Data-Centric Engineering - an open-access journal at Cambridge University Press - is delighted to be partnering with the 1st International Workshop on Bayesian Approach in Civil Engineering (IWOBA2025), which is being held at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University between from 10 January to 12 January 2025.

Jump to: 

• Introduction
• Themes
• Timetable
• Why Submit to DCE?
• How to Submit
• Open Materials
• Open Access
• Editorial Team

Introduction

The workshop (IWOBA2025) invites researchers, academics, and professionals to submit original research papers, case studies, and contributions on topics related to the development and application of Bayesian approaches in civil engineering. The goal is to assemble thought leaders, academics, and industry professionals to share cutting-edge research and practical applications but also to encourage meaningful dialogue and collaboration among participants. The special collection (or virtual special issue) in DCE of articles deriving from this workshop will feature the best of these contributions, published on an open-access basis.

Themes 

The Bayesian approach is grounded in probability theory and statistics, offering a structured and probabilistic framework for modelling and analysing complex systems and processes. The theme of the workshop is centred around the development and integration of Bayesian techniques in various aspects of civil engineering, including but not limited to:

• Bayesian computational and stochastic simulation methods
• Bayesian modelling and analysis in structural engineering
• Probabilistic risk assessment in infrastructure design
• Bayesian inference for geotechnical engineering
• Reliability analysis and prediction using Bayesian techniques
• Bayesian decision-making under uncertainty
• Uncertainty quantification in civil engineering projects
• New advances in Bayesian deep learning and its application
• Case studies and real-world applications using Bayesian techniques.

Timetable

Details of how to submit extended abstracts can be found on the IWOBA2025 website:

• Paper/Extended Abstract Submission Deadline: 25 October 2024
• Notification of Acceptance: 1 November 
• Camera-Ready Paper/Extended Abstract Due: 8 November
• Workshop date: 10-12 January 2025
• Submission of full papers to DCE: As soon as ready, with a final deadline of 26 September 2025

Authors are encouraged to submit full papers as soon as possible to DCE in order to undergo peer review, but we have deliberately set a final September 2025 to give authors of extended abstracts some time to develop a full paper. Articles will be published as soon as ready after acceptance and added to a collection page, rather than being held up for an issue date. An editorial reflecting on the articles will be published after the whole collection is assembled. 

Why Submit to DCE?

✔ A venue dedicated to the potential of data science for all areas of engineering.
✔ Welcoming research and translational articles from authors, whether they are based in academia or industry.
✔ Well-cited (2023 Impact Factor: 2.4; 2022 Cite Score: 5.6) and indexed in Web of Science, Scopus and Directory of Open Access Journals.
✔ Open Access with support for unfunded authors thanks to the Lloyd's Register Foundation - no hard requirement to pay an article processing charge (APC).
✔ Promotes open sharing of data and code through Open Science Badges.

How to Submit

Key considerations for submitting are below, with full details available in the DCE Instructions for Authors. 

Article types

When they submit to DCE authors are given the following option of article types to select from:

• Research articles using data science methods and models for improving the reliability, resilience, safety, efficiency and usability of engineered systems.
• Translational papers demonstrating the downstream benefits of data-intensive engineering - and the underlying data science principles, techniques and technologies - to wider society, economy, environment, health and way of life. For some more detailed instructions, see this guide to translational papers.
• Data papers that describe in a structured way, with a narrative and accompanying metadata, important and re-usable data sets in open repositories with potential for re-use in engineering research and practice. These papers promote data transparency and data re-use.
• Survey papers providing a detailed, balanced and authoritative current account of the existing literature concerning data-intensive methods in a particular facet of engineering sciences.
• Tutorial reviews providing an introduction and overview of an important topic of relevance to the journal readership. The topic should be of relevance to both students and researchers who are new to the field as well as experts and provide a good introduction to the development of a subject, its current state and indications of future directions the field is expected to take

We anticipate that most articles deriving from IWOBA2025 will be submitted as research articles.

Templates

Authors have the option but are not required to use the following templates:

• DCE LaTeX template files
• Overleaf (a LaTeX-based collaborative authoring tool; read about benefits of this tool)
• DCE Word template

Note that authors should provide both an abstract that summarises the paper (250 words or less) and beneath it an impact statement (120 words describing the significance of the findings in language that can be understood by a wide audience). Competing interest, funding and data availability statements should be provided at the end of the main text above the references (see disclosure statements).

Articles should be submitted through the DCE ScholarOne Manuscripts system, but note that if you use the Overleaf tool you can submit directly into the system without having to reupload files.

Open Materials

Authors are encouraged to make code and data that supports the findings openly available in a recognised repository and to link to them in the Data Availability Statement in the article. See the DCE Research Transparency policy. Open Data and Open Materials badges will be displayed on published articles that link to replication materials, as a recognition of open practices.

Open Access

Any author can publish on an open access basis in DCE if accepted, irrespective of their funding situation or institutional affiliation. There are no financial barriers to publication. Many articles are covered through the Transformative Agreements that Cambridge has set up with universities worldwide. If the corresponding author on an article is affiliated with a Transformative Agreement this effectively covers open access publishing costs. Authors not affiliated with these agreements who have grants that budget for open access publication are encouraged to pay an article processing charge (APC). However, if an author has no funding and no institutional agreement, the charge will be waived without question. DCE is supported by a grant from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, which helps subsidise the publishing costs of unfunded authors.

Editorial Team

The Guest Editors of this special collection are: 

• Prof. Yi-Qing Ni (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China)
• Prof. Yong Huang (Harbin Institute of Technology, China)
• Dr. Binbin Li (Zhejiang University, China)
• Dr. Hong-Wei Li (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China)

The DC Editors-in-Chief are: 

• Mark Girolami (University of Cambridge & the Alan Turing Institute)
• Eleni Chatzi (ETH Zurich)
• Kenichi Soga (UC Berkeley)

The DCE Editorial Board can be viewed here.