Theory and Practice in System Dynamics Modelling

Dear Colleagues,

System dynamics has reached its seventh decade of existence. During the previous six decades, it has helped to improve our understanding of the world around us in various domains, such as business, economics, environment, health, human behavior, information and knowledge management, public policy, security, strategic decision-making, and learning and teaching. System dynamics applies to dynamic problems arising in complex social, economic, biological, ecological, or even technical systems. Literally, any system characterized by interdependence, mutual interaction of its parts, feedbacks with embedded non-linearity, delays, or circular causality, are subjects of interest. The field developed initially from the work of Jay W. Forrester, focused on industrial dynamics. However, nowadays, system dynamics represents a methodological approach, for which tools and techniques have already been developed and applied by academicians, consultants, practitioners, educators, managers or policy makers. Together with significant results in particular fields, growing interest in system dynamics also brings challenges related to the research and application of related tools.  This Special Issue invites papers covering a broad range of topics, ranging from methodological issues to application case studies. We will accept papers for peer review in the following areas of interest:

• Case studies from various domains based on robust and strict methodology
• Analysis of feedback loops
• Comparative analysis with other modelling approaches
• Computer simulations
• Identification of generic structures or system archetypes
• Advances of system dynamics methods and tools for more appropriate analysis of system behavior
• Issues related to modelling and simulation of hard or soft systems
• Strategies and procedures applicable in modelling and simulations
• Application of systems thinking in practice
• Capturing of dynamics in mental models
• Teaching and learning of system dynamics
• Software packages for system dynamics modelling

Dr. Vladimír Bureš
Guest Editor

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. Systems 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 2400 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.