If you are reading this article, we suppose you are already familiar with Process Mining, the art of turning processing data recorded by IT systems into precious knowledge to be used for the automated discovery of graphical process models, conformance checking between data and models, enhancement of process models with additional analytic information, run-time monitoring of processes and operational support, and much more. Visual Analytics is a multidisciplinary approach, integrating aspects of data mining and knowledge discovery, information visualization, human-computer interaction, and cognitive science, with the aim to make complex phenomena more comprehensible, facilitate new insights, and enable knowledge discovery from data. Research in Visual Analytics leverages the specific strengths of computers and humans for the best possible outcome: on the one hand, computers are better at managing and processing large amounts of data by exploiting their computational power; on the other hand, humans have better perceptual and cognitive means, which enable them to visually perceive unexpected patterns and to interpret data.

These disciplines exhibit complementary traits that can greatly and mutually benefit from joining forces. However, the scientific body of literature reports on a few endeavours towards this direction. With the aim to compensate for this gap in mind, a team of process miners and visual analysts gathered together in July 2023 at the Dagstuhl Castle for the "Human in the (Process) Mines" seminar. During that frantic, industrious, and joyful week, a multitude of ideas spurred. You can read more about them in the recently published report (some of those ideas also left a sweet trace in the ICPM 2023 workshop proceedings).

However, the laborious participants could not stand the idea of leaving it at that. Therefore, we are pleased to announce that a call for a special issue entitled "Process mining meets visual analytics" on Information Systems (Elsevier) is open for submissions. You can read more about it on the news page in this site and, of course, in the call for papers. The juicy, fresh news is that the submission deadline just got extended to July 5th, 2024! Do not miss the chance: wrap up your recent findings at the crossroads of process mining and visual analytics and submit your manuscript!

Also, the 1st Visual Process Analytics Workshop (VIPRA) will take place on May 27th in Odense, Denmark, co-located with EuroVis 2024 and organised by Stef van den Elzen, Alessio Arleo, Tatiana von Landesberger, Jana-Rebecca Rehse, Francesca Zerbato and Luise Pufahl. For more information on the program, keynote, and logistics, please visit VIPRA's website.

There is more in store for the community, but we cannot officially announce it yet -otherwise, it would be a spoiler. Stay tuned for more updates!

[Photo © Schloss Dagstuhl - LZI GMBH, licensed under Creative Common License CC BY-NC-ND]