Call for Papers

Conference Dates

Tutorials, Doctoral Consortium, Workshops: 9-10 May 2020
Main Conference: 11-13 May 2020

Scope and Topics

AAMAS is the leading scientific conference for research in autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. The AAMAS conference series was initiated in 2002 as the merging of three respected scientific meetings: the International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS), the International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL), and the International Conference on Autonomous Agents (AA). The aim of the joint conference is to provide a single, high-profile, internationally-respected archival forum for scientific research in the theory and practice of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems.

AAMAS 2020 is the 19th edition of the AAMAS conference, and the first time AAMAS will be held in New Zealand. The conference solicits papers addressing original research on autonomous agents and their interaction, including agents that interact with humans. In addition to the main track, there will be two special tracks: Blue Sky Ideas and JAAMAS. Specific details and topics of interest for these tracks appear below.

Topics of interest for the main track include (but are not limited to) the following 10 areas:

Area 2 – Engineering Multi-Agent Systems

• Development concerns, including deployment, scalability and complexity
• Empirical studies and industrial experience reports on engineering MAS applications
• Applications of formal methods and declarative technologies for specification, verification and validation of MAS
• Interoperability and integration
• Programming frameworks, languages, models and abstractions for all aspects of MAS
• Software engineering methodologies and techniques for agent-based systems
• Tools and testbeds for evaluation of MAS

Area 4 – Innovative Applications

• Challenges in moving agent-based technology to the real world
• Deployed applications of agent-based systems
• Emerging applications of agent-based systems
• Integrated applications of agent-based and other technologies
• User studies of deployed agent-based systems

Area 6 – Learning and Adaptation

• Adversarial machine learning
• Co-evolutionary algorithms
• Deep learning
• Evolutionary algorithms
• Learning agent capabilities
• Learning agent-to-agent interactions
• Machine learning
• Multi-agent learning
• Multi-reward learning
• Multi-task learning
• Reinforcement learning
• Reward structures for learning

Area 8 – Modelling and Simulation of Societies

• Analysis of agent-based simulations
• Applications of agent-based simulations
• Emergent behaviour
• Engineering agent-based simulations
• Interactive simulation
• Modelling for agent-based simulation
• Simulation of complex systems
• Simulation techniques, tools and platforms
• Social simulation
• Validation of simulation systems

Area 10 – Social Choice and Cooperative Game Theory

• Coalition formation (strategic)
• Cooperative games: computation
• Cooperative games: theory & analysis
• Fair allocation
• Social choice theory

Information for Authors

AAMAS 2020 encourages submission of analytical, empirical, methodological, technological, or perspective papers. Analytical and empirical papers should make clear the significance and relevance of their results to the AAMAS community. Similarly, methodological and technological papers should make clear their scientific and technical contributions, and are expected to demonstrate a thorough evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses in practice. It is strongly encouraged that papers focusing on specific agent capabilities evaluate their techniques in the context of autonomous agent architectures or multi-agent systems. A thorough evaluation, conducted from a theoretical or applied basis, is considered an essential component of any submission. Authors are also requested to pay particular attention to discussing how their work relates to the state of the art in autonomous agents and multi-agent systems research as evidenced in, for example, previous AAMAS and related conferences and journals. All submissions will be rigorously peer reviewed and evaluated on the basis of the overall quality of their technical contribution, including criteria such as originality, soundness, relevance, significance, quality of presentation, and understanding of the state of the art.

AAMAS 2020 seeks the submission of high-quality papers limited to 8 pages in length in the IFAAMAS format, with any additional pages containing only bibliographic references. Reviews will be double blind; authors must avoid including anything that can be used to identify themselves. Please note that submitting an abstract is required before submitting a full paper. However, the abstracts will not be reviewed, and full papers must be submitted for the review process to begin. All work must be original, i.e., must not have appeared in a conference proceedings, book or journal, and may not be under review for another archival conference. Papers will be accepted as either full papers (8 pages + 1 page of references) or extended abstracts (2 pages + 1 page of references).

Papers submitted to the main track must be designated by the authors into one of the above 10 areas. The chairs of this area will have responsibility for the reviewing process. In cases where the area chairs recognise that a submission better fits another area, in consultation with the program chairs, a submission may be transferred from one area to another before reviewers are assigned.

