Call for Participation at the BioVis@ISMB 2017


BioVis@ISMB 2017 has now concluded

Check back next year for more opportunities to participate in BioVis@ISMB. We also have a workshop being held in conjunction with IEEE VIS, BioVis@VIS, that will take place in October 2017.

Community of Special Interest (COSI) event at ISMB2017

July 24th, 2017
Prague, Czech Republic

  1. Aims and Scope
  2. Symposium Format
  3. Topics
  4. Submission Types and Criteria
  5. Submission Policies and Ethics Guidelines
  6. Review Process
  7. Important Dates
  8. Awards

Aims and Scope


The rapidly expanding field of biology creates enormous challenges for data visualization techniques that enable researchers to gain insight from their large and highly complex data sets.

The BioVis Interest Group organizes the interdisciplinary event BioVis, covering all aspects of visualization in biology. This symposium brings together researchers from the visualization, bioinformatics, and biology communities with the purpose of educating, inspiring, and engaging visualization researchers in problems in biological data visualization as well as bioinformatics and biology researchers in state-of-the-art visualization research.

We invite submissions of original research articles as well as poster submissions.


Symposium Format


The symposium will be a one-day single-track event at ISMB. The event will feature keynote and invited talks, paper sessions, highlight talks, and posters/demos. Primers acting as tutorial introductions to visualization topics will be provided.


Topics


We invite contributions on all aspects of data visualization in biology, from molecular to cell, tissue, organism and population biology. Suggested topics for paper and poster submissions include, but are not limited to:


Submissions Types and Criteria


BioVis@ISMB 2017 has now concluded!

There are several possibilities to contribute to the program of BioVis:

1. ISMB Proceedings - Submission Deadline: January 26th, 2017

Novel, unpublished work can be submitted as a paper to the ISMB Proceedings. If accepted, manuscripts will be published in the OUP Journal Bioinformatics. Authors of accepted papers will be required to present their work at the symposium in a talk. Authors of rejected papers will be invited to submit to the BioVis Proceedings track or to submit a poster. When re-submitting to the BioVis Proceedings track, we will use a fast-track review and consider the reviews from the prior submission and review the changes the authors made.

ISMB Proceedings Submission Guidelines

Authors are required to submit a full paper by January 26, 2017 at the BioVis submission page.

Papers must adhere to the ISMB Submission Guidelines.

2. BioVis Proceedings - Updated Submission Deadline: April 20th, 2017

Novel, unpublished work can be submitted as a paper to the BioVis Proceedings. Submissions should not exceed 12 pages, and - if accepted - will be published in BMC Bioinformatics. If accepted, an open-access publishing fee, according to BMC’s fee structure will apply. Authors of accepted papers will be required to present their work at the symposium in a talk. Authors of rejected papers will be invited to submit a poster.

BioVis Proceedings Submission Guidelines

Authors are required to submit a full paper by April 13, 2017 at the BioVis submission page. Paper submissions can include full-color figures throughout. We encourage the use of digital video to enhance paper submissions, particularly if part or all of the work addresses interactive techniques. Submission of working code and other supplemental material in order to increase the reproducibility of the work is also encouraged.

Please format your submission according to the instructions for BMC Bioinformatics manuscripts, however please keep in mind that your submission to BioVis needs to be submitted to the BioVis submission system and not BMC.

Please use this LaTeX template or this Word template.

Please follow the BioVis instructions whenever they disagree with the BMC instructions (e.g., inline images). For those more familiar with the IEEE VIS templates, at BMC Related work typically belongs to the Background section; or in the discussion section under Results. Algorithms, System Design descriptions etc. typically belong to Methods.

Submission should be 8-12 pages long in the two-column format provided above.

3. Highlight Talks - Submission Deadline: May 15, 2017

Participants are encouraged to submit abstracts describing their recently published work related to biological data visualization. Highlight submissions will be reviewed by the chairs and by external reviewers. If accepted, participants are required to present their work in a talk at the symposium.

Highlight Talks Submission Guidelines

Authors are required to submit a short abstract (250 words) by May 15, 2017 at the BioVis submission page. Summaries should include a concise description of the work and may include descriptive figures. The previously published paper must be submitted along with the summary.

4. Posters - Late Submission Deadline: June 5, 2017

We invite participants to submit work in progress and preliminary results, previously published work from other venues, or visualization challenges to be presented as a poster. A selection of these will be invited to give a short talk during the conference. There will also be a best poster award.

Poster Submission Guidelines

Authors are required to submit a short abstract (250 words) and a supporting figure by the extended deadline of June 5, 2017 at the ISMB Poster submission site. There is a $100 submission fee for submitters who are not members of ISCB. The first 30 poster submissions before May 15 will be reimbursed by BioVis.

Abstracts should include a concise description of an idea, work in progress, preliminary results, visualization challenges, or results from previously published work at other venues relevant for the BioVis community. If the submission is based on previous work, the published paper must be submitted along with the summary.

Poster preparation instructions will be e-mailed to authors of accepted submissions.


Submission Policies and Ethics Guidelines


At least one author of an accepted submission must attend the event to present the work. To avoid potential conflicts of interest when assigning reviewers, the complete list of authors must to be provided when submitting your manuscript, poster abstract, or highlight. Papers submissions (either ISMB or BioVis proceedings) can be submitted double-blind, i.e., you can anonymize your submission if desired. The list of authors will not be communicated to the reviewers. Adding additional authors after the submission deadline will not be permitted.

Poster and highlights submissions are single-blind.

All submissions will be treated as confidential communications during the review process, so a submission does not constitute public disclosure of any ideas therein. Submissions should contain no information or materials that will be proprietary or confidential at the time of publication (at the conference), and should cite no publications that are proprietary or confidential at the time of publication.

Any use of copyrighted material and devices of proprietary nature will be the responsibility of the presenters.

Our workshop will adhere to the VGTC ethics guidelines for reviewers that can be found at the VGTC Website.


Review Process


Paper submissions will be managed by the Papers Chairs and sent to external reviewers - from both the visualization and bioinformatics communities - to evaluate the works’ novelty and significance.

Poster and highlights submissions will be reviewed for relevance and interest to the BioVis community by the Poster chair, the Papers Chairs, and external reviewers.


Important Dates


All deadlines are at 23:59 (11:59pm) Pacific time zone.

Deadlines and Notifications for ISMB Proceedings

Submission Deadline : January 26, 2017
Conditional Acceptance Notification: February 28, 2017
Revision Deadline: March 22, 2017
Final Acceptance Notification: April 6, 2017

Deadlines and Notifications for BioVis Proceedings

Submission Deadline : April 20, 2017
Conditional Acceptance Notification: May 10, 2017
Revision Deadline: May 31, 2017
Final Acceptance Notification: June 12, 2017

Deadlines and Notifications for Abstracts / Talks

Submission Deadline: May 15, 2017
Acceptance Notification: May 31, 2017

Deadlines and Notifications for Posters

Submission Deadline: May 15, 2017
Acceptance Notification: May 31, 2017


Awards


A best paper award and honorable mentions for runners-up aims to recognize papers that result from a successful collaboration between researchers from both the visualization and biology communities. Reviewers will be queried on the review form with a question “Should we consider this paper for the best paper award? (yes/no/maybe)”.

A best poster award aims to recognize interesting contributions and excellent presentations of findings. Posters will be assessed for rewards by a judging committee during the poster presentation session.

Submissions that include members of the organizing committee as co-authors will be excluded from consideration.