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 workshop 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

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 Tue, July 15, 2014
Author notification Mon, August 25, 2014
Submission of camera-ready version Wed, September 10, 2014
Registration for ODLS Tue, September 30, 2014
Workshop Tue-Wed, October 07–08, 2014

Organization

Martin Boeker, University of Freiburg (general & local chair)
( TBA, inquiry pending ) (PC chair)
Heinrich Herre, University of Leipzig
Frank Loebe, University of Leipzig

Local Organization

The workshop is hosted by the externer LinkCenter for Medical Biometry and Medical Informatics, Medical Center – University of Freiburg.

Submissions

Submissions to the workshop can be extended abstracts of 2 pages or papers of 4–6 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.
(NB: These are the same templates as used for OBML 2010–2012.)

Contributions must be submitted via the EasyChair conference system.
( link follows )

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). These manuscripts must then be written in English and will be re-reviewed. (Since 2012 invited papers appear separately in JBMS, e.g. in the series Biomedical Ontologies).