I S K O

Best Paper Award

Since 2016, the best papers from the International ISKO Conference proceedings are selected and awarded during the conference. (A separate award for Annual Best Paper published in the journal Knowledge Organization is also assigned since 2013.)

Best Paper Awards at ISKO 2024

Best Full Papers awarded by Thiago Barros, Claudio Gnoli and Li Gang:

Mario Barité, Mirtha Rauch and Varenka Parentelli for their paper "Knowledge organization systems in reference works specialized in knowledge organization: a study of punctual terminology"

Rick Szostak for his paper "Additional purposes of knowledge organization"

Honorary Paper Awards:

Caliel Cardoso de Oliveira, Marieta Marks Löw and Thiago Henrique Bragato Barros for their paper "Knowledge organization possibilities for archives: comparative semantic analysis between CIDOC-CRM and RiC-CM"
Li Si and Yao Liu for their paper "Research on the digital storytelling of biographical knowledge based on ontology"

Best Paper Award in the Doctoral Colloquium:

Jie Yang, Yuefen Wang and Yonghua Cen for their paper "Does knowledge entity length affect scientific writing style? Bibliometrics based on the information entropy perspective"

Best Paper Awards at ISKO 2022

The full paper chairs (David Haynes, Daniel Martínez-Ávila and Tanja Svarre) also served as the awards committee for the Best Full Paper. They awarded:

Claudio Gnoli, Patrícia de Almeida, Luís Miguel Olivira Machado and Riccardo Ridi for their paper "Taiga penguins: expressing existence and fictionality in a phenomenon-based classification"
Abstract: The Integrative Levels Classification (ILC) lists phenomena of the real world rather than disciplines. This poses various challenges to represent in ILC fictional, hypothetical or metaphysical entities that are not listed among ordinary "phenomena". One device to address this are ILC deictic classes for "reality/being", "the present" and "the existent". Their codes can be used either alone or attached to a class of phenomena, to express e.g. actual horses as opposed to horses in general. Some faceted combinations may stand for non-existent entities, like "taiga penguins" or "winged horses". Fictional entities can be expressed by such combinations without an existence deictic. The representation of spiritual entities like divinities or demons may involve both deictics and classes defined at the cultural level, also depending on the metaphysical assumptions of the classification system. Some solutions as well as open problems are discussed with examples from ILC notation.

The Best Young Researcher Paper committee consisted of Marianne Lykke, Mette Skov, and Tanja Svarre. The award went to:

Julia Bullard (UBC School of Information, Canada) for her paper "Confusing, inaccurate, and just goofy: author assessments of 'Indians of North America' cataloguing"
Abstract: This short paper presents preliminary results from an interview study with authors focusing on the catalogue record of their books. Choosing works with subject headings currently considered for revision based on inaccurate terminology referring to Indigenous Peoples, we asked participants for assessments of the authenticity and accuracy of variant catalogue records. Our primary findings add to a growing consensus that the term ‘Indians of North America’ is unsuitable for subject cataloguing.

Best Paper Award at ISKO 2020

Since 2016, the best paper from the International ISKO Conference proceedings are selected and awarded during the conference. The planned conference in Aalborg was postponed to 2022, but accepted papers are published in the proceedings and have been evaluated for the award. The winner was announced at the online ISKO General Assembly on July, 7th. The committee was chaired by Michael Kleineberg and included Maria Teresa Biagetti, Vanda Broughton, Tom Dousa, Agnes Hajdu, Gercina Lima, Jirí Pika, Rosa San Segundo, and Rick Szostak. The conference organizers have preselected the 10 contributions which got the best full-paper evaluations from the peer-reviewers. The members of the Best Paper Committee agreed on the following process of selection: (1) they considered only full papers, not short papers; (2) they considered only a pre-selection of the ten best-evaluated papers from the reviews of the conference submissions; (3) they did not exclude papers by members of the committee from consideration (but one could not vote for his/her own paper); (4) the criteria of selection did include relevance, originality, and quality but were applied holistically, not by score; (5) before the conference, each member of the committee considered all ten papers and selected his/her top-three candidates in a ranked list; (6) the ranked lists were scored (first = 3 points, second = 2 points, third = 1 point) and aggregated. The committee awarded:

