As a major implementation technology for modernizing services industry in the Services Computing discipline, Web services are Internet-based application components published using standard interface description languages and universally available via uniform communication protocols.The research track will include refereed paper presentations. The research track will highlight foundational work that strives to push beyond the limits of existing Web services platforms and products, including experimental efforts, innovative systems and investigations that identify weaknesses in the existing Web services model. 

The ICWS 2008 research track seeks original, unpublished research papers reporting substantive new work in various aspects of Web services. Research papers must properly cite related work and clearly indicate their contributions to the field of Web services. All topics relevant to Web services are of interest, but the conference program committee particularly encourages submissions related to:

• Applications (including mobile, scientific, Grid and utility, autonomic, and embedded computing)
• Models, methodologies, and tools (including analysis, design, SOA, modeling, and composition)
• Publishing, discovery, and selection (including in mobile settings)
• Validation and testing (including risk assessment and tracking)
• Management and governance (including monitoring, QoS, privacy, trust)
• Web 2.0 and Web X.0 concepts in Web services settings (including software as a service and service as software)
• Business process management (including business protocols, business intelligence, service level agreements, and business licensing models)
• Formal methods (including modeling and specification, data and process semantics, type systems, security, QoS, and other properties)
• Standards and implementation and deployment technologies
• Technologies for building and operating massive data centers (including middleware)