Call for Proceedings - ISMB/ECCB 2013

Proceedings Chair: Nir Ben-Tal, Tel Aviv University, Israel

**Call for Proceedings Submission Site**  Closed: January 7, 2013

ISMB/ECCB 2013 brings together Bioinformaticians and Computational Biologists working in a wide range of disciplines, including molecular biology, biology, medicine, computer science, mathematics and statistics. Papers that demonstrate both the development of new computational techniques AND their application to Molecular and Systems Biology, with significant outcomes to biomedical, agricultural, and environmental questions are especially encouraged.

* The authors of submissions that will qualify for the second round but will not make it into the ISMB Proceedings will be granted the opportunity to be redirected to Bioinformatics, subjected to Editorial considerations there.

We are soliciting high-quality research papers in any aspect of computational biology, including the following areas:

A complete listing of committee members will be available here.

Relevant computational techniques include, but are not limited to: machine learning; data mining; text analysis; pattern recognition; knowledge representation; databases; data modeling; combinatorics; stochastic modeling; string and graph algorithms; linguistic methods; robotics; constraint satisfaction; data visualization; parallel computation; data integration; modelling and simulation.

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Papers will be assigned to an Area and three reviews sought. Accepted papers will be published as conference proceedings in an open access, online-only, section of a regular issue of the Bioinformatics journal with an electronic version distributed to conference delegates. The proceedings will be available online approximately one month prior to the conference opening.

Publication of the proceedings as an online part of the Bioinformatics journal will result in fully citable articles, indexed by Medline and ISI. See the conference proceedings for ISMB 2012 for an example of online-only publication by Oxford University Press.

Presenters of accepted papers will be given a 20-minute time slot (plus 5 minutes for questions) in the conference schedule to provide a summary and update to their work. Paper presenters must register and pay to attend and present at the conference.

Papers can be submitted using the template (word or latex) of the Bioinformatics journal or in template-free format. If the Bioinformatics template is used the paper length should not exceed nine pages. For template-free the length of the paper should not exceed 12 pages (single space, 12 point font), including abstract, figures, tables, and bibliography. In either case, the paper must contain an abstract of up to 250 words.

After acceptance papers will have to be formatted according to the layout style of the Bioinformatics journal and will be limited to 9 pages. Formatting requirements can be found at: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/bioinformatics/for_authors/submission_online.html

If absolutely necessary, submissions can be accompanied by supplementary material, similar to submissions to scientific journals. The supplementary material should be collected in a separate file that is appropriately marked and uploaded as an attachment on the paper submission page in EasyChair. However, we advise against adding supplementary material, in general. Supplementary material will be published on the proceedings site alongside the online version of the conference paper. We do not support supplementary material presented at any other than the publisher's site. Additionally, the Bioinformatics journal does not edit or typeset supplementary data - it is uploaded online exactly as it is received, so authors must ensure its accuracy before submitting.

Papers should be submitted in their final form; poor quality submissions or insufficiently prepared papers are very often rejected.

PAPERS NOT CONFORMING TO THESE GUIDELINES WILL BE RETURNED WITHOUT REVIEW.

Papers submitted for review should represent original, previously unpublished work. At the time the paper is submitted to ISMB/ECCB 2013, and for the entire review period, the paper should not be under review by any other conference or scientific journal.

Papers will be accepted electronically, in PDF format only, at the submission site until Monday, January 7, 2013. (You have until 11:59 pm in a time zone of your choice. This means that the submission server will be closed at noon, 11:59 am GMT (UTC+0), January 8, 2013).

This year we will adopt a review procedure that is closer to that of a regular submission to the Bioinformatics journal. We will have two rounds of reviews, allowing the authors to reply to the reviewer comments. In the first round the submissions will be classified into two categories: (a) minor/major changes, and (b) not accepted. Authors of submissions in the first category will be given the opportunity to submit revised drafts based on the reviewer comments, with letters of reply to the reviewers outlining the main changes and/or giving counter arguments to the reviewer points. The second round of review will involve selection of the most suitable papers for ISMB/ECCB. These will be published in the Bioinformatics journal and presented at the conference. The authors of submissions that will not be accepted in the second round will be given the opportunity to be redirected to an on-line issue of the Bioinformatics journal (fully citable; equal to regular publication in this journal), subjected to the Editorial considerations of Bioinformatics.

