[Obo-discuss] (Second) Call for Papers - "Special Track: Towards Practical Application of Semantic Technologies in Life Science and Medicine" at I-SEMANTICS 2008

[Holger S. <hol...@de...>]

Apologies for cross-postings. Please forward this email to anyone 
interested.


(SECOND) CALL FOR PAPERS
------------------------
Special Track: Towards Practical Application of Semantic Web 
Technologies in Life Science and Medicine
at I-SEMANTICS 2008: International Conference on Semantic Systems
at TRIPLE-I 2008 in Graz, Austria, 3-5 September 2008


SCOPE AND TOPIC
---------------
The introduction of information technologies into the life sciences and 
medicine has greatly improved the supply for relevant information. 
However, it also poses new questions regarding the efficient handling, 
communication and integration of this information. An examination of 
current practices in this area shows that increasingly fragmented, 
unstructured data rapidly leads to costly inefficiencies, slowed 
development of new therapeutic strategies and a lasting decrease in 
quality of service.

In light of these problems it becomes obvious that there is a need for 
creating novel application types providing possibilities for preparing, 
describing and organizing life science and medical data in an efficient 
fashion. The Semantic Web is one of the most promising technologies to 
enable such applications.

The goal of this special track is to encourage a sustainable dialogue 
between IT experts in the life sciences and medicine domain, to 
critically discussion the problem solving potential of Semantic Web 
technologies. The track will present various possibilities that 
applications based on Semantic Web technologies can offer. The track 
specifically deals with presenting research, current developments and 
deployments on/of such applications, demonstrations of existing systems 
and discussions about their prospective development. We will also 
discuss opportunities for funding and collaboration to advance the 
Semantic Web for life sciences and medicine in Europe.


AUDIENCE
--------
We encourage the participation of attendants from academia (universities 
and research institutes), industry (pharmaceutical/biotechnology 
companies, health care organizations, IT vendors) as well as 
governmental institutions. The track strongly emphasizes on the 
practical aspects and issues of applying Semantic Web technologies to 
the specific challenges of life science and medicine and wants to spur a 
dialogue between all participants.

Participants of the special track are also encouraged to participate in 
the Linking Open Data Triplification Challenge 
(http://triplify.org/Challenge).


SUBMISSION INFORMATION
----------------------
Submissions must be original and must not have been submitted for 
publication elsewhere. Articles should follow the JUCS guidelines for 
formatting 
(http://www.jucs.org/ujs/jucs/info/submissions/style_guide.html) and 
must be submitted via the online submission system 
(http://triple-i.tugraz.at/blog/?p=6) as PDF documents (other formats 
will not be accepted). For the camera-ready version, we will also need 
the source files (Latex, OpenOffice, Word).

We encourage the submission of two types of papers:

 * Research/Application Paper: They should focus on

   - Analyses of current shortcomings of IT in life science and medicine 
with improvement strategies through Semantic Web technologies,
   - Research on application issues in the area,
   - Descriptions of development and deployment of relevant applications,
   - Reviews of current Semantic Web technologies, standards and 
practices and the identification of current roadblocks and opportunities 
on the way towards widespread practical application.

   The page number is limited to 8 pages including references and an 
optional appendix. The papers will be published in the (post conference) 
online proceedings.

 * Demonstration Papers: They are intended to give an overview of an 
actual application demonstration at the conference. Such papers should 
consist of 2 to 4 pages allowing us to judge the quality of your 
presentation and will also be published as part of the proceedings.


IMPORTANT DATES
---------------
 * 23 May 2008: Submission of the demo paper (up to 4 pages) and full 
papers (up to 8 pages)
 * 6 June 2008: Notification of acceptance
 * 30 June 2008: Camera ready version
 * 3 September 2008: Special Track at the TRIPLE-I Conference


ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
--------------------
Organization Chairs:

 * Holger Stenzhorn (Freiburg University Medical Center, Germany / 
Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), Galway, Ireland / 
Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science (IFOMIS), 
Saarbrücken, Germany)
 * Matthias Samwald (Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), 
Galway, Ireland / Semantic Web Company, Austria / Medical University of 
Vienna, Austria)

Program Committee:

 * Klaus-Peter Adlassnig, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
 * Michael Alvers, Transinsight, Dresden, Germany
 * Bo Andersson, AstraZeneca, Malmö, Sweden
 * Kei Cheung, Yale University, USA
 * Tim Clark, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, USA
 * Amar Das, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA
 * Donald Doherty, Brainstage, Pittsburgh, USA
 * Ronan Fox, DERI, Galway, Ireland
 * Yong Gao, Partners HealthCare System, Boston, USA
 * William Hayes, Biogen Idec, Cambridge, USA
 * Andreas Holzinger, Medical University of Graz, Austria
 * Vipul Kashyap, Partners HealthCare System, Boston, USA
 * Joanne Luciano, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
 * M. Scott Marshall, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
 * Robin McEntire, GlaxoSmithKline, King of Prussia, USA
 * Eric Neumann, Clinical Semantics Group, Cambridge, USA
 * Chimezie Ogbuji, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, USA
 * Helen Parkinson, EBI, Hinxton, UK
 * Elgar Pichler, AstraZeneca, Waltham, USA
 * Hubert Renauld, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
 * Martin Romacker, Novartis, Basel, Switzerland
 * Alan Ruttenberg, Science Commons, Cambridge, USA
 * Susanna Sansone, EBI, Hinxton, UK
 * Jasmin Saric, Boehringer Ingelheim, Ingelheim, Germany
 * Stefan Schulz, Freiburg University Medical Center, Germany
 * Nigam Shah, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA
 * Kavitha Srinivas, IBM, Yorktown Heights, USA
 * Susie Stephens, Eli Lilly, Indianapolis, USA
 * Robert Stevens, University of Manchester, UK
 * Luca Toldo, Merck, Frankfurt, Germany


CONTACT INFORMATION
--------------------
For questions and feedback please contact the organization chairs:

 * Holger Stenzhorn (holger.stenzhorn_AT_deri_DOT_org)
 * Matthias Samwald (m.samwald_AT_semantic-web_DOT_at)