David Haynes (Edinburgh Napier University, UK) for his paper "Understanding personal online risk to individuals via ontology development"
Abstract: This paper describes the development of an ontology of risk as a way of better understanding the nature of the potential harms individuals are exposed to when they disclose personal data online. The ontology was designed to be compatible with BFO, the Basic Formal Ontology, which is intended to promote interoperability. Ontologies from domains such as genetics and medical research are in many instances designed to conform to BFO. An initial exercise to monitor the online activity of six participants from the library and information services community helped to identify the points at which personal data is disclosed during online activity. It also explored the motivations for these disclosures, by questioning participants about their perceptions of risk. The resulting analysis suggested that an ontology would be better than a typology to represent the complex relationships between risk concepts. Terms were also extracted from existing terminologies. Risk scenarios were developed and tested during a formative seminar and incorporated into the ontology. A potential application of the ontology is to identify clusters of risk and map the factors that contribute to specific risks.

At this conference, a Best Doctoral Student Paper Award was also assigned by a committee of the 2020 conference organizers, Marianne Lykke, Mette Skov and Tanya Svarre. In the decision it was emphasized: (1) high rating in the review process; (2) full papers; (3) relevance, originality and quality of the contribution; (4) single author papers. 8 papers were authored by PhD scholars, and all contributions were considered for the award. The committee has decided that

Stephanie Colombo (Universidad de la República, Uruguay) is winning the award for Best Student Paper for her contribution "Representation and misrepresentation in knowledge organization: the cases of bias".

Best Paper Awards at ISKO 2018 in Porto

The Best Paper Committee was chaired by Widad Mustafa el Hadi and also included Clément Arsenault, Grant Campbell, Emmanuelle Chevry-Pebayle, Marcilio de Brito, José Augusto C. Guimarães, Michèle Hudon, Daniel Martínez Ávila, Mohinder Satija, Aida Slavic, Barbara Sosinska-Kalata and Maja Žumer. Each paper was assigned to three commitee members. The best paper should meet the following requirements: (1) Relevance for the topic of the conference of ISKO 2018 conference, (2) Novelty of the research for KO, (3) Quality of the research itself, (4) Quality of writing and expression (precision, language, etc.), (5) Quality of bibliographic references. As, a second step, during the conference, session chairs were requested to inform of the best paper of each session. The final selection was based on the score plus paper presentations. The committee awarded authors of two papers:

(1st) Claudio Gnoli (University of Pavia, Italy) - Andreas Ledl (University of Basel, Switzerland) - Ziyoung Park (Hansung University, S. Korea) - Marcin Trzmielewski (Paul Valéry University, Montpellier, France) for their paper "Phenomenon-based vs. disciplinary classification: possibilities for evaluating and for mapping"

(2nd) Michael Kleineberg (Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin School of Library and Information Science) for his paper "Reconstructionism: A comparative method for viewpoint analysis and indexing using the example of Kohlberg's moral stages"

At this conference, a Best Doctoral Student Paper Award was also assigned by a committee chaired by Fernanda Ribeiro and also including Claudio Gnoli, José Augusto Chaves Guimarães, José Antonio Moreiro González, Maria Graça Melo Simões and Radia Bernaoui. The award went again to

Michael Kleineberg (Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin School of Library and Information Science) for his paper "Reconstructionism: A comparative method for viewpoint analysis and indexing using the example of Kohlberg's moral stages"

Best Paper Award at ISKO 2016 in Rio de Janeiro

The Best Paper Committee (Hematala Iyer, María López-Huertas, Sahbi Sidhom, Peter Ohly and Birger Hjørland) received the 10 papers which got the best evaluations from the peer-reviewers at the International ISKO Conference in Rio de Janeiro (Proceedings.

It should be said that although one paper got most votes and thus won, the 10 papers had different kinds of quality. Some were strong in empirical-statistical analysis, some had important theoretical implications, some pointed out new application areas for KO and some made important historical analyses of classical concepts in KO. However, in the last voting, most votes went to

Ann M. Graf (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, School of Information Studies) for her paper "Describing an outsider art movement from within: the AAT and graffiti art".

The paper contributes concretely to the improvement of an important knowledge organization system (AAT) — something that seems too seldom in our community. At the same time the paper considers problems providing KOS for domains with a poor textual basis and of an ephemeral nature. An important theoretical issue discussed was also the different views of outsiders and insiders and which view should be represented. Last but not least, the paper displays personal engagement with its subject. It is a well-earned price, and we hope that it may inspire other researchers in KO and also inspire Ann to continue this important work.