UPDATED INFO & DEADLINE - FOIS 2020, September 14-17, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

(Apologies for potential cross-posting)


*11th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems
(FOIS 2020),*


September 14-17, 2020, Bolzen-Bolzano, Italy


https://fois2020.inf.unibz.it/


*Update for deadline and organisation of FOIS:*

*Responding to the current health crisis, the new submission deadline has
been set to **May 13**.*


*Please note further:*

– The organisation team of FOIS 2020 is committed to publishing the FOIS
proceedings with IOS Press in 2020.

– FOIS will happen as a face-to-face event in Bolzano when it is safe to
travel. Ideally, in September 2020 but otherwise at a later date in 2021.

– Physical attendance of authors of accepted papers at FOIS will be
optional.


*See announcement COVID-19 for future updates:*
*https://fois2020.inf.unibz.it/announcement-covid-19/*
<https://fois2020.inf.unibz.it/announcement-covid-19/>



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DEFINITION AND SCOPE

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The advent of complex information systems that rely on robust, coherent and
formal representations of their subject matter, has led to the exploitation
of ontological analysis and ontology-based representation. The systematic
study of such analysis and representation is at the center of the modern
discipline of formal ontology, which is a general theory of the types of
entities and relations making up domains of interest.


Researchers in many domains engage with formal ontology to provide a solid
foundation for their work. 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, and the Semantic Web.


The FOIS conference is a meeting point for all researchers with an interest
in formal ontology. The conference encourages new high quality submissions
on both theoretical issues and concrete applications. As in previous years,
FOIS 2020 aims to be a nexus of interdisciplinary research and
communication.


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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FORMAT

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*FOIS 2020 includes a number of activities:*

* FOIS conference (single track program)

* workshops (in conjunction with EKAW 2020 and ICBO 2020)

* tutorials (in conjunction with EKAW 2020 and ICBO 2020)

* a young researchers symposium

* a demo and industry track

* an ontology show and tell


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IMPORTANT DATES

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*Call for papers*

* Paper Submission Deadline: 13 May 2020

* Notification: 20 July 2020

* Conference Dates (tentative): 14-17 September 2020


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SUBMISSIONS

------------------------------


FOIS seeks full-length high-quality papers on a wide range of topics. An
ideal FOIS paper will address both content-related ontological issues,
their formal representation, as well as their impact and relevance for some
aspect of information systems. Please refer to the FOIS submissions page
for submission 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 relevant related activity page (forthcoming) for submission and
publication details.


------------------------------

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 (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy)


*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)