• Call for Workshop Proposals

The annual SIGIR conference is the major international forum for the presentation of new research results, and the demonstration of new systems and techniques, in the broad field of information retrieval (IR). The 46th ACM SIGIR conference, will be run as a hybrid conference – in person in Taiwan, with support for remote participation, from July 23rd to 27th, 2023. SIGIR 2023 workshops will provide a platform for presenting novel ideas and emerging areas in IR, in a less formal and more focused way than the conference itself. Researchers and practitioners from all areas of IR are invited to submit workshop proposals for review.

2023 Format

We hope that the organizers will have an on-site presence and be able to hold workshops in person to the best of their abilities, as far as health considerations and travel regulations allow. Fully online workshops are also welcomed, though preference will be given to onsite proposals. Onsite workshops will require at least one organizer to attend in person, as well as a (yet-to-be-determined) number of participants. Depending on how any health considerations, travel restrictions, and registrations evolve, changes may be necessary. We will keep you apprised as we learn more.

Important Dates

Time zone: Anywhere on Earth(AoE)
Proposal submission: January 10, 2023
Proposal acceptance notification: February 7, 2023
Tentative workshop paper submission: April 25, 2023
Workshop overview camera ready: April 26, 2023
Tentative workshop paper acceptance notification: May 23, 2023
Workshop day: July 27, 2023

Topics of Interest

Workshop topics typically match those identified in the SIGIR 2023 general call for contributions (see, e.g., full papers), but proposals concerned with other areas of IR are welcome as well. We encourage prospective workshop organizers to submit proposals for highly interactive workshops (either full-day or half-day) focusing on either in-depth analysis or broad-ranging approaches to information retrieval. The format of each workshop is to be determined by the organizers. We expect workshops to contain ample time for discussion and engagement of all participants – not just those presenting papers. Workshops that foster collaboration, discussion, group problem-solving and community building initiatives are particularly encouraged. Workshops that only revolve around the presentation of papers in a “mini conference” format are discouraged.

The organizers of approved workshops will be expected to define the workshop’s focus, gather and review submissions, and decide upon the final program content. Organizers (including co-organizers) are encouraged to write an article for the ACM SIGIR Forum summarizing the event. At least two organizers are expected to attend the entire workshop.

Submission Guidelines

Workshop proposals, in no more than 4 pages, should include the following information:

    • Title
    • Motivation for the workshop, its appropriateness for SIGIR, its complementarity to the main SIGIR 2023 conference topics, and why it would be of interest to the IR community
    • Theme and purpose of the workshop
    • Format (half/full-day) and planned activities and a tentative schedule of events, including potential keynote or other speakers
    • Format (e.g., onsite, online, or hybrid) and, for each organizer, how likely they think it is that they can attend onsite
    • Special requirements and how critical they are to the success of the workshop. Outline a contingency plan in case these requirements can not be met, such as potential last-minute organizers to ensure the workshop runs onsite
    • List of organizers with a short biographical sketch of each organizer, describing relevant qualifications and experience
    • Names of potential program committee (PC) members – if the workshop requires a PC (any workshop involving written papers should have a PC)
    • Selection process for participants and/or presenters
    • Details of the expected target audience and how the workshop will be advertised to reach them
    • Related workshops (if applicable): if the workshop has been held previously at SIGIR or another conference, the organizers should indicate this and describe briefly past attendance and outcomes, and why another workshop is needed

Workshop proposals should be prepared in the current ACM two-column conference format. Suitable LaTeX, Word, and Overleaf templates are available from the ACM Website (use the “sigconf” proceedings template).

Workshop proposals will be reviewed based on the quality of the proposal, their complementarity to the main SIGIR 2023 conference topics, and the likelihood of attracting enough participants, as well as the hosting capacity of the venue. The submissions will be reviewed by a program committee selected for this purpose, and final decisions will be made at the SIGIR Program Committee meeting.

Proposals should be submitted in PDF through the EasyChair system (workshop track): https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sigir23

The organizers of accepted workshops will be invited to submit a camera-ready summary of the workshop, to be included in the SIGIR 2023 conference proceedings.

Workshop Chairs

    • Liana Ermakova, Université de Bretagne Occidentale
    • Maura R. Grossman, University of Waterloo

Contact

For further information, please contact the SIGIR 2023 Workshop Co-chairs by email:sigir23-workshops@easychair.org.