Next-Gen of Internet: Intelligent Systems, Digital Twins, and Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid evolution of next-generation internet architectures, intelligent systems, and data-driven technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence and digital twins, demands novel approaches to address the complex challenges of digital transformation and sustainability. This Special Issue aims to present cutting-edge research across these domains.

This Special Issue highlights trustworthy, sustainable, and intelligent internet systems that combine advanced computational techniques with real-world digital infrastructures and human-centric applications. We invite high-quality submissions on topics such as generative and agentic AI, multi-agent systems, digital twins, secure IoT and edge-cloud architectures, Industry 5.0, smart environments, cyber-resilient systems, and data-driven innovation. Contributions should clearly address aspects related to the design, operation, analysis, security, sustainability, or governance of internet-connected intelligent systems. Submissions focusing solely on generic machine-learning applications, descriptive digital transformation studies, or software prototypes without significant contributions to internet systems are outside the scope of this Special Issue. We especially welcome work on explainability, privacy, robustness, interoperability, energy efficiency, human oversight, reproducibility, and real-world validation across sectors such as healthcare, industry, smart cities, agriculture, education, mobility, finance, tourism, and environmental monitoring. For extensions of original ARTIIS conference papers, submissions must include at least 50% new content, including expanded methodologies, additional experimental validation, or broader evaluations to meet future internet standards.

Dr. Filipe Portela
Prof. Dr. Teresa Guarda
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Internet is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.