Empirical Studies and Experiments Track at 14th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2015). Abstract deadline in 2 WEEKS!

14th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2015)
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
 USA October 11 - 15, 2015

 Deadline: Abstract April 23 (IN 2 WEEKS!), Full paper submission April 30
(IN 3 WEEKS!)


ISWC is the premier international forum for presenting research results on
the Intelligent Processing of Data on the Web. ISWC brings together
researchers from different areas of computer science, such as artificial
intelligence, databases, distributed systems and information retrieval who
aim at the development and use of novel technologies and techniques for
accessing, interpreting, processing and using information on the web in a
more effective way.

The aim of this track is to offer researchers a platform to promote sound
empirical evaluation and experimental designs and to report on in-depth
studies of frameworks, models, methods and implementations in the field of
semantic technologies. A typical submission to this track would have set
its focus on the verification of an existing scientific artifact by
applying it to a specific task, and present the outcomes of an experiment
with a clearly specified data and methods framing. It would include both
quantitative (i.e., measuring accuracy, precision, execution times) and
qualitative aspects (i.e., to discuss those cases in which the evaluated
artifact succeeds and fails at its task). Papers that propose new
algorithms and architectures should continue to be submitted to the regular
research track.

===== Papers in this track can fit in different categories =====

- Comparative evaluation studies comparing a spectrum of approaches to a
particular problem and, through extensive experiments, providing a
comprehensive empirical perspective on a given field.
- Studies analyzing individual or social phenomena related to the Semantic
Web, including investigations of existing Social Semantic Web systems and
technologies and social or behavioural processes related to activities in
the data management life cycle.
- Analyses of experimental results providing insights on the nature or
characteristics of studied phenomena, including negative results.
- Result verification focusing on validating or refuting published results
and, through the renewed analysis, help advancing the state of the art.
- Benchmark design and their application to evaluate and compare semantic
technologies.
- Development of new evaluation methodologies, and their demonstration in
an experimental study.

===== Review Criteria =====

Papers will be assessed according to the following criteria:

- Reproducibility, including precise descriptions of the experimental
conditions and datasets, and the ability to share the data with the general
public. Experiment design will have to be extensively described so that the
results could be independently reproduced, counter-experiments designed and
subsequent work enabled to expand on this line of work. Public availability
of the datasets used should be the norm, unless there are valid privacy or
other types of concerns, which should be mentioned in the paper.
- Applicability and generality of the methodologies devised, or of the
experiment findings to other areas and types of problems
- Validity of the evaluation methodology (size of dataset, significance
tests) including an honest discussion of threats to validity.

===== Topics of Interest =====

For a list of topic of interests please visit the Call for Research Papers:
http://iswc2015.semanticweb.org/calls/research-track

===== Submission =====

Pre-submission of abstracts is a strict requirement. All papers and
abstracts have to be submitted electronically via the EasyChair conference
submission system
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iswc2015evaluation.

All research 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. 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 web site. 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.

===== Prior Publication and Multiple Submissions =====

ISWC 2015 will not accept research papers that, at the time of submission,
are under review for or have already been published in or accepted for
publication in a journal or 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: TBD
All deadlines are Hawaii time.

===== Evaluation track chairs =====

Elena Simperl
Markus Strohmaier