Collaboration and Data-Sharing Tools calls for papers / publications

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Journal of Web Semantics: Data Linking

This special issue of the Journal of Web Semantics focuses on the problem of finding links between datasets published as linked data.

Today the web of data has become a reality. The ever increasing number of datasets published as RDF according to the linked data principles, the support of major search engines, e-commerce sites and social networks give no doubt that the early scenarios of the semantic Web vision will soon become a reality.

The power of the web lies in its networked structure, in the connections between the resources it contains. Similarly, linked data enable the interlinking of data resources so that databases become interconnected and the information they contain become part of a huge distributed database. The transformation of the Web from a “Web of documents” into a “Web of data”, as well as the availability of large collections of sensor generated data (“internet of things”), is leading to a new generation of Web applications based on the integration of both data and services. At the same time, new data are published every day out of user generated contents and public Web sites.

This emergence of the Web of data raises many challenges, such as the need of comparing and matching data with the goal of resolving the multiplicity of data references to the same real-world objects and of finding useful and relevant similarities and correspondences among data. The Web needs techniques and tools for the discovery of data links, and a suitable theory for the understanding and definition of the data links meaning.

About data links, one of the most important goals is to provide means to ensure that the interconnection between data is effective. The design of algorithms, methodologies, languages and tools that provide more efficient and automated ways to link data is essential for the growth of the Web of data rather than a set of disjoint data islands.

While the problems of entity resolution have been studied in the database community for a long time, the Web of data environment presents new important challenges at different levels. Large volumes of data and the variety of repositories which have to be processed rise the need for scalable linking techniques which require minimal user involvement. On the other hand, in cases where user configuration effort is required, there is a need for tools to be usable by non-experts in the domain.

Given that published data links can be used by automatic reasoning tools, it is important to capture the meaning of links in a precise way. Since quality of automatically generated links can vary, their provenance and reliability have to be modelled in an explicit way. Finally, to capture and compare the reliability of different tools and techniques, there is a need for evaluation methods for automatic data linking approaches.

Challenges

• Automating the process of finding links between Web datasets
• Scaling data linking algorithms
• Representation and interpretation of links
• Providing efficient user interfaces and interaction methods
• Modeling and reasoning on links trust and provenance information

Topics of Interest

The topics of interest for this special issue include but are not limited to the following.

• data linking tools and frameworks
• techniques for automated data linking
• data similarity measures
• similarity spreading measures
• schema-based similarity measures
• candidate dataset selection and datasets similarity measures
• statistical analysis techniques
• semi-supervised, learning-based data linking methods
• optimization methods for computing similarity
• web data sampling techniques
• identity representation and semantics
• reasoning on links, link propagation
• user interaction for link elicitation and validation
• provenance and trust models on links
• methods for link quality assessment
• innovative applications using links
• evaluation of data linking techniques and tools

Important Dates

We will review papers on a rolling basis as they are submitted and explicitly encourage submissions well before the final deadline.

• 1 June: submission deadline
• 1 September: initial decisions and notifications
• 1 October: major/minor revisions due
• 1 November: final minor revisions due
• 1 December: final decisions and notifications
• 1 January: preprints available publication in 2013

Instructions for submission

Please see the author guidelines for detailed instructions before you submit. Submissions should be conducted through Elsevier’s Electronic Submission System. More details on the Journal of Web Semantics can be found on its homepage. See the JWS Guide for Authors for details on the submission process.

Editors

• Alfio Ferrara (Università degli Studi di Milano)
• Andriy Nikolov (Open University)
• François Scharffe (LIRMM, Université de Montpellier 2)

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the Semantic Web Journal: Big Data and the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web journal calls for innovative and high-quality papers describing the role of Semantic Web technologies, Linked Data, and ontologies for the Big Data age. Papers should clearly relate to one or more of the Big Data V's Volume, Variety, and Velocity, as well as demonstrate the added value of semantics. Besides theoretical contributions on reasoning over massive amounts of heterogeneous data and challenges for knowledge representation and interlinkage, we especially also invite reports from domain scientists detailing the use of ontologies and Semantic Web technologies in bioinformatics, geographic information science, life sciences, cultural heritage research, the digital humanities, and other research areas.

