This special issue examines how data science reshapes project, programme, and portfolio management practices. Rather than focusing on technical algorithmic details, it seeks to understand how managers can translate data and algorithmic insights into better decisions, governance, and value creation across the project lifecycle. The collection emphasizes managerial transformation rather than technology as an add-on.

Contributions should address how data-driven practices improve decision quality and accountability, how governance mechanisms adapt to data-intensive work, and how manager and team competencies evolve. The special issue particularly welcomes research on adoption conditions, implementation challenges, and safeguards for ethical use, bias mitigation, and transparency in decision-making.

Submissions should prioritize actionable insights for practitioners through conceptual frameworks, empirical case studies, and practical artifacts such as decision frameworks, governance templates, and maturity models. Cross-sector studies demonstrating tangible managerial outcomes and connections to organizational strategy and broader societal value are especially encouraged.

Appel publié par International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Data-driven decision-making in project environments: Exploring how data science enhances or transforms decision processes across the project lifecycle, including planning, monitoring, and risk management emphasizing chances, challenges and risk.
• Integration of data science methodologies into project management practices: Studies applying or adapting methods such as machine learning, data mining, or predictive analytics to project-specific contexts.
• Data science and project governance, ethics, and accountability: Examining the implications of algorithmic decision-making, data privacy, and ethical use of data in managing projects.
• The evolving role of the project manager in data-rich contexts: Investigating new competencies, skills, and leadership styles required for managing data-intensive or AI-augmented projects. Discussing the relationship between project managers and data science experts in project management.
• Real-time data, dashboards and analytics for project monitoring and control: Contributions on the design and limits, use and evaluation of real-time performance tracking and visualisation tools in project management.
• Data ecosystems and infrastructure in large-scale or complex projects: Studies addressing the architecture, integration, and governance of data sources across distributed project networks.
• Cross-disciplinary applications of data science in projects: Interdisciplinary work linking project management with fields such as operations research, information systems, computational social science, or engineering.
• AI, big data and automation in project scheduling, forecasting, and resource allocation: Empirical or conceptual work on how intelligent systems are used to optimize project efficiency and adaptability.
• Data-enabled project evaluation, benefits realisation, and impact assessment: Using data science to better measure and predict the value, outcomes, and sustainability of projects, including alignment with SDGs.
• Theoretical and conceptual contributions linking data science and project studies: Frameworks and models that critically examine the intersection of data science and project management as evolving disciplines.
• AI-empowered stakeholder engagement in large-scale or complex projects: Leveraging AI to enhance stakeholder analysis, communication, and collaboration in complex projects, optimizing engagement strategies and improving project outcomes through predictive insights and automated interaction tools.

Timeline

• January 4, 2026: Opening date for manuscripts submissions
• July 31, 2026: Closing date for abstract submission
• January 31, 2027: Closing date for manuscripts submission

Projectification—the embedding of project logic across organizations, public sectors, and society—has fundamentally transformed how work is organized. While this shift has been widely documented, scholarly attention has predominantly focused on systemic and organizational dimensions, often overlooking the human experience. This special issue seeks to redress this imbalance by centering individuals and their experiences within projectification processes.

The issue invites interdisciplinary contributions exploring how people exercise agency, construct identity, and create value within projectified contexts. It addresses researchers and practitioners interested in understanding the lived experiences of those who shape, participate in, or are affected by projectification across educational, occupational, cultural, and geographical contexts.

