Call for Highlights Track Proposals

Highlights Track Now Closed

Highlights Track: About
Highlights Track: Deadlines
Highlights Track: Review Criteria
Highlights Track: Submission Guidelines

Highlights Track Submission Site

Highlights Track Chair: Burkhard Rost, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

The Highlights Track was introduced at ISMB/ECCB 2007 in Vienna, and immediately ranked as one of the top three events in the popularity, behind Keynotes and Special Sessions. At ISMB 2008 in Toronto, it again proved to be as popular.

We invite the submission of full papers that have been published, or accepted for publication, between January 1, 2008 and the submission deadline (March 6, 2009) Publications that are "in press" and already linked on the journal web site are also welcome. A group of experts will select the papers to be presented at the meeting considering the impact of the work on the field, the likelihood that the work will make a good presentation, and the relevance to biomedical research, in general. Accepted presenters for the Highlights Track are required to make the presentation themselves, and must register and pay to attend the conference.

Submissions should include a 250-word abstract-like argument that explains how the work of the submitted paper(s) is impacting the field. More details are given below.

 

All submissions will be evaluated by a group of editors. Upon submission, the authors will identify the editor/expert most suitable to suitable to review their work.

All papers published in peer-review journals (no book chapters) between January 2008 and March 6, 2009 are eligible to be presented as talks. Papers in press are acceptable only if already available through the journal web site. Note that presenters are be encouraged to also present more recent work, however, that work will not be considered in the decision. Up to 2 papers can be submitted as one single PDF if the authors intend to present the results of multiple qualifying papers.

PDF files of the papers and the 250-word support abstract can only be submitted through the automated system by March 6, 2009 (midnight by any time zone). No exceptions will be allowed.

The editors will notify authors of the acceptance by Friday, March 27, 2009.

The selected Highlights will be presented in tracks that run in parallel to the main ISMB/ECCB meeting, June 29 – July 2, 2009. All presentations will have to be completed within 20 minutes and will be followed by 5-minute discussions. While presenters are expected to focus mostly on the chosen paper(s), short infusions of more recent results are welcome.

All submissions will be evaluated by a group of editors to be named, and judged according to the following criteria:

1. Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to ISMB/ECCB attendees,
2. Impact of the paper(s) on biology/medicine (while the impact of papers on science is not fully reflected by ISI/Google-like impact factors or high number of downloads, high values in such factors will clearly stand as a strong argument for acceptance),
3. "Presentability" of the work to a large, diverse audience,
4. Quality of oral presentations by the submitter (if known),
5. Submissions that permit the presentation of related interesting unpublished new results will be viewed favorably.

These "soft" criteria attempt to capture the underlying goal of the Highlights Track, namely the presentation of exciting and thought-provoking seminars that will both contribute to the success of ISMB/ECCB and to the impact the meeting has on advancing computational biology and bioinformatics.

PDF files of the papers and the 250-word support abstract can only be submitted through the automated system by March 6, 2009 (midnight by any time zone). No exceptions will be allowed.

Submissions must be made to the automatic Highlights Track Submissions Site.
Submissions should include the following:

• Name/affiliation/email of submitter (assumed to be the presenter; note that the presenter cannot be changed because the identity and ability to present of that person will be an essential selection criterion).
• Names/affiliations/email of ALL coauthors (note: any name appearing on a published paper has to be added here). Note that all co-authors have to agree to the submission. It is the responsibility of the submitter to guarantee that all co-author email addresses are correct (email notifications of the submission will be sent to all co-authors).
• 150 – 200 word description of the presentation for promotion on conference website.
• Additional contact information (for presenter).
• 250-word limited abstract-like argument that explains the impact and importance of this work.
• Sources of original publication(s) (Year, Journal, Vol., pages).
• PDF with paper(s) (note: in case of the submission of 2 papers, both should be merged into one single PDF; all reviews will be based on the content of this PDF).
• Optional: link to Google Video demonstrating presentation skills of presenter.
• Only PDF submissions are acceptable. The submission system is currently unable to handle ASCII, Word, LaTeX, or anything other than standard PDF. It is the responsibility of the submitter to verify that the PDF is completely viewable/printable by all major operating systems (LINUX, MacOS, Windows).
• Each presenter can submit a maximum of one application to present a highlight. The maximal number of submissions per author/co-author is 5.
  
  
All questions pertaining to the ISMB/ECCB 2009 Highlights Track should be directed to: highlights09@ismbconf.org

Highlights Track Submission Site