https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/318809/special-issue-towards-sustainability-in-global-supply-chains-analytics-and-or-applications-at-euro-2025
Guest editors:
Karsten Kieckhäfer
FernUniversität in Hagen, Chair of Production and Logistics Management.
Universitätsstraße 41
58097 Hagen, Germany.
e-mail: karsten.kieckhaefer@fernuni-hagen.de
Ana Paula Barbosa Povoa
Instituto Superior Técnico – Universidade de Lisboa, CEGIST – Centre for Management Studies.
Av. Rovisco Pais 1
1040-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
e-mail: apovoa@tecnico.ulisboa.pt
Renzo Akkerman
Wageningen University. Operations Research and Logistics group.
Hollandseweg 1
6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands.
e-mail: renzo.akkerman@wur.nl
Special issue information:
1. AIMS AND SCOPE
Sustainable supply chain management has received considerable attention over the last few decades, both in academia and in practice. While the initial approaches to global supply chain management focused on the economic advantages and disadvantages of going green, it soon became widespread to include environmental objectives as well. In time, the integration of the social dimension of sustainable development also became of considerable interest. Today, it is becoming increasingly important to follow the 3 Ps of sustainability (people, planet and profit) when designing and operating sustainable supply chains. This is being driven by societal and customer demands, regulatory initiatives, such as supply chain due diligence, and competition, among other factors.
Achieving sustainability in supply chains is already a complex endeavor. Yet, global, multi-tier supply chains have their own unique sustainability challenges. For example, upstream operations (e.g., mining and processing of raw materials) in exporting countries are associated with severe environmental problems and social risks. At the same time, these operations lack transparency and data availability, often have weak and indirect links to stakeholders, and face very different regulatory requirements than in the importing countries. In addition, different actors in the supply chain pursue individual objectives that are often not in line with overall sustainable development goals. Such sustainability issues arise in a wide range of industries, including apparel, automotive, chemicals, energy, electronics, food, and steel.
With this special issue, we aim to showcase analytics and OR applications with an emphasis on economic, environmental, and social sustainability considerations in global supply chains. The special issue will serve as an outlet to present current developments and discuss challenges towards sustainability in global supply chains. We invite papers on state-of-the-art research and innovative approaches to sustainable supply chain management. Papers should include operations research, quantitative modelling and/or analytical approaches, as well as applications to sustainable supply chains that fit the scope of the journal. The research reported in the articles should be based on or inspired by real-world problems and should provide new insights into how to address the serious challenges associated with the management of sustainable global supply chains.
This special issue is dedicated to the 34th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO) 2025 in Leeds, UK. Participants of the EURO 2025 conference are encouraged to submit relevant work to this special issue. We also welcome submissions from the entire community of academics and practitioners working in the field of sustainable supply chain management.
2. TOPICS COVERED
Sustainability Analytics and Modeling publishes articles that develop and apply quantitative methods of analytics and operations research to take on global sustainability challenges. These challenges are many and broad in scope. They involve poverty, hunger, health, well-being, education, equality, water, sanitation, energy, economies, industry, infrastructure systems, smart communities, consumption and production, climate, peace, and justice, among other topics, all of which are targeted by the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030.html).
Topics that are of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to:
Manuscript submission information:
3. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The APC (Article Publishing Charge) will be covered by IFORS for all papers submitted by 31st December 2025. Submitted papers should be original works and should not have been previously published or currently considered for publication elsewhere. The manuscripts should be prepared according to the Guide for Authors available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/sustainability-analytics-and-modeling/publish/guide-for-authors.
All manuscripts should be submitted electronically using the journal's online manuscript submission system at https://www.editorialmanager.com/samod/default.aspx. When prompted for the article type, please select, "VSI: Sustainability in Global Supply Chains".
On the Attach Files screen, please submit the Manuscript, Highlights, Cover Letter summarizing the contributions of the paper, and Conflict of Interest Declaration (template available at https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/286/supporthub/publishing).
At the Review Preferences screen, you may suggest potential reviewers for this submission and provide specific reasons for your suggestion in the comments box for each person.
Manuscripts submitted after the deadline may not be considered for the special issue and may be transferred, if accepted, to a regular issue.
4. IMPORTANT DATES
Eligible submissions will be immediately submitted to the peer review process by the guest editors.
Accepted papers will be published online immediately. Thus, papers submitted early will also be published well ahead of the scheduled publication date for the special issue.
Beginning of submissions: March 1, 2025
Deadline for submissions: March 31, 2026
Why publish in this Special Issue?