Call for In-Use and Software Track Papers

Semantic technologies are reaching maturity on the web, especially through the increase in their use to publish, structure and make sense of web data, whether they are in the form of linked data, through schema.org, or even with semantics included in other data formats than RDF (CSV, JSON, etc). The In-Use and Software track at ISWC 2015 provides a forum for the community to explore the benefits and challenges of applying semantic technologies in concrete, practical applications, in contexts ranging from industry to government and science. We are especially interested this year in applications that use the emerging knowledge graphs or semantic annotations on the web together with data mining, machine learning, or natural language processing techniques to the benefit of concrete, real-life scenarios. We are also looking for descriptions of validated software tools and systems that can benefit and accelerate the adoption of semantic technologies, through providing important features, being widely available and/or addressing a significant gap in the semantic technology stack.

Importantly, papers presenting applications of semantic technologies (In Use) should provide evidence that there is actual, significant use of the proposed application or tool by the target user group, preferably outside the group that conducted the development. A main focus of the submission should be on the way semantics and semantic technologies are impacting this development, through benefiting the intended use case, as well as, if relevant, through the added challenges they introduce. On the other hand, while not necessarily having a large user base, papers presenting systems and tools (software) should clearly demonstrate and evaluate the value of the tool or system for the semantic web community.

We therefore expect submissions to the In Use and Software track to contain at least the following elements:

A clear description of the problem being addressed, and of its importance in the corresponding domain
A description of the system, application or tool developed that clearly shows the role Semantic Technologies and Principles are playing in its architecture, or the contribution helping the adoption of Semantic Technologies and Principles
A clear statement about the current user base of this system, application or tool (including size and composition, e.g. domain experts, developers, etc.), as well as plans for deployment/adoption
For application papers: A discussion on the benefits and challenges associated with the use of Semantic Technologies and Principles in the considered scenario, both from a technical (what the technology enables) and a non-technical (e.g. development effort required, effect on user interaction/satisfaction, policy-related issues) point of view
For software tools and systems papers: A clear evaluation of the performance of the tool/system according to relevant measures (speed, usability, efficiency, etc.)

Delineation from the Research Track

Submissions may employ various methods (e.g. from software engineering, scientific methods - qualitative and/or quantitative, analytics) to understand in greater detail the deployment of semantic technologies and data (online or offline) or present novel practical approaches that are relevant to the deployment of semantics, but may not otherwise gain an outlet in the ISWC series. Submissions to the In-Use and Software track should rely on a concrete implementation of either the application or the tool being presented, which should be evaluated according to measures/indicators that are relevant to the evaluation of the adoption of an application or the performance of a tool. However, papers presenting a research prototype where the main objective is to support the validation of a research hypothesis or answering a research question are more appropriate to the research track.

Accepted papers will be distributed to conference attendees and also published by Springer in the printed conference proceedings. At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the conference and present the paper there.

Topics of Interest

We invite the submission of original papers organized around some of the following aspects:

Description and analysis of concrete problems and user requirements for applying semantic technologies in a specific domain
Description of implementation and use of semantic applications in a specific domain
Analysis and evaluation of usability and uptake of Semantic Web tools and technologies
Assessment of the pros and cons of using semantic technologies to solve a particular and practical problem
Pragmatics of using or deploying semantic technologies in real-world scenarios
Comparison of semantic technologies with alternative approaches that use conventional or competing technologies
Learned lessons and best practices from deploying and using an application or service based on Semantic Web technologies
Assessment of costs and benefits of implementing, deploying, using, and managing Semantic Web technologies
Analysis of risks and opportunities of using Semantic Web technologies in organizations with respect to their businesses and customers
Descriptions of alternative semantic technologies being deployed in practice
Description of Semantic Web ontologies and/or datasets that are being widely used in practice
Mobile apps based on semantic technologies

The Semantic Web In-Use papers will be evaluated on their relevance to the track, rigor in the methodology and analysis used to reach conclusions, originality, readability, and usefulness to developers, researchers, and practitioners.

Submission Details

Pre-submission of abstracts is a strict requirement. All papers and abstracts have to be submitted electronically via the EasyChair conference submission system.
All In-Use Track submissions must be in English, and no longer than 16 pages. Papers that exceed this limit will be rejected without review. Submissions must be in PDF formatted in the style of the Springer Publications format for Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). For details on the LNCS style, see Springer's Author Instructions (http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0).

ISWC-2015 submissions are not anonymous.
Authors of accepted papers will be required to provide semantic annotations for the abstract of their submission, which will be made available on the conference website. Details will be provided at the time of acceptance.

Accepted papers will be distributed to conference attendees and also published by Springer in the printed conference proceedings, as part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the conference and present the paper there.

Review Criteria

For “In Use papers” (application):

Value of the use case in demonstrating benefits/challenges of semantic technologies
Adoption by domain practitioners and general members of the public
Applicability of the lessons learnt to other use cases
Clarity and quality of the description

For “Software papers” (tools and systems)

Significance of the problem addressed by the tool/system
Quality and performance of the tool/system
Potential impact of the tool/system, especially in supporting the adoption of semantic technologies
Clarity and quality of the description

Prior Publication and Multiple Submissions

ISWC 2015 will not accept In-Use papers that, at the time of submission, are under review for or have already been published in or accepted for publication in a journalor another conference. The conference organizers may share information on submissions with other venues to ensure that this rule is not violated.

Important Dates

Abstracts: April 23rd, 2015
Full Paper Submission: April 30th, 2015
Author Rebuttals: June 1st-3rd, 2015
Notifications: June 20th, 2015
Camera-Ready Versions: July 18th, 2015

All deadlines are Hawaii time.

Program Chairs

Mathieu d'Aquin, The Open University
Kavitha Srinivas, IBM

Program Committee

The list of program committee members can be found here.