Participate

Call for conference tracks

Deadline: 15 December 2025

(Please note that proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and the call may close earlier if a sufficient number of high-quality tracks are accepted.)

We are now welcoming proposals for the IP&MC2026 conference tracks. All accepted tracks are guaranteed to be published as a special issue in either the journal Information Processing & Management (IP&M) or Data and Information Manage (DIM). The track organizers must be a diverse group demographically, geographically, and methodologically.

The conference committee will evaluate each proposal. Accepted proposals will serve a dual role: they will be established as official thematic tracks for the conference, AND they will be published as special issues in either IP&M or DIM. The committee will route each accepted track to the most appropriate journal based on its thematic alignment. This centralized evaluation and routing process ensures the best fit for every accepted track.

For consistency, all applicants should prepare their track proposal using the Guidelines for Special Issues — Information Processing & Management, as this will serve as the unified template for all submissions.

In exceptional cases where a proposal demonstrates outstanding significance and broad relevance to both journals, the conference committee, in consultation with the Editors-in-Chief of IP&M and DIM, may extend a special invitation to develop a joint special issue. Please be advised that this is an invitation-only opportunity and is not open to direct application.

Overview

Thematic tracks organized by experts in a particular area constitute the core of IP&MC2026. These tracks will provide forums for the discussion of novel topics in the fields of computational, communication, or information science among an international group of researchers.

IP&MC2026 is committed to being a premier conference-journal outlet in the computational information science fields, including user analytics, social media computing, information searching, information behavior, human-centered AI, and related areas. This scope includes human-computer interaction (HCI) aspects of any area in the computational information science field.

We, therefore, welcome a broad range of thematic tracks. If you have an original, impactful thematic track that you believe will convey something important, the IP&MC community members want to know about it. Sample topics for thematic tracks could be, but are not limited to:

1. Foundations and Evolving Paradigms in Information Science

• Foundations of AI-Augmented Information Retrieval

• Knowledge Organization in the Era of Generative AI

• Future Visions: Cognitive Information Systems and Post-Retrieval Paradigms

• Theorizing Information Science from a Socio-Technical Perspective

2. Human-Centered Interaction and Sensemaking

• Human–AI Collaboration and Interactive Information Systems

• Information Behavior, Sensemaking, and Cognitive Interfaces

• Evaluation Paradigms for Generative and Conversational Systems

• Human Interaction with Autonomous and Agentic AI Systems

3. Data, Integrity, and Lifecycle Management

• Data Quality, Integrity, and Trust in AI Systems

• Data Curation, Lifecycle Management, and Automation

• Multimodal Information Processing and Fusion

• Data as a Strategic Asset: Governance, Strategy, and Value Creation

4. Ethics, Policy, and Responsible AI Governance

• Ethics, Governance, and Responsible Information Management

• LLMs as Knowledge Infrastructures with Transparency and Accountability

• Challenges and Frameworks for Governing the Societal Impact of AI

5. Applied Intelligence Across Domains

• Domain-Specific AI for Science, Health, Finance, Government, and Education

• Opportunities and Perils of Applied AI: Bright and Dark Sides Across Domains

Track Submission

The selection process for thematic tracks is highly competitive. While there is no predetermined limit on the number of accepted tracks, our goal is to build a high-quality, coherent, and impactful scientific program. Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis against criteria of novelty, significance, and fit with the conference theme. We encourage early submission as the review process will conclude once a sufficient number of outstanding tracks have been accepted. Proposals are welcome on or before 15 December 2025. Reviews of proposal submissions will be rolling.

Responsibilities of Thematic Track Chairs

Thematic track chairs will have roles and responsibilities similar to those of guest editors of a journal special issue. Track chairs are required to manage the peer review process for all submissions within their track, ensuring that the evaluation criteria align with the rigorous scientific standards of both IP&M and DIM.

The primary responsibilities of the track chairs are, in chronological order:

• Promoting the Track: Actively advertising the IP&MC track through various channels and inviting top researchers to submit their work.

• Managing Peer Review: Coordinating a rigorous and timely review process for all submitted papers (aiming for 2 to 5 reviews per paper).

• Making Recommendations: Making initial acceptance recommendations to the IP&MC conference chairs based on the reviews.

• Communicating: Serving as the primary point of contact for the track’s authors and the conference chairs.

• Organizing the Session: Planning and scheduling the track's in-person session program for the conference.