The results of the first round of review will be provided by e-mail no later than Monday, February 4, 2013. Revised, corrected versions of the submissions (including letters of reply to the reviewers), are due no later than March 11, 2013, and conditional acceptance notification for these papers will be April 5, 2013. Final submission, which must conform to the formatting guidelines available when the paper is accepted, is April 12, 2013, and final acceptance notification is April 17, 2013. Details of the submission process and format of accepted papers will be provided at the time of paper acceptance.

Papers not accepted may be resubmitted as a "regular conference poster" until Friday, March 22, 2013 or as a "late conference poster" until Friday, April 19, 2013. Poster information is available here.

For questions concerning the scientific content of submissions, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Call for Special Sessions Proposals - ISMB/ECCB 2013

Special Session Chair: Michal Linial, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

** Special Sessions Submissions - Closes October 26, 2012

ISMB/ECCB 2013 will feature a Special Sessions track that will run throughout the conference in parallel to other tracks (except the keynote presentations). In its structure, each Special Session provide for a more in-depth look at the subject matter presented. Proposals for special sessions should be submitted via the online submission system at here prior to October 26, 2012. 

Special Sessions have the purpose of introducing the ISMB/ECCB community to relevant 'hot' topics that were not covered in previous meetings. A wide range of topics are possible, as long as they importantly influence computational biology and bioinformatics.

Topics that are of special interest (but not limited to) include the accumulating challenges for: Single Cell; Robust Systems; Bioinformatics based Medicine; Computational Neuroscience; Metagenomics; Dynamic Proteomics; Compuational Chemistryp; non-coding RNA; and more!

The topics might cover emerging themes that ISMB and ECCB are not currently approaching with the desired proficiency. We encourage you to submit a proposal on an area that in your eyes is important to the computational biology community and may impact the future of the field.

This call is an invitation for scientists and professionals to submit proposals for special sessions for ISMB/ECCB 2013, to take place in Berlin, Germany, between the dates of July 21 - 23.

Organizer benefits:

1) Special Session organizers will receive two (2) complimentary one-year ISCB memberships to be used for themselves or to award to speakers/participants as determined by them for memberships with a start date no later than the end of 2013 calendar year..

2) Special Session organizers are entitled to discounted registration for two (2) speakers' participation on the day of the session at 50% off the published member early-registration rate. (Organizers must identify the Special Session speakers designated to receive the discounted one-day registrations by May 17,  2013 by contacting  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in order to receive special registration instructions). All other participants of the Special Session, including organizers and other invited or accepted speakers, are responsible for their own registration costs at the full registration fees. If needed, organizers are encouraged to seek sponsorships and/or use grant funds available to them to cover their own and their speakers' travel and registration costs. 

Technical instructions:
Special sessions run the same schedule as all other parallel tracks. They MUST be designed as half-day sessions (2 hours) and synchronized with other tracks. The regular presentation unit is 30 minutes consisting of  20 minute talks + 5 minute discussion + 5 minutes for movement between parallel tracks. Sessions may include any form of presentation such as talks or panel discussions.

Preference will be given to emerging fields and to related fields in which the ISMB/ECCB community needs to acquire higher proficiency. Special sessions are expected to provide a broad perspective on an emerging research field. Sessions will be selected from the submissions to this open call. Potential fields of interest include metabolomics, epigenetics and imaging. Additional topics of particular interest to the ISMB/ECCB community are welcome.

Proposals for special sessions should be submitted via the online submission system here prior to October 26, 2012.

How to submit: Submissions must include a one-page description of the field, its relevance to the ISMB community, and the reasons for planning a session on this topic at ISMB/ECCB 2013. Submitters may want to briefly describe their qualification to organize the Special Session. These explanations could be followed by a list of topics for possible presentations with one-paragraph descriptions. Finally, a draft of the time schedule for the session should be presented. A finalized list of speaker names is not necessary but may add weight to the proposal. If you list invited speakers as "accepted", please make sure that they agree to speak given to the financial constraints describe below.

Financial constraints: Special Sessions are an integral part of the ISMB meeting. Special Sessions chairs and speakers MUST pay their expenses including registration to the meeting. Therefore, the organizers highly encourage session organizers to seek independent funding, and to include any commitment that they may have secured in the proposal. ISMB/ECCB will help in the administrative aspects of assigning the rooms, announcements and adding the detailed schedule to the conference program. Note that the ISMB/ECCB cannot financially support the speakers or the Special Session organizers.

