[Apologies for the cross-posting]


Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 2023—for the first time—will offer Special Interest Groups (SIGs) as another way for people from diverse backgrounds and interests to join together around shared research initiatives. SIGs enable conference attendees to meet informally about a common interest, which may include specific technologies, societal concerns, curious human behaviors or any other topic where there has been or could be CSCW research. A SIG can be an excellent space for dialog and may incorporate novel facilitation strategies, from group discussion to collective storytelling, roleplay, and even sketching activities to help SIG participants creatively engage with a topic. While CSCW 2023 will be a hybrid conference from October 16-18, the SIG sessions will all be facilitated in-person in Minnesota, USA.


Submission Details

SIG proposals must be submitted via the PCS system as a single PDF by May 11, 2023.  Each submission must include a SIG Proposal (5-pages) as well as Supplementary Materials describing the facilitation strategy and requirements for the in-person session at the conference (2-pages). Accepted proposals will be published as Extended Abstracts in the Conference Proceedings. During the conference, CSCW will provide each SIG with a meeting space for 75-minutes and will help to advertise the meetings in various ways.



How have other academic communities engaged with the topic of your SIG? The SIG Proposal (5-pages) should clearly articulate a compelling reason for the SIG. Authors are strongly encouraged to describe the topic in a maximum of 20 primary references with approximately half of the references coming from ACM publications and the other half from sources beyond the ACM. This is not a hard rule as much as it is a challenge to seek out interdisciplinary opportunities for collaboration.


Develop the proposal collaboratively with a group of people. While not strictly required, we prefer that proposals be authored by a minimum of two individuals representing at least two different organizations or communities.


Clearly describe the activities you would like to facilitate during your SIG. The Supplementary Material (also mandatory) using the same template should be no more than 2-pages in length. Accepted SIGs will have a scheduled, 75-minute long session at the conference. After your SIG is accepted, we will notify you what technical support will be available. Rooms will be set up to facilitate discussion.


The following details about the SIG session should be included in the Supplementary Material: (1) A brief description of the community (or communities) to which this SIG would be of interest and why it is of interest, (2) assumed attendee background, (3) the approach you will use for organizing and presenting the SIG, (4) an informal schedule of discussion topics, (5) your plan to attract a reasonable number of attendees, and (6) which organizer should serve as the primary contact.


As you develop a plan for your SIG proposal, please pay attention to accessibility considerations. Follow recommendations found in the Guide to an Accessible Submission. If you have any questions or concerns about creating accessible submissions, please contact the Accessibility Chairs at accessibility2023@cscw.acm.org.


All deadlines are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time


Selection process

Although the process is highly selective, it does not necessarily follow a reviewing process by a committee, and authors should not expect to receive formal feedback on their submission other than the selection decision. Specifically, we will consider the following criteria:


  1. Appeal to the community: Is the topic both timely and of wide enough appeal to attract a significant audience? At the same time, is the topic sufficiently focused to allow for productive discussion during the SIG meeting? Too narrow, and the SIG might attract too few people; too broad, and it is difficult for progress to be made in the relatively short duration of a SIG.

  2. Format: Is the proposed format conducive to discussion and shared insight? Will it be possible to achieve its aims? SIGs are not workshops, nor project showcases, nor tutorials.

  3. Diversity of perspective: It helps to be able to show that the SIG will be able to encompass a wide perspective, and that the organizers can accommodate and facilitate discussion across this breadth. Places to show this are in the description of the intended community, the assumed attendee background, and the home institutions and disciplines of the organizers.

  4. Continuity: Does the SIG support the development of a longer term interest group, for example follow-on SIGs or other types of contributions at subsequent CSCW and other conferences? If the topic is a very recent or new one, or a revival of an old topic, then arguments will need to be made, to demonstrate that it is a topic that will persist, rather than simply being this year’s fashion. If the topic is a continuation of previous SIG(s), then it is necessary to present the latest developments of the topic and their projection into the future.

  5. Anonymity: Submissions should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time. Submissions should NOT be anonymous. However, confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the start of the conference, with the exception of title and author information which will be published on the website prior to the conference.


Upon Acceptance of Your Submission

The corresponding author of a conditionally accepted paper has to follow the instructions on preparing and submitting a final version by the Publication-Ready Deadline. If the authors cannot meet these requirements by the Publication-Ready deadline, the venue chairs will be notified and may be required to remove the paper from the program. The publication-ready version has to follow the LaTeX and Word templates from ACM. Should you need technical assistance, please direct your technical query to: pubs2023@cscw.acm.org.


For more details, check the website:


https://cscw.acm.org/2023/index.php/submit-sig/


Thanks for your time and we hope to see you at CSCW 2023!


Best,

Brian McInnis and Sayan Sarcar

sigs2023@cscw.acm.org