# FOIS — International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems

- **Submission deadline**: 2026-03-16
- **Notification date**: 2026-05-27
- **Conference date**: 2026-09-21
- **Location**: Vitoria, ES, Brazil
- **Rankings**: CORE C
- **Conference Partner Index**: 54.9/100 (ranked #828, confidence 0.80, algorithm 1.1) — how this is computed: https://www.myhuiban.com/ranking
- **Trackers**: 0
- **Attendees**: 0
- **Canonical page**: https://www.myhuiban.com/conference/2402

## Past editions

| Year | Deadline | Conference date | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 |  | 2018-09-17 | Cape Town, South Africa |

## Call for papers

Definition and scope The FOIS conference is a meeting point for all researchers with an interest in formal ontology. Formal ontology is the systematic study of the types of entities and relations making up the domains of interest represented in modern information systems. The conference encourages the submission of high-quality, previously unpublished results on both theoretical issues and practical advancements. FOIS 2026 will have distinct tracks for foundational issues, ontology applications and methods, and domain ontologies. FOIS aims to be a nexus of interdisciplinary research and communication for researchers from various domains who engage with formal ontology. Common application areas include conceptual modeling, database design, knowledge engineering and management, software engineering, organizational modeling, artificial intelligence, robotics, computational linguistics, the life sciences, bioinformatics and scientific research in general, geographic information science, information retrieval, library and information science, as well as the Semantic Web. FOIS is the flagship conference of the International Association for Ontology and its Applications (IAOA), which is a non-profit organization promoting interdisciplinary research and international collaboration in formal ontology. Topics of interest Areas of interest to FOIS include, but are not limited to: Foundational issues Kinds of entities: particulars/universals, continuants/occurrents, abstracta/concreta, dependent entities/independent entities, natural objects/artifacts, events/processes Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection, dependence, constitution, causality, subsumption, instantiation Vagueness and granularity Space, time, and change Methodological issues Ontology engineering Ontology similarity, integration, alignment, matching and entity reconciliation Ontology modularity, patterns, and contextuality Ontology evaluation, quality, reuse, adaptation, and evolution Ontology compliance with FAIR principles Top-level vs. domain-specific ontologies Constructional ontologies Role of reference ontologies Formal comparison among ontologies Relationship between conceptual modeling and ontologies Relationship with cognition, language, semantics, and context Connections between knowledge graphs and ontologies Methodological issues in the applications of ontologies Social issues, such as trust or bias, with respect to ontologies Applications Technical applications of ontologies, such as Semantic Web Other areas of AI (Machine Learning, Explainable AI, Symbolic AI) Qualitative modeling Systems applications of ontologies, such as Ontology-driven information systems engineering Legacy reengineering or system modernization with ontologies Ontology-based data access Knowledge management Information retrieval Computational linguistics Metadata management Domain applications of ontologies, such as Ontologies for business modeling Ontologies for particular scientific disciplines (biology, chemistry, geography, physics, geoscience, cognitive sciences, linguistics, etc.) Ontologies for engineering: shape, form and function, artifacts, manufacturing, design, architecture, etc. Ontologies for the humanities: arts, cultural studies, history, literature, philosophy, etc. Ontologies for the social sciences: economics, law, political science, anthropology, archeology, etc. Ontologies for Open Science and dataset sharing Domain-specific ontologies Ontology of physical reality (matter, space, time, motion, etc.) Ontology of biological reality (organisms, genes, proteins, cells, etc.) Ontology of mental reality and agency (beliefs, intentions, emotions, perceptions, cognition, etc.) Ontology of artifacts, functions, capacities and roles Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations, norms, social relationships, artistic expressions, etc.)

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## Related journals

- Applied Ontology — https://www.myhuiban.com/journal/935
- IEEE Transactions on Multimedia — https://www.myhuiban.com/journal/152
- Knowledge-Based Systems — https://www.myhuiban.com/journal/227
- Software & Systems Modeling — https://www.myhuiban.com/journal/99
- IEEE Transactions on Computers — https://www.myhuiban.com/journal/3

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Source: Conference Partner — https://www.myhuiban.com/conference/2402 (rankings reproduced from CCF / ICORE / QUALIS; data cached up to 1 hour)