Call for Proposals

Submitted by or2013 on Mon, 2012-12-03 11:13

This year’s conference theme is Use, Reuse, Reproduce. One of the most important roles of repositories is to enable greater use and reuse of their contents— whether those contents are library collections, scholarly articles, research data, or software—and metadata. The notion of use and reuse can be extended to repository infrastructure as well.

Many repositories are based on open source software that can be freely reused and adapted to serve local needs; other efforts are also emerging both in conjunction with and outside traditional repository platforms to encourage discipline or community specific reuse and sharing of software, services, and infrastructure. In addition there is a growing interest and need to document and share the code and workflows used to produce research results - particularly in computationally intensive fields - in order to promote reproducible research.

Some specific areas of interest for OR2013 are:

  • Effective re-use of content--particularly research data--enabled by embedded repository tools and services
  • Effective re-use of software, services, and infrastructure to support repository development
  • Facilitation of reproducible research through access to data, workflows, and code
  • Services making use of repository metadata
  • Focused, disciplinary or community-based software, services, and infrastructure for use and reuse of content
  • Integration of data, including linked data, and external services with repositories to provide solutions to specific domains
  • Added-value services for repositories
  • Long-term preservation of repositories and their contents
  • Role and impact of repositories in the research ecosystem

The aim of the Open Repositories Conference is to bring those responsible for the development, implementation and management of digital repositories together with stakeholders, such as researchers, librarians, publishers and others, to address theoretical, practical, and strategic issues across the entire lifecycle of information, from the creation and management of digital content, to enabling use, re-use, and interconnection of information, and ensuring long-term preservation and archiving. The current economic climate dictates that repositories operate across administrative and disciplinary boundaries and to interact with distributed computational services and social communities.

Submissions can take the form of proposals for presentations, panels, posters, demonstrations, and workshops. We will consider any submission that seems to us sufficiently original and repository-related to merit attention at this event, but we’ll give preference to submissions that address our primary theme. In some cases, papers submitted to the general conference may be referred to user groups if appropriate.

Key dates and contacts

  • 22 February 2013: Deadline for submissions
  • 12 April 2013: Submitters notified of acceptance to general conference
  • 19 April 2013: Submitters notified of acceptance to user groups
  • 8-12 July 2013: OR2013 conference:
    • 8 July 2013: Pre-conference workshops
    • 9-11 July 2013: General Conference
    • 11-12 July 2013: DSpace, EPrints, and Fedora user group meetings

Submission process

Conference Papers and Panels
We welcome two- to four-page proposals for presentations or panels that deal with organizational, theoretical, practical, or administrative issues of digital repositories and repository services that are not specific to a particular technical platform. Abstracts of accepted papers will be made available through the conference’s web site, and later they and associated materials will be made available in a repository intended for current and future OR content. In general, sessions are an hour and a half long with three papers per session; panels may take an entire session. Relevant papers unsuccessful in the main track will automatically be considered for inclusion, as appropriate, as a User Group presentation.

User Group Presentations
One to two-page proposals for presentations or panels that focus on use of one of the major repository platforms (EPrints, DSpace and Fedora) are invited from developers, researchers, repository managers, administrators and practitioners describing novel experiences or developments in the construction and use of repositories involving issues specific to these technical platforms.

24x7 Presentation Proposals
We welcome one- to two-page proposals for 7 minute presentations comprising no more than 24 slides. Similar to Pecha Kuchas or Lightning Talks, these 24x7 presentations will be grouped into blocks based on conference themes, with each block followed by a moderated discussion / question and answer session involving the audience and whole block of presenters. This forum will provide conference goers with a fast-paced survey of like work across many institutions, and presenters the chance to disseminate their work in more depth and context than a traditional poster.

Posters and Demos
We invite developers, researchers, repository managers, administrators and practitioners to submit one-page proposals for posters and demonstrations. Posters provide an opportunity to present work that isn’t appropriate for a paper; you’ll have the chance to do a 60-second pitch for your poster or demo during a plenary session at the conference.

Workshops and Tutorials
One- to two-page proposals for Workshops and Tutorials addressing theoretical or practical issues around digital repositories are welcomed. Workshops and tutorials will take place on the Monday before the conference. Please address the following in your proposal:

  • The subject of the event and what knowledge you intend to convey
  • Length of session (e.g., 1-hour, 2-hour? half a day? whole day?)
  • How many attendees you plan to accommodate
  • Technology and facility requirements
  • Any other supplies or support required
  • A brief statement on the learning outcomes from the session
  • Anything else you believe is pertinent to carrying out the session

Developer Challenge
Each year a significant proportion of the delegates at Open Repositories are software developers who work on repository software or related services, and once again OR2013 will feature a Developer Challenge. An announcement will be made in the future with more details on the Challenge. Developers are also encouraged to make submissions to the other tracks--including posters, demonstrations, and 24x7 presentations--to present on recently completed work and works-in-progress.

If you have any requests that fall outside of the call, such as satellite meetings, please contact the local conference chair, Mark Leggott, University of Prince Edward Island, at mleggott@upei.ca.

PLEASE submit your paper, poster, demo or workshop proposal through the conference system. PDF format is preferred. Please include presentation title, authors’ names and affiliations in the submission. The conference system will be linked from the conference web site (http://or2013.net/) and will be available for submissions in mid-December 2012.

Program Co-Chairs:
Jon W. Dunn, Indiana University Bloomington, jwd@iu.edu

Sarah L. Shreeves, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, sshreeve@illinois.edu