Submission evaluation: All submissions will be evaluated by a committee, which will consider the following criteria:

Call for Special Interest Groups and Satellite Meetings - ISMB/ECCB 2013

Special Interest Groups Committee Chair: Alan Christoffels, University of Western Cape, South Africa

Follow these links to see examples of previous SIG meetings:

ISMB 2012 (Long Beach)
ISMB/ECCB 2011 (Vienna)

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Call For Technology Track - ISMB/ECCB 2013

Technology Track Chair: Rodrigo Lopez, European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge, UK

**Technology Track Submissions - Closed: April 26, 2013

The Technology Track allow organizations to showcase their software and/or hardware relevant to the bioinformatics / molecular biology community.
 

To conduct a Technology Track presentation, organizations must complete the on-line sign-up form including a brief description (50 words maximum) and a one (1) page Technology Track presentation overview (PDF).

The cost to present a Technology Track at ISMB/ECCB 2013 is:
 

• For profit organization: US$2000.00
• Not for profit organization: US$400.00

Organizations receive:

• 50 minute presentation time allotted to for profit organizations or 25 minute presentation time allotted to non profit organizations (time and date scheduled by ISMB/ECCB 2013)
• Listing in the conference program, including presentation time in the main schedule and a 50 word summary included included on the USB conference electronic program
• Listing on conference web site for overview of organizations Technology Track presentation
• Technology Track presentation room
• Audio-Visual equipment provided includes internet connection, data projector, screen, microphone (all additional equipment required will be charged at cost to the presenting organization)
• **Does not include conference registration** Presenters must be registered to attend ISMB/ECCB in order to provide a presentation.

Format
Technology track presentations will be scheduled in either 25 or 50 minute time slots. Presenters must finish on time to allow for the set-up for the following presentation.

Presenters will be provided with a Windows-based desktop computer and Internet access. If a different operating system is required presenters should bring their own computer and contact the audiovisual team at least 24 hours before you are due to give your presentation.

If you intend to use a Windows computer provided by the conference for your Technology Track presentation, please bring a CD/Flash-drives containing any software and presentation material that needs to be loaded, or make your software and other material downloadable via the internet.

Within your time slot, you are at liberty to demonstrate your software in any way that you see fit: for example, you can combine one or more structured talks with live demos and question-and-answer sessions. Authors should provide handouts for attendees.

Major sponsors will be given precedence for Technology Track presentation time slots.

Acceptance and Confirmation
All submissions will reviewed by the Technology Track selection committee and notification of acceptance will be forwarded no later than May 17, 2013. Technology Track presenters will be contacted by ISMB/ECCB 2013 regarding presentation acceptance, Technology Track schedule, logistics and payment. Payment should not be made until organizations receive notification of acceptance.

For information on Technology Tracks contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

*** Click here to sign-up for an ISMB/ECCB 2013 Technology Track ***

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ISMB/ECCB 2013 Funding Information

ISMB/ECCB 2013 is pleased to offer funding opportunities for students and postdoctoral fellows to present a talk or poster at the conference in Berlin, Germany. The conference organizers are committed to providing support to as many eligible applicants as possible, although our funding sources are very limited and we regret that we are not able to fund all applicants. Travel Fellowship Application Invitations are sent directly to eligible individuals after acceptance of a submitted talk or poster (excluding acceptances to the call for Late Posters).

Travel fellowship Awardee Information

Travel fellowship Desk Hours

• July 21 - 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
• July 23 - 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM
  

1. Travel Fellowships Form - Please hand in this completed form along with your receipts at the travel fellowship desk on July 21 between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM. Instructions on filling in the form have been emailed to you.
2. Sign in at the Travel fellowship desk on July 21 between 8:30 AM and 5 PM and sign in again on July 23 between 8:30AM and 1:00 PM
3. If you have questions contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Application Process

Application is by invitation-only, sent automatically via email from the ISCB submission system to the submitting author of each accepted Highlight paper, Late Breaking Research abstract, Paper, and Poster (excluding accepted Late Posters). This invitation email will arrive after notification of acceptance of one of these submissions to present at ISMB/ECCB 2013, as a separate email from the acceptance email. IF YOU HAVE AN ACCEPTED PRESENTATION AND HAVE NOT RECEIVED AN INVITATION BY APRIL 24 – PLEASE CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER AND THEN CONTACT US IF AN INVITATION IS NOT THERE:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Each invitation will include a unique travel fellowship application URL to link to an application. The application URL must be submitted by the presenting author only, and only if he or she meets the eligibility requirements noted below. If the submitting author is not the presenting author, it is the responsibility of the submitting author to forward the invitation to the presenting author if he or she meets the eligibility requirements. Each application URL can only be used one time and no application will be accepted after the deadline of  Friday, April 26, 2013.

