[Asis-l] IASSIST/IFDO 2005: Call for Papers

[Katherine McNeill-Harman]

IASSIST/IFDO 2005 - Evidence and Enlightenment
24-27 May 2005, Edinburgh, Scotland UK

This is first call for papers for the annual conference of the 
International Association for Social Science Information Services and
Technology (IASSIST), being held in May 2005 in collaboration with the 
International Federation of Data Organisations (IFDO). Proposals for 
papers, sessions and poster/demonstrations should be submitted by 10th 
January 2005.

The IASSIST/IFDO Conference is being hosted in Edinburgh, Scotland UK over 
the period Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th May, 2005; this is preceded by 
workshops earlier in the week and followed by a Highland Weekend, for a 
less formal exchange of views.  Details may be accessed via the IASSIST 
website, http://www.iassistdata.org, or directly at 
http://datalib.ed.ac.uk/iassist/.

IASSIST is an international organization of professionals working in and 
with information technology and data services to support research and 
teaching in the social sciences. Typical workplaces include data 
archives/libraries, statistical agencies, research centres, libraries, 
academic departments, government departments, and non-profit organizations, 
see http://www.iassistdata.org for further information.

IFDO was established in 1977 in response to advanced research needs of the 
international social science community. The purpose of IFDO is to stimulate 
and co-ordinate worldwide data services and thus enhance social science 
research, see http://www.ifdo.org/ for further information.

For over thirty years, IASSIST conferences have brought together data 
professionals, data producers, and data analysts from around the 
world.  The Annual Conference, which itself moves about the world, and was 
last in Europe in 2001, is the forum for presentation of papers covering 
both new and persistent issues relating to access to data, documentation of 
data, and digital preservation, with special emphasis on the social 
sciences.  The social sciences have a long history of data sharing activity 
which may make the conference of interest to colleagues in disciplines 
where open access practices to data have been on the policy agenda, with 
clear overlaps with digital curation, data publishing and 
e-science/cyberinfrastructure initiatives.

The IASSIST Quarterly (IQ), available online from the IASSIST website and 
in print, is another important means of communication for the data 
community, and a suitable place for publication of papers presented at the 
Conference.  Of special note is the IASSIST Publication Award, intended to 
promote the Association's Five Year Strategic Plan, involving a cash prize 
for the winning paper. For further details see 
http://www.iassistdata.org/publications/pubaward.html .

The theme for the 2005 Conference, Evidence and Enlightenment, highlights 
the need for empirical data in a society that wishes to know itself, and of 
the role that the IASSIST membership have in ensuring that researchers have 
continuing access to the data necessary for furthering scholarship and 
understanding. It also hints at intellectual activity during the latter 
half of the 18th century in Europe, and in Scotland in particular, which 
"would generate the basic attitudes and habits of mind that characterise 
the modern age," Arthur Herman, The Age of Enlightenment, 2002.

As IASSIST enters its fourth decade, the organization and the data 
community must confront a range of socio-economic and organisational 
challenges as well as technological opportunities. We seek submissions of 
papers, poster/demonstration sessions, and panel sessions on topics that 
address these issues, especially those that bear on:

- data access
- data documentation
- data preservation
- data use and current research activity.

Additional topics might also include data, information and statistical 
literacy, GIS and spatial data, and such as data publishing, annotation, 
provenance and authenticity digital curation. For other key topics see 
previous IASSIST Conferences,
http://www.iassistdata.org/conferences/index.html.

Procedure
The deadline for paper, session, and poster/demonstration proposals is 10th 
January 2005. The Conference Program Committee will send notification of 
the acceptance of proposals on or before 10th February 2005.

Please send submissions, including proposed title and an abstract 
(recommended length 150 words), to: iassist05 at ed.ac.uk.

Proposals for complete sessions, conventionally of a panel or of three/four 
papers within a 90 minute session, should contain information on the focus 
of the session, the organizer or moderator, and possible session 
participants. The session organizer or moderator will be responsible for 
the arranging and securing session participants.

Make plans to come to Edinburgh for the IASSIST/IFDO Conference in the week 
commencing 22nd May 2005 to help us make the 31st IASSIST Conference 'the 
best conference ever'! Further information on travel and accommodation is 
available at links from http://www.iassistdata.org.  Online registration is 
scheduled to open on 17 January 2005.

for the IASSIST/IFDO Programme Committee
iassist05 at ed.ac.uk and http://www.iassistdata.org/