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.
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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.
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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
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Type of contributions
The following possible contributions are sought:
• Research papers
• Position papers
• Posters
• Software demos
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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).
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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.)
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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
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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.
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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.