ECCB2024 invites proposals for workshops and tutorials, full manuscripts for proceedings publications and talks, as well as abstracts for scientific talks and posters in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics. All submissions should fall under one of the six scientific themes of the ECCB2024 conference:

• Genomes
• Proteins
• Systems biology and multiomics
• Single-cell omics
• Microbiomes and planetary health
• Digital health

The theme assigned will be used to streamline the review processes and to group the conference presentations in appropriate thematic sessions.  The authors should indicate the preferred theme in the submission form. The ECCB2024 Programme Committee will determine to which theme a submission is assigned, considering the authors’ preferences.

ELIXIR Community members are invited to submit their abstracts for talks and posters under the specific ELIXIR Communities track.

All submissions must be sent through Oxford Abstracts submission system.

Presenting authors must register and pay the registration fee to attend the conference. Each presenting author is allowed to submit one submission for each call type (workshops & tutorials / proceedings / talks and posters).

• All submissions must be sent via the Oxford Abstracts online submission system. Register to Oxford Abstracts to submit (see links on the right column by each call).
• Abstract must be written and presented in clear and concise English. The abstract will appear exactly as typed. Therefore, any errors will be reproduced as typed.
• Answer all the questions on the form and click ”submit” to complete the abstract submission.
• After submission, you can sign in again if needed and amend your submission until the final submission deadline.
• Note that uncompleted abstracts will not be reviewed.

Workshops and tutorials
15 February 2024

Proceedings
4 April 2024 at 23.59 EET (UTC/GMT +2)

Highlight talks and posters
23 April 2024

• Genomes
• Proteins
• Systems biology and multiomics
• Single-cell omics
• Microbiomes and planetary health
• Digital health
• ELIXIR Communities track

For any questions regarding the submission process, please contact the conference secretariat: aboaevents@certia.fi.

ECCB2024 invites proposals for 3-hour workshops and tutorials preceding the main conference programme of ECCB2024. The selected workshops and tutorials will be held on-site on 16^th and 17^th of September 2024 in Radisson Blu Marina Palace Hotel.

The workshops are expected to provide participants with an informal setting to discuss scientific and technical issues, exchange research ideas and share practical experiences on a range of focused or emerging topics in computational biology and bioinformatics. Each workshop should provide an interesting perspective on the cutting edge of a selected research field. Workshops may include any form of presentation such as talks or panel discussions.

Tutorials serve an educational function and are expected to provide a balanced perspective on a field of research. The purpose of the tutorials is to build knowledge and provide hands-on training in cutting-edge topics relevant to computational biology and bioinformatics. Tutorials offer participants an opportunity to get an introduction to important established topics in bioinformatics, to learn about new areas of bioinformatics research, or to develop advanced skills in areas about which they are already knowledgeable. Tutorials should not focus on the presenters’ own research or software, unless balanced with other tools in the same realm. However, tutorials on broadly used bioinformatics tools will be considered. Tutorials may include any form of presentation such as brief talks or panel discussions but should include hands-on exercises.

The organiser(s) of the workshops and tutorials will be fully responsible for the scientific content.

Up to two speakers per workshop will have free access to the session where they participate and up to two organisers of the tutorials will be granted free access to the session they organize. The organisers or speakers who receive free passes must be registered in the programme of their session. Organisers and speakers of the workshops and tutorials are responsible for their travel and accommodation costs.

Workshop/Tutorial proposal submission

All information must be filled in the submission form in Oxford Abstracts system. Attachment files are not allowed.

Each workshop or tutorial proposal should include the following information:

*Please note: if you proposal is accepted, the abstract text will be used on the conference website/app as a description of the workshop/tutorial. Please consider this when compiling the text.

Call for workshops and tutorials closes
15 February 2024

Acceptance notification for workshops and tutorials*
28 March 2024

Registration deadline for organisers and speakers
30 April 2024

Complete workshop/tutorial programme with speakers and schedule online
30 May 2024

Workshop and tutorial days at ECCB2024
16 – 17 September 2024

*Please note that acceptance notification will be sent to the submitter only, to the email used to sign into the abstract system.

The ECCB2024 Programme Committee will consider the following criteria in evaluating the proposals: relevance to the ECCB2024 attendees, expertise and experience of the organisers and speakers and educational experience of the instructors of tutorials, effectiveness and completeness of the proposed approach, feasibility of the proposal, commitment to select a gender-balanced panel, and overlap with workshops and tutorials held in previous editions, along with the clarity and quality of the proposal.

ECCB2024 invites submissions of full manuscripts (not abstracts) that consist of previously unpublished work, demonstrating the development of new computational techniques and their applications in life sciences from biology and medicine to environmental sciences.

Proceedings are expected to introduce advances in computational techniques to analyse various types of biological data. The accepted submissions will be presented in person in the main conference venue Logomo on 18-20 September 2024. The presentations will be ~15 minutes.

The accepted manuscripts will be published as conference proceedings in the journal Bioinformatics under Open Access publication licence. The proceedings will be available online prior to the conference opening. The publication of the proceedings as a supplementary issue in Bioinformatics will result in fully citable articles, indexed by Medline and ISI. See the ECCB2022 supplementary issue for an example of published conference proceedings by Oxford University Press.

Proceedings submission

Manuscripts are submitted through Oxford Abstracts system.

The presenting authors of accepted manuscripts are required to deliver a talk about the content of their paper in person at the venue of the conference, and they must register and pay to attend the conference.

