Dear colleagues,

As announced in the Global Port Research Alliance Conference (GPRA 2016), we cordially invite you to prepare an extended version of your work for the Special Issue on: “Decision Analytics in Port and Shipping Logistics” (guest editors: Eduardo Lalla-Ruiz, Xiaoning Shi, and Stefan Voß) in the "International Journal of Shipping and Transport Logistics". This special issue will examine how the gap between new research trends in decision analytics and the current challenges faced by port and shipping logistics can be reduced, while addressing maritime terminal and shipping logistic problems from different standpoints. There are complex obstacles faced by the port sector and related shipping industries. Therefore, this SI invites original works dealing with critical topics and uses lines of research to assess, support, and improve port and shipping logistics operations. The submissions are expected to add new materials and content matching this scope as well as the following (and related) topics:

• Empirical and simulation studies contributing and providing different perspectives and scenarios in ports and shipping transport
• Solid mathematical modelling and/or algorithms addressing relevant and complex logistic problems at maritime terminals
• Application of predictive models and optimisation to improve current port logistic solutions and the shipping trade
• The use of the latest data mining, analysis, and management techniques to support terminal managers in the decision process
• Application of statistical methods, data visualisation techniques and pattern recognition approaches to deepen the knowledge of port logistics operations
• New perspectives on challenges at container terminals, opportunities that may arise, and findings using data from real cases