** Aim and Scope **

The sharing and re-use of research information is becoming an
increasingly important aspect of scientific activity. Text
publications are traditionally the main way of publishing research
output and challenges still exist for their optimal recording and
dissemination. Scientific communities increasingly recognise the
immense significance of storing, discovering, processing, preserving
and re-using data sets as well as other types of research objects like
workflows and software. Furthermore, Public Sector Information,
potentially valuable for research purposes, is provided openly by
governments although not always in forms that enable re-use.

Metadata is a critical factor in this area, actually providing the
means to promote black-box digital files to discoverable and re-usable
objects. Rich metadata about research output needs to be recorded and
disseminated, including contextual and provenance information (for
example, relationships of publications and data sets with people,
organisations, funding information, facilities and equipment). For
certain use cases, metadata needs to be uniformly accessed across
research domains, to foster collaboration and re-use of data sets
among different disciplines and vertical communities. However, the
recording and utilisation of domain-specific information is also
significant in many circumstances. A range of open research and
technical issues have to be addressed towards these goals, while it is
also recognised that international harmonisation on standards and
technologies is of critical importance.

The aim of this Special Track is to serve as a forum for experts to
present recent results and experiences, establish liaisons with other
groups and reflect on the state-of-the-art of metadata and semantic
aspects of open repositories, research information systems and data
infrastructures.

** Topics **

Topics include but are not limited to contributions dealing with the
following issues:

* Metadata, knowledge representation and relevant standards in open
access repositories, research information systems and research
infrastructures
* Semantic interoperability and information integration in open access
repositories, research information systems and research
infrastructures
* Application of semantic web technologies in open access
repositories, research information systems and research
infrastructures
* Data infrastructures (e.g. scientific data, public sector information)
* Contextual and provenance metadata in open access repositories,
research information systems and research infrastructures
* Metadata interoperability for data infrastructures across disciplines
* Metadata quality in open access repositories, research information
systems and research infrastructures
* Mechanisms, tools and infrastructures for shared services in open
access repositories, research information systems and research
infrastructures
* Digital preservation workflows and mechanisms and impact on metadata
* Value-added services based on open access repositories, research
information systems and research infrastructures

** Important dates **

* June 15th 2018: Paper submission deadline (Full and Short papers)
* June 15th 2018: Submission deadline (Posters, Workshops, Tutorials, Demos and Panels)
* July 27th 2018: Acceptance/rejection notification
* August 24th 2018: Camera-ready papers due
* 23 - 26 October 2018: Conference at Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

** Submissions **

Interested authors can submit to https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mtsr2017

The following types of presentation are invited:

* full papers (12 pages) reporting complete research
* short papers (6 pages) presenting ongoing or preliminary research

Papers should be original and not previously submitted to other
Conferences or Journals. All submissions will be reviewed on the basis
of relevance, originality, importance and clarity following a
double-blind peer review process. Submitted papers have to follow the
LNCS proceedings formatting style and guidelines. Authors of accepted
papers will be asked to register to the Conference and present their
work in the form of either oral presentation or poster presentation.
The Conference welcomes Workshops and Tutorial on any issues
concerning the main themes of MTSR such as metadata, ontologies,
semantic Web, knowledge management, software engineering and digital
libraries.


** Publication **

The submissions to the Special Track will be reviewed by at least two
members of the Program Committee.

Proceedings will be published by Springer in Vol.846 of the Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) book series. CCIS is abstracted/indexed in Scopus, SCImago, EI-Compendex, Mathematical Reviews, DBLP, Google Scholar. CCIS volumes are also submitted for the inclusion in ISI Proceedings.

Selected papers might be considered for a revised and extended version to be published in a range of international journals, including the International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies (Inderscience) and Program (Emerald).


** Special Track Chairs **

* Nikos Houssos, IRI (Greece)
* Armando Stellato, University of Rome Tor Vergata (Italy)

** Honorary Track Chair **

* Imma Subirats, Frood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Italy)


** About MTSR'18 **

The 11th International Conference on Metadata and Semantics Research (MTSR'17) will be held at Tallinn University in Tallinn, Estonia from November 28th – December 1st 2017.
MTSR is an annual international inter-disciplinary conference which brings together academics, researchers and practitioners in the specialized fields of metadata, ontologies and semantics research. The conference provides an opportunity for participants to share knowledge and novel approaches in the implementation of semantic technologies across diverse types of information environments and applications. These include Open Access Repositories and Digital Libraries, Cultural Informatics, Digital Humanities, E-learning applications, Search Engine Optimization and Information Retrieval, Research Information Systems and Infrastructures, e-Science and e-Social Science applications, Agriculture, Food and Environment, Bio-Health & Medical Information Systems.


*** Special Track Program Committee (TBC) ***

* Sophie Aubin, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France
* Thomas Baker, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
* Hugo Besemer, Wageningen UR Library, The Netherlands
* Gordon Dunshire, University of Strathclyde, UK
* Jan Dvorak, Charles University of Prague, Czech Republic
* Jane Greenberg, Drexel Univerisity, USA
* Siddeswara Guru, University of Queensland, Australia
* Keith Jeffery, Keith G Jeffery Consultants, UK
* Nikolaos Konstantinou, University of Manchester, UK
* Rebecca Koskela, University of New Mexico, USA
* Jessica Lindholm, Malmö University, Sweden
* Paolo Manghi, ISTI-CNR, Italy
* Brian Matthews, Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK
* Eva Mendez Rodriguez, University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain
* Joachim Schöpfel, University of Lille, France
* Kathleen Shearer, Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR), Germany
* Jochen Schirrwagen, University of Bielefeld, Germany
* Birgit Schmidt, University of Göttingen, Germany
* Chrisa Tsinaraki, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Italy
* Yannis Tzitzikas, University of Crete and ICS-FORTH, Greece
* Zhong Wang, Sun-Yat-Sen University, China
* Marcia Zeng, Kent State University, USA