Call for Papers for a CIJ Special Issue on 'Co-creation'
Submission deadline: 1 February 2026
Special Issue Editors
- Michela Magas, Director of Research, Industry Commons Foundation
- Andrew Dubber, Senior Researcher, Industry Commons Foundation
- Anne Dvinge, Innovation Partner, KU Lighthouse, University of Copenhagen
- Andrea Dankić, Postdoctoral Researcher, Industry Commons Foundation
- Ana Kuštrak Korper, Postdoctoral Researcher, Linköping University
In the scientific spirit of CERN, this Call for Papers focuses on: innovation through co-creation. Across science, industry, culture and civil society, urgent and complex problems increasingly demand approaches that move beyond disciplinary silos, top-down management, or one-size-fits-all solutions. Co-creation offers a way of working that brings together diverse perspectives, distributes agency, and produces outcomes that are richer, more equitable and potentially more sustainable.
Yet the language of co-creation is too often applied loosely, without the careful study and experimental rigour required to advance it as a field. Practices labelled as co-creation may conceal asymmetries of power, overlook questions of authorship and ownership, or reproduce inequities rather than challenge them. At the same time, new technologies such as artificial intelligence, novel infrastructures, and collaborative platforms raise questions about what it means to create together in the twenty-first century.
This special issue sets out to consolidate and extend knowledge of co-creation as a site of innovation. We invite contributions that test methodologies, interrogate political and ethical assumptions around co-creation, develop instruments for evaluation, and present situated cases across domains. We encourage bold, experimental and disruptive approaches that foreground collaboration not simply as a context for innovation but as the engine of it.
In keeping with the CIJ Manifesto, we aim to provide a safe harbour for work that is interdisciplinary, experimental and integrative. Submissions are welcome from scholars and practitioners alike, with the shared goal of advancing understanding of how innovation through co-creation can be more just, impactful and fit for the challenges of the future.
Possible themes and subsections
- Co-creation across domains: interdisciplinary research perspectives; industry–academia collaboration.
- Co-creation as creative process: improvisation, ensemble work, and the role of creativity in experimental practice.
- Politics of co-creation: feminist and decolonial approaches; power, value capture and labour.
- Co-creation methodologies: co-design, participatory research, living labs, hackathons, speculative design.
- Ethics and governance: consent, benefit sharing, attribution, data standards, and provenance.
- Co-creation with AI: human–AI division of labour, agency, authorship, bias, dataset curation, evaluation.
- Spaces and infrastructures: boundary objects, prototypes, datasets, tools, and collaborative environments.
- Education and capacity-building: curricula, pedagogies, mentorship, training of convenors and facilitators.
- Public sector and policy: citizen assemblies, mission-oriented programmes, and regulatory sandboxes.
- Inclusion and accessibility: disability, language, indigenous knowledge, design justice.
- Digital platforms: online co-creation, experimental commons-based peer production, crowdsourcing dynamics.
- Sectoral applications: health, climate, energy, manufacturing, food, education, and cultural heritage.
- Meaning and identity: trust, role negotiation, conflict, and sense-making in co-creative teams.
The CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation (CIJ) aims to communicate thought-provoking, contemporary, and latest findings in experimentation-driven innovation research. CIJ is an interdisciplinary, open online journal that publishes empirical and theoretical research to push the boundaries of various topics around in-situ experimental innovation.
CIJ encourages research that is between and even beyond disciplinary lines and welcomes research advancing innovation process methodologies, tools, educational approaches, knowledge exchange, management, and policy. CIJ intends to be intellectually challenging in the name of true scientific curiosity and to cultivate evidence-based, novel insights to advance understanding of how new knowledge and basic research turn into use for society through innovation.
In this special issue, the contributions should be aligned with the values and tradition of the Journal stated in their Manifest:
BOLD: CIJ is an outlet for unconventional, early-stage, thought-provoking experimentation-driven research. We aim to foster new innovation methodologies, tools, educational approaches, and experiments to push the boundaries of creativity to drive societal innovation.
INTEGRATIVE: CIJ is an interdisciplinary journal orchestrated by interdisciplinary teams and guided by the principles of open science and open innovation.
OPEN: CIJ provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. CIJ encourages (but does not require) the disclosure of data associated with the manuscripts to support and facilitate scientific work to build on existing knowledge.
CONNECTING: CIJ is interested in understanding the impact that knowledge can produce within science and society. Taking in learnings from real experiences to inform future theory and practice alike.
EXPERIMENTAL: At CIJ, we are intrigued by where good ideas come from and how we can systemize those processes. Authors are invited to take different angles to their research, presenting solutions, innovations, design models, and methods involving individuals, teams, or organizational experiences.
USEFUL: CIJ encourages replication studies and remains a resource center for researchers and scientists who wish to further develop previously collected data and learnings. At CIJ, authors are urged to consider the applicability and relevance of their outputs for future research.
MISFIT: CIJ is a place where high-risk high-gain research is welcome and encouraged. Research that doesn’t fit in any existing discipline either because it is between—or simply beyond—disciplines. Everything that challenges the status quo and could inspire future generations in the true spirit of scientific curiosity.
Bibliography
Drain, A., & Sanders, E. B. N. (2019). A collaboration system model for planning and evaluating participatory design projects. International Journal of Design, 13(3), 39-52.
Gemser, G., Calabretta, G., & Karpen, I. (2025). Co‐creating the future through design thinking: Deconstructing the consumer co‐creation process. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 42(3), 528-556.
Henricks, Thomas S.(2015). Play and the human condition. University of Illinois.
Trischler, J., Dietrich, T., & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2019). Co-design: from expert-to user-driven ideas in public service design. Public management review, 21(11), 1595-1619.
von Busch, O., & Palmås, K. (2023). The corruption of co-design: Political and social conflicts in participatory design thinking. Routledge.
Below is the link to the video from MTF Labs Aveiro, 2022, which gives an insight into the MTF co-creation methodology: https://vimeo.com/771327150
Submission procedure
The submitted manuscripts should follow the CIJ guidelines and use the CIJ template
(they can be found at https://e-publishing.cern.ch/index.php/CIJ/about/submissions#authorGuidelines ) containing the manuscript outline and submission information.
When ready to submit, please choose the dedicated section entitled 'Submission to the Special Issue ‘Co-Creation’
Timetable
1-3 October 2025 Call issued
1 February 2026 Deadline for submission
1 Apr 2026 Reviews returned to authors
1 May 2026 Revised papers submitted
1 June 2026 2nd reviews returned to authors
15 July 2026 Revised papers submitted
August 2026 Special issue published
Meet the Guest Editors and CIJ Editor-in-Chief, Matteo Vignoli:
- LUMEN & GRAPHIA Innovation Prototyping Labs, Infobip Campus, Zagreb. 1-3 October 2025 https://noteforms.com/forms/ipl-registration-5epymg
Contact
For further information in case of questions concerning the Special Issue, please contact:
Andrew Dubber, Special Issue Editor (andrew.dubber@industrycommons.net)