In addition to submissions in the main track, AAMAS 2020 solicits papers in two special tracks, described below. The review process for the special tracks will be similar to the main track, but with dedicated program committee members and review criteria.

Detailed submission instructions can be found on the conference website: aamas2020.conference.auckland.ac.nz

At least one of the authors of each accepted paper is required to register (by the early registration deadline), attend and present the paper at the conference. A significant number of papers will be invited to submit extended versions to the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (JAAMAS) for fast-track review.

General Chairs:

Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni (LIP6 – Sorbonne University, France)
Gita Sukthankar (University of Central Florida, USA)

Program Chairs:

Bo An (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Neil Yorke-Smith (Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)

Blue Sky Ideas Track Chairs:

Alessandro Ricci (University of Bologna, Italy)
Juan Rodríguez-Aguilar (IIIA-CSIC, Spain)

The emphasis of this special track is on visionary ideas, long-term challenges, new research opportunities and controversial debate. It serves as an incubator for innovative, risky and provocative ideas, and aims to provide a forum for publishing and presenting these without being constrained by the result-oriented standards followed in the review process of the main track of the conference. Research visions and ideas could cross disciplines, envisioning new ideas and directions relevant for the AAMAS research community fostered by inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary viewpoints. We encourage papers to reflect on the future of the research area and its community within the broader AI and computer science landscape. Therefore, we invite submissions to focus on: novel, overlooked or under-represented application areas to which agent research may contribute; potential paths for agent research to contribute to the state of the art in other AI and CS areas and the other way around; and unexplored theoretical grounds for agent research. Overall, we aim at papers that help guide the AAMAS community to achieve in the coming years a leading position within AI and CS research. It is worth noting that this track is not the right place for preliminary work, or for papers reporting on existing approaches. Reviewers will assess papers based on the novelty of the ideas presented, the rigour with which they are developed, and the level of critical reflection applied in the exploration of these ideas. Submissions are limited to 4 pages in length in the IFAAMAS format, with any additional pages containing only bibliographic references. Accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings and will be presented orally at the conference.

JAAMAS Track Chairs:

Pinar Yolum (Utrecht University, Netherlands)
Rym Zalila-Wenkstern  (University of Texas at Dallas, United States)

AAMAS 2020 will also accept for presentation papers that have appeared in the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems (JAAMAS) in the 12 months period preceding the AAMAS notification date (January 2020). These articles also have the option to publish an extended abstract (maximum two pages in the IFAAMAS format, excluding bibliography) in the conference proceedings. The articles must be original and not previously published as a full paper in an archival conference. The submission process for the JAAMAS track is separate from the main paper submission process, and is later (deadline late January). Authors of eligible JAAMAS papers will be contacted by email in the second half of November. For details on JAAMAS: www.springer.com/computer/ai/journal/10458

Local Chairs:

Quan Bai (University of Tasmania, Australia)
Jiamou Liu (University of Auckland, New Zealand)

Note about publication date: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the start of the conference. Authors take note that the official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

General Information

All full papers accepted to the main track and the special tracks will be presented in parallel technical sessions. All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings and indexed in the ACM Digital Library, and will be permanently available, open access, after the conference at: ifaamas.org

In addition to the conference tracks, AAMAS 2020 will include:

• Workshops
• Tutorials
• Doctoral consortium
• System demonstrations
• Poster presentations for full papers and extended abstracts
• Invited talks and panel discussions
• Community meeting

The submission processes for the workshops and system demonstrations are separate from the main technical paper submission process. Information will be posted on the relevant web pages at: aamas2020.conference.auckland.ac.nz

Policies

Policy on multiple and previous submissions

Besides the JAAMAS track, authors may not submit any paper to AAMAS 2020 that has already appeared in an archival forum. Further, authors must ensure that no submission to AAMAS 2020 is under review for another archival forum between the AAMAS 2020 submission and notification dates.

Policy on harassment at the conference environment

IFAAMAS is committed to organising the AAMAS conference and its affiliated events in an environment that is free of harassment for everyone involved: delegates, organisers, conference workers and reviewers. All participants in IFAAMAS events are asked to embrace our intention to foster a harassment-free scientific community, and to understand that IFAAMAS will respond appropriately to incidents of harassment if they occur. The complete IFAAMAS harassment policy is available at: ifaamas.org

For further details about AAMAS 2020 and submission instructions: aamas2020.conference.auckland.ac.nz