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Call for Contributions

TPDL Track on e-Infrastructures (TPDL-eInfra)

a Specialized Track of the

TPDL2016 - 20th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries
September 5-9, 2016 in Hannover, Germany
http://www.tpdl2016.org/
Twitter: @TPDL2016
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Digital Libraries as part of Research and e-Infrastructures

The digital material generated from and used by academic and other research is to an increasing extent being held in formally managed digital libraries that are part of larger e-Infrastructures. Research data is managed in such a way in a variety of disciplines, including physical sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities.

Digital Libraries are changing not only in the type of content that they hold, but also in the ways they are used. A major motivation in setting up and populating digital libraries in e-Infrastructure has been (and is) to make the results of research available to a wider audience, by encouraging or in some cases mandating deposit and open access principles. Such systems allow us to move away from the model of a stand-alone system, where objects are simply deposited for subsequent access and download. Instead, researchers are developing more sophisticated models in which a digital library is an integrated component of a larger research infrastructure, incorporating advanced tools and workflows, and being used to model complex webs of information and capture scholarly or scientific processes in their entirety, from raw data through to final publications. Repositories thus add value to the data-driven research lifecycle.

One particular challenge raised here, however, is not just size, but rather the very nature of research data, which can be highly diverse, complex, fuzzy and context-dependent. Another issue to be addressed is the ‘silo’ mentality. Although the digital content is in principle accessible via the internet, it is often held at a ‘deep’ level that is not amenable to traditional discovery techniques. If, as we expect, digital libraries take on a central and pivotal role in the research lifecycle, then there is a clear strategic need to develop methods and tools to enable collaborative research through the coordination and federation of such complex and dispersed resources.

We invite submissions that demonstrate how digital libraries are an integral part of research and e-Infrastructure at the upcoming 20th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries. The following topics are of interest, but are not limited to:

- Standardisation of data and systems that support the integration of digital libraries in larger e-Infrastructures
- Case studies of digital libraries as they operate within an e-Infrastructure
- Incorporation of digital research tools and methods in digital libraries
- Enhancement of digital libraries in order to manage complex scientific workflows.
- Data creation, curation and preservation practices within e-Infrastructures
- Digital Libraries federation architectures within e-Infrastructures using advanced semantic and cloud technologies.

Submissions and Proceedings
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The research and e-Infrastructures track of the TPDL 2016 invites submissions (12 pages), short-papers (6 pages). The papers accepted for the specialized track will be published in the regular TPDL Proceedings. Submissions must conform to the formatting instructions of the TPDL conference (http://www.tpdl2016.org/callforpapers).

According to the registration regulation for TPDL 2016, inclusion of papers in the proceedings is conditional upon registration of at least one author per paper.

http://www.tpdl2016.org/einfra

Important Dates
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The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2016.
Notification of acceptance: May 22, 2016
Camera ready versions: June 12, 2016

Organization
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TPDL-eInfra Track Co-Chairs
- Tobias Blanke, King’s College London, UK
- Laurent Romary, Inria, France