“Digital Twins” have been touted as an analytical and conceptual game changer, capturing the attention of academic researchers, industry, and policymakers alike. Applications of digital twin frameworks span engineering and medicine, as well as urban planning and the social sciences. Some examples align closely to common definitions of digital twins, integrating real-time data streams, system perspectives, state-of-the-art analytics and AI, and computational power. Others, especially those dealing with social systems or where human systems interface with natural and built environments, are perhaps better thought of as “in the spirit of” a digital twin. Despite the current prominence of digital twins, challenges and questions remain, especially around definitions, suitable applications, technical requirements, and the barriers to digital twins delivering on their promise.
This special issue of
Harvard Data Science Review (HDSR) will assemble state-of-the-art applications, methods, and perspectives, identify gaps and potential solutions, and assess the social, ethical, and economic impacts of a digital twin approach that is making inroads in nearly every aspect of society.
Contributions are invited that add clarity to general understanding of digital twins; we are especially interested in article submissions that endeavor to speak across disciplinary divides and application areas, finding commonalities in a fractured community of users, developers, and consumers of digital twin apparatuses, as well as on methods and theory to advance the quality and scientific rigor of digital twins.
SUBMISSION TOPICS
We especially welcome papers on the following topics:
- Defining digital twins, their historical development, and their relationships with synthetic
data and generative AI
- Essential elements of digital twins across domains
Innovative applications
- Data, technical, and other ongoing challenges
- Establishing the limits of digital twins and their unintended consequences
- Humans in the machine: dealing with behavior, preferences, and decisions
- Ethical aspects of digital twins (e.g., data, coverage, algorithms)
- Digital twin infrastructures and platforms
GUEST EDITORS
Michael Batty, University College London (UCL)
Rachel Franklin, Harvard University
S. V. Subramanian, Harvard University
Sarah Williams, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
SUBMISSION CRITERIA
All submissions will undergo the standard HDSR review process: single-blind assessment by at least two independent peer reviewers. Submissions should be processed through Editorial Manager and author guidelines must be strictly followed. Special issue submissions should be submitted as full manuscripts in the format of an HDSR template.
Please contact the HDSR Editorial Office at datasciencereview@harvard.edu with questions.
It's a really good book! I was on the very edges of this scene for a chunk of the time described, and I thought it managed to catch a lot of the complexities without picking one possible narrative over another.
Plus I learned a lot -- it came out of some academic research that pursued a unique angle: finding and talking to the Tor exit node operators about their experiences, rather than just say the developers, the executives, or the funders.
Unusual names of racehorses, collected by Paul Dickson in What’s in a Name?, 1996:
Bates Motel
Disco Inferno
Up Your Assets
Race Horse
Crashing Bore
English Muffin
Leo Pity Me
Cold Shower
T.V. Doubletalk
Ranikaboo
Holy Cats
Hadn’t Orter
Strong Strong
Honeybunny Boo
As I just wrote to the author of this piece (who also happens to send out one of the best weekly roundups of weird and wonderful articles I get), her experience captures what so many authors I’ve worked with over the years in publishing have struggled with. When i can, i try to disabuse them of the idea that social media is somehow a reliable or necessary tool for promoting a book. As Caroline writes, if you already have a platform and it comes naturally to you, great, but I’ve personally never seen an author join social media in order to promote a book and actually succeed. And that’s before you even get to the exploitative dynamics she lays out so clearly here (aptly described as a pyramid scheme). Anyway, it’s all articulated beautifully, and I wish every author, especially those just starting to consider it, could read this and know there’s another way.
I'm starting to sloooowly build up an audience as I work on my game project, and I can already tell I do not at all have the necessary drive to build that audience as large as it needs to be for the game to "go viral" based on that alone, no matter how good it is. No, I think the necessary evil will be actual marketing, possibly by reaching out to other streamers and whatnot that DO have those followings and seeing if I can spark their interest in the project. I know I don't have the mental energy to keep it up myself, especially not solo. I'll focus on what I'm good at: making the best game that I can, the sort of thing I'd love to play. The rest will have to be up to the experts in their field, which I am not.
Really sorry you're going through this. I hope you're finding a few bright moments here and there. 5 was still a difficult, draining age in our house, but it gets easier. You'll find your kid playing more independently soon, maybe even just wanting to do their thing while you do yours, and that'll be a relief. It took me a long time to accept that life is different now, and to not obsess over the differences. Once I did, I suddenly found myself motivated to pick up old hobbies and felt more of a connection to my kiddo. Hang in there, and take care of yourself.
Whew, what a huge loss. He recorded so many albums that'll stay with me forever. PJ Harvey's Rid of Me and Magnolia Electric Co., recorded in a single day, maybe even in a few live takes if i'm remembering correctly, come to mind.
"Researchers believe the shredder results may be related to the phenomenon of 'backward magical contagion,' which is the belief that actions taken on an object associated with a person can affect the individuals themselves. In this case, getting rid of the negative physical entity, the piece of paper, causes the original emotion to also disappear."
Call for Submissions
Submission Deadline: January 15, 2026
Expected Publication: Summer/Fall 2026
SPECIAL ISSUE: “DIGITAL TWINS”
“Digital Twins” have been touted as an analytical and conceptual game changer, capturing the attention of academic researchers, industry, and policymakers alike. Applications of digital twin frameworks span engineering and medicine, as well as urban planning and the social sciences. Some examples align closely to common definitions of digital twins, integrating real-time data streams, system perspectives, state-of-the-art analytics and AI, and computational power. Others, especially those dealing with social systems or where human systems interface with natural and built environments, are perhaps better thought of as “in the spirit of” a digital twin. Despite the current prominence of digital twins, challenges and questions remain, especially around definitions, suitable applications, technical requirements, and the barriers to digital twins delivering on their promise.
This special issue of Harvard Data Science Review (HDSR) will assemble state-of-the-art applications, methods, and perspectives, identify gaps and potential solutions, and assess the social, ethical, and economic impacts of a digital twin approach that is making inroads in nearly every aspect of society.
Contributions are invited that add clarity to general understanding of digital twins; we are especially interested in article submissions that endeavor to speak across disciplinary divides and application areas, finding commonalities in a fractured community of users, developers, and consumers of digital twin apparatuses, as well as on methods and theory to advance the quality and scientific rigor of digital twins.
SUBMISSION TOPICS
We especially welcome papers on the following topics:
- Defining digital twins, their historical development, and their relationships with synthetic data and generative AI
- Essential elements of digital twins across domains Innovative applications
- Data, technical, and other ongoing challenges
- Establishing the limits of digital twins and their unintended consequences
- Humans in the machine: dealing with behavior, preferences, and decisions
- Ethical aspects of digital twins (e.g., data, coverage, algorithms)
- Digital twin infrastructures and platforms
GUEST EDITORS
Michael Batty, University College London (UCL)
Rachel Franklin, Harvard University
S. V. Subramanian, Harvard University
Sarah Williams, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
SUBMISSION CRITERIA All submissions will undergo the standard HDSR review process: single-blind assessment by at least two independent peer reviewers. Submissions should be processed through Editorial Manager and author guidelines must be strictly followed. Special issue submissions should be submitted as full manuscripts in the format of an HDSR template.
Please contact the HDSR Editorial Office at datasciencereview@harvard.edu with questions.