Indexing : http://www.frontiersinai.com/?q=indexing

Ontology, originally a fundamental part of philosophical enquiry, is concerned with the analysis and categorization of what exists. In recent years, however, a complementary focus of ontological inquiry gained significant momentum fueled by the advent of complex information systems which rely on robust and coherent, formal representations of their subject matter. The systematic study of such representations, their axiomatics, their corresponding reasoning techniques and their relations to cognition and reality, are at the center of the modern discipline of formal ontology.

Formal ontology in this modern sense is now a research focus in such diverse domains as conceptual modeling, database design, software engineering, organizational modeling, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, the life sciences, bioinformatics, geographic information science, knowledge engineering, information retrieval, and the Semantic Web. Researchers in all these areas increasingly recognize the need for serious engagement with ontology, understood as a general theory of the types of entities and relations making up their respective domains of enquiry, in providing a solid foundation for their work.

The FOIS conference is designed to provide a meeting point for researchers from all disciplines with an interest in formal ontology. The conference encourages submission of high quality articles on both theoretical issues and concrete applications. As in previous years, FOIS 2014 is intended as a nexus of interdisciplinary research and communication.

FOIS is the flagship conference of the International Association for Ontology and its Applications (IAOA), which is a non-profit organization the purpose of which is to promote interdisciplinary research and international collaboration at the intersection of philosophical ontology, linguistics, logic, cognitive science, and computer science, as well as in the applications of ontological analysis to conceptual modeling, knowledge engineering, knowledge management, information-systems development, library and information science, scientific research, and semantic technologies in general.

Format

FOIS is a growing conference, and the 2014 edition will add a number of new facets, including
a formal ontology competition,
an open call for workshops, and
a young researchers symposium.
It will moreover be directly preceded by the Second Interdisciplinary Summer School on Ontological Analysis, to be held in Vitoria, Brazil, between September 15-19.

Scope - Topics of Interest

We seek high-quality papers on a wide range of topics. Concerning scope, an ideal FOIS paper will address both content-related ontological issues and their formal modeling, as well as their impact and relevance for some aspects of information systems.

Areas of particular interest to the conference include the following:
Foundational Issues
Kinds of entities: particulars/universals, continuants/occurrents, abstracta/concreta, dependent entities/independent entities, natural objects/artifacts
Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection, dependence, constitution, causality, subsumption, instantiation
Vagueness and granularity
Space, time, and change
Methodological issues
Role of reference ontologies
Top-level vs. domain-specific ontologies
Relationship with cognition, language and semantics
Formal comparison among ontologies
Ontology integration and alignment
Domain-specific ontologies
Ontology of physical reality (matter, space, time, motion, etc.)
Ontology of biological reality (genes, proteins, cells, organisms, etc.)
Ontology of mental reality and agency (beliefs, intentions, emotions, percepts, etc.)
Ontology of artifacts, functions and roles
Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations, norms, social relationships, artistic expressions, languages, etc.)
Applications
Ontology-driven information systems design
Ontological foundations for conceptual modeling
Knowledge management
Qualitative modeling
Computational linguistics
Information retrieval
Semantic Web, Web services
Business modeling
Ontologies for particular scientific disciplines (biology, chemistry, geography, physics, cognitive sciences, linguistics etc.)
Ontologies for engineering: shape, form and function, artifacts, manufacturing, design, architecture, etc.
Ontologies for the humanities: arts, cultural studies, history, law, literature, philosophy, etc.
Important Dates

Paper Submission Deadline: March 14, 2014
Notification: May 5, 2014
Camera-ready papers: June 30, 2014
Conference Dates: September, 22-25, 2014

Submission Guidelines

Submitted papers must not exceed 14 pages (including the bibliography) and include an abstract of no more than 300 words. Papers should be submitted non-anonymously and be prepared in PDF format in accordance with the IOS formatting guidelines found at:
http://www.iospress.nl/service/authors/latex-and-word-tools-for-book-authors/

The Easychair submission page can be found at:
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fois2014

As with previous FOIS conferences, the proceedings will be published as a volume in the IOS Press series 'Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications'.