The ACM CHIIR Doctoral Consortium provides an opportunity for doctoral students working in the areas of user-centered approaches to the design and evaluation of systems for information access, retrieval, and use to present and discuss their research with experienced researchers and other doctoral students in a seminar format.
We welcome submissions representing a broad spectrum of research topics relevant to the CHIIR community, including research on information (seeking and searching) behaviour (IB), human-computer interaction (HCI), and information retrieval (IR).
The Doctoral Consortium (DC) focuses on advising students regarding their research. In addition, the DC enables students to establish a supportive community, including other doctoral students working in related areas or at a similar stage of their dissertation research.
The Doctoral Consortium targets students roughly halfway through their Ph.D. program. At a minimum, students should have formulated their research problem and proposed methods; at a maximum, they may have submitted some early Ph.D. work for publication. The DC is not intended for students who are nearly finished with their Ph.D. work.
Accepted participants will be encouraged to apply for ACM SIGIR Student Travel Grants to assist with their travel to CHIIR 2026. More information will be provided closer to the conference.
Note: The CHIIR 2026 Doctoral Consortium will be an in-person only event.
Please note that Doctoral Consortium proposals do not require an abstract submission prior to the DC deadline.
Students must submit a paper solely authored by the student detailing their Ph.D. research. This will form the basis for detailed discussions at the DC. The paper should include:
In addition, a one-page appendix (after references) must include:
Note: The appendix will not be published if the paper is accepted.
Length: Maximum 4 pages (excluding references and appendix), in the current ACM two-column conference format.
Submissions must be in English and in PDF format. The 4-page limit applies to all content (e.g., figures, tables, proofs), excluding references and appendix.
Doctoral Consortium papers are not anonymous and must show the author’s name and affiliation. They must follow the CHIIR 2026 submission guidelines.
The DC program committee will review submissions based on the student’s potential to benefit from participation. Rejected papers will receive reviewer feedback. While the submissions are not anonymous, reviewer confidentiality will be maintained.
Suitable LaTeX, Word, and Overleaf templates are available from the ACM Website. Use the following for LaTeX:
\documentclass[sigconf,natbib=true]{acmart}
Submit your paper via EasyChair:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=chiir2026
Select the track: “CHIIR 2026 Doctoral Consortium”
All submissions must comply with the ACM policy on using Artificial Intelligence.
Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 1,800 institutions already part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 70–75%).
Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open must pay an APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a financial or discretionary waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions in ACM Open and review the APC Waivers and Discounts Policy. Remember that waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria that the ACM sets.
Understanding that this change could present financial challenges, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy for 2026 to ease the transition and allow time for institutions to join ACM Open. The subsidy will offer:
This represents a 65% discount, funded directly by ACM. Authors are encouraged to help advocate for their institutions to join ACM Open during this transition period.
This temporary subsidized pricing will apply to all conferences scheduled for 2026.
Contact the ACM for more information at dl-info@hq.acm.org.
