Aims and scope

Natural Computing is a general term referring to computing going on in nature and computing inspired by nature. When complex phenomena going on in nature are viewed as computational processes, our understanding of these phenomena and of the essence of computation is enhanced. In this way one gains valuable insights into both natural sciences and computer science. Characteristic for man-designed computing inspired by nature is the metaphorical use of concepts, principles and mechanisms underlying natural systems. This type of computing includes evolutionary algorithms, neural networks, molecular computing and quantum computing. 

The aim of the journal is (1) to provide a publication forum for, and to foster links and mutual understanding between researchers from various areas of natural computing, (2) to give researchers in natural sciences and computer science an insight into research trends in natural computing. The research in natural computing is concerned with theory, experiments, and applications, and the journal reports on each of these research lines. Moreover, the journal will cover natural computing in a very broad scope. Thus, e.g., the subarea of evolutionary algorithms will cover also very active research on the boundary of biology and computer science which views the evolution as a computational process, and the subarea of neural networks will also cover computational trends in brain research.

The journal is soliciting papers on all aspects of natural computing. Because of the interdisciplinary character of the journal a special effort will be made to solicit survey, review, and tutorial papers which would make research trends in a given subarea more accessible to the broad audience of the journal.

Founding Editors-in-Chief
Grzegorz Rozenberg, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
Herman Spaink, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands

Special Issue on Theory and Applications of Reaction Systems
Submission Date: 2026-03-14

Since their introduction nearly two decades ago, reaction systems have developed into a vibrant and truly interdisciplinary research area. Rooted in biological inspiration and the study of interactive computation, research on reaction systems now spans a wide spectrum—from theoretical foundations to practical applications and dedicated software tools. This diversity reflects both the richness of the formalism and its growing connections to other fields of science.

For this special issue, we invite submissions of full-length research articles presenting novel and unpublished results on all aspects of reaction systems, including, but not limited to:

· new variants and extensions of reaction systems;
· mathematical and computational properties;
· biological modelling, applications, and case studies;
· connections with other computational or scientific frameworks;
· software environments and tool development.

All submissions must represent original work not under consideration elsewhere.

Further information on reaction systems, including an extensive and regularly updated bibliography, can be found at: https://www.reactionsystems.org/.

Authors should prepare their manuscript according to the Instructions for Authors available from the Journal’s submission guidelines https://link.springer.com/journal/11047/submission-guidelines. Submitted papers should present original, unpublished work, relevant to one of the topics of the special issue. All submitted papers will be evaluated on the basis of relevance, significance of contribution, technical quality, scholarship, and quality of presentation by at least two independent reviewers. It is the policy of the journal that no submission, or substantially overlapping submission, be published or be under review at another journal or conference at any time during the review process.

Please note that the authors of selected papers presented at Reaction Systems are invited to submit an extended version of their contributions by taking into consideration both the reviewers’ comments on their conference paper, and the feedback received during presentation at the conference. It is worth clarifying that the extended version is expected to contain a substantial scientific contribution, e.g., in the form of new algorithms, experiments or qualitative/quantitative comparisons, and that neither verbatim transfer of large parts of the conference paper nor reproduction of already published figures will be tolerated.

The extended versions of Reaction Systems papers will undergo the standard, rigorous journal review process and be accepted only if well-suited to the topic of this special issue and meeting the scientific level of the journal. Final decisions on all papers are made by the Editor in Chief.