Call for papers for the special issue from IFORS 2026

Aug 28

4 min read

Call for papers: The special issue from IFORS 2026, “Sustainable Freight Transport and Logistics: Analytics, Optimization and Real-World Applications,” welcomes research and practical contributions exploring innovative, data-driven approaches to sustainable freight transport and logistics. Submissions open on 1 September 2026, with a deadline of 30 December 2026. Details on the issue’s scope, topics, submission guidelines, and guest editors are provided below.

Aims and scope

Freight transportation and logistics are fundamental enablers of economic development, global trade, and resilient supply chains. The timely and efficient movement of goods is essential for industrial competitiveness, economic growth, and customer satisfaction. However, freight transportation is also a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and other environmental externalities. Consequently, improving operational efficiency alone is no longer sufficient; logistics systems must also become environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.

Achieving sustainability in freight transportation presents significant challenges, as efficiency and

sustainability objectives are often conflicting. Decisions that minimize operational costs may increase emissions or resource consumption, while environmentally preferable solutions may require additional investments or operational changes. These challenges are further exacerbated by increasing energy costs, climate change, supply chain disruptions, geopolitical conflicts, and growing uncertainty in global markets, all of which demand more resilient and adaptive logistics systems. Addressing these complex and interconnected challenges requires integrated decision-support approaches based on analytical modeling, optimization, simulation, artificial intelligence, and data-driven analytics. Such methodologies enable decision-makers to evaluate trade-offs among economic, environmental, and social objectives, design more sustainable freight systems, and support evidence-based planning under uncertainty.

This Special Issue seeks original contributions that advance the field of sustainability analytics and

modeling for freight transportation and logistics. We particularly encourage research that develops innovative mathematical models, optimization methods, simulation frameworks, machine learning approaches, and decision-support systems, while demonstrating their applicability through real-world case studies, industrial collaborations, or public-sector applications. Contributions that provide measurable sustainability impacts, promote reproducible research through publicly available benchmark datasets are especially welcome, as they facilitate transparency, comparison, and further advances in the field.

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 challenges associated.

This special issue is dedicated to the Conference of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies in Vienna, Austria. Participants of the IFORS 2026 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 freight transport and logistics.

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:

Mathematical programming and optimization for sustainable freight transport
Supply chain network design and charging stations location
Last mile logistics and vehicle routing
Decision-support systems for logistics planning
Container drayage and port-hinterland transport
Machine learning and predictive analytics for sustainable freight transport
Rail, maritime, port and terminal logistics
Logistics and energy management
Collaborative logistics and circular supply chains
Warehouse analytics and sustainable warehousing
Humanitarian and healthcare logistics
Intersection among logistics and energy management
Industrial case studies and public-sector applications

Submission guidelines for authors

The APC (Article Publishing Charge) will be covered by IFORS for all papers submitted by December 30th 2026. 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, "Special issue on Sustainable Freight Transport and Logistics: Analytics, Optimization and Real-World Applications".

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.

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: September 1st, 2026

Deadline for submissions: December 30th, 2026.