Computers & Geosciences Special Issue
Geoscience Knowledge Representation for Cyberinfrastructure
Guest Editors:
- Boyan Brodaric, Geological Survey of Canada, brodaric@nrcan.gc.ca
- Peter Fox, National Center for Atmospheric Research , pfox@ucar.edu
- Deborah L. McGuinness, McGuinness Associates and Stanford University , dlm@cs.stanford.edu
Cyberinfrastructure for the Earth and Space geosciences is the interconnected network of computing and information services being developed to support next generation geoscientific research. Geoscientific activity within cyberinfrastructure typically involves large numbers and volumes of heterogeneous data generated by observational and theoretical means, often consumed or produced in complex and distributed scientific workflows that span discipline boundaries. An important aspect of such activity is the capture, representation and use of geoscientific knowledge, such as theories, ontologies, classification schemes, taxonomies, and conceptual models. These representations serve two main purposes: (1) scientific, as key ingredients in the development and testing of geoscientific hypotheses, and (2) engineering, by enabling resources to be annotated, discovered, integrated and used within cyberinfrastructure. This dual aim expands the traditional goals of geoscience informatics by focusing primarily on enabling scientific research, with its heavy analysis and synthesis demands, as opposed to focusing initially on access to information (with a secondary focus on information manipulation and integration in support of analysis and synthesis).
This special issue invites new original research papers that demonstrate how representations of Earth and Space Science knowledge are currently meeting scientific or engineering goals in cyberinfrastructure. Papers should highlight the novel content, structure, methods or uses associated with the knowledge representation. Papers should also emphasize the value added by the representation through description of a working example, the intended function of a system being built, or the practical benefits of an advance in theory.
Authors should contact a guest editor about their intention to submit, including a short description of the intended submission, and should prepare their papers (approx. 5000 words) following the guide to authors provided by Computers& Geosciences. Papers should be submitted on-line and must designate the special issue at time of submission to be considered for inclusion in the issue. Computers & Geosciences is a widely indexed and circulated international journal:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/398/authorinstructions.
Dates:
Full papers due: April 15, 2007
Author notification: July 15, 2007
Final accepted papers due: Oct. 15, 2007