• Leading the Session: Attending the conference

  in-person

  to lead the track session as a discussant (See discussant roles:

  https://cies2021.org/faq/what-are-the-discussants-roles-and-responsibilities/

  )

Important Dates

The deadline for submitting thematic track proposals is December 15, 2025. However, proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and the call may close earlier if a sufficient number of high-quality tracks are accepted. We therefore strongly encourage early submission. The final list of accepted Tracks for IP&MC2026 (which will also be special issues in IP&M or DIM) will be announced by 31 December 2025.

Call for papers and posters 

Manuscript submission will open on the 1 January 2026

IP&MC2026 offers a unique integrated model, combining the benefits of conference feedback with the prestige of journal and proceedings publication in a single, seamless stream. We invite submissions of original, unpublished research across three categories: Full Papers, Short Papers, and Posters. All submitted work must not be under review elsewhere.

Full Papers (Journal & Proceedings Publication)

Journal Publication: Authors should submit their manuscripts by selecting the "Full Paper" submission type. All submissions should adhere to the IP&M Author Guidelines. Accepted full papers must be presented at the conference and, with revisions based on conference feedback, published as journal articles in a special issue of either IP&M or DIM.

Proceedings Publication (Optional): In addition to the journal publication, authors of full papers will have the option to submit a condensed version of their work for the conference proceedings. This submission should be a maximum of 4 pages, plus references, and will be published in Procedia Computer Science if the corresponding full paper submission is accepted by the conference (e.g., as a full paper, short paper, or poster presentation). Authors choosing this option should submit the proceeding version via selecting the "Poster" type, noting in a cover letter that the submission is a companion to a full paper submission.

Short Papers (Proceedings Publication)

Proceedings Publication: Short paper submissions should be 6-8 pages in length, plus references. Accepted short papers will be scheduled for an oral presentation at the conference. The final camera-ready papers (a maximum of 4 pages, plus references) will be published in the conference proceedings in Procedia Computer Science.

Posters (Proceedings Publication)

Proceedings Publication: Posters should be a maximum of 4 pages, plus references. Accepted posters will be part of a dedicated poster session at the conference and published in conference proceedings in Procedia Computer Science.

Important Dates

Manuscript submission will open on or about 1 January 2026 with a deadline on or about 31 July 2026.

Submission Guidelines

All submissions for IP&MC2026 are managed through the Elsevier OA Submission System, which provides step-by-step guidance for entering your research details and uploading your files. To ensure your submission is correctly categorized, authors should select the appropriate submission type—Full Paper, Short Paper, or Poster—when prompted during the submission process.

In the OA system, the "thematic tracks" are listed under the "Category" section. Please pay attention to selecting the correct thematic tracks when submitting.

Each work may only be submitted to a single submission type (Full Paper, Short Paper, or Poster). An exception is made for authors of Full Papers, who have an additional, optional path to submit a condensed version of their work as a poster. If you do so, you must state in your cover letter that this poster submission is a companion to your full paper. For detailed instructions on this process, please refer to the “Full Papers” section.

Important notes

• All submissions will be handled by the respective Track Chairs, who will manage the peer-review process and make the final decisions (i.e., acceptance or rejection) based on the expert reviewers' evaluations.

• Only submissions accepted through Elsevier OA system will be considered as official acceptance for the conference.

• All Full Papers and Short Papers must be presented

  in-person

  at the conference.

• You can submit as many abstracts to the conference for review as you would like. If, after the review by the committee, you have more than one paper accepted for the conference, you will need to register to attend and pay an additional paper fee for each additional paper (i.e., for the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th papers – not the 1^st). Please note this is for papers that you are the presenting author of, not papers that you are co-author of.

• Successfully submitted abstracts will be acknowledged with an electronic receipt including an abstract reference number, which should be quoted in all correspondence. Allow at least 2 hours for your receipt to be returned to you. Once the paper is accepted, at least one of the authors must register for the conference and present the paper at the conference.

• Abstracts of all accepted contributions will be included within the online abstract system which will be distributed to all registered conference participants.

For revisions or queries regarding papers already submitted:

If you do not receive acknowledgement for your abstract submission or you wish to make any essential revisions to an abstract already submitted, please DO NOT RESUBMIT your abstract, as this may lead to duplication. Please contact the Conference Content Executive (Please do not email credit card information under any circumstances) with details of any revisions or queries. Please quote your reference number if you have one.