Commission II of CIPA Heritage Documentation (“Technologies for Cultural Heritage Geometric Documentation”) would like to share several calls for papers related to its activities in the journals Virtual Archaeology Review (VAR), published by Universitat Politècnica de València, and Heritage published by MDPI.

VAR Call for Papers – 1st Special Section: Open Science through Multimodal Visualization (Archaeological/ Architectural Heritage and Landscapes)

The reproducibility of archaeometric measurement depends not only on published methodology, but on the accessibility of the underlying data itself. This Special Section of Virtual Archaeology Review invites contributions that treat the dataset — not merely the narrative — as the primary scientific object.

We welcome full raw data sets with associated data reports (requiring metadata/paradata enabling re-processing and re-use), derivatives, processing methodologies, and interpretive contributions grounded in 3D imaging, multispectral or hyperspectral analysis, LiDAR point cloud acquisition, thermal imaging, and related non-invasive diagnostic techniques applied to the archaeological or built heritage record.

Submissions to this section must include a fully archived, openly licensed archaeological/architectural scale survey datasets deposited in OpenHeritage3D.org. Selected authors will work with archivers and web developers to ingest and visualize their data within an open streaming platform. A description of minimum metadata requirements are listed here, but contributors are expected to provide additional detail specific to their use case, anticipating external re-use. Manuscripts will be evaluated by the quality and the completeness of data descriptions, and through direct interaction with the data using the journal’s integrated streaming multimodal 3D viewer — making the data itself the primary medium of peer review.”

Looking forward to receiving your article.

Best regards,
Prof. Fulvio Rinaudo & Prof. Filiberto Chiabrando, Guest Editors
Prof. José Luis Lerma, Editor-in-Chief

Submit online by 1 October 2026:

Deadline extended until 11 October 2026:

https://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/var/announcement/view/347

VAR Call for Papers – 2nd Special Section: Artificial Intelligence for complex 3D modelling of cultural heritage assets

Due to the interest in the topic, the Virtual Archaeology Review (VAR) is launching a 2nd Special Section on ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) for complex 3D modelling of cultural heritage assets’ to be published in January 2027. Interested authors are encouraged to submit their contributions to the Virtual Archaeology Review website before 30th September 2026.

This Special Section of VAR, complementing the Special Section already published in July 2026, is dedicated to the visualisation and 3D modelling of complex archaeological or architectural objects, beyond state-of-the-art photogrammetric or 3D scanning solutions. Applications, comparisons, and performance evaluations of 3D modelling of complex assets using AI methods such as Generative AI (GenAI), Gaussian Splatting (GS), Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs), and Large Language Models (LLMs) are welcome.

Looking forward to receiving your article.

Best regards,
Prof. Dimitrios Skarlatos, Guest Editor
Prof. José Luis Lerma, Editor-in-Chief

Submit online by 30 September 2026:
https://polipapers.upv.es/index.php/var/announcement/view/344

Heritage Call for Papers – Special Issue on 3D Virtual Reconstruction and Visualization of Complex Architectures (Second Edition)

The knowledge, conservation and valorisation of cultural heritage sites and assets are increasingly recognized as fundamental pillars for ensuring the sustainable future of culture, tourism and collective identities. In a rapidly changing socio-economic and environmental context, digital documentation and analysis play critical roles in safeguarding tangible and intangible heritage, supporting informed conservation strategies, enhancing public engagement and enabling long-term monitoring of cultural assets.

In this framework, geomatics (photogrammetry, laser scanning, remote sensing) and ICT have emerged as key enablers of cultural heritage 3D documentation, digital preservation, valorisation and advanced management. In particular, recent progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has demonstrated significant potential and added value across a wide range of heritage-related applications, including 3D data acquisition and processing, geometric and semantic modeling and condition assessment. Moreover, sensor combination and (multi-temporal) data fusion have become some of the most common approaches for more detailed and complete 3D documentation processes. All of this facilitates the generation, structuring and analysis of multi-source and multi-temporal data within unified digital heritage environments.

This Special Issue stems from the 11th International ISPRS/CIPA workshop “3D-ARCH 2026” (http://3darch.fbk.eu/) and aims to collect state-of-the-art and innovative research activities, critical experimental works, new developments and reviews related to 3D recording, modeling, digital preservation and visualization of cultural heritage at various scales (artifact, monument, site).

The Special Issue’s themes include:

• Low-cost sensors and open-source algorithms for terrestrial 3D modeling;
• Fusion of multi-source and multi-sensor terrestrial data;
• Sensor characterization and investigation;
• Research in 3D/4D survey and modeling;
• Automation in terrestrial data processing;
• Image matching and Multi-View Stereo (MVS) 3D reconstruction;
• 3D reconstruction and modeling with AI methods (including LLMs, NeRF and Gaussian splatting); 
• Point cloud processing, semantic enrichment and analysis;
• 3D data structuring and querying;
• Accuracy requirement and assessment;
• Virtual and Augmented Reality for complex architectures and heritage.

We look forward to receiving your original articles and reviews.

Dr. Ramona Quattrini
Prof. Dr. Roberto Pierdicca
Prof. Dr. Francesco Fassi
Prof. Dr. Fabio Remondino

Guest Editors

Submit online by 31 December 2026:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/heritage/special_issues/LSUR6YL4T7