First International Conference on e-Social Science
Manchester, June 22-24 2005
Some Background Info.
--------------------
The vision of the "Grid" first emerged as a solution to the highly
specialised computing infrastructure requirements of particle physics.
The past five years, however, have seen the Grid's potential
recognised by the wider scientific research community and the
emergence of new forms of research practice now encapsulated in
the notion of "e-Science".
Now, members of the social science research community in the UK and
elsewhere are beginning to explore how they can use the Grid and
to explore the prospects for "e-Social Science".
This year, for example, has seen the creation in the UK of the
National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS).
The opportunities presented by the Grid for social science research
are numerous and intriguing. The Grid will make it possible for
new computational tools to be brought to bear on a diverse range
of social science research problems; it will make established
social science datasets more readily accessible and easier to integrate;
it will make feasible the collection and management new kinds of data
on an unprecedented scale. Beyond enhancing existing research methods,
however, e-Social Science also brings with it the prospect of
articulating a radically new research agenda and encouraging
the formation of new forms of research community.
Realising the full potential for e-Social Science will be a
major challenge and calls for a major collaborative effort
from social scientists, computer scientists, Grid developers
and data service providers.
The Call
--------
As a contribution to meeting this challenge, NCeSS is very pleased
to announce the first international conference on e-Social Science.
We invite contributions from members of the social science and Grid
research communities with experience of - or interests in - exploring,
developing and applying e-Social Science research methods, practices,
tools and technologies.
Submission categories include:
full and short papers, posters,
workshops and tutorials.
Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following:
* Case studies of e-Social Science in practice
* Enhancing existing research methods or facilitating
novel research methods
* Studies of (e-)Science and (e-)Social Science research practices
* The benefits and challenges of large scale collaborative research
* e-Social Science and the relationship between theoretically
and empirically driven research
* New sources and forms of social data
* Standards for metadata, ontologies, annotation, curation, etc.
* Ethical issues and challenges in the collection, integration,
sharing and analysis of social data
* Socio-technical issues in the development of e-Social Science
* Middleware for data collection, sharing and integration
* Tools for data mining, visualisation, modelling and
collaborative research
* Usability issues in tools and middleware
Submission Requirements for Papers
----------------------------------
Please indicate the category of your submission:
Full paper, short paper or poster
and include the contact details of the main author on a separate sheet.
Authors are requested to submit an abstract of approximately 1000-1500
words.
Submissions will be subject to independent review and a final decision
will be made by the conference programme committee.
Authors of submissions not accepted as full papers may be invited to
submit a short paper or poster instead.
Accepted full and short papers will be published in the conference
proceedings.
Formats for the camera-ready copies of full and short papers,
and posters will be available for download from the conference
web site in February 2005.
Submission Requirements for Workshop and Tutorials
--------------------------------------------------
Workshop and tutorial organisers are requested to submit
a one page outline of the topic, format,
likely audience, special requirements.
Deadlines and Submission Instructions
-------------------------------------
Paper and poster abstracts, workshop and tutorial
outlines: 1 February 2005.
Submission instructions will appear on the conference
web site in December.
Authors will be informed of the programme committee's
decision on 14 March 2005.
NCeSS web-site: http://www.ncess.ac.uk/index.htm
N.B. details of the Small Grants Scheme, funded by the
ESRC e-Social Science inititive,
can also be found at the above web-site.
|