<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252"> <style type="text/css" style="display:none;"></style> </head> <body dir="ltr"> <div id="divtagdefaultwrapper" style="font-size:12pt;color:#000000;font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;" dir="ltr"> **Apologies for multiple postings** **Online version: <a href="https://mental.jmir.org/announcements/424" class="OWAAutoLink">https://mental.jmir.org/announcements/424</a>** Call for Papers: JMIR Mental Health Theme Issue: Affective Computing for Mental Well-Being <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">JMIR Mental Health, a premier SCIE/PubMed/Scopus-indexed, peer-reviewed journal with a unique focus on digital mental health, is inviting submissions to a new theme issue titled “Affective Computing for Mental Well-being”. Affective computing has the potential to support several important processes in the quest of enhancing and maintaining mental well-being. Such techniques can be used to augment traditional questionnaire-based diagnosis methods or enhance self-awareness by tracking user states and behaviour with multimodal cues associated with verbal and non-verbal communication, physiology, and physical activities. There are great opportunities to develop personalised interventions based on individuals' affective states and their unique needs and preferences. Extended Reality (XR) solutions and mHealth apps can also be enhanced by becoming more responsive and adaptive. Further, such technology can contribute to health equity by making mental health services more accessible, especially to those facing barriers such as geographic distance, lack of resources, or the stigma associated with seeking care. However, the complex nature of mental well-being requires that this challenge is approached from various angles and multiple disciplines, and as advances in AC and AI in mental health give rise to important ethical concerns, it is vital that these are addressed. This theme issue invites original contributions, including but not limited to: <ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;"> <li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Data collection, archiving and retrieval in the context of mental health </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Multimodal recognition of stress, negative affect, sleep, social isolation, or other mental health-related symptoms </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Automatic behaviour and affect coding </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Affective modelling </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Analysis of interactions with patients, including synchrony and alliance </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> NLP for medical texts analysis </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Multimodal and multi-temporal information fusion in the context of mental health </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Chatbots, virtual humans, XR, serious games, etc. for mental health support </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> User-centric design for mental health applications </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Customization, personalisation and adaptation </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> User studies on affective computing technology for mental health </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Therapeutic relationship and artificial empathy </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Social and ethical issues regarding the use of affective technologies for mental health support, such as: privacy, trust and bias. </li></ul> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">Submission Guidelines: All submissions will undergo a rigorous peer-review process, and accepted articles will be published as part of a special issue on the “<a href="https://mental.jmir.org/announcements/424" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Affective Computing for Mental Well-being</a>”. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">Submission Deadline: April 15, 2024. Submissions not reviewed or accepted for publication in this <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">JMIR Mental Health theme issue may be offered cascading peer review or transfer to other JMIR Publications journals, according to standard publisher policies. For example, highly technical papers may be transferred or submitted to <a href="https://ai.jmir.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">JMIR AI</a> or <a href="https://neuro.jmir.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">JMIR Neurotechnology</a>. Selected submissions also may be in scope for <a href="https://games.jmir.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">JMIR Serious Games</a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">. Early-stage formative work that informs the design of future interventions or research may better fit the scope for <a href="https://formative.jmir.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">JMIR Formative Research</a>. Authors are encouraged to submit study protocols or grant proposals to <a href="https://www.researchprotocols.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">JMIR Research Protocols</a> before data acquisition to preregister the study (Registered Reports—subsequent acceptance in one of the JMIR Publications journals is then guaranteed). All articles submitted to this theme issue will be shared and published rapidly through the following mechanisms: <ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;"> <li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> All peer-reviewed articles in this theme issue will be immediately and permanently made open access. This is the standard for all titles within the JMIR Publications portfolio. </li><li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-" aria-level="1"> Articles can be made immediately available in JMIR Preprints (with a DOI) after submission if authors select the preprint option at submission to enable this service. </li></ul> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">Article processing fees As an open access journal, JMIR Mental Health will charge an Article Processing Fee (APF). Please find more information on the article processing fees <a href="https://mental.jmir.org/about-journal/article-processing-fees" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">here</a>. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-">Guest Editors <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-"> Iulia Lefter, PhD, Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology Zakia Hammal, PhD, Assistant Research Professor, Carnegie Mellon University David D Luxton, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Washington Theodora Chaspari, PhD, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University Alice Baird, PhD, Hume AI Albert Ali Salah, PhD, Professor, Utrecht University and Bogazici University Marwa Mahmoud, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Glasgow <div> </div> </div> </body> </html>