PTRS - call for submissions

[Rolf Kotter]

============================================================================
                     CALL  FOR  SUBMISSIONS

    Theme issue of Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences
           http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/publish/phi_bs/

              Theme: NEUROSCIENCE DATABASES - tools for 
       exploring structure-function relationships in the brain

                    Theme editor: Rolf Ktter

Understanding the workings of systems as complex as the nervous system
requires the aid of computational tools to collate, analyse and test
experimental data with the aim of establishing close structure-function
relationships. Over the last years many attempts have been made to
construct neuroscience databases collating data about structures,
small functional circuits and global functions of the nervous system.

The aim of this Theme Issue is to critically review the achievements and 
problems of previous and current approaches, to devise future strategies 
and to make these insights available to everyone concerned with
neuroscience databases. More specifically, papers are expected to cover 
one or more of the following topics: 

 adequate representations of different types of neuroscientific data; 
  identification of promising research fields versus problem data;
  arguments for representation of individual vs. summary, and raw vs. 
  interpreted data. 

 tools for meta-analysis of data in neuroscience databases and methods 
  (statistical, computational, etc.) for establishing structure-function 
  relationships in the brain.

 quality control of database contents: access control, peer review,
  links to publications

 strategies to improve the contents, user-friendliness, acceptance,
  significance and longevity of databases; desirable developments in
  other fields, e.g. data visualisation. 

 lessons to be learnt from databases in fields beyond neuroscience
  (e.g. gene sequences, protein structure, images, references; see Human
  Genome Project or U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information).

 technical and organisational issues of design, programming (reusable
  code?), maintenance, updating and cross-linking of databases and
hardware
  platforms; support teams, financial requirements, life-cycles of 
  databases.

 impact of databases on the neuroscience communities; relationship
  between experimentalists (data producers), data collators and data
  analysts: who wants and who needs databases, and how do databases
  affect the production and publication of data?

These topics are often best addressed within the context of specific
database projects, but note that it is not sufficient to simply present
your database project. Finally, although the contents of the contributed
papers can be quite specialised, their concept, thrust and significance
should be intelligible to interested non-specialists. 


SCHEDULE

All submissions will be subject to a rigorous review process.
The Theme Issue will contain 10-15 refereed papers, which are
going to be invited on the basis of abstract submissions. 

1 November 1999   Submission of an abstract and a tentative title
                  declaring intention to submit a full paper by the
                  deadline given below. This should be done by e-mail
                  to RK at hirn.uni-duesseldorf.de

                  After selection process and invitation of full papers:

31 May 2000       Deadline for receipt of full paper in three copies.

                  After referees' comments and (if necessary) revisions:

31 December 2000  Finalisation of all papers for publication of theme
issue
                  in 2001.


ADDRESS FOR SUBMISSIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE

Dr. Rolf Kotter
C. & O. Vogt Brain Research Institute, Bldg. 22.03
Heinrich Heine University, Universitatsstr. 1
D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany
phone + fax: +49-211-81-12095
e-mail: RK at hirn.uni-duesseldorf.de
http://www.hirn.uni-duesseldorf.de/~rk
============================================================================