Highlights

CALL FOR HIGHLIGHTS – ECCB 2018

Highlight Track chair: Yves Moreau – KU Leuven

We invite the submission of full papers that have recently been published, or accepted for publication for a highlight presentation.

HIGHLIGHT TRACK: THEMES

The organization of the conference presentations will be according to five main themes:

DATA	Organization, management, categorization, integration, analysis of data, knowledge discovery
GENOME	Sequence analysis, alignment, evolution, phylogeny, genetics, epigenetics, 3D conformation
GENES	Expression, function, regulation, transcription, translation, geno-phenotype
PROTEINS	Structure, function, alterations, assemblies, interactions, design, proteomics
SYSTEMS	Systems biology, pathways, molecular networks, dynamics, signaling, multi-scale modeling

Authors should indicate a ranking of the preference they have for each of the five themes. The Programme Committee determines to which theme a submission will be assigned taking the author preference into consideration. The theme assigned will be used to streamline the review process and to group the conference presentations in appropriate thematic sessions.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD HIGHLIGHT PRESENTATION SUBMISSION?

All papers published in peer-reviewed journals between March 1, 2017 and the submission deadline, 29 March 2018 are eligible to be presented as highlight talks. Papers in press are acceptable only if already available through the journal web site.

Submission should include a 250-word ‘scientific justification’ that explains how the work of the submitted paper(s) is impacting the field and why it would make a valuable addition to ECCB2018. Note that this is different from the abstract of the paper, which should also be supplied upon submission. Presenters are encouraged (but not required) to also present more recent work and indicate this fact in the scientific justification. Acceptance or rejection for a highlight talk will only be based on the scientific justification, the publication(s) and general suitability for presentation.

Highlights will be categorized by thematic area, in a similar fashion to proceedings submissions. Upon submission, a preference ranking of themes needs to be specified by the authors. The Programme Committee determines to which theme a submission will be assigned, taking the author ranking into consideration.

Selected highlight submissions will be presented in two tracks that run in parallel at the conference. All presentations should be no longer than 15 minutes and will be followed by a maximum of 3-minute discussions. Presenters should focus on the chosen paper(s), and are encouraged to include more recent results. In fact, closed stories that conclude with a particular publication not bearing follow-up perspectives might not constitute the best highlight presentations.

Taken together, the ultimate goal of the Highlight Track is to attract exciting and thought-provoking seminars that will both contribute to the success of the conference and to the impact the meeting has on advancing computational biology and bioinformatics.

HIGHLIGHT TRACK: REVIEW CRITERIA

All submissions will be peer reviewed by members of the Programme Committee and evaluated by a group of theme co-chairs. Submissions will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to conference attendees,
2. Impact of the paper(s) on biology/medicine. Note that while the impact of papers on science is not fully reflected by ISI/Google-like impact factors or high number of downloads, high values for such metrics will count favorably,
3. “Presentability” of the work to a large, diverse audience,
4. Seniority of the presenting author,
5. Submissions that permit the presentation of related interesting unpublished new results will be reviewed favorably,
6. We aim to balance across the themes and may factor this into the acceptance decisions.

None of the criteria above are “hard”. The ultimate decision of acceptance for a highlight talk lies with the Programme Committee. Moreover, it should be stressed that reviews of highlights submissions will not include a review of the paper itself.

HIGHLIGHT TRACK: SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submissions must be made to the EasyChair Highlight Track submission site (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=eccb18). Submissions should include the following:

1. Name/affiliation/email of presenting author (note that the presenter cannot be changed because the identity and ability to present of that person will be an essential selection criterion).
2. Names/affiliations/email of all co-authors (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).
3. Title.
4. At least three keywords (also known as key phrases or key terms) to characterize your submission.
5. Choose one of the following themes:
   • Data: Organization, management, categorization, integration, analysis of data, knowledge discovery.
   • Genome: Sequence analysis, alignment, evolution, phylogeny, genetics, epigenetics, 3D conformation.
   • Genes: Expression, function, regulation, transcription, translation, geno-phenotype.
   • Proteins: Structure, function, alterations, assemblies, interactions, design, proteomics.
   • Systems: Systems biology, pathways, molecular networks, dynamics, signaling, multi-scale modeling.
6. 150-word description of the presentation for promotion on conference website. ^A)
7. 250-word scientific justification that explains the impact and importance of this work and its relevance for the conference. ^A)
8. Source of original publication (Year, Journal, Vol., pages).
9. PDF of the published/accepted paper. ^B)

^A) Please note there is no word count available on the EasyChair form, you can use a tool like e.g. https://wordcounter.net. Submissions that succeed the maximum number of words will not be admitted to the review procedure.
^B) Please note that only PDF submissions are acceptable. It is the responsibility of the submitter to verify that the PDF is completely viewable/printable by all major operating systems (LINUX, MacOS, Windows).

For each presenting author only one submission to the Highlight Track will be considered. The same limitation applies for the senior author.

Accepted presenters for the Highlight Track are required to deliver the presentation themselves, and must register and pay to attend the conference.

HIGHLIGHT TRACK: CONTACT DETAILS

All questions pertaining to the Highlight Track can be directed to: highlights@eccb18.org