**************** With apologies for multiple postings ****************

          21st British National Conference on Databases:

                   BIOINFORMATICS WORKSHOP

                        5th July 2004
          (http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/BNCOD21/BioInf)

                       CALL FOR PAPERS

Workshop Background and Goals
===============================

For the past twenty years BNCOD has attracted an International
audience to discuss the leading research topics of the day in the
field of Data, Knowledge and Information systems.

Bioinformatics has been a driving force behind a wide range of this
work and continues to present new challenges to the Database research
community. In particular, researchers in the Life Sciences generate,
collect and need to analyse an increasing number of different types
of scientific data, including DNA, RNA and protein sequences, in-situ
and microarray gene expression, 3D protein structures and biological
pathways. Database researchers must find efficient ways to store and
process these potentially very large data sets as well as their
provenance. Integration issues exist at the data as well as the
workflow level.

The purpose of this workshop is to provide a forum in which
current work in this area can be presented and discussed.


Types of Submissions
====================

Authors can submit two types of papers: full papers and short papers.

 * Full Papers - c. 6,000 words, 12 pages in 10 point,
   in PDF format. Papers should describe completed research activities,
   related to the list of Subject Indications provided below, and will be
   reviewed by the Program Committee on the basis of technical quality,
   relevance to the conference, originality, significance, and clarity.

 * Short Papers - c. 3,000 words, 6 pages in 10 point,
   in PDF format. Papers can describe research in progress, points of
   technical merit, novel research applications, or interim findings,
   related to the list of Subject Indications provided below, and will be
   reviewed by the Program Committee on the basis of technical quality,
   relevance to the workshop, originality, significance, and clarity.

Full and short papers will be published in the Workshop Proceedings. The
best two papers of the workshop will also be published by Springer-Verlag
in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series (Volume 1 of the BNCOD
Proceedings).


Subject Indications
===================

Papers are invited in all areas dealing with the collection,
storage, integration and analysis of Bioinformatics data and their
provenance.

Areas of special interest are:

- Bioinformatics data management in the context of
  next generation distributed systems, e.g. Semantic
  Web/Grid. This includes, for example, work in the
  areas of data provenance, workflow systems, ontologies
  and data integration.

- Management of complex bioinformatics data types,
  particularly temporal and spatial data.

However, quality papers in other areas dealing with the management
of Bioinformatics data, information and knowledge, are also welcome.


Important Dates
===============

 * Paper submission date - 9th February 2004
 * Notification to Authors - 8th March 2004
 * Camera ready copy and author registration deadline - 5th April 2004
 * Workshop - 5th July 2004


Conference Location
===================

  Department of Computer Science,
  School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences,
  Heriot-Watt University,
  Riccarton Campus,
  Edinburgh EH14 4AS,
  Scotland, U.K.

Contact
=======

For any inquiries, please contact the workshop chair:

Albert Burger, Heriot-Watt University / MRC Human Genetics Unit
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