Editorial

Abstract

Exactly forty years back, a Chinese scholar Deng Julong submitted a manuscript to Systems & Control Letters. Upon its acceptance, next year, that paper marked the birth of Grey System Theory (GST). Today, the GST, with mathematics at its core, has become an important alternative approach to soft computing and computational intelligence. Its successes in energy forecasts and multi-criteria decision-making are no secret. However, it still faces many challenges, at least in the near-term future. Some scholars outside China still hold a narrow view of it as a 'Chinese science,' while others, who are less concerned with practice and more with theory, have their own reservations. Because the predominant literature on the GST is in the Chinese language and the other literature available in the 'English-like' language raises more questions than it answers, it is no wonder why many are still afraid to bell the cat! However, as a late Chinese leader said, "It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice." The cat we are dealing with is grey, and it catches mice. However, how it catches, is still not clear on many.

International Journal of Grey Systems has been launched to bring clarity, transparency, and diversity to our field. It is an international journal that publishes the English language works on the theory and practice of the GST. Unlike its experienced contemporaries, the journal strongly encourages reviewing the English language literature in its pages. If a study is built on a body of literature that is largely inaccessible or unreadable to our international readers, it should be submitted elsewhere. When we say the journal is 'international,' we mean it. Being the first open-access journal on the GST, it is hoped that the journal would play a decisive role in the coming years in mainstreaming the GST by improving its understanding and global outreach. The journal is particularly interested in manuscripts, which are backed by theory rather than tradition and have the potential to lead us to the development of a comprehensive scientific body of knowledge on GST.

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it," says Max Planck. International Journal of Grey Systems intends to fulfill the intellectual needs of the new generation of data analysts and problem solvers and wishes together they take our field to new heights in the future. Feel free to join us in our journey, which is tough but exciting.

Finally, I wish to thank everyone who played some role in its launch. Everybody who worked on our manuscript submission system. Our reviewers, editors, copyeditors and producers. Also, the authors who entrusted us with their submissions and the readers who are going to read, share and cite these works. We also thank the Grey Systems Society of Pakistan for its indispensible support. Last, but not least, I’m indebted to Professor Sifeng Liu, for the encouragement and motivation. His words are still resonating in my ears; “[I] wish the journal will become a window and a garden plot for grey systems research, become a bridge and a tie to link colleagues of theoretical research and practical application…” We hope our journey toward success is as beautiful as the people who supported us.

International Journal of Grey Systems does not just communicate with you; it also listens to you. Thus, whenever a proposal comes to your mind, that can benefit it and the scientific community it serves, feel free to discuss. It is hoped that in the International Journal of Grey Systems, we will find not merely another outlet for our future submissions but also a shoulder to stand on and to see further.