Alternate Digital Realities at the Dawn of Omni-Universe: Social, Cultural, Behavioural and Business Evolutions
DETAILS
CALL FOR PAPERS
Alternate Digital Realities at the Dawn of Omni-Universe: Social, Cultural, Behavioural and Business Evolutions
Journal: Technology in Society
Publisher: Elsevier
Submission Opens: 1 November 2026
Submission Deadline: 28 February 2027
Introduction
Digital technologies are increasingly giving rise to alternate and parallel digital universes — including those formed through social media platforms, online games, immersive virtual environments, and augmented reality systems. These environments operate as socially embedded spaces in which individuals interact, construct identities, form communities, and negotiate meaning — often in ways that differ markedly from physical settings.
Research has shown that such technologies do not merely reshape practices and behaviours, but also transform users' sensory, emotional, and psychological experiences — particularly as AI-driven agents and interfaces become central mediators of interaction. Digital technologies exert deep societal effects extending well beyond efficiency or productivity gains — shaping inequality and wealth distribution, transforming user experience and ethical perception, and reconfiguring value creation processes across digital ecosystems.
Scope & Significance
This Special Issue introduces the emerging notion of an "Omni-Universe" as a conceptual lens for examining early forms of integration across parallel digital universes. This concept captures ongoing processes of interoperability, convergence, and cross-platform connection — including shared digital identities and AI-generated content circulating physical-virtual interactions — without presupposing a fully realized or unified system.
The Special Issue invites interdisciplinary research that critically examines the societal, cultural, and behavioural implications of alternate and integrated digital universes — exploring how these environments evolve, how they affect individuals and communities, and how they reshape broader social structures and conceptual understandings.
While organizational and business contexts may be addressed, they should be examined as part of wider societal processes — consistent with the journal's social science orientation.
The editors welcome:
✅ Original empirical studies
✅ Conceptual and theory-building contributions
✅ Critical reviews
✅ Methodologically diverse and internationally comparative work
List of Topic Areas
Manuscripts are invited on themes including, but not limited to:
Parallel digital universes as socially embedded environments — social media, gaming, VR, and AR
Behavioural, psychological, and experiential effects of sustained engagement in digitally mediated environments
Power relations, inequality, and exclusion within and across parallel digital universes
Sustainability and long-term societal implications of digital transformation
Socio-cultural and institutional contexts shaping engagement with digital technologies
Governance and policy toward ethical standards, codes, and practices of digital universes
Evolutionary, revolutionary, and devolutionary societal transformations at individual and collective levels
Forms of integration across parallel digital universes through the concept of the "Omni-Universe"
AI-generated content — authenticity, trust, and human-technology relationships
Identity construction, empowerment, and quality of life in digital environments
Value co-creation and co-destruction across interconnected digital ecosystems
Social cohesion, inclusion, and long-term societal well-being in the digital age
AI sensation, immersion, and psychological engagement in alternate digital realities
Metaverse, virtual worlds, and their broader societal and environmental implications
Data-driven innovation — inclusion, trust, accountability, and governance mechanisms
Guest Editors
Prof. Demetris Vrontis University of Nicosia, Cyprus 📧 vrontis.d@unic.ac.cy
Prof. Shahriar Akter University of Wollongong, Australia 📧 sakter@uow.edu.au
Prof. Alkis Thrassou University of Nicosia, Cyprus 📧 thrassou.a@unic.ac.cy
Prof. Pantea Foroudi Brunel University London, UK 📧 pantea.foroudi@brunel.ac.uk
Key Deadlines
📅 Manuscript Submission Opens: 1 November 2026 ⏰ Manuscript Submission Deadline: 28 February 2027
Submission Guidelines
Submit your manuscript through Editorial Manager, the official online submission system for Technology in Society, before the submission deadline.
When submitting, select Article Type: "VSI: Digital Realities" (Please select this item to ensure the submission is included in the Special Issue.)
All submissions will undergo peer review and be evaluated based on originality, significance, technical quality, and clarity.
⚠️ All submissions must be original and must not be under review elsewhere at the time of submission.
For author guidelines, visit the official Technology in Society journal page on the Elsevier ScienceDirect website.
About the Journal
Technology in Society, published by Elsevier, is a premier international peer-reviewed journal with a CiteScore of 21.9 and Impact Factor of 12.5. It supports open access publishing and is dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary research on the complex relationships between technology, institutions, and society — providing a leading global platform for scholars exploring how technological change shapes and is shaped by governance, culture, economics, and political structures across diverse national and regional contexts.
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