative and quantitative.

For the types of contribution, they are:

  • Research papers (double blind peer-review):
    • Regular submissions (submitted throughout the year, unrelated to a specific call for papers);
    • Special issue submissions (related to a call for papers);
    • Enhanced conference papers;
  • Reflections (reviews, comments, discussions, interviews, project descriptions) (editorial review).

JeDEM provides full open access to its authors and readers. Publishing with and reading JeDEM is free of charge. We ask authors to register with JeDEM to manage the publishing process. To gain all the benefits of the JeDEM community we recommend authors, readers, editors and reviewers to register their interest with JeDEM. JeDEM is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal (ISSN: 2075-9517). All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

Editorial JeDEM Vol. 14, No. 1 (2022)Download

Read more about JeDEM and consider submitting you contribution in it!

A8: Artificial Intelligence and Smart Energy

First paper in my Special Issue “Hybrid Data-Driven and Physical Modelling for Energy-Related Problems: Towards Smarter Energy Management”

Anastasija Nikiforova Leave a comment

As an academic editor of the Special Issue “Hybrid Data-Driven and Physical Modelling for Energy-Related Problems: Towards Smarter Energy Management” (Energies MDPI, Impact Factor:3.004 (2020); 5-Year Impact Factor: 3.085 (2020)), I am glad to announce that the first article has been published!

This very special for me issue belongs to the section “A8: Artificial Intelligence and Smart Energy” and it seeking for the latest research on advances in the field covering both data-related topics and next-generation power electronic techniques and their applications. All papers accepted for their publishing are published in an Open Access, thereby significantly contributing to the visibility of these papers, and are submitted for their indexation in both Scopus and Web of Science in addition to other databases. The journal also falls in Q1 (Cite Score, Control and Optimization).

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

  • energy management systems
  • data-driven approaches to energy-related issues
  • advances in energy analytic, including open data on energy, its benefits, re-uses and impact
  • Big Data management in the context of energy data
  • machine learning (ML) techniques
  • physical modelling for energy-related problems
  • disruptive technology of renewable energy
  • blockchain for Internet of energy management
  • the role of the “energy” within the context of Industry 4.0 and Sustainable Goals
  • energy data management in the context of the internet of things (IoT)
  • energy data management via distributed systems
  • smart grid and microgrid
  • sustainable electrical energy systems
  • hybrid and electric vehicle.

This Special Issue is of articular importance, given that energy-related issues are becoming more and more relevant today, including the topic of disruptive technologies, where renewable energy is referred to as one of the 12 most significant disruptive technologies. The topic is no longer limited to energy production/generation and storage and supply as a source of energy; it is becoming broader, including the close links with the electrification of transport, including electric vehicles (smart and green transportation), industrial automation, energy storage systems, data storage and data management systems. With both being very common, and at the same time disruptive and new, energy-related issues relate to both the adaptation of well-known foundations for recent trends and the optimization of the methods and techniques already used, as well as introducing completely new methods and developing new applications, thereby promoting open innovation and smarter living.

Special Issue “Hybrid Data-Driven and Physical Modelling for Energy-Related Problems: Towards Smarter Energy Management”


The first paper accepted for its publishing in the SI is entitled “Machine Learning Schemes for Anomaly Detection in Solar Power Plants” and is authored by Mariam Ibrahim (German Jordanian University), Ahmad Alsheikh (Deggendorf Institute of Technology), Feras M. Awaysheh (University of Tartu Institute of Computer Science) and Mohammad Dahman Alshehri (Taif University). The paper deals with the anomaly detection in photovoltaic (PV) systems by evaluating the performance of different machine learning schemes – AutoEncoder Long Short-Term Memory (AE-LSTM), Facebook-Prophet, and Isolation Forest – and applying them to detect anomalies on photovoltaic components. These models allow the authors to identify the PV system’s healthy and abnormal actual behaviors. The results provide clear insights to make an informed decision, especially with experimental trade-offs for such a complex solution space. The issue explored is all the more topical considering the rapid industrial growth in solar energy, which gains an increasing interest in renewable power from smart grids and plants.

I am very glad and honored to be an academic editor of both this issue (together with my colleagues from Germany and Greece) and this paper in particular.

Special Issue, Academic Editor

Looking forward further submissions (particular focus on advances in the field covering both data-related topics and next-generation power electronic techniques and their applications)!!!

2021 Summary

Anastasija Nikiforova Leave a comment

Here is the time to summarize the events, activities and achievements of 2021. Although there were some challenges and issues hat have been overcome, it was quite fruitful, and I am absolutely grateful for that. Therefore, in this post I would like to refer to positive events and their results.

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/VVnVN58adiA

Perhaps the first achievement to be mentioned is the LATA award. More specifically, this year, for my research, public activity and other achievements, the LATA (Latvian Open Technologies Association) has recognized me as a person of the year and has awarded me for promoting open data and open technologies. I believe it gave me strength, forces and inspiration for future activities.