Appel publié par International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• How do individuals implement and negotiate their agency in the context of increasing projectification by navigating between structure, temporality, and autonomy?
• How do individuals build and maintain their identities amid the fluidity and temporality of projectified work in a complex social environment?
• How do people co-create and redefine value through their participation in - and contribution to - the ongoing projectification in our society?
• What role do projects play in the development of people, from childhood to old age? Is there any difference between personal and occupational development?
• How do different levels of education and educational opportunities affect people's participation in projects and projectification?
• What expectations, aspirations, and objectives do individuals pursue through their involvement in projects, project management, and projectification?
• What impact (positive and/or negative) does engagement in projects - as temporary endeavors - have on the people involved?
• Which prerequisites have to be created by organizations, government, or society so that people engage in projects and turn them into success stories?
• How much projectification can people tolerate, or is there a point at which over-projectification is reached and de-projectification starts?
• How do cultural factors affect people's involvement in projects and projectification?
• What are the main differences in projectification across the globe, and how does it influence individuals involved or eager to enter the project world?
• To what extent is the use of professional project management beneficial or detrimental to the implementation of projects in the different areas of society?

Timeline

• January 15, 2026: Opening date for manuscript submissions
• November 15, 2026: Closing date for manuscript submissions

Samuel MacAulay, University of Queensland

Llewellyn D. W. Thomas, University of Sydney

Andrew Davies, University of Sussex

Projects operate within complex ecosystems of interdependent actors, institutions, and relationships that shape value creation and capture far beyond traditional project boundaries. Rather than treating projects as isolated endeavors, this special issue examines how projects are shaped by and shape their broader contexts, addressing gaps in understanding contextual influences on project outcomes. Emerging challenges such as digital transformation, sustainability transitions, and global interconnectedness create new contextual complexities requiring both theoretical and practical attention.

The special issue seeks research that conceptualizes project ecosystems, explores governance and orchestration mechanisms, and investigates temporal and evolutionary dynamics. Contributions should examine how contextual embeddedness affects project ecosystem outcomes, how governance mechanisms evolve throughout project life cycles, how historical contexts shape current ecosystems, and what long-term impacts project contexts have on subsequent projects and relationships.

Appel publié par Project Management Journal. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Conceptualizing Project Ecosystems: Theoretical refinement and boundary clarification of project ecosystems and related constructs such as project ecologies and networks
• Empirical investigations of project ecosystems in various industries examining value creation opportunities and complementarities between ecosystem participants
• Comparative analyses exploring relationships, dependencies, and interactions between different project ecosystems and their contextual influences
• Measurement and assessment tools and frameworks for identifying and analyzing value creation and capture in project ecosystems
• Multilevel governance: Coordination mechanisms across different types of project ecosystems and organizational levels
• Network orchestration and activity integration: Leadership, participant cooperation, coordination, and balancing diversity and integration in project ecosystems
• Formal and informal governance: Contractual arrangements, relational governance, and how governance configurations shape value creation or destruction
• Dynamic governance: Evolution of ecosystem governance mechanisms throughout project ecosystem life cycles and the role of leaders and dynamic capabilities
• Context evolution: How project ecosystems evolve over time, project phases, and drivers of evolutionary processes
• Path dependencies: Historical contexts shaping current project ecosystems and antecedents and consequences of different contextual configurations
• Life cycle dynamics: How contextual influences shape different stages of project ecosystem development and interaction with temporal factors
• Legacy effects: Long-term impacts of project contexts on subsequent projects and relationships within ecosystems

Timeline

• December 31, 2025: Call for Papers Announcement
• October 15, 2026: Manuscript submission deadline
• December 1, 2027: Expected publication

Anna Wiewiora, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

Jörg Sydow, Freie Universität Berlin

Josh Keller, University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Medhanie Gaim, Oslo Metropolitan University

This special issue examines how tensions and paradoxes emerge, interact, and evolve across project environments at multiple levels—individual, team, organizational, and interorganizational. Rather than viewing tensions as problems to eliminate, the issue encourages research that explores how project actors and leaders can navigate, leverage, and productively work with persistent, interdependent contradictory demands that are inherent in complex project work.

The call invites theory-informed contributions that move beyond binary either/or framings to adopt both/and and more-than approaches for understanding tensions. Topics of particular interest include tensions in project learning, sustainability integration, stakeholder management, and the emerging role of algorithmic technologies in project decision-making. The special issue welcomes conceptual, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research, with emphasis on longitudinal and comparative designs that capture how tensions evolve over time.

