Special Issue of the 2024 Metaheuristics International Conference

Journal of Heuristics

Important Dates:

  • Submission deadline: February 15, 2025
  • Acceptance notification: June 15, 2025
  • Target date for final manuscripts: August 30, 2025

Area Editor:

  • Marc Sevaux, Université Bretagne Sud, France

Guest Editors:

  • Romain Billot, IMT Atlantique, France
  • Salma Makboul, Université de Technologie de Troyes, France
  • Alexandru-Liviu Olteanu, Université Bretagne Sud, France
  • Eduardo G. Pardo, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain


The Metaheuristics International Conference (MIC) is an annual forum for the exchange of new algorithmic developments, high-impact and novel applications, new research challenges, theoretical developments, implementation issues, and in-depth experimental studies in metaheuristics. In 2024 the 15th instance of this conference was held in Lorient, France, June 4-7. As a natural outcome of this activity and thanks to the support of Springer and the Journal of Heuristics, we are pleased to announce a special issue of the latter, devoted to selected publications on works presented at MIC 2024.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Techniques such as tabu search, simulated annealing, iterated local search, variable neighborhood search, memory-based optimization, evolutionary algorithms, memetic algorithms, ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, scatter search, path relinking, etc.
  • Techniques that enhance the usability and increase the potential of metaheuristic algorithms such as parallelization of algorithms, reactive search mechanisms for self-tuning, offline metaheuristic algorithm configuration techniques, algorithm portfolios, etc.
  • Empirical and theoretical research in metaheuristics including large-scale experimental analyses, algorithm comparisons, new experimental methodologies, engineering methodologies for stochastic local search algorithms, search space analysis, theoretical insights into properties of metaheuristic algorithms.
  • High-impact applications of metaheuristics in fields such as bioinformatics, data mining, planning and scheduling, telecommunications, logistics and supply chains, etc. Particularly welcome are innovative applications of metaheuristics that have a potential of widening research frontiers.
  • Contributions on the interface of metaheuristics with other disciplines, such as agent-based models, integer programming, constraint programming, machine learning, Quantum Operations Research, etc.
  • Challenging problems such as multi-objective, stochastic, or dynamic problems.

Submissions are expected to be significant extensions of abstracts or papers already published in the proceedings of MIC 2014 and will be peer-reviewed.

Authors should submit their manuscripts using the Journal of Heuristics Editorial Manager at https://www.editorialmanager.com/heur, selecting “S.I. : Metaheuristics International Conference” as article type. All manuscripts must be prepared in accordance with the available instructions for authors.