CALL FOR PAPERS

7th International Conference on Formal Ontologies in Information Systems
(FOIS 2012)
held together with the 3rd International Conference on Biomedical
Ontology (ICBO 2012), July, 24-27, 2012 in Graz, Austria
http://purl.org/icbofois2012

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DEFINITION AND SCOPE
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Ontology, originally a fundamental part of philosophical enquiry, is
concerned with the analysis and categorization of what exists. In recent
years, however, a complementary focus of ontological inquiry gained
significant momentum fueled by the advent of complex information systems
which rely on robust and coherent representations of their subject
matter. The systematic study of such representations, their reasoning
techniques and their relations to reality, are at the center of the
modern discipline of formal ontology.

Formal ontology in this modern sense is now a research focus in such
diverse domains as conceptual modeling, database design, software
engineering, organizational modeling, artificial intelligence,
computational linguistics, the life sciences, bioinformatics, geographic
information science, knowledge engineering, information retrieval, and
the semantic web. Researchers in all these areas increasingly recognize
the need for serious engagement with ontology, understood as a general
theory of the types of entities and relations making up their respective
domains of enquiry, in providing a solid foundation for their work.

The FOIS conference is designed to provide a meeting point for
researchers from all disciplines with an interest in formal ontology.
The conference encourages submission of high quality articles on both
theoretical issues and concrete applications. As in previous years, FOIS
2012 is intended as a nexus of interdisciplinary research and communication.

The FOIS conference series began with the first meeting in Trento, Italy
in June 1998 followed by meetings in 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010.
The seventh FOIS conference will be held in Graz, Austria July 24-27,
2012, in conjunction with the 3rd International Conference on Biomedical
Ontology (ICBO 2012).

FOIS is the flagship conference of the International Association for
Ontology and its Applications (IAOA),
which is a non-profit organization the purpose of which is to promote
interdisciplinary research and international collaboration at the
intersection of philosophical ontology, linguistics, logic, cognitive
science, and computer science, as well as in the applications of
ontological analysis to conceptual modeling, knowledge engineering,
knowledge management, information-systems development, library and
information science, scientific research, and semantic technologies in
general.

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TOPICS OF INTEREST
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We seek high-quality papers on a wide range of topics. While authors may
focus on fairly narrow and specific issues, all papers should emphasize
the relevance of the work described to formal ontology and to
information systems. Papers that completely ignore one or the other of
these aspects will be considered as lying outside the scope of the
meeting. Topic areas of particular interest to the conference are:

Foundational Issues

* Kinds of entity: particulars/universals, continuants/occurrents,
abstracta/concreta, dependent entities/independent entities, natural
objects/artifacts
* Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection, dependence,
constitution, subsumption, instantiation
* Vagueness and granularity
* Identity and change
* Formal comparison among ontologies
* Ontology of physical reality (matter, space, time, motion, ...)
* Ontology of biological reality (genes, proteins, cells, organisms, ...)
* Ontology of artifacts, functions and roles
* Ontology of mental reality and agency (beliefs, intentions, emotions, ...)
* Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations, norms,
social relationships, artistic expressions, ...)
* Ontology of the information society (information, communication,
meaning negotiation, ...)
* Ontology and Natural Language Semantics, Ontology and Cognition

Methodologies and Applications

* Top-level vs application ontologies
* Ontology integration and alignment; role of reference ontologies
* Ontology-driven information systems design
* Ontological foundations for conceptual modeling
* Ontology-based application systems
* Requirements engineering
* Knowledge engineering
* Knowledge management and organization
* Knowledge representation; Qualitative modeling
* Computational lexicons; Terminology
* Information retrieval; Question-answering
* Semantic web; Web services; Grid computing
* Domain-specific ontologies, especially for: Biomedical science,
E-business,
Enterprise integration, Engineering, Geography, Law, Library science,
Linguistics, ...

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IMPORTANT DATES
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We are calling for papers to be considered for inclusion in FOIS 2012.

Paper Submission Deadline: January 31, 2012
Notification: March 8, 2012
Camera-Ready Deadline for accepted papers: March 24, 2012
Conference Dates: July, 24-27, 2012

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CONFERENCE ORGANISATION
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Conference chair: Michael Gruninger (University of Toronto, Canada)
Program chairs: Maureen Donnelly (University at Buffalo, USA) and
Giancarlo Guizzardi (Federal University of Esp?rito Santo, Brazil)
Local organization: Stephan Schulz (Gratz University, Austria)