Since its launching in 1978, the journal Fuzzy Sets and Systems has beendevoted to the international advancement of the theory and application offuzzy sets and systems. The theory of fuzzy sets now encompasses a wellorganized corpus of basic notions including (and not restricted to)aggregation operations, a generalized theory of relations, specificmeasures of information content, a calculus of fuzzy numbers. Fuzzy setsare also the cornerstone of a non-additive uncertainty theory, namelypossibility theory, and of a versatile tool for both linguistic andnumerical modeling: fuzzy rule-based systems. Numerous works now combinefuzzy concepts with other scientific disciplines as well as moderntechnologies.

In mathematics fuzzy sets have triggered new research topics in connectionwith category theory, topology, algebra, analysis. Fuzzy sets are also partof a recent trend in the study of generalized measures and integrals, andare combined with statistical methods. Furthermore, fuzzy sets have strong logical underpinnings in the tradition of many-valued logics.

Fuzzy set-based techniques are also an important ingredient in thedevelopment of information technologies. In the field of informationprocessing fuzzy sets are important in clustering, data analysis and datafusion, pattern recognition and computer vision. Fuzzy rule-based modelinghas been combined with other techniques such as neural nets andevolutionary computing and applied to systems and control engineering, withapplications to robotics, complex process control and supervision. In thefield of information systems, fuzzy sets play a role in the development ofintelligent and flexible manBmachine interfaces and the storage ofimprecise linguistic information. In Artificial Intelligence various formsof knowledge representation and automated reasoning frameworks benefit fromfuzzy set-based techniques, for instance in interpolative reasoning,non-monotonic reasoning, diagnosis, logic programming, constraint-directedreasoning, etc. Fuzzy expert systems have been devised for fault diagnosis,and also in medical science. In decision and organization sciences, fuzzysets has had a great impact in preference modeling and multicriteriaevaluation, and has helped bringing optimization techniques closer to theusers needs. Applications can be found in many areas such as management,production research, and finance. Moreover concepts and methods of fuzzyset theory have attracted scientists in many other disciplines pertainingto human-oriented studies such as cognitive psychology and some aspects ofsocial sciences.

The scope of the journal Fuzzy Sets and Systems has expanded so as to account for all facets of the field while emphasizing its specificity asbridging the gap between the flexibility of human representations and theprecision and clarity of mathematical or computerized representations, bethey numerical or symbolic.

The journal welcomes original and significant contributions in the area ofFuzzy Sets whether on empirical or mathematical foundations, or theirapplications to any domain of information technology, and more generally toany field of investigation where fuzzy sets are relevant. Applied papersdemonstrating the usefulness of fuzzy methodology in practical problems areparticularly welcome. Fuzzy Sets and Systems publishes high-quality research articles, surveys as well as case studies. Separate sections are Recent Literature, and the Bulletin, which offers research reports, book reviews and conference announcements and various news items. Invited review articles on topics of general interest are included and special issues are published regularly.

Since its launching in 1978, the journal Fuzzy Sets and Systems has beendevoted to the international advancement of the theory and application offuzzy sets and systems. The theory of fuzzy sets now encompasses...