So, I have worked hard this year, both independently and with some very skilled and intelligent colleagues, and this gave some results. In short:

  • 16 papers, including one chapter (some of them will be officially published in 2022), 6 conference papers, 9 journal articles, including 6 articles in Q1 journals. Some of these articles have been recommended by international organizations, including the world’s largest and most significant open data portal data.europa.eu, the Open Data Daily (PSI Monitor), World Health Organization, Europe PMC and FreeMedArt etc.;
  • 7 international conferences attended as a speaker with 5 papers, 2 posters, 2 more talks on the results of ongoing projects and 1 invited talk. Thank you RCIS (International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science), ICEGOV (International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance “Smart Digital Governance for Global Sustainability“), IDSTA (International Conference on Intelligent Data Science Technologies and Applications), IoTSMS (International conference on Internet of Things, Systems, Management and Security), EBW (European Biobank week), International Conference and Expo on Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials – it was a really great experience, and it is great that, despite the pandemic, you have managed to organize such great events with such a nice audience and brilliant speakers (both participants and keynotes).

Some of these activities were the results of very independent non-funded studies (mostly relates to open (government) data-related studies), others were the results of projects in which I was involved in recent months and years:

Over the next months, I have joined several associations and teams with which we have worked on different topics. In particular:

  • joined the above mentioned European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Task Force “FAIR metrics and data quality”;
  • became a part of Quantum Humanities Network hosted by the university of Jena (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany), which is represented by researchers from Germany, Spain, Finland, Latvia and Romania. With the colleagues forming this network, the application for CHANSE funding has been submitted and has already successfully passed the first round of review.
  • became an expert of the Latvian Council of Sciences – (1) Natural Sciences – Computer Science and Informatics and (2) Engineering and Technology-Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT);
  • became a part of BBMRI-ERIC node, Quality Management Task Force;
  • and even took part (although in a tiny activity) in providing an input for proposal for a European Interoperability Framework for Smart Cities and Communities (EIF4SCC) – the study conducted by Deloitte and KU Leuven (Belgium) for the European Commission.

In addition, although I had some experience in reviewing papers for both journals and conferences, this year I took a step further and became part of the Editorial Board and / or Editor for several venues and even became the general chair of one international conference. More precisely:

Invited Talk, Nanotech2021

In addition, I have gained a new experience of delivering Invited Talks and Guest Lectures. The Invited Talk entitled “Open Data as a driver of Society 5.0: how you and your scientific outputs can contribute to the development of the Super Smart Society and transformation into Smart Living?“ was delivered during the International Conference and Expo on Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials, which organizers have invited me to speak about the open science and its role in current scientific community. For the Guest Lectures, they were two – (1) “Open data: ecosystem, current and future trends, success stories and barriers“, the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) (Norway, web-based), (2) “Open data potential“, LU Faculty of Social Sciences/ Institute for Social and Political Studies, Latvia. I am grateful to both, the colleagues who have invited me and the audience – I was very surprised by your passionate for the knowledge and lively discussion we had at the end of these lectures. Although here I should also refer to my own students and particularly Accenture students – you really are a dream audience. And thank you for your very positive feedback you left – it is my pleasure and I am so pleased that you really appreciate the efforts I have invested in my lectures and courses and feel my support.

In addition, there were some local activities and achievements, such as:

  • developed and successfully launched a course for master and doctoral students (Faculty of Computer Science), entitled “Open government data in a data-driven world” (3 ECTS),
  • served as an expert / mentor for Latvian open geospatial data hackathon for pupils 2021 organized by the National Centre for Education Republic of Latvia – the team I have mentored, won!
  • served as an expert for the “Idea Laboratory 2021” in scope of the Emerging Technologies and Innovations Days of University of Latvia – here the same, the team I have mentored, won!
  • supervised 15 thesis, successfully defended by my students. For two of them conference papers have been developed and already published, thus doing my best to find new talents and engage them in the scientific community;
  • delivered lecture “Open data: ecosystem, use-case, potential advantages and open questions” to participants of the School of Excellence (in collaboration with the youth Foundation “Vertical” (“Vertikāle”)) in addition to invited lectures I mentioned above;
  • served as an advisor for the Faculty of Social Sciences/Institute for Social and Political Studies;
  • delivered a talk during the 14th conference of Latvian Association of Open Technologies “How to Stay Open in the New Era” entitled “Timeliness of open pandemic related data in national open data portals: a long way from the data publisher to the data user“
  • participated in the 79th International Conference of the University of Latvia and presented two talks – (1) “User-centered analysis of the usability of Open Government Data (OGD) portals“ and (2) “DQMBT or data quality model-based testing of information systems”.
Open Geosaptial Data hackathon, mentor

This is just a short list of the activities conducted and the achievements achieved, for which I would like to thank both 2021 and all those who have supported me. Thank you 2021 and bye! Welcome 2022!