Submissions should include the following:

Any data or code published with the manuscript should be made available in public repositories/websites. If the manuscript includes the description of new software, the authors should link the repository where the code is available. We advise authors to follow the recommended practices in research software development.

We allow and encourage the authors to share the pre-publication of their manuscripts on preprint servers. Please read carefully the General Policies section in the Instructions for authors at OUP Bioinformatics and follow their rules in the publication of your preprint. The authors of the manuscripts accepted for publication will be required to update the status of their preprint as specified in the Author Self-Archiving policy page.

Review process

The submissions will be assigned to the different Proceedings topics based on the authors’ indicated preference. In case of receiving an unexpectedly high number of proceedings submissions, a preselection based on their impact and suitability for the conference determined from the abstracts alone may be necessary before papers are sent out for review. Each preselected submission will be assigned 2-3 reviewers by the topic chairs. Based on the reviews, the topic chairs will rank the submissions assigned to their topic. According to the rankings, the ECCB2024 Programme Committee together with the topic chairs will decide on the final acceptance of each submission.

Call for proceedings closes
4 April 2024 at 23.59 EET (UTC/GMT +2)

(Conditional) Acceptance notification for proceedings*
15 May 2024 -> 17 May 2024

Revised paper deadline
25 May 2024 -> 26 May 2024

Final acceptance notification for proceedings*
31 May 2024

Registration deadline for presenting authors
7 June 2024

*Please note that acceptance notification will be sent to the submitter only, to the email used to sign into the abstract system.

Submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to conference attendees.
2. Impact of the submission in the field.
3. Scientific quality.
4. Originality. At the time of submission to ECCB2024, and for the entire review period, the submission should not be under review by any other conference or scientific journal.
5. “Presentability” of the work to a large, diverse audience.

Authors of accepted Proceedings papers are required to pay the publication fee of 500 EUR. This is a substantial reduction from the publication fees customary for OUP journals. If your manuscript is accepted and you are unable to pay for the publication fees in part or in full, you may submit a fee waiver request to eccb2024@utu.fi.  Please provide your name, full institute address, and a short (up to 50 words) justification of why you are unable to cover the publication fee with the subject line of ECCB2024 Publications Fee Waiver Request.

Publication fee payment will be charged with registration fee upon registration to the conference.

ECCB2024 invites abstracts for highlight talks on recently published research articles (published in a scientific journal since the 1st of March 2023 or accepted for publication and accessible through the journal website) and research posters in computational biology.

Highlight talks are expected to introduce topical advances in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics. The selected highlight talks will be presented in person in the main conference venue Logomo on 18-20 September 2024. The presentations will be ~15 minutes.

ELIXIR Communities track highlight talks are expected to showcase the Community activities, benefits of being a member, and using ELIXIR resources. A close link to an application needs to be showcased (e.g. consider links to ELIXIR Recommended Interoperability Resources (RIRs), Core Data Resources (CDRs) or others).

ELIXIR Community track eligibility criteria:

• Talks must be submitted by Community co-leads (the presenter can vary).
• Each ELIXIR Community can submit up to two proposals (submitted by different co-leads).

Posters are welcomed in all areas relevant to computational biology and bioinformatics. We invite all interested participants and conference attendees to consider presenting a poster. The selected posters will be presented in person in the main conference venue Logomo on 18–20 September 2024. The space for posters will be limited, but we will make every effort to accommodate all poster submissions.

ELIXIR poster track eligibility criteria:

• Posters must be submitted by ELIXIR members.
• Each ELIXIR member can submit up to one poster.

Presenting authors for talks and posters must register and pay the registration fee to attend the conference.

Talk and poster abstract submission

Please send your abstracts for talks and posters through Oxford Abstracts system.

Submissions should include the following:

Evaluation of  talks

The abstracts for talks will be evaluated by the ECCB2024 Programme Committee. The topic chairs will rank the submitted abstracts assigned to their topic. According to the rankings, the Programme Committee together with the topic chairs will decide on the final acceptance for each submission. ELIXIR reviewers will review and evaluate the abstracts submitted to the topic ELIXIR Communities/poster track.

Evaluation of posters

The decision for the acceptance of a poster lies with the ECCB2024 Poster Committee. ELIXIR will make the decisions regarding the posters submitted under the to the ELIXIR poster track.

Call for talks and posters closes
23 April 2024 at 23.59 EET (UTC/GMT +2)

Acceptance notification for talks and posters*
08 May 2024 -> 24 May 2024

Registration deadline for talk presenting authors
15 May 2024 -> 7 June 2024

Registration deadline for poster presenting authors
05 June 2024 ->14 June

*Please note that acceptance notification will be sent to the submitter only, to the email used to sign into the abstract system.

Talks:

1. Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to conference attendees.
2. Impact of the paper in the field.
3. Scientific quality.
4. “Presentability” of the work to a large, diverse audience.
5. Submissions that allow the presentation of related interesting unpublished new results will be reviewed favourably.
6. We aim to balance across topics, presenter’s gender, nationality and seniority level, and we may factor these aspects into the acceptance decisions.
7. Additional ELIXIR Communities track evaluation criteria: The submission will cover and discuss links to, benefits from, and challenges as part of working within ELIXIR.

Posters:

1. Relevance of the topic to conference attendees.
2. Posters with commercial advertisements will not be accepted.
3. Additional ELIXIR poster track evaluation criteria: The submission needs to have a clear link to ELIXIR activities and showcase a close link to an application, such as a link to an ELIXIR Recommended Interoperability Resources (RIRs), Core Data Resources (CDRs), supported tool, or others.