Guest editors’ introduction: special issue of selected papers from ECML PKDD 2009

In 2009 the joint ECML PKDD event, combining the European Conference on Machine Learning (ECML) and the European Conference on Principles of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery (PKDD), attracted 422 strong paper submissions. ECML PKKD 2009 is a continuation of the successful series of 19 past ECML and 12 past PKDD conferences, which have been collocated since 2001. After a rigorous review process involving the General Chair, 3 Program Chairs, 26 Area Chairs and 254 Program Committee Members, 105 papers were accepted for publication at the conference. Continuing with the tradition initiated in 2008, a number the best papers have been selected to be published in the special issues of the journal of Machine Learning and the journal of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery. Below we provide a brief overview of the 14 papers selected for the journal special issues. The papers cover a …