Systems Research Forum Vol. 4, No. 2

A system is a set of elements interacting purposefully to achieve some common goal that is reinforced by four basic principles:
The whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts and there are consequences for not understanding the dynamics of each part
There are multilateral causality among elements, systems, and the environments they function in
One set of initial conditions can give rise to different final states
There is concern with the flow of information between elements or systems
Systems research is thus the intellectual application in the investigation of systems and the trans-disciplinary study of the organization of phenomena, independent of their substance, type, or spatial or temporal scale of existence, while in a continual attempt to develop integrated phenomena of study in any of a number of different disciplines. As a forum for systems research, we invite original research papers and case studies addressing the various aspects of systems � engineering, management, analysis, test and evaluation, cost and life cycle analysis, design, integration and interoperability, enterprises, architecting, measurement and metrics, simulation and modeling, cognition, and thinking. As systems are not restricted to a single domain, we encourage papers from a variety of disciplines, such as aerospace, defense, physical and cyber infrastructure, medical and health care, maritime and border, security, energy, environmental, transportation, finance and economy, information, education and training.