NETTAB 2013 Call for Papers

NETTAB 2013 is the thirteenth in a series of international workshops on Network Tools and Applications in Biology. NETTAB workshops are aimed at presenting and discussing emerging ICT technologies whose adoption in support of biology could be of particular interest.
Since 2001, many different topics were discussed:

2001 XML standardization for data integration 2002 multi agent systems 2003 microarray data analysis 2004 metaphores from biology to bioinfo tools

2005 computerised workflows 2006 web services and grid 2007 semantic web 2008 methods for complex system

2009 collaborative research and development 2010 biological wikis 2011 clinical bioinformatics 2012 integrated bio-search

Workshops include focused sessions devoted to tools and systems, applications and perspectives. Keynote lectures introduce the sessions' topics, and are followed by presentations selected from among the submitted contributions. Discussion is a key factor, both within sessions and in a special Panel Discussion. Tutorials and poster sessions complete the agenda of the NETTAB workshops.

Human beings are social animals and ICT have recently permeated human society of newer forms and ways of participation in social activities. In the Internet, the hype has shifted from Web2.0 to Social Media; in science too, this development is evident. Beside facilitating communication and making easier the sharing of information, social platforms and technologies are enhancing learning, problem solving and crowdsourcing. In biology, and especially in the "-omic" disciplines, we already rely on a wide diffusion of social tools and applications, e.g for distributed annotations, Wiki knowledge bases, documentation and productivity.

On the other hand, access to the Internet is nowadays increasingly happening through mobile devices. Mobile Internet access is expected to soon overtake access from standard PCs and workstations. Moreover, mobile phones are expected to become the main personal computing devices. Smartphones and tablets represent the most practical computing devices in biomedical laboratories and they actually are the ideal companions for always on the move scientists. While we can observe a widespread diffusion of health and lifestyle mobile applications and a rapid adoption of mobile solutions in medicine and healthcare we cannot say the same for life sciences and bioinformatics.

Semantic methodologies and technologies are instead well established in "-omic" projects. It can even be proudly observed that the bioinformatics community was an early adopter of Semantic Web technologies.

In the NETTAB 2013 workshop, mobile and/or social and/or semantic solutions for bioinformatics and laboratory informatics problems will be explored. It is our opinion that a savvy combination of these three technologies could greatly enhance the research outcome of life scientists and markedly simplify the workflows in biomedical laboratories.

NETTAB 2013 will be focused on "Semantic, Social, and Mobile Applications for Bioinformatics and Biomedical Laboratories", which includes all aspects that relate to technologies, methods, architectures, systems and applications for ...

We are looking for abstracts on all aspects of the focus theme, including issues, methods, algorithms, and technologies for the design and development of tools and platforms able to provide Semantic, Social, And Mobile (SeSaMo) applications supporting bioinformatics and the activities carried out in a biomedical laboratory. The following list is not meant to be exclusive of any further topics as stated above.

Submitted contributions should address one or more of the following topics:

Issues and Methods User engagement, Social learning, Social problem solving, Crowdsourcing, Gamification, Privacy in social biomedical applications, Patients communities, Web-enabled social healthcare, Other Issues and Methods for SeSaMo applications		Algorithms and Technologies Social algorithms, Algorithms optimized for mobile devices, Distributed algorithms for interacting devices, Ubiquitous computing, Social networks analysis, Multi Agent Systems, Distributed Computing, Mobile platforms and wearable computing, Other Algorithms and Technologies for SeSaMo applications		Tools Semantic Wiki Systems, Biomedical Ontologies, Ontologies to support social and mobile applications, Application Programming Interfaces (API), Software Development Kits (SDK), Middleware, Programming Languages, Other Tools for SeSaMo applications
Platforms Semantic Knowledge Management platforms, Distributed annotations systems, Platforms for Crowdsourcing, Platforms for laboratory management, Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN), Social media for biomedical research, Other SeSaMo platforms		Applications for Bioinformatics Semantic-based Bioinformatics applications, Social Bioinformatics applications, Mobile Bioinformatics applications, Combinations of the above		Applications for Biomedical laboratories Semantic-based applications for biomedical laboratories, Social applications for biomedical laboratories, Mobile applications for biomedical laboratories, Combinations of the above

Type of contributions

The following possible contributions are sought:

• Oral communications
• Industrial-Technological communications
• Posters

Industrial-technological communications are meant to allow the presentation of methodological, scientific and technological issues of industrial products and tools that are already available from companies and research groups, as well as their actual implementation, application domains, and related results.
They will be included in a devoted Session and must not convey any commercial message.

The following deadlines are still provisional and thus subject to changes.

• July 5, 2013: Abstract submission deadline for Oral communications
• July 31, 2013: Late Abstract submission deadline for Oral communications
• NEW! September 16, 2013: Abstract submission deadline for SPECIAL Oral communications
• July 31, 2013: Abstract submission deadline for Posters
• NEW! September 16, 2013: Abstract submission deadline for Late Posters
• September 13, 2013: Early registration deadline
• October 16-18, 2013: Tutorials and Workshop

Contributions must be submitted directly through the EMBnet Open Conferences System (OCS).
In order to be able to submit an abstract, you must either have an account on the system already or register at the User Account page.

The abstract must be prepared by using the following MS Word Template.
Full instructions for the preparation of the abstract are available on-line in the Author Guidelines page of the EMBnet OCS.

The length of abstracts for oral communications, including the Industrial-technological communications, should be between 3 and 4 pages, including no more than TWO tables / figures.
The length of abstracts for posters should be between 2 and 3 pages, including no more than ONE table or figure.
All abstracts should include the following sections: Motivation and Objectives, Methods, Results and Discussion, Acknowledgements, References.
All contributions for oral communications will be evaluated by at least two referees.
All posters will be evaluated on the basis of their relevance for the workshop's topics and contents by the Workshop's Chairs.

Instructions for the preparation of posters
Posters must be printed on a single paper sheet. Their size must be comprised between A0 and A1 standard formats.

Publications

Proceedings of the NETTAB 2013 workshop has been published
Proceedings of the NETTAB 2013 workshop have been published on the EMBnet.journal, Volume 19, Supplement B.
The Supplement is available online at the following address: http://journal.embnet.org/index.php/embnetjournal/issue/view/76

Selected full papers from abstracts presented at NETTAB 2013 will be published in a Supplement of BMC Bioinformatics, a peer-review, indexed, international journal.
To this aim, a special Call for papers, restricted to oral communications and posters presented at the NETTAB 2013 workshop, will be launched shortly before the workshop with a deadline within the end of 2013.

Publication of abstracts in the Proceedings of the workshop implies the acceptance of the EMBnet.journal copyright and license agreement. This only refers to the right of first publication of the abstract in the Proceedings and it does not preclude in any way the following submission of extended versions in any journal. The main clauses of the agreement are the following:

• The abstract must be original, unpublished in any other peer-reviewed journal, and not under consideration by any other journal.
• Authors retain the copyright. They ONLY grant the journal the right of first publication.
• The work is simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence, that allows others to share the work ONLY with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and of the initial publication in the EMBnet.journal.
• Authors may enter separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in the EMBnet.journal.
• Authors may freely post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process.

For any further information or clarification, please contact the organization by email at nettab2013oc@googlegroups.com.

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