Appel publié par Project Management Journal. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Individual-level tensions including identity conflicts, leadership styles, and emotional responses of project actors
• Team-level tensions in collaboration, decision-making styles, and balancing competitive and cooperative behaviors
• Organizational and interorganizational tensions arising from embedded projects, strategic duality, and governance systems
• Tensions in complex and megaproject environments with multiple institutional contexts and knowledge domains
• Project learning paradoxes and tensions between knowledge creation, transfer, and performance pressures
• Sustainability tensions between environmental goals and traditional project delivery objectives
• Stakeholder-related tensions including inclusion versus exclusion, cooperation versus competition, and competing narratives
• Tensions involving artificial intelligence and human judgment in project decision-making and knowledge management
• Methodological approaches including longitudinal case studies, comparative designs, action research, and engaged scholarship to capture dynamic nature of tensions

Timeline

• October 31, 2026: Abstract submission deadline
• June 30, 2027: Full manuscript submission deadline for invited abstracts

Kirsi Aaltonen, University of Oulu

Siavash Alimadadi, King's College London

Marina Bos-de Vos, Delft University of Technology

Ermal Hetemi, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Projects increasingly serve as platforms for translating sustainability goals into concrete actions, yet the relationship between stakeholder engagement and sustainability outcomes is complex and multifaceted. This special issue examines how projects and programs generate, mediate, and shape sustainability outcomes and legacies through stakeholder engagement across their entire lifecycle, extending beyond traditional project success metrics to encompass long-term societal and environmental impacts.

The special issue identifies five central tensions: the paradox of inclusion and exclusion in stakeholder participation; the mismatch between global sustainability ambitions and local contextual realities; conflicts between project temporal constraints and extended sustainability time horizons; tensions between managerial control approaches and emergent sustainability dynamics; and the reconfiguring influence of artificial intelligence on stakeholder engagement processes. These tensions reflect competing demands and values that cannot be fully resolved simultaneously but require careful conceptual and empirical examination.

Appel publié par Project Management Journal. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Inclusion, exclusion, and stakeholder voice in projects and how these dynamics shape legitimacy and sustainability outcomes
• Global ambitions and local realities: how global sustainability goals are interpreted, translated, and contested in local project contexts
• Project temporality and sustainability time horizons: tensions between short-term delivery pressures and long-term sustainability objectives
• Managerial control and emergent sustainability dynamics: control-oriented approaches versus emergent and value-laden aspects of sustainability
• Artificial intelligence and the reconfiguration of tensions: how AI shapes stakeholder engagement, participation, bias, accountability, and legitimacy in sustainability-oriented projects
• Sustainable project legacy: long-term value and lasting impacts that projects leave for communities and the environment
• Stakeholder engagement mechanisms through which sustainability outcomes are negotiated, contested, and realized
• Power asymmetries and their role in shaping sustainability outcomes and project trajectories
• Temporal work and how actors mobilize visions of futures to coordinate action across divergent timeframes
• Portfolio governance, intermediary organizational structures, and their mediation between strategic sustainability ambitions and project delivery practices

Timeline

• Invalid DateTime: Expected finalization of the special issue
• October 1, 2026: Extended abstract submission deadline
• October 31, 2026: Feedback on extended abstracts
• February 28, 2027: Full paper submission deadline
• March 1, 2027: Review and revision cycles

Appel publié par International Journal of Project Management. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Timeline

• October 30, 2026: Submission deadline

This special issue explores the digitalisation of and by projects from a sociotechnical perspective, examining the consequences for project work and how digital technologies reshape project management practices, organizational structures, and professional roles.

Appel publié par International Journal of Project Management. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Timeline

• September 30, 2026: Submission deadline

Appel publié par International Journal of Project Management. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Timeline

• February 1, 2027: Submission deadline

Appel publié par International Journal of Project Management. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Timeline

• February 28, 2027: Full paper submission deadline

Appel publié par International Journal of Project Management. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Timeline

• September 30, 2026: Full paper submission deadline