The LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. Current decentralized systems still focus on data and knowledge as their main resource. Feasibility of these systems relies basically on P2P (peer-to-peer) techniques and the support of agent systems with scaling and decentralized control. Synergy between grids, P2P systems, and agent technologies is the key to data- and knowledge-centered systems in large-scale environments. This special issue contains extended and revised versions of 4 papers, selected from the 25 papers presented at the satellite events associated with the 17th East-European Conference on Advances in Databases and Information Systems (ADBIS 2013), held on September 1-4, 2013 in Genoa, Italy. The three satellite events were GID 2013, the Second International Workshop on GPUs in Databases; SoBI 2013, the First International Workshop on Social Business Intelligence: Integrating Social Content in Decision Making; and OAIS 2013, the Second International Workshop on Ontologies Meet Advanced Information Systems. The papers cover various topics in large-scale data and knowledge-centered systems, including GPU-accelerated database systems and GPU-based compression for large time series databases, design of parallel data warehouses, and schema matching. The special issue content, which combines both theoretical and application-based contributions, gives a useful overview of some of the current trends in large-scale data and knowledge management and will stimulate new ideas for further research and development within both the scientific and industrial communities.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. Current decentralized systems still focus on data and knowledge as their main resource. Feasibility of these systems relies basically on P2P (peer-to-peer) techniques and the support of agent systems with scaling and decentralized control. Synergy between grids, P2P systems, and agent technologies is the key to data- and knowledge-centered systems in large-scale environments. This, the 29th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, contains four revised selected regular papers. Topics covered include optimization and cluster validation processes for entity matching, business intelligence systems, and data profiling in the Semantic Web.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing (e.g., computing resources, services, metadata, data sources) across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. This, the 48th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, contains 8 invited papers dedicated to the memory of Prof. Dr. Roland Wagner. The topics covered include distributed database systems, NewSQL, scalable transaction management, strong consistency, caches, data warehouse, ETL, reinforcement learning, stochastic approximation, multi-agent systems, ontology, model-driven development, organisational modelling, digital government, new institutional economics and data governance.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. Current decentralized systems still focus on data and knowledge as their main resource. Feasibility of these systems relies basically on P2P (peer-to-peer) techniques and the support of agent systems with scaling and decentralized control. Synergy between grids, P2P systems, and agent technologies is the key to data- and knowledge-centered systems in large-scale environments. This, the 42nd issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, consists of five revised selected regular papers, presenting the following topics: Privacy-Preserving Top-k Query Processing in Distributed Systems; Trust Factors and Insider Threats in Permissioned Distributed Ledgers: An Analytical Study and Evaluation of Popular DLT Frameworks; Polystore and Tensor Data Model for Logical Data Independence and Impedance Mismatch in Big Data Analytics; A General Framework for Multiple Choice Question Answering Based on Mutual Information and Reinforced Co-occurrence; Rejig: A Scalable Online Algorithm for Cache Server Configuration Changes.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. This, the 47th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, constitutes a special issue focusing on Digital Ecosystems and Social Networks. The 9 revised selected papers cover topics that include Social Big Data, Data Analysis, Cloud-Based Feedback, Experience Ecosystems, Pervasive Environments, and Smart Systems.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. Current decentralized systems still focus on data and knowledge as their main resource. Feasibility of these systems relies basically on P2P (peer-to-peer) techniques and the support of agent systems with scaling and decentralized control. Synergy between grids, P2P systems, and agent technologies is the key to data- and knowledge-centered systems in large-scale environments. This, the 19th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, contains four high-quality papers investigating the areas of linked data and big data from a data management perspective. Two of the four papers focus on the application of clustering techniques in performing inference and search over (linked) data sources. One paper leverages graph analysis techniques to enable application-level integration of institutional data and a final paper describes an approach for protecting users' profile data from disclosure, tampering, and improper use.

The LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems focuses on data management, knowledge discovery and knowledge processing, which are core and hot topics in computer science. Since the 1990s, the Internet has become the main driving force behind application development in all domains. An increase in the demand for resource sharing across different sites connected through networks has led to an evolution of data- and knowledge-management systems from centralized systems to decentralized systems enabling large-scale distributed applications providing high scalability. Current decentralized systems still focus on data and knowledge as their main resource. Feasibility of these systems relies basically on P2P (peer-to-peer) techniques and the support of agent systems with scaling and decentralized control. Synergy between grids, P2P systems and agent technologies is the key to data- and knowledge-centered systems in large-scale environments. This, the 17th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, contains extended and revised versions of five papers, selected from the 24 full and 8 short papers presented at the 15th International Conference on Data Warehousing and Knowledge Discovery, DaWaK 2013, held in Prague, The Czech Republic, in August 2013. Of the five papers, two cover data warehousing aspects related to query processing optimization in advanced platforms, specifically Map Reduce and parallel databases, and three cover knowledge discovery, specifically the causal network inference problem, dimensionality reduction, and the quality-of-pattern-mining task.

This, the 39th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, contains extended and revised versions of seven papers selected from the 37 contributions presented at the 28th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications, DEXA 2017, held in Lyon, France, in August 2017. Topics covered include knowledge bases, clustering algorithms, parallel frequent itemset mining, model-driven engineering, virtual machines, recommendation systems, and federated SPARQL query processing.

This, the 27th issue of Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems, contains extended and revised versions of 12 papers presented at the Big Data and Technology for Complex Urban Systems symposium, held in Kauai, HI, USA in January 2016. The papers explore the use of big data in complex urban systems in the areas of politics, society, commerce, tax, and emergency management.

This fifth issue of the LNCS journal Transactions on Large-Scale Data- and Knowledge-Centered Systems offers nine full-length focusing on such hot topics as data management, knowledge discovery, and knowledge processing.