Doctoral Consortium Papers

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 event only.

Important Dates

• Doctoral Consortium Paper Submission: November 5th, 2025 (AoE)
• Notification: December 10th, 2025
• Conference and Doctoral Consortium: March 22–26, 2026

Submission Instructions

Please note that Doctoral Consortium proposals do not require an abstract submission prior to the DC deadline.

Students submit a paper detailing their Ph.D. research. The submitted paper, solely authored by the student, will be the basis for detailed discussions at the Doctoral Consortium. To get the most out of the discussion, it should include:

• Abstract
• Motivation for the proposed research
• Background and related work (with key references)
• Description of the proposed research, including main research questions
• Research methodology, including ongoing/planned experiments
• Progress so far, including known results with citations if published
• Future plans and specific issues for discussion at the DC
• References

In addition, a one-page appendix to the paper (placed after the references) must include the following:

• A detailed statement by the student explaining why they want to participate in the Doctoral Consortium at this point in their doctoral studies, and how they hope it will contribute to the development of their work.
• A short statement by the student’s advisor/supervisor agreeing that the student would benefit by attending the DC. Advisors should also specifically indicate whether the student has written, or is close to completing, a thesis proposal (or equivalent), and when they expect the student would defend their dissertation if they progress at a typical rate.

If accepted, the appendix will not be included in the published version of the paper.

Length: Maximum 4 pages (excluding references and appendix), in the current ACM two-column conference format.

Submissions of doctoral consortium papers must be in English and submitted as PDF files. Papers must not exceed 4 pages, including all content (e.g., figures, tables, proofs), but excluding references and the appendix, which may extend beyond this 4-page limit. All submissions must follow the current ACM two-column conference format.

Doctoral Consortium papers are not anonymous and should be submitted showing the author’s name and affiliation, and follow the conference submission guidelines.

The Doctoral Consortium program committee will review submissions. The review of each proposal will consider the degree to which the student will benefit from participating in the consortium. Rejected submissions will receive written feedback.

While the submissions are not anonymous, confidentiality of submissions will be maintained throughout the review process.

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:

by selecting the “CHIIR 2026 Doctoral Consortium” track.

Use of AI

All submissions must comply with the ACM policy on using Artificial Intelligence.

Important Update on ACM's New Open Access Publishing Model for 2026 ACM Conferences

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:

• $250 APC for ACM/SIG members
• $350 APC for non-members

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.

Doctoral Consortium Chairs