Applications of Distributed Ledgers and Smart Contracts to Public Administration, Health Care and Education
A special issue of Informatics (ISSN 2227-9709).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2018) | Viewed by 33794
Special Issue Editor
Interests: blockchain and distributed ledgers; supply chain management; social network analysis; content/sentiment analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Distributed ledgers such as blockchains are distributed databases where information is shared and synchronized in a peer-to-peer fashion across all participants, thus avoiding the need of a trusted party with privileges in the management of information. Distributed ledger technology has come to the attention of the public through one application which has had enormous success, namely cryptocurrencies which, starting with Bitcoin and following with numerous others, are revolutionizing the economy by eliminating trustees and other kinds of supervisors responsible for the correct circulation of money. This initial application was then extended to the more general area of smart contracts, with platforms such as Ethereum, which support the automation of complex contractual relationships among distributed, heterogeneous parties. Until now, the applications of smart contracts have remained substantially within the realm of digital currencies, for instance with the creation of personalized coins in the form of tokens capable of giving the initial input of monetary energy needed to bootstrap an ecosystem of innovative and distributed organizations, as is the case with the so called "initial coin offerings".
Smart contracts and distributed ledgers promise, however, to be very effective even in other areas of general interest, such as public administration, health, and education. Specifically, distributed ledgers can make public administrations fully transparent, thus avoiding opacity and corruption in the management of resources contributed by taxpayers; and smart contracts can automate and synchronize administrative processes, thus curbing inefficiencies, delays, and bottlenecks. Healthcare could be radically improved through access to a common database of health information shared across the variety of adopted electronic medical systems, leading to greater security and privacy, less administrative burden for both doctors and patients, and optimal diffusion of search results which could facilitate better drugs and therapies. Education can be made more widespread and effective through the sharing of educational resources, and people's profiles can be certified on the basis of their educational and professional career with maximum transparency and visibility.
We call for contributions on the application of distributed ledgers and smart contracts in the areas of public administration, government, education, and health care, including but not restricted to the following specific topics:
- Distributed ledgers for e-government
- Distributed workflow management for public administrations with smart contracts
- Distributed ledgers for digital identities
- Distributed ledgers for environmental safety
- Distributed ledgers for service development in developing countries
- Distributed ledgers for land registration
- Distributed ledgers for healthcare management
- Distributed ledgers for the support of clinical research
- Distributed ledgers for genomic data banks
- Distributed ledgers for the certification of skills and competencies
- Distributed ledgers for tracking intellectual property
- Smart contracts for a distributed marketplace of competencies
Prof. Dr. Remo Pareschi
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Informatics is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- distributed ledger
- blockchain
- smart contract
- government
- public administration
- healthcare
- clinical research
- education
- certification
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.
