1st CfP - FOIS 2021, September 13-16, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

(Apologies for cross-posting)


*12th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems
(FOIS 2021), *September 13-16, 2021


https://fois2021.inf.unibz.it/


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DEFINITION AND SCOPE
-----------------------------------

The FOIS conference is a meeting point for all researchers with an interest
in formal ontology. Formal ontology is the systematic study of the types of
entities and relations making up the domains of interest represented in
modern information systems. The conference encourages new high quality
submissions on both theoretical issues and practical advancements: FOIS
2021 will have separate reviewing tracks for *foundational issues*, *ontology
applications* and *domain ontologies*.

FOIS aims to be a nexus of interdisciplinary research and communication,
inclusive of researchers from many domains engaging with formal ontology.
Common application areas include conceptual modeling, database design,
knowledge engineering and management, software engineering, organizational
modeling, artificial intelligence, robotics, computational linguistics, the
life sciences, bioinformatics and scientific research in general,
geographic information science, information retrieval, library and
information science, as well as the Semantic Web.

FOIS is the flagship conference of the International Association for
Ontology and its Applications (IAOA: http://iaoa.org/), which is a
non-profit organization promoting interdisciplinary research and
international collaboration in formal ontology.

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IMPORTANT DATES
-----------------------------

* Paper Submission Deadline: 22 April 2021
* Notification: 25 June 2021
* Camera-ready Papers: 19 July 2021
* Conference Dates: 13-16 September 2021

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LOCATION
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FOIS 2021 is planned as a *hybrid event*: there will be a physical meeting
in Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, with a remote participation option.

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SUBMISSIONS
------------------------------

FOIS 2021 seeks three types of full-length (14 page) high-quality papers on
a wide range of topics:

   1.

   *Foundational* papers address content-related ontological issues, their
   formal representation, and their relevance to some aspect of information
   systems.
   2.

   *Application* papers address novel methods and systems related to
   building, evaluating, or using ontologies, emphasizing the impact of
   ontology contents on the application.
   3.

   *Domain ontology *papers describe a novel ontology for a specific realm
   of interest, clarifying ontological choices against requirements and
   foundational theory, and showing ontology use.

Please refer to the FOIS 2021 *Submissions* page for more details. As
usual, the FOIS proceedings will be published by IOS Press.

Related activities, such as workshops and tutorials, may specify different
submission formats, for example, short papers or posters. Please refer to
the FOIS 2021 *Workshops* page for details about related activities.

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FORMAT
------------------------------

FOIS 2020 includes a number of activities:

* FOIS conference (single track program)
* workshops
* tutorials
* an early-career symposium
* a demo and industry track
* an ontology show and tell

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KEYNOTES
------------------------------

* Nicola Guarino, ISTC-CNR, Italy

* Arianna Betti, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

* Stefan Schulz, Medical University of Graz, Austria


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TOPICS OF INTEREST
------------------------------

Areas of particular interest to FOIS include the following:


*Foundational Issues** Kinds of entities: particulars/universals,
continuants/occurrents, abstracta/concreta, dependent entities/independent
entities, natural objects/artifacts
* Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection, dependence,
constitution, causality, subsumption, instantiation
* Vagueness and granularity
* Space, time, and change


*Methodological issues** Top-level vs. domain-specific ontologies
* Role of reference ontologies
* Ontology similarity, integration and alignment
* Ontology modularity, contextuality, and evolution
* Formal comparison among ontologies
* Relationship with cognition, language, semantics, context
* Ontologies and Knowledge Graphs


*Domain-specific ontologies** Ontology of physical reality (matter, space,
time, motion etc.)
* Ontology of biological reality (organisms, genes, proteins, cells etc.)
* Ontology of mental reality and agency (beliefs, intentions, emotions,
perceptions, cognition,  etc.)
* Ontology of artifacts, functions, capacities and roles
* Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations, norms, social
relationships, artistic expressions etc.)


*Applications*
* Ontology-driven information systems design
* Ontological foundations for conceptual modeling
* Knowledge management
* Qualitative modeling
* Computational linguistics
* Information retrieval
* Semantic Web
* Business modeling
* Ontologies and Machine Learning
* Ontologies and Explainable AI
* Ontologies for particular scientific disciplines (biology, chemistry,
geography, physics, geoscience, cognitive sciences, linguistics etc.)
* Ontologies for engineering: shape, form and function, artifacts,
manufacturing, design, architecture etc.
* Ontologies for the humanities: arts, cultural studies, history,
literature, philosophy, etc.
* Ontologies for the social sciences: economics, law, political science,
anthropology, archeology, etc.


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CONFERENCE ORGANISATION
--------------------------------------------


*General Chair** Roberta Ferrario (ISTC CNR, Trento, Italy)


*Program Chairs** Boyan Brodaric (Geological Survey of Canada, Canada)
* Fabian Neuhaus (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany)


*Local Organization** Oliver Kutz (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy)
* Nicolas Troquard (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy)

*Publicity Chair*

* Guendalina Righetti (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy)
* Maria Hedblom (University of Bremen, Germany)

*Proceedings Chair*

* Megan Katsumi (University of Toronto)

*Workshop / Tutorial Chairs*

* Torsten Hahmann (University of Maine)
* Claudio Masolo (ISTC CNR, Trento, Italy)

*Ontology Show and Tell*

* Michael Gruninger (University of Toronto)
* Frank Loebe (University of Leipzig)

*Early Career Symposium*

* Pawel Garbacz (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin)
* Selja Seppala (University College Cork)

*Demo and Industrial Track Chair*

* Robert Hoehndorf (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)
* Amanda Vizedom (Credit Suisse)