Eligibility Requirements

1. Applicant must be a current ISCB member whose membership does not expire prior to the last day of the conference (July 23, 2013). Applications will not be accepted from non-members; pending memberships do not qualify and must be paid in full prior to submission of an application.

2. Applicant must be listed as an author or co-author on the original submission of an accepted ISMB/ECCB 2013 Highlight paper, Late Breaking Research abstract, Paper, and Poster (excluding accepted Late Posters), and, per the requirements of the funding agencies, the funded applicant must be the presenting author of the work. (Submitters to the "Call for Late Posters" are not eligible for fellowship funding.)

3. Applicant must be registered in a degree program (undergraduate or graduate) or as a postdoctoral research fellow at an accredited educational institution at the time of the conference; post docs and employees of any US federal agency are ineligible for funding using US federal funds - currently we have only US federal funds for this travel fellowship program.

4. Applicant must be prepared to register for ISMB/ECCB 2013 by the early registration deadline of June 7, 2013, and plan to attend all three (3) conference days (July 21, 22 and 23). If attendance at the conference is dependent on receipt of travel fellowship funds, please do not register until after the notification of travel fellowship funding. Any funded applicant failing to register for the conference by the early registration deadline of June 7, 2013 will automatically forfeit the funds so that another applicant can be awarded from among the original pool of applicants.

5. Applicant must be able to pay all expenses of attending the conference up front, including conference registration fee (as noted in #4 above), travel, accommodations and meals. Travel Fellowship funding will be provided as a reimbursement as a check payable in USD and mailed to the participant approximately 6-8 weeks after the conference.

FASEB MARC Funding (USA Citizen/Permanent Resident of the USA required)

The FASEB MARC Program provides funding for travel awards to support the participation of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows selected to give poster or platform (oral) presentations at the ISMB/ECCB 2013.  The travel awards help to defray meeting registration and travel-related expenses (lodging, transportation, per diem) for eligible graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups in the biomedical and behavioral sciences.  Full-time graduate students and postdoctoral fellows meeting the citizenship/residency requirements at accredited postsecondary minority institutions are also eligible to apply for the travel awards.

The FASEB MARC Travel Award Application Receipt Deadline is May 10, 2013, 5:00 PM EDT.  For more information and to obtain an application form, please visit:  http://bit.ly/FASEB-MARCTravelAwards and then select the 2013 ISCB Meetings: Poster/Platform (Oral) application form located at the bottom of the page.  NOTE: Faculty/Student travel awards are not available for international meetings. (NIGMS/NIH restrictions)

Further, funding to ISMB/ECCB 2013 will either be awarded through ISMB/ECCB 2013 or through the FASEB MARC Program, not both. However, because funding availability is very limited, an application to the FASEB MARC Program is encouraged for all who meet the FASEB MARC eligibility criteria.

Eligible expenses

Eligible expenses toward travel fellowship funds include conference registration, transportation (air or land transportation from home region to conference city), a maximum of €540 of hotel room and occupancy tax charges, and a maximum of €100 in meal expenses. In order to receive the full awarded amount, receipts for registration, transportation and hotel accommodations are required that equal or exceed the awarded amount. Conference registration fee is reimbursable at the early registration pricing only; registration fees to attend pre-conference events such as SIGs and Tutorials are not reimbursable expenses, but the registration fee for the Student Council Symposium is an accepted expense (only when also registering for the full conference).

The maximum fellowship award is determined based on geographical location of applicant and upon submission of appropriate receipts. Please note that funded applicants will only be able to cover approximately 50% of the expense of travel and registration fees with these fellowship amounts. Thus all applicants must seek and secure additional funding sources (e.g., from your home institution/university, or grant funding). For ISMB/ECCB 2013 maximum awards will be as follows:

Notification

Applicants will be notified by May 31, 2013 of the funding status. In some cases applicants may be notified they are on a wait list for funding, which means that ISCB is fully expecting but still awaiting the formal confirmation of our grant award from one or more granting agency, and that awarding of those funds will not be possible until the grant needed to fund the travel fellowship is confirmed.

Any wait listed applicant that is eventually awarded funds will be offered the opportunity to register at the early registration rate, therefore, please do not register for the conference if your attendance is fully dependent on being awarded a travel fellowship as any cancellation of an applicant's registration will be subject to the full regular registration cancellation policy.

