Symposium:

The mathematics of ranking



Proceedings - Call for papers

The mathematics of ranking is an emerging branch of mathematics. It has been given a boost with the success of Google. The gigantic eigenvalue problem solved to rank web pages according to their "importance" is an example of mathematics that are applied in our dayly lives.

   
This is just one aspect of how one should judge the "reputation", not only of a web site, or in data mining, but also of a (mathematical) discipline, of a research group, of a scientist, of a journal, or of a paper. How democratic is a voting system? All important questions because it lies at the heart of politics, social systems, and for example strategic decisions of what (research) should be financed and what not. Is bibliometry or citation count a good tool to use in informetrics or scientometrics? Answers to these questions are of highest importance.

This involves challenges for computer scientists, but also opens new applications of mathematical disciplines such as linear algebra, graph theory, statistics, etc.

The proceedings of the symposium including other papers related to the general theme "mathematics of ranking" will be published as a special issue of the Bulletin of the Belgian Mathematical Society-Simon Stevin.

Authors are cordially invited to submit papers for this special issue related to the topic of the symposium. Submissions should be mailed to an editor of the Bulletin mentioning the explicit intention to have it published in this special issue. Deadline for submission February 28, 2009. Please read the instructions for authors

Proceedings have been published in the Bulletin of the Belgian Mathematical Society - Simon Stevin, vol 16, no 4, pp. 686-768, December 2009.