The 16^th Annual International Biocuration Conference (Biocuration 2023), supported by the ISB, invites attendees to consider two grand challenges for the future of biocuration and the growing biocuration community:

1. Given the widespread interest in making data, metadata, and knowledge more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and TRUST-worthy (Transparency, Responsibility, User Focus, Sustainability, and Technology), how can the community move past these as superficial platitudes and towards real impact?
2. How can our community spread past the prefix of bio- and into adjacent domains of chemistry, clinical informatics, agriculture, ecology, and related natural sciences? These themes align with our community’s core values of openness, transparency, collaboration, and reusability on both a philosophical and technical level.

We invite authors to submit abstracts (500 words maximum) for oral or poster presentations at Biocuration 2023 that highlight their recent work in either biocuration or more broadly curation in the life, natural, or computational sciences. Submissions can span disciplines such as the generation of curated resources (e.g., databases, ontologies), the development of methods (e.g., natural language processing, machine learning-based analyses), the philosophy of curation, and ultimately the applications and analyses relying on curated resources.

List of suggested topics for Submission:

• Generation, annotation, and curation of resources: Efforts for the curation of data from non-peer-reviewed resources, medical and clinical data, data from biobanks and sample repositories, and omics data resources
• Data standards and ontologies: Data standards, models, terminologies, and ontologies that use existing standards to augment and support the organization of knowledge for supporting and enhancing biocuration efforts
• Development of methods and techniques: Development of methods such as text mining, natural language processing (NLP), and machine-learning approaches to automate or assist the process of curation
• Development of curation tools: Efforts into the development and maintenance of curation tools
• Application and analyses: Work that describe analyses and applications of curated data and resources
• Initiatives to strengthen the Biocuration community: Initiatives that aim to strengthen the Biocuration community and find alignment with other communities that are similar or adjacent to life sciences
• New challenges in Biocuration: What are the current challenges observed within the Biocuration community and how can we, as a community, bring together people and resources to solve these challenges
• Beyond FAIR: Ideas for going beyond FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and finding ways to realize the potential and benefits of FAIR data and resources
• Future of Biocuration: Views into the future of Biocuration, especially in light of recent advances with Large Language Models and Artificial Intelligence

The above topics are not exhaustive and we welcome other topics that are related to Biocuration efforts as well.

Abstract Submission

Abstracts can be submitted to be considered for oral presentations or poster presentations through EasyChair until January 3^rd, 2023. Abstract submission for oral presentation is now closed.

Late-breaking poster submission opens on February 1^st, 2023. Submissions can be sent through EasyChair and considered on a rolling basis. Late-breaking poster submission closes on March 31^st, 2023.

Workshop Proposals (Closed)

Workshop proposals can be submitted for consideration through this form until December 23^rd, 2022.

Biocuration Virtual Issue 2023 in Database

Abstracts accepted for poster and oral presentation at the conference may additionally be submitted for consideration as part of the Biocuration Virtual Issue 2023 in Database. If you wish for your paper to be considered for inclusion, please submit it to the journal before April 30^th, 2023 and indicate in your cover letter that a corresponding abstract has been accepted for presentation at the conference. At Step 6 (Details and Comments) of the submission process, there is a choice at the bottom Is this manuscript a submission for a Virtual Issue?. Click “Yes”, select “Biocuration Virtual Issue”, and then “Save and Continue”.