We welcome all paper categories, i.e., full research papers, application reports, systems and tools, ontology papers, surveys, as well as dataset reports as long as they clearly relate to challenges and opportunities arising from processing Big Data - see our listing of paper types in the author guidelines http://www.semantic-web-journal.net/authors

Topics include but are not limited to

Semantic search and information seeking
Exploratory interfaces for massive amounts of annotated data
Intelligent information interchange
Semantic interoperability and heterogeneity
Inductive and abductive approaches to ontology learning
Handling uncertainty, vagueness, and inconsistencies
Knowledge discovery from linked data
Collaborative Ontology engineering
Microtheories and knowledge patterns
Ontology modularization
Ontology evolution
Ontology alignment, matching, and translation
Analogy and similarity reasoning and retrieval
Sensor semantics and smart dust
Stream reasoning
Distributed reasoning
Semantics-based data aggregation and generalization
Semantically enabled statistics
Massive data integration for the digital earth
Linked science
The User as knowledge engineer
Semantics and decision support systems
Semantics-driven integrity constraint checking
Mining the Social and Mobile Web
Ontology-driven data visualization
Trust and privacy issues in publishing and reasoning about Big Data
Dialog and question answering systems based on Linked Data and ontologies

Important Dates
Manuscript submission due: 30th of June 2012
First notification: 7th of September 2012
Issue publication: Spring 2013

Submissions
The special issue on Big Data and the Semantic Web calls for original high-quality research on any of the above mentioned topics. Authors are requested to follow the author guidelines, submit online as detailed in the author guidelines, and include the name of the call within the submission letter. All manuscripts will be reviewed based on the SWJ open and transparent review policy and will be made available during online the review process.

Call for Papers for a Supplment of Public Health Reports: Program Collaboration and Service Integration

Deadline for submission: July 1, 2012

The anticipated publication date for the PHR Supplement is July/August 2013

Public Health Reports (PHR) is inviting papers for a Supplement on Program Collaboration and Service Integration (PCSI). The guest editors for this Supplement are Dr. Kevin Fenton and Gustavo Aquino. Dr. Fenton is the National Center Director and Mr. Aquino is the Associate Director for Program Integration, both with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.

PCSI is a mechanism for organizing and blending interrelated health issues, activities, and prevention strategies to facilitate comprehensive delivery of services. A key benefit of PCSI is to maximize the health benefits that people receive from prevention services by increasing service efficiency through combining, streamlining, and enhancing prevention services; maximizing opportunities to screen, test, treat, or vaccinate those in need of these services; improving the health of populations negatively affected by multiple diseases; and enabling service providers to adapt to and keep pace with changes in disease epidemiology and new technologies. (For additional information about PCSI, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/programintegration.)

The editors are seeking manuscripts that advance scientific knowledge and report the findings of public health research and policy on program collaboration and integrated service activities. Manuscripts may be analytic or descriptive in format and may include implications for policy and practice.

Manuscripts addressing the following broad range of topics will be sought:

Evidence of the impact of PCSI on program effectiveness or public health outcomes;
Operational research or studies of the impact of integrated service delivery of screening, immunization, and structural interventions related to HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and/or tuberculosis (TB);
Strategies and best practices for integrating surveillance systems, using collaborative approaches to data sharing, and using syndemic data for public health planning and action;
Qualitative studies exploring provider and/or patient attitudes, behaviors, and health outcomes related to their experiences of PCSI and other syndemic approaches to the prevention of HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STD, and TB infections;
Analyses of health service data that document missed opportunities to diagnose and treat populations at risk for multiple infections related to HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STDs, and/or TB;
Estimates of potential or actual realized efficiencies gained through integrated service delivery;
Estimates of added costs and excess burden of disease, disability, or premature death that result from missed diagnoses of comorbid conditions;
Evaluation of effectiveness, costs, and cost-effectiveness of activities related to program collaboration and service integration;
Evaluation of the process, outcomes, costs, and cost-effectiveness of cross-training activities for integrated service delivery; and
Policy analyses and implementation research related to integrated services to prevent and control HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STDs, and/or TB.

The editors are encouraging a broad range of manuscripts, including reports of studies that examine lessons learned from efforts to implement PCSI strategies in the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases with similar social determinants.

Manuscript requirements: Articles in PHR are typically 3,000 words in length. All manuscripts will be reviewed by the PHR Special Editorial Committee (SEC) for this Supplement. The SEC determines which manuscripts are sent for external peer review and which manuscripts are then published in the Supplement.

