The 18th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS 2024) took place from the 14th to the 17th of May 2024. The conference was held as a live, in-person event in Guimarães, Portugal. Guimarães is a scenic historical city located in the north of the country and considered the cradle of the Portuguese nation. RCIS aims to bring together scientists, researchers, engineers, and practitioners from a wide range of Information Science fields and to provide opportunities for knowledge sharing and dissemination. The special theme of RCIS 2024 was “Information Science: Evolution or Revolution?”. Knowledge and technology are constantly evolving as a result of research and development, including in Information Science. However, recent fast progress in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and extended reality might lead to a revolution in a short time, not only to an evolution. The workshops were held on May 14th and the Research Projects Track took place on the 16th. Three workshops were accepted based on their quality and potential to attract participants. The aim of the workshops was to promote the exchange, cross-fertilization, and dissemination of new ideas among the members of the RCIS community, both
researchers and practitioners. In addition, the workshops kept in mind the special theme of the conference. The workshops of RCIS 2024 were the following: • • • 1st International Usable Security and Privacy for Emerging Technologies Workshop (ASPIRING 2024), organized by Mohamad Gharib, Katrien De Moor, and Tong Li. ASPIRING aimed to explore state-of-the-art methods for engineering usable security and privacy (USP) solutions with special emphasis on the human factors in such solutions. In line with RCIS 2024 conference theme, the workshop also dealt with research on revolution solutions for USP issues focusing on how the boundaries of USP design can be extended and aligned with the implementation, testing, validation, and verification by adopting a humancentered design and by systematically and iteratively involving diverse users in each of the aforementioned phases. This can ensure that the eventual USP solutions are seamlessly aligned with the needs and capacities of its target users, facilitating the use of such solutions. 2nd International Workshop on Cyber-Physical Social Systems for Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities (CPSS4Sus 2024), organized by Isabel Sofia Brito, Ivan Machado, and João Paulo Barros. This workshop was based on the fact that the world is confronting numerous challenges that should be dealt with in the near future, such as tackling climate change and environmental degradation, producing affordable and clean energy, eliminating poverty, and ensuring education, health, and social protection for all. CPS (cyberphysical systems) can be relevant to addressing social, environmental, economic, and governance sustainability. Regarding social sustainability, it is imperative to identify early development approaches for CPS systems that promote strong and fair communities, such as social and health equity, community development, human rights, and social justice. These human and social characteristics and interactions are brought into the CPS due to the human-centric computation shift to the cyber-physical social system (CPSS), which was the target of the workshop. Exploring Ontology-based Design Interactions for Sustainability Research, organized by Greta Adamo and Max Willis. This hands-on workshop explored an ontology-based conceptual model for social-ecological systems (SESs) integration and analyzed its utility for participatory knowledge co-design. The model brings together prominent frameworks and maps their concepts and relationships through ontological analysis. Nonetheless, the model itself is complex and its ontological commitments might not be immediately accessible for stakeholders. To overcome these issues, the organizers leveraged HumanComputer Interaction and interaction design techniques to devise participatory workshop activities for study of sustainability scenarios through the integrated SESs model and evaluation of the model itself. Participants in the workshop got experience with card games, object theatre, and role-play as participatory methodologies for embodied sense-making and knowledge co-design.
In addition, the Research Projects Track was devoted to presenting future or ongoing research projects (e.g., H2020 or ERC projects, and national grants) in the context of Information Science. The aim of this track was to provide an opportunity for presenters to get feedback before submitting a research project or to disseminate the intermediate results of their projects, and for participants to get an updated view of innovative ongoing research while getting in touch with potential research partners.