CFP: Workshop of Ontologies and Data in Life Sciences (ODLS 2014)

Workshop of Ontologies and Data in Life Sciences (ODLS 2014)

           Oct 7-8, 2014      Freiburg i.Br., Germany


Goals of the Workshop
---------------------

Medicine, biology and life sciences produce hardly manageable and
comprehensible amounts of data, information, and knowledge. Their
computer-based processing, integration, as well as their conceptual
foundation and application presents ever new challenges to existing
methods of knowledge representation, data bases, and data analysis.
In the life sciences, enormous data sets are being produced in
connection with biological and medical experiments, aiming to unravel
biological interconnections for a better understanding in order to
offer patients the best possible therapies. Data management and data
processing in the life sciences ranges from the best possible
integration and usage of distributed, heterogeneous data to the best
possible obfuscation of medical data.

This integrated workshop covers the overall spectrum of biomedical
information processing, from experimental data acquisition and data
management, across analysis, structuring and interpretation of data,
up to the development of structures of knowledge in the form of
ontologies with their various applications. The workshop pursues the
aim to gather scientists that work in these fields in order to exchange
ideas, to discuss new results and to inspire collaborations. The work-
shop has an interdisciplinary character. It fosters the collaboration
between ontologists, computer scientists, bio-informaticians, medical
information scientists, applied logicians, as well as the cooperation
with physicians, bio-chemists, and biometricians.

Topics
------

We invite submissions in all areas of biomedical ontology and data
management. The following topics are relevant, yet others related
to these basic topics are likewise welcome:

- Integration, management and retrieval of big data and/or complex
  data sets
- Heterogeneity and integration of big data
- Integrative data semantics
- Curation of data in life sciences
- Visualization of data in life sciences
- Generic transformation of clinical data into Semantic Web standards
- Data protection of clinical data
- Omics-data for diagnosis and therapy
- Ontologies in the field of biology, medicine and clinical research,
  for example
 -- Ontologies for the specification of clinical trials and medical
    phenotypes
 -- Process ontologies in systems biology and in medicine
 -- Ontologies in neuro biology
- Ontologies in knowledge representation
  (for example, formal ontology of time and space, formal ontology of
   properties, roles and functions)
- Methods and tools for development, management and application of
  ontologies, for example,
 -- Quality assurance and evaluation of ontologies
 -- Applications in the fields of Semantic Web, Linked Open Data, and
    Big Data


Important Dates
---------------

Submission of contributions:   July 15, 2014       (Tue)      
Author notification:           August 25, 2014     (Mon)
Camera-ready manuscripts due:  September 10, 2014  (Wed)
Registration:                  September 30, 2014  (Tue)
ODLS Workshop:                 October 7-8, 2014   (Tue-Wed)


Submission Instructions
-----------------------
Submissions to the workshop can be
- **extended abstracts of 2 pages** or
- **papers of 4 to 6 pages** (any such length is equally welcome;
                              6 pages is the strict maximum).

Contributions in English are highly recommended, but submissions
in German can also be accepted.

The preferred file format for submissions is PDF, other admitted
formats are Microsoft Word (DOC and DOCX) and Postscript (PS).
Please use the corresponding template for submissions, either the
LaTeX template or the Microsoft Word template, see [1].

Contributions must be submitted via the EasyChair conference system.

Accepted abstracts and papers will be printed in a proceedings
volume (with ISSN) that will be distributed during the workshop.
After the workshop authors of selected papers will be invited to submit
extended versions to the Journal of Biomedical Semantics (JBMS) [2].

Organization
------------

Martin Boeker,  University of Freiburg  (general & local chair)
Ludger Jansen,  University of Muenster               (PC chair)
Heinrich Herre, University of Leipzig         (speaker of OBML)
Frank Loebe,    University of Leipzig

ODLS 2014 is associated with the group Ontologies in Medicine and
Life Sciences (OBML) [3] within the German Informatics Society (GI),
and it is a Supported Event of the International Association for
Ontology and Its Applications (IAOA) [4].


Location and Local Organization
-------------------------------
ODLS 2014 will take place in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany,
hosted by the

 Center for Medical Biometry and Medical Informatics   [5]
 Medical Center - University of Freiburg


Program Committee
-----------------

Patryk Burek,      University of Leipzig
George Gkoutos,    Aberystwyth University, UK
Heinrich Herre,    University of Leipzig
Robert Hoehndorf,  University of Cambridge, UK
Toralf Kirsten,    University of Leipzig
Oliver Kutz,       Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg
Wolfgang Müller,   HITS gGmbH, Heidelberg
Axel Ngonga-Ngomo, University of Leipzig
Anika Oellrich,    European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Hinxton, UK
Dietrich Rebholz-Schuhmann, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Peter Robinson,    Charité Berlin
Daniel Schober,    Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry (IPB), Halle
Falk Schreiber,    Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant
                  Research (IPK), Gatersleben
Stefan Schulz,     Medical University of Graz, Austria
Aleksandra Sojic,  Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation
                  (ITIA-CNR), Milan, Italy
Dagmar Waltemath,  University of Rostock

(further members TBA, inquiries pending, see [1] for updates)


Links
-----
[1] Workshop website

   http://tinyurl.com/odls-2014

   https://wiki.imise.uni-leipzig.de/Gruppen/OBML/Workshops/2014-ODLS

[2] Journal of Biomedical Semantics website

   http://www.jbiomedsem.com/

[3] OBML group website

   https://wiki.imise.uni-leipzig.de/Gruppen/OBML

[4] IAOA website

   http://iaoa.org/

[5] Local Organization website

   http://portal.uni-freiburg.de/imbi