The FoIKS symposia provide a biennial forum for presenting and discussing theoretical and applied research on information and knowledge systems. The goal is to bring together researchers with an interest in this subject, share research experiences, promote collaboration and identify new issues and directions for future research.

FoIKS 2016 solicits original contributions dealing with any foundational aspect of information and knowledge systems. This includes submissions that apply ideas, theories or methods from specific disciplines to information and knowledge systems. Examples of such disciplines are discrete mathematics, logic and algebra, model theory, information theory, complexity theory, algorithmics and computation, statistics and optimization.

Previous FoIKS symposia were held in Bordeaux (France) in 2014, Kiel (Germany) in 2012, Sofia (Bulgaria) in 2010, Pisa (Italy) in 2008, Budapest (Hungary) in 2006, Vienna (Austria) in 2004, SchlossSalzau near Kiel (Germany) in 2002, and Burg/Spreewald near Berlin (Germany) in 2000. FoIKS took up the tradition of the conference series Mathematical Fundamentals of Database Systems (MFDBS), which initiated East-West collaboration in the field of database theory. Former MFDBS conferences were held in Rostock (Germany) in 1991, Visegrad (Hungary) in 1989, and Dresden (Germany) in 1987.

The FoIKS symposia are a forum for intense discussions. Speakers will be given sufficient time to present their ideas and results within the larger context of their research; furthermore, participants will be asked to prepare a first response to another contribution in order to initiate discussion.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

    Database Design: formal models, dependencies and independencies;
    Big Data: models for data in the Cloud, programming languages for big data, query processing.
    Dynamics of Information: models of transactions, concurrency control, updates, consistency preservation, belief revision;
    Information Fusion: heterogeneity, views, schema dominance, multiple source information merging, reasoning under inconsistency;
    Integrity and Constraint Management: verification, validation, consistent query answering, information cleaning;
    Intelligent Agents: multi-agent systems, autonomous agents, foundations of software agents, cooperative agents, formal models of interactions, logical models of emotions;
    Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval: machine learning, data mining, formal concept analysis and association rules, text mining, information extraction;
    Knowledge Representation, Reasoning and Planning: non-monotonic formalisms, probabilistic and non-probabilistic models of uncertainty, graphical models and independence, similarity-based reasoning, preference modeling and handling, argumentation systems;
    Logics in Databases and AI: classical and non-classical logics, logic programming, description logic, spatial and temporal logics, probability logic, fuzzy logic;
    Mathematical Foundations: discrete structures and algorithms, graphs, grammars, automata, abstract machines, finite model theory, information theory, coding theory, complexity theory, randomness;
    Security in Information and Knowledge Systems: identity theft, privacy, trust, intrusion detection, access control, inference control, secure Web services, secure Semantic Web, risk management;
    Semi-Structured Data and XML: data modelling, data processing, data compression, data exchange;
    Social Computing: collective intelligence and self-organizing knowledge, collaborative filtering, computational social choice, Boolean games, coalition formation, reputation systems;
    The Semantic Web and Knowledge Management: languages, ontologies, agents, adaption, intelligent algorithms; and
    The WWW: models of Web databases, Web dynamics, Web services, Web transactions and negotiations.

Submission of Papers

Papers must be typeset using the Springer LaTeX2e style llncs for Lecture Notes in Computer Science. The suggested number of pages is 16, and the maximum number of pages is 18. Submissions which deviate substantially from these guidelines may be rejected without review. Initial submissions must be in PDF format, but authors should keep in mind that the LaTeX2e source must be submitted for the final versions of accepted papers. Submissions in alternate formats, such as Microsoft Word, cannot be accepted for either initial or final versions. The submissions will be judged for scientific quality and for suitability as a basis for broader discussion. Submission is via EasyChair at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=foiks2016.

Publication

The proceedings will be published by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science. After the symposium, authors of selected papers will be asked to prepare extended versions of their papers for publication in a special issue of the journal Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence.