[DL] CFP: 4th International Workshop on Semantic Web Applications and Tools for the Life Sciences (SWAT4LS 2011)

[Adrian Paschke]

Call for Papers
4th International Workshop on Semantic Web Applications and Tools for the
Life Sciences (SWAT4LS 2011)
http://www.swat4ls.org/2011/

Overview
Since 2008, SWAT4LS is a workshop that has provided a platform for the
presentation and discussion of the benefits and limits of applying web-based
information systems and semantic technologies in Biomedical Informatics and
Computational Biology. 
Growing steadily each year as Semantic Web applications become more
widespread, SWAT4LS has been in Edinburgh 2008, Amsterdam 2009, and Berlin
2010, with London planned for 2011. The last edition of SWAT4LS was held in
Berlin, on December 10th, 2010. It was preceded by two days of tutorials and
other associated events.
We are confident that the next edition of SWAT4LS will provide the same open
and stimulating environment that brought together researchers, both
developers and users, from the various fields of Biology, Bioinformatics and
Computer Science, to discuss goals, current limits and real experiences in
the use of Semantic Web technologies in Life Sciences.
________________________________________
Rationale
The web is a key medium for information publishing, and web-based
information systems play a key role in biomedical information exchange and
integration. At the same time, the variety and complexity of biomedical
information call for the adoption of semantic-based solutions. The Semantic
Web provides a set of technologies and standards that are key to support
semantic markup, ontology development, distributed information resources and
collaborative social environments. Altogether the adoption of the web-based
semantic-enabled technologies in the Life Sciences has potential impact on
the future of publishing, biological research and medecine. This workshop
will provide a venue to present and discuss benefits and limits of the
adoption of these technologies and tools in biomedical informatics and
computational biology. It will showcase experiences, information resources,
tools development and applications. It will bring together researchers, both
developers and users, from the various fields of Biology, Bioinformatics and
Computer Science, to discuss goals, current limits and some real use cases
for Semantic Web technologies in Life Sciences. 
________________________________________
Topics
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: 
. Standards, Technologies, Tools for the Semantic Web
o Semantic Web standards and new proposals (e.g.: RDF, OWL, SKOS, SPIN,
RuleML)
o Tools for ontology management, editing and versioning
o RDF stores, Reasoners, query and visualization systems
o Formal approaches to large biomedical knowledge bases
o Tools for semantic-enabled web publication
o Alternative approaches to integrate semantic representations and web based
solutions
. Systems for a Semantic Web for Bioinformatics
o Biomedical knowledge bases on the Semantic Web
o Semantic biomedical Web Services
o Semantics aware Biological Data Integration Systems
o Semantic-enabled biomedical information systems and solutions
o Linked Data for biomedical research
. Existing and prospective applications of the Semantic Web for
Bioinformatics
o Semantic Wikis
o Semantic collaborative research environments
o Semantic crowdsourcing and collective intelligence
o Alternative approaches to biomedical metadata generation and management
o Case studies, use cases, and scenarios
________________________________________
Type of contributions
The following possible contributions are sought: 
. Research papers
. Position papers
. Posters
. Software demos
________________________________________
Proceedings
All accepted communications will be published in the proceedings (under
definition, proceedings of SWAT4LS have appeared in the past in CEUR
proceedings and Nature precedings). 
________________________________________
Special issue
Authors of accepted contributions to the upcoming edition of SWAT4LS will be
invited to submit an extended and revised version of their contributions for
a special issue of an internation peer-reviewed scientific journal (under
definition, special issues of SWAT4LS have appeared in the past in BMC
Bioinformatics and in the BMC Journal of Biomedical Semantics.) 
________________________________________
Deadlines
. Expression of interest for turorials: 10 June 2011
. Submission openinig: 12 September 2011
. Papers submission deadline: 7 October 2011
. Posters and demo submission deadline: 31 October 2011
. Communication of acceptance: 7 November 2011
. Camera ready: 21 November 2011
________________________________________
Instructions
All papers and posters must be in English, formatted according to LNCS
format (http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html) and submitted in pdf
format. 
. Submissions for papers should report orginal research, and should be
between 8 and 15 pages.
. Submissions for position papers should report qualified opinions,
recommendations or conclusions, and should be between 3 and 6 pages.
. Submissions for posters should be between 2 and 4 pages.
. Submissions for software demo proposals should also be between 2 and 4
pages.
________________________________________
Submission
All submissions will be handled via the EasyChair submission system (to be
opened in August).
To ensure high quality, submitted papers will be carefully peer-reviewed by
at least three members of the Scientific Committee.