Manuscript submission: Manuscripts for this Supplement should be e-mailed to manuscripts@publichealthreports.org. Please include “Program Collaboration and Service Integration” in the subject line of the e-mail. If you have any questions about this Supplement, please contact Gustavo Aquino (404-639-8896; gaa1@cdc.gov). For questions about PHR, please contact the Managing Editor, Julie Keefe (513-232-3190; JKeefe@cdc.gov).

PHR is a peer-reviewed journal of the U.S. Public Health Service and the U.S. Surgeon General. It is published in collaboration with the Association of Schools of Public Health. PHR is the oldest journal of public health in the U.S. and has published since 1878. The journal is widely distributed internationally, and is indexed by MEDLINE/Index Medicus, Current Contents, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Pais International, and LexisNexis.

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Occupational Therapy International: Global Partnerships: Promoting Participation and Health in Occupational Therapy

In March 2013, there will be a special issue of Occupational Therapy International on the process of developing and sustaining global partnerships and their outcomes in the areas of education, research or practice.

Scope
Health care scholars, practitioners and educators are invited to submit a manuscript on topics related to how occupational therapists develop, maintain, and sustain global partnerships and global partnership outcomes that promote participation and health.

Manuscripts are especially welcome in the following areas:

1. Research studies that examine how therapists develop, maintain, and sustain global partnerships and their outcomes
2. Literature reviews: Meta-analyses or meta-syntheses in a specific topic area related to global partnerships
3. Model program descriptions or case studies that describe the development and outcomes of global partnerships
4. Descriptions of innovative partnerships in progress

All manuscripts will be expected to:

Discuss the implications of the partnership for clinical practice, education and/or scholarship and the cross-cultural adaptations or implications of the partnership. Author guidelines can be found under the “For Contributors” section: http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/OTI

Submission The deadline for the receipt of Manuscripts is May 31, 2012 with anticipated publication in March 2013. Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/oti

Further information
Please contact the guest editors, Anne Marie Witchger Hansen, Ed.D, OTR/L (hansen@duq.edu); Jaime Phillip Muñoz, PhD, OTR/L (munoz@duq.edu), & Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, PhD (ysuarez@uic.edu). These editors will give initial feedback on manuscripts before the usual, double-blind review process

Call for Manuscripts: Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship

Everyone at JCES believes we are fulfilling our goal of being a different kind of research journal, which is why we are communicating with you now.

We are asking you to help us sustain our momentum by sending us your manuscript as we plan our next three issues. The closing dates are August 31, 2011, March 31, 2012, and December 1, 2012. The December issue will follow the 2012 National Outreach Scholarship Conference, which we will host. The theme for the conference will be “Partner. Inspire. Change,” and the special issue will draw heavily from conference presentations.

In just three years, JCES has helped to define the young field of engaged scholarship by taking a different approach: The manuscripts we publish must be well written using language accessible to ordinary citizens, not just to trained scholars; presentations must measure up to the highest standards of visual design; and over time the content must move the field forward by appealing to laypeople and academics alike.

We are aware of no other peer-reviewed journal with these requirements. The journal features research from all disciplines using all methods. We have been fortunate to receive many manuscripts from the social sciences, education, and health; we need more from the arts, humanities, science, engineering, agriculture, the environment, and architecture.

Here are brief descriptions of a few of the manuscripts we have published so far to give you an idea of the variety to be found in JCES.

• Students in a Spanish class tutor urban Latinos in English and join them in staging bilingual cultural events. Results? The program is such a success the department makes it a requirement for all majors.

• Biology and psychology departments form a partnership with a community water resource center to clean up a historic but polluted watershed.

• A large medical school demonstrates that service-learning improves health care delivery in at-risk communities while helping their own students grow personally and professionally.

• Universities and local nature groups partner in a program that makes the tools of science accessible and fun to young people.

• A university works with campus Greeks to inform students about the added risks of acquiring HIV/STDs when alcohol and unprotected sex are combined.

Our acceptance procedures are standard for peer-reviewed journals. Submit manuscripts in Microsoft Word and accompanying images by e-mail to jces@ua.edu. For more about the submission and review process, go to www.jces.ua.edu.

Upon meeting submission requirements, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with your manuscript number. Use this number in all further correspondence. We attempt to match each manuscript with our reviewers’ expertise and make every effort to review submissions in a timely manner. Feel free to send an e-mail any time you have a question.

We also publish analytical essays, book reviews, shorter articles about research from the field, and commentaries on the role of engaged scholarship.

Now, put the finishing touches on that manuscript and send it on its way!