This year’s edition of the International Conference on Fuzzy Systems and Data Mining (FSDM), the first of the 2020s, has been disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. FSDM has had a short but also very intense history to reach this 6th edition of the series, and has become one of the top conferences the proceedings of which are published in the prestigious book series, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications (FAIA), by IOS Press. The last two proceedings of the European-Japanese Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (EJC-IMKB)can be found in [1] and [2] respectively; the 2019 proceedings of Legal Knowledge Based Systems (JURIX) can be accessed from [3]; and papers for JURIX 2020 are currently under assessment. The – International Conference on Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques (SOMET) – SOMET 2020 is a newly published book in FAIA [4], and SOMET 2019 can be found in [5]. These are the three conferences with the highest number of edited volumes published as part of the FAIA series.

FSDM 2015 [6] was held in Shanghai, China; FSDM 2016 [7] took place in Macau, China; FSDM 2017 [8] visited Hualien, Taiwan; FSDM 2018 [9] travelled to Bangkok, Thailand; and finally FSDM 2019 [10] was held in Kitakyushu City, Japan. Nowadays, data science, big data and deep learning are the typical keywords which abound in any high-level conference in the field of machine learning. FSDM is focused on data mining and fuzzy systems, and the aforementioned topics are dealt with in many of the papers included here.

This volume includes the papers accepted and presented at the 6th International Conference on Fuzzy Systems and Data Mining (FSDM 2020), which was initially scheduled to be held from 13–16 November 2020 in Xiamen, China, but which was ultimately changed to an online conference due to ongoing restrictions connected with the COVID-19 pandemic. All sessions were available via live streaming with a high interaction from all participants.

All papers were carefully reviewed by program committee members with regard to the quality, novelty, breadth and depth of the research themes falling within the scope of FSDM. FSDM 2020 was a reference and outstanding conference which attracted three remarkable keynote speakers: Prof. Dr. Rongrong Ji from Xiamen University (China), Prof. Dr. Juan Manuel Corchado, Director of the European IoT Digital Innovation Hub and Director of the BISITE Research Group from the University of Salamanca (Spain) and Prof. Dr. Milan Tuba, Vice Rector for International Relations, Singidunum University, Serbia. This meant that the conference enjoyed three keynotes from very different locations.

The current FAIA volume contains selected contributions from FSDM 2020. If you have contributed to the FSDM conference before or in this edition, we would like to see you on board again. Otherwise, if you have not yet submitted a paper to FSDM, we would like to invite you to prepare a good contribution and for our visit to either Europe or South Korea, one of which will be the location for FSDM 2021.

I am very glad to inform you that FSDM received 316 submissions this year. After an intense discussion stage, the committee, which included many experts, decided to accept 76 papers, which represents an acceptance rate of 24%. The profile of the authors is very remarkable and the number of full professors who contributed is very high. As a follow-up to the conference, some special issues in well-regarded journals such as the International Journal of Information Technology and Web Engineering (IJITWE), CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, International Journal of Fuzzy Systems and Mathematics are scheduled to be published; this is an important leap in the number of journal issues, which is increasing yearly. Special issues with Intelligent Data Analysis and Journal of Nonlinear and Convex Analysis have been published in previous years.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the keynote and invited speakers, as well as the authors who made the effort to prepare a contribution to the conference. Furthermore, I also wish to express our gratitude to everyone, especially the program committee members and reviewers, who devoted time to assessing the papers. It is an honor to continue with the publication of these proceedings in the outstanding series FAIA by IOS Press. My particular thanks and regards also go to J. Breuker, N. Guarino, J.N. Kok, R. López de Mántaras, J. Liu, R. Mizoguchi, M. Musen, S.K. Pal and N. Zhong, the FAIA series editors, for supporting this conference.

1st October 2020

Huelva city, Spain

Antonio J. Tallón-Ballesteros

University of Huelva (Spain)

References

[1] B. Thalheim, M. Tropmann-Frick, H. Jaakkola & Y. Kiyoki (Eds.). (2020). Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (EJC 2020).

[2] A. Dahanayak, J. Huiskonen, & Y. Kiyoki (Eds.). (2020). Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases XXXI (Vol. 321). IOS Press.

[3] M. Araszkiewicz, & V. Rodríguez-Doncel (Eds.). (2019). Legal Knowledge and Information Systems: JURIX 2019: The Thirty-second Annual Conference (Vol. 322). IOS Press.

[4] H. Fujita, A. Selamat, & S. Omatu (Eds.). (2020). Knowledge Innovation Through Intelligent Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques. IOS Press. ISBN 978-1-64368-114-6 DOI:10.3233/FAIA200574.

[5] H. Fujita, & A. Selamat (Eds.). (2019). Advancing Technology Industrialization Through Intelligent Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on New Trends in Intelligent Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques (SoMeT_19) (Vol. 318). IOS Press.

[6] G. Chen, F. Liu, & M. Shojafar (Eds.). (2016). Fuzzy system and data mining: proceedings of FSDM 2015 (Vol. 281). IOS Press.

[7] S. L. Sun, A. J. Tallón-Ballesteros, & D. S. Pamučar (Eds.). (2016). Fuzzy Systems and Data MiningII: Proceedings of FSDM 2016 (Vol. 293). IOS Press.

[8] A. J. Tallón-Ballesteros, & K. Li (Eds.). (2017). Fuzzy Systems and Data Mining III: Proceedings of FSDM 2018 (Vol. 299). IOS Press.

[9] A. J. Tallón-Ballesteros, & K. Li (Eds.). (2018). Fuzzy Systems and Data Mining IV: Proceedings of FSDM 2018 (Vol. 309). IOS Press.

[10] A. J. Tallón-Ballesteros (Ed.). (2019). Fuzzy Systems and Data Mining V: Proceedings of FSDM 2019 (Vol. 320). IOS Press.