I am pleased to present the inaugural issue of the Journal of Computational Social Science (JCSS). During the past decade, computational social science has emerged as a fast-developing scientific field. Its precise definition and purpose differ across researchers, but there is no doubt that its recent growth has been driven by the increasing availability of computational power and large-scale data on online social activities.

Currently, research in computational social science is published in a wide spectrum of journals and proceedings in different disciplines, including computer science, physics, sociology, economics, and various applied fields. However, there is a lack of interdisciplinary communication among researchers analyzing closely related phenomena but with different approaches in different fields. In fact, there has been no journal specializing in computational social science, until today.

JCSS provides a platform covering all aspects of computational social science in one forum. Although the current focus of the field is mostly on network analysis, online data, and simulation studies, JCSS invites researchers in any field to submit research papers analyzing social/economic structures or phenomena based on large-scale data or sophisticated computational approaches, as well as survey papers on related fields.

This inaugural issue contains a special feature section entitled “Computational Social Science: Perspectives and Prospects.”

This section includes ten papers offering different perspectives and prospects on computational social science. They provide fertile ground for further research, and papers addressing any of the issues discussed therein are particularly welcome for consideration in this journal.

As computational social science continues to develop and establish itself as a new discipline, JCSS aims to be a leading journal in this exciting field.

Takashi Kamihigashi, Editor-in-Chief.