Funded applicants will be required to present evidence of their eligibility status (such as student identification card) at the conference registration desk to receive their funds, and must sign in with the Travel Fellowships Desk to record their attendance. In all cases, funds will be mailed to funded applicants after the conference per the details noted in Eligibility Requirements #5 above.

IMPORTANT SUMMARY: 

•  The submitting author will be sent the invitation and is responsible for getting the invitation to the presenting author if the work is not being presented by the submitting author;
• Applicant must be a current member of ISCB prior to submitting an application;
• Applicant must be listed as an author and be the presenter of an accepted Paper, Poster, Highlights or Late Breaking Research presentation in order to be eligible to apply for travel fellowship funds through ISMB/ECCB 2013 (MARC applications can be made after notification of accepted Late Poster and/or Art and Science presentation);
• All applicants must attend all 3 conference days and secure additional funding from other sources in order to be able to cover the full costs of attending the conference;
• Applicant's that plan to apply for MARC funds must do so per the URL in the MARC Funding section above (not applicable as the additional funding source mentioned in summary item #4 above) - the MARC application deadline is June 1st and cannot be extended;
• The deadline to submit a fellowship application is Friday, April 26, 2013, by 11:59 PM in the time zone of your choice. No exceptions will be made.

Questions regarding fellowships should be addressed to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The information on this page is subject to change without notice, and all changed information will be considered final for the purposes of awarding and funding ISMB/ECCB 2013 Travel Fellowships.

Call for Workshop Track Proposals - ISMB/ECCB 2013

** Workshop Submission Form **  Closed February 8, 2013
 

Conference Workshop Track Chair: Christine Orengo, University College London, UK

Workshops are two hour sessions held during ISMB/ECCB 2013 and covers a broad interest of topics not primarily research oriented. The purpose of the workshop track is to bring together people with common interests to discuss defined topics. Workshops are viewed as sessions with more structure than the "Birds of a Feather" (BoF) and a format that can include mulitple talks and ample discussion time. Previous workshops have included Funding Opportunities, Education in Bioinformatics, and Bioinformatics Core Facilities.

Technical instructions:

Workshops run the same schedule as all other parallel tracks. They must be designed as half-day sessions (aporximately 2 hours) and synchronized with other tracks. The regular presentation unit is 30 minutes consisting of 20 minute talks + 5 minute discussion + 5 minutes for movement between parallel tracks. Workshops may include any form of presentation such as talks or panel discussions.

Preference will be given to topics of wide interest to attendees, with a planned program agenda that is not primarily made up of research paper presentations. Potential fields of interest include Funding Opportunities, Education in Bioinformatics (sponsored by the Education committee), and Bioinformatics Core Facilities. Additional topics of particular interest to the ISMB/ECCB community or those sponsored by ISCB committees are welcome.

Proposals for Workshops should be submitted via the online submission system here by end of day Friday, February 8, 2013. (You have until 11.59 p.m. in the time zone of your choice. This means that the submission server will be closed at noon, 11:59 am GMT (UTC+0), February 9, 2013).

Submissions must include up to a one-page description of the topic, its relevance to the ISMB/ECCB community, and the reasons for planning a workshop on this topic at ISMB/ECCB 2013.  These explanations could be followed by a list of topics for possible presentations with one-paragraph descriptions. Finally, a draft time schedule for the workshop should be presented. A finalized list of speaker names is not necessary but may add validity to the proposal. If you list invited speakers as "accepted", please make sure that they agree to speak understanding the financial constraints described below. Submitters should briefly describe their qualification/experience in organizing a workshop.

Workshop chairs and speakers must pay their expenses including registration to participate at the meeting. Therefore, the organizers highly encourage workshop organizers to seek independent funding, and to include any commitment that they may have secured in the proposal. ISMB/ECCB will help in the administrative aspects of assigning the rooms, announcements and adding the detailed schedule to the conference program. Note that the ISMB/ECCB cannot financially support the speakers or the workshop organizers.

All submissions will be evaluated by a committee,which will consider the following criteria:

• Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to ISMB/ECCB attendees.
• Complementarity to the ISMB/ECCB program provided by the other tracks.
• Completeness, clarity, and quality of the workshop proposal.
• Qualification of the submitter(s) to organize the workshop.
• Likely success of the proposed workshop.
• Overlap with other proposal or pre-selected activity.

Submitters of successful workshop proposals will be notified of their provisional acceptance March 8, 2013.

The detailed schedule, names and affiliations of speakers, presentation titles and short abstract must be provided before April 26, 2013.