Call for participation: DCMI 2024 Conference

February 14, 2024

DCMI 2024
Metadata Innovation: Trust, Transformation, and Humanity
October 20-23, University of Toronto, Canada 

DCMI 2024, the twenty-second International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, invites researchers, practitioners, and experts from diverse domains to explore the dynamic landscape of metadata in the theme of Trust, Transformation, and Humanity. The fast-paced advances in artificial intelligence (AI) create new research fronts for metadata. While AI can bring benefits to research, learning, and society at large, it has also supercharged deepfake contents that are used for nefarious purposes. Ensuring trustworthy AI and applications is the first line in responsible metadata research and practice and in fighting the misinformation, disinformation, and deepfake contents. Metadata is quickly expanding its role in providing transparent, trustworthy, and effective representation of data, information, and knowledge in the transformation from “data about data” to data-underpinned knowledge. In this expansion of metadata roles, we strive to bring innovative metadata ideas, projects, and practices together to foster and protect humanity.

DCMI 2024 serves as a unique platform for the discussion of “innovative research and practice” – presenting visions for future metadata development and solutions to practical metadata problems. Join researchers, practitioners, and experts from a wide range of sectors in a collaborative exploration of metadata’s evolving role through your papers, posters, panel discussions, best practice reports, designathon/hackathon, workshops, and more.

DCMI 2024 will feature exclusively in-person meetings, with the exception of workshops, which may be conducted either in-person or virtually.

Key areas:

Under the conference theme Metadata Innovation: Trust, Transformation, and Humanity,  the DCMI 2024 conference welcomes submissions on the following topics broadly related to metadata design, deployment, and best practices (but not limited to):

• Data Integrity and Reliability: Innovative metadata research and practices that ensure data integrity, accuracy, and reliability.
• Ethics and Metadata: Addressing ethical considerations in metadata creation and management to build trust.
• Adaptation to Emerging Technologies: Transforming metadata constructs and systems to enable the full utilization of technologies in AI, linked data, and knowledge bases.
• Metadata and Data Science: Application of data science theories and methods in developing linked, intelligent metadata to facilitate transformation.
• Metadata for the Public Good: The implications and significance of metadata in trustworthy AI; the role of metadata in supporting the fight against nefarious deepfakes, misinformation, and disinformation; open data, open science, and open metadata.
• Cultural and Social Dimensions of Metadata: Digital humanities and metadata, semantic and computational metadata for cultural heritage objects, equitable metadata representation for historical materials, and critical study of metadata theories, practices, standards, and tools.
• Interoperability and Reusability: Solutions and practices in creating FAIR metadata, case studies of data reusability fostered by metadata, and new data structures and models supporting metadata interoperability.

Submission Guidelines

• At least one author of an accepted submission must be physically present at the conference to present the work in person (*with an exception of the student forum).
• Submissions must follow the guidelines for one of the categories enumerated below.
• All submissions must be in English.
• All submissions must be made via the Submission System, https://go.dublincore.org/dcmi-2024/submission-portal
• Submissions must be a single Portable Document Format (PDF) along with the document’s source.
• The source file should be Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), or LaTeX files in a single compressed zip file (.zip).
• Authors are required to include their ORCID in their submissions.

Templates

• All submissions must use the official DCPapers template for DCMI conference proceedings.
• Templates for both Microsoft Word and LaTeX are available in the DCPapers template repository. Template files can be downloaded from https://github.com/dcmi/dcpapers-templates/releases/latest
• Any modification to the template, including but not limited to adjustments in margins, typeface sizes, line spacing, paragraphs, and list definitions, is discouraged.
• Users of Microsoft Word are required to install the Libertinus font family on their computer. The DOCX template contains detailed installation instructions.
• Users familiar with LaTeX should prefer the LaTeX template.
• An Overleaf template is available at https://go.dublincore.org/dcmi-2024/overleaf-template
• Please use GitHub issues exclusively for inquiries and reporting template-related issues at https://github.com/dcmi/dcpapers-templates/issues
• Detailed formatting guidelines are included in both the DOCX and LaTeX templates.
• Authors are required to add their ORCID in the submission as indicated in the templates.

Submission categories

Note:

• The open-access conference proceedings are indexed by Scopus, DBLP, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, and ACM. Online proceedings will be available before the start of the conference.
• Presentation slides, poster slide images, and student forum extended abstracts will be published on the DCMI website.

Full papers

Full papers either describe innovative work in detail or provide critical, well-referenced overviews of key developments or good practices.

• 8-10 pages, single-spaced, plus references

Short papers

Short papers are narrower in scope than full papers and may be either a description of work in progress, or a project report that concisely describes a specific model, application, or activity.

• 4-5 pages, single-spaced, plus references

Panels

Panel sessions are organized by experts in a specific area of metadata. Each panel serves as a focused exchange regarding the latest research and/or best practice in the area.

• 1-2 page abstract with panelists’ bios of 100-150 words each

Workshops

Workshops engage participants in active work to address one or more well-defined problems or issues. The style of workshops may vary depending on the organizers, and may include presentation/discussion-based or problem-solving-based activities.

• 3-4 hours (half-day) or 6-8 hours (full-day)
  • 1-2 pages of descriptions
  • Objectives
  • Format (In-person or Virtual)
  • Names of organizers
  • Event plan (Agenda or Activities)
• Descriptions will be included in the online Proceedings
• Conference registration is required (Full registration or one-day registration).

Project reports

Project reports are for the presentation, demonstration, and evaluation of work-in-progress related to metadata best practices.

• 2-page abstract, single-spaced, plus references

Posters

Posters are for the presentation of projects, research under development, or late-breaking results.

• 2-page abstract, single-spaced, plus references

Tutorials

Tutorials introduce specific topics of current interest in metadata practice, optionally including hands-on practice. Proposals for tutorials must include:

• 2-3 page proposal including:
  • Title of tutorial and topic to be covered (2-3 paragraphs)
  • Target audience and expected learning outcomes
  • Tutorial style: lecture, demonstration, hands-on practice, etc.
  • Any prior knowledge required (e.g., RDF, programming languages)
  • Whether participants must (or should) bring laptops or install software beforehand
  • Presenter bios (100-150 words each)

Student Forum

The student forum aims at providing an opportunity for master’s and doctoral students to share their experiences and exchange ideas of best practices, research in progress, and findings in areas related to metadata innovation.

• Less than 1500 words plus references
• All presenters at the student forum will receive free registration for the conference
• All presenters participating in the Student Forum will automatically qualify for the Student Forum Award competition. Winners will be chosen by the Student Forum Committee, and they will receive prizes of $300 for first place and $200 for second place to assist with travel expenses.

Important Dates

Deadlines for submissions:

• Papers (full and short), Panel, and Workshop: April 15th, 2024, 23:59 (AoE)
• Posters, Project Reports, Student Forum, and Tutorials: May 27th, 2024, 23:59 (AoE)
• Best Practices and Talks are by invitation

Notification to authors:

• Paper, Panel, and Workshop: June 17, 2024
• Poster, Project Reports, Student Forum and Tutorials: June 24, 2024

Final copy of papers due: July 8, 2024

(Via DCMI)