Call for In-use Track Papers

The adoption of Semantic Web technologies has accelerated in recent years, where they are now deployed in a variety of real-world settings at a variety of scales. The In-Use Track at ISWC 2020 continues the tradition of demonstrating and learning from the increasing adoption of Semantic Web technologies by providing a forum for the community to explore the benefits and challenges of applying such technologies in concrete, practical use cases, beyond the research communities from which they originate, in contexts ranging from industry to government and science. The track also aims at “giving a stage’’ to solutions for real world problems using Semantic Web technologies, where these are may be hidden, showing that in many cases of SW adoption, these play a crucial but not necessarily visible role, for more efficient, interoperable and easier to maintain solutions.

The In-Use Track thus seeks submissions describing applied and validated solutions such as software tools, systems or architectures that benefit from the use of Semantic Web technologies (including, but not limited to, technologies based on the Semantic Web standards). Importantly, submitted papers should provide convincing evidence of the use of the proposed application or tool by the target user group, preferably outside the group that conducted the development and, more broadly, outside the Semantic Web research community. A main focus of the submissions should be on the benefits of Semantics Web technologies for the intended use case, as well as (if relevant) the added challenges they introduce.

Before submitting to the In-Use Track, authors are asked to consult the calls of the other tracks featured at ISWC 2020 and to choose the track that best suits their contribution. The submission of the same work to multiple tracks is prohibited and may result in automatic rejection of the work across all tracks without review.

Topics of Interest

We welcome submissions that demonstrate the use of Semantic Web technologies such as those mentioned in the Call for Papers of the Research Track, and additionally cover one or more of the following topics:

• Applications in domain-specific areas (e.g., libraries, cultural heritage, healthcare, life sciences, engineering, smart manufacturing, smart cities, open government)
• Description and analysis of concrete and novel problems or use cases in a specific domain in which  Semantic Web technologies were applied (this should be part of submissions presenting a concrete application)
• Descriptions of how Semantic Web resources (ontologies, datasets, software, standards, etc) are being used in practice.
• Assessment of the Semantic Web technologies from diverse points of view, such as:

• 1. Usability and acceptance by stakeholder groups
  2. Uptake outside the Semantic Web research community
  3. Scalability of Semantic Web solutions and their large scale deployment
  4. Technical strengths and weaknesses especially in comparison with alternative technologies (e.g., database management systems, model-driven engineering)
  5. Costs and benefits of implementing, deploying, using, and managing Semantic Web technologies
  6. Risks and opportunities of using Semantic Web technologies in organizations with respect to their businesses and customers

• Lessons learned and best practices from deploying and using an application or service based on Semantic Web technologies.
• Comparison of Semantic Web technologies with alternative approaches that use conventional or competing technologies.
• Application-oriented work that doesn’t qualify as a research paper, where the use of rather than the development of SW technologies has a demonstrated impact on more flexible, more efficient or otherwise improved solutions.

Reviews and Review Criteria

Reviews for the In-Use track will be single-blind. Submissions will be assessed in terms of novelty (of the proposed use case or solution), uptake by the target user group, demonstrated or potential impact, as well as overall soundness and quality. Therefore, authors should clearly address these aspects in their submission.

Novelty:

• Novelty and significance of the addressed problem or use case when applying Semantic Web technologies
• Novelty in the application or assessment of Semantic Web technologies, which can be reflected in terms of, for example: (1) the role they play in the solution; (2) how they foster adoption; or (3) their combination/interplay with other technologies.

Uptake:

• Evidence of the adoption of the proposed solution by a relevant user base (domain practitioners, general public, developers, etc.), preferably distinct from the proposers’ institutions and from the Semantic Web research community
• Proof or plan for large-scale deployment or adoption in the specific domain

Impact:

• Technological, business and/or social impact of the proposed solution, especially in contrast to alternative approaches
• Validity and applicability of the proposed approach in a different domain
• Applicability of the lessons learnt from the adoption of Semantic Web technologies both from a technical and non-technical perspective

Soundness and Quality:

• Methodological correctness of the performed evaluation in terms of quantitative and/or qualitative metrics to assess the pros and cons of the proposed solution
• Quality of the discussion of the benefits and challenges of adopting Semantic Web technologies for solving the addressed problem and/or with respect to alternative approaches
• Overall clarity and quality of the submission

Authors will have the opportunity to submit a rebuttal to the reviews to clarify questions posed by program committee members.

Submission

• Pre-submission of abstracts is a strict requirement. All papers and abstracts have to be submitted electronically via EasyChair.
• All research submissions must be in English, and no longer than 16 pages (including references). Papers that exceed this limit will be rejected without review.
• Submissions must be either in PDF or in HTML, 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. For HTML submission guidance, please see the HTML submission guide on the ISWC 2020 website.
• ISWC 2020 submissions are not anonymous.
• We encourage embedding metadata in the PDF/HTML to provide a machine readable link from the paper to the resource.
• 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.
• Students will be able to apply for travel support to attend the conference. Further details will appear on the ISWC 2020 web site.
• Prior publication and multiple submissions: ISWC 2020 will not accept papers that at the time of submission are under review for or have already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. The conference organisers may share information on submissions with other venues to ensure that this rule is not violated.

Exemplary In-Use Papers From Previous Editions of ISWC

• Luis-Daniel Ibáñez, Ian Millard, Hugh Glaser and Elena Simperl: “An Assessment of Adoption and Quality of Linked Data in European Open Government Data”, ISWC 2019. 
• Thiviyan Thanapalasingam, Francesco Osborne, Aliaksandr Birukou and Enrico Motta: “Ontology-based Recommendation of Editorial Products”, ISWC 2018.
• Gulnar Mehdi, Evgeny Kharlamov, Ognjen Savkovic, Guohui Xiao, Elem Guzel Kalayci, Sebastian Brandt, Ian Horrocks, Mikhail Roshchin and Thomas Runkler: “Semantic Rule-Based Equipment Diagnostic”, ISWC 2017
• Robert Piro, Ian Horrocks, Peter Hendler, Yavor Nenov, Boris Motik, Michael Rossman and Scott Kimberly: “Semantic Technologies for Data Analysis in Health Care”, ISWC 2016
• Pedro Szekely, Craig Knoblock, Jason Slepicka, Chengye Yin, Andrew Philpot, Amandeep Singh, Dipsy Kapoor, Prem Natarajan, Daniel Marcu, Kevin Knight, David Stallard, Steve Minton, Brian Amanatullah, Todd Hughes, Mike Tamayo, David Flynt, Rachel Artiss, Shih-Fu Chang, Tao Chen and Subessware S. Karunamoorthy: “Building and Using a Knowledge Graph to Combat Human Trafficking”, ISWC 2015
• Freddy Lecue, Robert Tucker, Simone Tallevi-Diotallevi, Rahul Nair, Yiannis Gkoufas, Giuseppe Liguori, Mauro Borioni, Alexandre Rademaker and Luciano Barbosa: “Semantic Traffic Diagnosis with STAR-CITY: Architecture and Lessons Learned from Deployment in Dublin, Bologna, Miami and Rio”, ISWC 2014

Important Dates

All deadlines are 23:59 AoE.

Program Chairs

Contact: iswc2020-in-use@easychair.org

• Bo Fu
  California State University Long Beach, USA
• Axel Polleres
  Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria