The main objective of this special issue is to divulge the applicability of the Neutrosophic Theory and to explore the possibilities and advantages of neutrosophic tools, through both the presentation of thorough research and case studies in solving social problems in Latin America. The best presentations discussed at the III International Congress of Educational Research and University Innovation, turned into papers, show us the capacity for socialization of neutrosophic knowledge and its link with this science of validation and consolidation of scientific knowledge. This publication with authors from 11 countries that we place in the hands of the international scientific community, constitutes an example of how in Latin America the Neutrosophy is contributing to complex solutions based on the results of scientific research carried out by teachers and students committed to the social responsibility of continuing to progress for the benefit of humanity.

This special issue reflects the impact of neutrosophic theory in Latin America, especially after creating the Latin American Association of Neutrosophic Sciences. Among the areas of publication most addressed in the region are found in the interrelation of social sciences and neutrosophy, presenting outstanding results in these research areas. The main objective of this special issue is to divulge the impact publication related to the Neutrosophic theory and explore new areas of research and application in the region. The SI reflects the influence of the neutrosophic publications in Latin America by opening new research areas mainly related to Neutrosophic Statistics, Plithogeny, and NeutroAlgebra. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning the incorporation of authors from new countries in the region, such as Paraguay, Uruguay, and Panama, to have authors in total from 15 countries, 12 of them from the Latin American region.

“Neutrosophic Sets and Systems” has been created for publications on advanced studies in neutrosophy, neutrosophic set, neutrosophic logic, neutrosophic probability, neutrosophic statistics that started in 1995 and their applications in any field, such as the neutrosophic structures developed in algebra, geometry, topology, etc. Neutrosophy is a new branch of philosophy that studies the origin, nature, and scope of neutralities, as well as their interactions with different ideational spectra. This theory considers every notion or idea together with its opposite or negation and with their spectrum of neutralities in between them (i.e. notions or ideas supporting neither nor ). The and ideas together are referred to as . Neutrosophy is a generalization of Hegel's dialectics (the last one is based on and only). According to this theory every idea tends to be neutralized and balanced by and ideas - as a state of equilibrium. In a classical way , , are disjoint two by two. But, since in many cases the borders between notions are vague, imprecise, Sorites, it is possible that , , (and of course) have common parts two by two, or even all three of them as well. Neutrosophic Set and Neutrosophic Logic are generalizations of the fuzzy set and respectively fuzzy logic (especially of intuitionistic fuzzy set and respectively intuitionistic fuzzy logic).

For software development companies, deciding which development methodology to use when starting a project is in many cases an important task to perform. The selection of development methodology can be modeled as a decision-making problem. Neutrosophy is a philosophical current that starts from Paradoxism. In this article, we describe a methodology selection proposal using neutrosophic numbers, from which the development methodology proposal is decided. The method allows taking into account the indeterminacy in decision-making, in addition to the use of linguistic terms that are more appropriate than numerical ones. The applicability of the proposal is confirmed through a demonstrative example. The paper ends with the conclusions and recommendations for future work.

The right to education has been violated by the extinction of alimony for young people who have reached 21 years of age and are in higher education. So this research is aimed at the problem in order to raise a proposal that makes a solution viable. The research line applied in the realization of this paper is “Challenges, Perspectives and Improvement of Legal Sciences in Ecuador”. The results that are pursued with this investigation is promote good compliance with the constitutional norms of Ecuador and avoid the violation of human rights. For this, the technique known as neutrosophic AHP was applied. This is a variant of the numerical AHP designed by Saaty, which by incorporating the neutrosophic sets, the uncertainty of decision-making is taken into account, in addition to the calculation with linguistic terms and the inclusion of indeterminacy. This technique will be applied to choose between two alternatives: the convenience or not of maintaining alimony in active students over the age of 21. This analysis is complicated due to the variables to be analyzed, which is why the versatility of the chosen mathematical technique is validated.

Lung diseases represent one of the main causes of death in the world. Making an opportune diagnosis would improve the quality of life of patients. A set of factors intervene in the diagnostic process that significantly impact the evolution of the disease. However, there is uncertainty to determine which factors promote the development of lung disease. The present research aims to propose a method for prioritizing risk factors for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The method uses a multi-criteria approach where uncertainty is modeled using neutrosophic numbers. The proposed method is implemented in a case study at Alfredo Noboa Montenegro Hospital. The result is the prioritization of the factors whose mitigation would favor the reduction of lung disease.

Minors can be left without legal custody due to many different reasons. When a minor is in distress he/she is at the mercy of the decision of the competent entity for the granting of his/her guardian. However, based on the affective relationships established by the different family members, determining parental responsibility constitutes a highly important decision. This research proposes a solution to the problem described by means of a recommendation system to assign parental responsibility and its incidence in the best interests of minors. The proposed method bases its operation on the use of Neutrosophic Cognitive Maps (NCM) to model the uncertainty in causal relationships. A case study is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposal.