ISMB 2008 ISCB

16th Annual
International Conference
Intelligent Systems
for Molecular Biology


Metro Toronto Convention Centre (South Building)
Toronto, Canada


 



Call for ISMB 2008 Highlights Track Proposals - Deadline extension to March 15, 2008


The Highlight Tracks were introduced in Vienna (ISMB/ECCB 2007), and immediately ranked as one of the top three events in the popularity (behind Keynotes and Special Sessions; as judged from a comprehensive Survey (697 respondents) that was filled out by almost half of the 2007 conference participants).

We invite the submission of full papers that have been published between January 1, 2007 and the submission deadline (March 15, 2008). Publications that are "in press" and already linked on the journal web site are also welcome. A group of experts will select the papers to be presented at the meeting considering the impact of the work on the field, the likelihood that the work makes a good presentation, and the relevance for molecular and medical biology, in general.

Submissions must include a 250-word abstract-like argument that explains how the submitted
paper(s) suit the goal of presenting highlights that impacted the field. More details are given below.

Highlights Track: Deadlines
Monday, November 5, 2007 Call for Highlights Track Opens
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Highlights Track Submission Deadline
Friday, April 18, 2008 Highlights Track Acceptance Notification

Highlights Track: Deadline Overview
All submissions will be evaluated by a group of editors. Upon submission, the authors will identify the editor/expert most suitable to suitable to review their work.

All papers published in peer-review journals (no book chapters) between January 2007 and March 5, 2008 are eligible to be presented as talks. Papers in press are acceptable only if already available through the web sit of the journal. Note that presenters will be encouraged to also present more recent work, however, that work will not be considered in the decision. Up to 2 papers can be submitted as one single PDF if the authors intent to compose their presentations of multiple papers.

All PDFs with the covering 250-word argument that explains how the papers suit the selection criteria will have to be submitted through the automated system by March 15, 2008 (midnight by any time zone). No reason will exempt submissions from this deadline.

The editors will notify authors of the acceptance by April 18, 2008.

The selected Highlights will be presented in tracks that run in parallel to the main ISMB meeting, July 20-23, 2007. All presentations will have to be completed within 20 minutes and will be followed by 5-minute discussions. While presenters are expected to focus mostly on the chosen paper(s), short infusions of more recent data are welcome.
↑ TOP


All submissions will be evaluated by a group of editors to be named. Editors will consider the following criteria:
  • Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to ISMB attendees,
  • Impact of the paper(s) on biology (while the impact of papers on science is not fully reflected by ISI/Google-like impact factors or high number of downloads, high values in such factors will clearly stand as a strong argument for acceptance),
  • "Presentability" of the work to a large, diverse audience,
  • Quality of oral presentations by the submitter (if none).

These "soft" criteria attempt to capture the underlying concept, namely the presentation of exciting and thought-provoking seminars that will both contribute to the success and attraction-value of ISMB and to the impact the meeting has on advancing computational biology and bioinformatics.

The criterion of "presentability" accounts for the fact that some papers that will completely change the field, or will become citation records may not translate to exciting seminars.


The PDFs of all papers along with the covering 250-word argument that explains how the papers suit the selection criteria will have to be submitted through the automated system by March 15, 2008 (midnight by any time zone). There will be no exception.

Submissions must made to the automatic Highlights Track Submissions Site.

Submissions will include the following:

  • Name/affiliation/email of submitter (assumed to be the presenter; note that the presenter cannot change because the identity and ability to present of that person will be an essential selection criterion).
  • Names/affiliations/email of ALL coauthors (note: any name appearing on a published paper has to be added here). Note that all co-authors have to agree to the submission and that it is the responsibility of the submitter to guarantee that all co-author email addresses are correct (email notifications of the submission will be sent to all co-authors).
  • Additional ontact information (for presenter).
  • 250-word limited abstract-like Argument that explains the adequacy of this work.
  • Sources of original publication(s) (Year, Journal, Vol., pages).
  • PDF with paper(s) (note: in case of the submission of 2 papers, both have to be merged into one single PDF; all reviews will be based on the content of this PDF).
  • Optional: link to Google Video demonstrating presentation skills of presenter.
  • Note that we will need PDF submissions; the system will neither be able to handle ASCII, nor Word, nor LaTeX, nor anything other than standard PDF. It is the responsibility of the submitter to verify that the PDF is completely viewable/printable by all major operating systems (LINUX, MacOS, Windows).
  • Each presenter can submit a maximum of one application to present a highlight. The maximal number of submissions per author/co-author is 5.

Highlights Track Submission Site