Call for Workshop Proposals

ISWC is the premier venue for presenting innovative systems and research results related to the Semantic Web and Linked Data, attracting a large number of high quality submissions every year and participants from both industry and academia. ISWC brings together researchers from different areas, such as artificial intelligence, databases, natural language processing, information systems, human computer interaction, information retrieval, web science, etc., who investigate, develop and use novel methods and technologies for accessing, interpreting and using information on the Web in a more effective way.  

Besides the main technical programme, ISWC will host a number of workshops on topics related to the general theme of the conference. The role of the workshops is to provide a setting for focused and intensive scientific exchange among researchers interested in a specific topic. As such, workshops are the primary venues for the exploration of emerging ideas as well as for the discussion of novel aspects of established research topics.

We invite you to submit a proposal for workshops on a research topic of interest to ISWC attendees.

Review Criteria

The decision on acceptance or rejection of a workshop proposals will be made on the basis of the overall quality of the proposal and its appeal to a reasonable fraction of the Semantic Web community. Other factors, such as overlap with other workshop proposals, or issues regarding logistics, will also be taken into account when making the final decision.

In particular, workshops should address research topics which satisfy each of the following criteria:

  • the topic falls in the general scope of ISWC 2017
  • there is a clear focus on a specific technology, problem or application
  • there is potential to attract a sufficiently broad community interested in the topic

We look for two types of workshop proposals:

  1. Established workshops on a specific aspect of Semantic Web research that have demonstrated the ability to attract a high number of submissions and participants as well as a noticeable effect on the scientific progress in that particular field. Such proposals should justify why the workshop series merits continuation and how it continues to maintain a focused scope. Corresponding proposals will be evaluated on past success and arguments for continuation.
  2. Proposals for novel workshops on emerging topics that will become more important to the Semantic Web Community in the next years. Proposers will have to argue why the topic is of increasing importance for the community and why it will attract enough submissions and participants to support the development of the topic. Proposals of this type will mainly be evaluated on the potential for future impact.

Submission Guidelines

All submissions should be submitted in English via EasyChair as a single PDF file containing the following sections:

  • Title and Acronym
  • Workshop Type: established/emerging
  • Abstract: 200 word summary of the workshop purpose
  • Topics: What topics of interest will be covered by the workshop? (Bulleted list; no longer than half a page)
  • Motivation (emerging only): Why is the topic timely and of particular interest to ISWC participants? (One to three paragraphs)
  • Continuation (established only): Why is it worthwhile to continue the workshop in 2017? Discussion may include novel topics that are emerging, external developments that prompt new challenges, etc. Workshops should also argue why they continue to be relevant and maintain a focused identity versus the main conference. (No longer than half a page)
  • Past Workshops (established only): describe the development of the workshop series over the past 3-5 years. Provide quantitative information on submissions and attendance. (No longer than a page)
  • Workshop Format: The intended mix of events, such as paper presentations, invited talks, panels, demos and general discussion (Either a tabular schedule or a one paragraph summary)
  • Audience (emerging only): Who and how many people are likely to attend? (One paragraph)
  • Community (emerging only): Demonstrate that there is an existing community interested in the topic by providing references for up to six papers relating to the core topic of the workshop (conference, workshop, journal, etc., preferably not co-authored by the organisers and preferably published in the past few years). References may include papers from external communities whom the organisers hope to attract to ISWC. Otherwise, if six such papers cannot be provided, discuss why the workshop should still attract submissions. (No longer than half a page)
  • Chair(s): Name, affiliation, email address, homepage and short (one paragraph) biography of each chair, explaining the chair’s expertise for the workshop
  • Program Committee: Names and affiliations of potential PC members
  • Proposed Length: Half-day or full-day?

We strongly advise having more than one chair, preferably from different institutions, bringing different perspectives to the workshop topic, ideally with a mix of both junior and senior researchers. We also strongly advise to have a maximum of five workshop organisers, where justification should be provided in the case of six of more as to why so many organisers are required. We welcome workshops with an innovative structure and a diverse programme which attracts various types of contributions and ensures rich interactions. Proposed workshops should have a core theme that is much more selective than the broader scope of the main conference. We may reject or propose to merge workshops that overlap significantly with other workshops in terms of theme (giving preference to established workshops).

Accepted workshops will be required to prepare a workshop web page containing their call for papers and detailed information about the workshop organisation and timelines. While the ISWC workshop-track and local chairs will assist with the local organisation of the workshop, the workshop organisers will be responsible for conducting their own reviewing process, for publicity of their workshop, and for publishing electronic proceedings.

The chairs of each accepted workshop will receive one free registration (conference + one workshop/tutorial day) per workshop. Workshop attendees must pay the ISWC workshop registration fee as well as the conference registration fee. At least two workshop organisers must be registered before the early registration date ends and ultimately attend the conference and participate in the workshop (the free registration counts towards the two registrations required). At the discretion of the chairs, workshops may be cancelled if organisers have not registered in a timely manner or if a workshop has received too few submissions.

Submissions will be made via EasyChair.

Important Dates
Workshop proposals due: March 17th, 2017
Notification of accepted proposals: April 7th, 2017
Workshop web-site and CfP published: May 6th, 2017
Workshop papers due: July 21st, 2017
Notification of accepted workshop papers: August 24th, 2017
Publication of workshop proceedings: September 21st, 2017
Workshops held: October 21st & 22nd, 2017

All deadlines are midnight Hawaii time. Workshop organisers may choose to offer a maximum deadline extension of one week up until July 28th. Please note that these are strict deadlines necessary to comply with the overall conference organization. Later dates can cause severe problems by making it impossible for potential workshop participants to get their Visa on time.

Program Chairs