Call for Doctoral Consortium Papers:
ACM 2027 SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR)

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 supporting students in their research journey, and providing opportunities for professional development. 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, suggested methods, and, at a maximum, to have submitted some of the early Ph.D. work for publication. The Doctoral Consortium is inappropriate for students nearly finished with their Ph.D. work.

New for CHIIR 2027, the Doctoral Consortium will include an afternoon session that focuses on academic professional development. This session will be open to doctoral students who are nearing the completion of their Ph.D. work, postdoctoral researchers, and early career faculty members. Those interested will be able to sign-up to join this session during the conference registration.

Accepted DC student participants will be encouraged to apply for ACM SIGIR Student Travel Grants to assist with their travel to CHIIR 2027. More information about the travel awards will be provided closer to the conference.

Note: the CHIIR 2027 Doctoral Consortium will be an in-person event only.

  • Doctoral Consortium Paper Submission: December 1, 2026 (AoE)
  • Notification: December 15th, 2026
  • Doctoral Consortium: March 7, 2027
  • CHIIR Conference: March 7-11, 2027

 

Submission Instructions

Please note that Doctoral Consortium proposals do not require an abstract submission (such as for the full paper track) before 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
  • Brief background and related work (including key references)
  • Description of proposed research, including main research questions
  • Research methodology, and, as appropriate, ongoing and planned studies
  • Progress made so far, including known results, with citations if published
  • Future plans and specific research issues for discussion at the Doctoral Consortium
  • 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.

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 Co-Chairs will review all submissions. The review of each proposal will consider the degree to which the student will benefit from participating in the consortium and relevance to CHIIR. Rejected submissions will receive written feedback. Accepted submissions will be matched with an established member of the CHIIR community to serve as the DC mentor. The submission will be shared with the DC mentor prior to the event.

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

Those with accepted DC papers are expected to register for CHIIR 2027 by the early registration deadline, and provide a CV prior to the DC to facilitate mentoring.

Suitable LaTeX, Word, and Overleaf templates are available from the ACM Website (use sigconf proceedings template for LaTeX and the Interim Template for Word). For LaTeX, the following should be used:

  • \documentclass[sigconf,natbib=true]{acmart}

Submissions should be submitted electronically via EasyChair:

 

Use of Generative AI

Please refer to the ACM Policy on Authorship for the latest information on the appropriate use and acknowledgement of Generative AI tools in your submission:

https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/new-acm-policy-on-authorship

Of particular relevance is the following statement from that policy: “The use of generative AI tools and technologies to create content is permitted but must be fully disclosed in the Work.”

Doctoral Consortium Chairs (chiir27-dc@acm.org)

Diane Kelly, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

Orland Hoeber, University of Regina, Canada