SIGIR 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 SIGIR 2024 Doctoral Consortium (DC) will provide a unique opportunity for doctoral students to explore and develop their research interests under the guidance of distinguished researchers from both academia and industry.
We invite students to apply for this unique opportunity, which will allow them to share their work with their peers as well as with senior researchers in the field. The DC is particularly suited for candidates who have made some research progress, but who are not so far along that they can no longer make changes in their research plans. Typically, this means that they have defined their topic and have completed some research, but still have at least a year of research remaining before completing a dissertation (in many universities this corresponds to the dissertation proposal stage).
The objectives of the Doctoral Consortium are:
- To provide a forum where doctoral students can present and discuss their research with experienced IR researchers: the members of the Doctoral Consortium Program Committee.
- To provide students with an opportunity to establish a supportive community, including other doctoral students at a similar stage of their dissertation research.
- Contribute to the conference goals through interaction with other researchers and conference events.
Important Dates for Doctoral Consortium Papers
- Time zone: Anywhere on Earth (AoE)
- Papers due: February 28, 2024
- Notifications: March 25, 2024
Consortium Format and Participation Expectations
The DC will usually take place the day before the main conference. We anticipate student presentations with plenary discussions, individual 1:1 meetings with experienced researchers, and interactive networking sessions.
To apply to participate in the DC, doctoral students should submit a paper up to 5 pages (including all figures and references) along with a 1-page appendix (for details please see the submission guidelines below).
Candidates will be selected based on the potential of their research for future impact on the field of information retrieval, as well as for the likely benefit to the student from participating in the DC. Note that SIGIR 2024 DC is deeply committed to improving the field of IR by making it more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. We highly encourage women and students from other underrepresented groups to apply.
For each selected student, a one page extended abstract will be published in the conference proceedings. Extended abstracts will be invited after selection and should not be submitted with the submission. Details will be shared with camera-ready instructions upon acceptance.
Doctoral students who submit to the DC are allowed to have previously published their research and are encouraged to submit their work to the different SIGIR 2024 tracks and associated workshops.
Priority is given to students chosen to attend the Consortium when travel grants are determined for the conference. Application details for travel grants will be available on the SIGIR 2024 website (you must apply for the grant to be considered).
Submission Guidelines
The submitted paper, solely authored by the student, will be the basis for selection to participate in the DC and subsequent detailed discussions at the Consortium. Therefore, the submitted paper should include:
- Motivation for the proposed research.
- Background and related work (including key references).
- Description of the proposed research, including main research questions.
- Research methodology and proposed experiments (where appropriate).
- Specific research issues for discussion at the Doctoral Consortium
In addition, the paper should include a 1-page appendix (placed after the references) with:
- A detailed statement by the student explaining why they want to participate in the SIGIR 2024 DC at this point in their doctoral studies, and how they hope it will contribute to the development of their work and potential future career.
- A statement by the student’s advisor/supervisor saying how the student would benefit by attending the DC. Advisors should also specifically state 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.
Format Requirements
Doctoral students should submit their papers for review in a ACM two-column conference format. Suitable LaTeX, Word, and Overleaf templates for SIGIR are available from the ACM Website (use the ‘sigconf’ proceedings template).
The paper should be no more than 5 pages in length (including all figures and references) and one page for appendix. The first page must contain the title of the paper, full author name, affiliation, and contact details, an abstract of up to 250 words, ACM Computing Classification System (CCS) categories, and up to 3 keywords describing the topic areas. Information about categories and keywords can be found on ACM Web pages on the computing classification system.
It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that their submissions use no unusual format features and are printable on a standard printer. Submissions will be reviewed by the members of the DC Program Committee.
Authors are strongly encouraged to provide “alt text” (alternative text) for floats (images, tables, etc.) in their content so that readers with disabilities can be given descriptive information for these floats that are important to the work. The descriptive text will be displayed in place of a float if the float cannot be loaded. This benefits the author as well as it broadens the reader base for the author’s work. Moreover, the alt text provides in-depth float descriptions to search engine crawlers, which helps to properly index these floats. Additionally, authors should follow the ACM Accessibility Recommendations for Publishing in Color and SIG ACCESS guidelines on describing figures.
DC submissions should be submitted in PDF through the EasyChair system (Doctoral
Consortium track):
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sigir24.
Review Process and Selection Criteria
Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. Submissions should contain no information or materials that are proprietary at publication time.
Doctoral student papers will be evaluated by the DC Program Committee based on:
- Originality of the work with respect to current concepts and techniques (provide relevant citations).
- Importance of the work with respect to fundamental issues in information retrieval (clearly identify the problems you are trying to solve).
- Rigor and validity of claims, argumentation, methodology, results, and interpretations.
- Clarity and persuasiveness of expression.
To provide maximum feedback to each student, participation in the DC is limited. Selection is based on three broad criteria:
- The degree to which the applicant is positioned to benefit from participation, including the student’s position in the doctoral process (the greatest benefit is for students with a developed research idea but much of the work yet undone).
- The degree to which the student may otherwise lack access to a diverse set of feedback and input on their research plans (e.g., availability of local experts and advisors).
- Diversity of participation, including diversity by institution, country, research topic and approach, and demographics. In general, we might limit participation to one or two students per institution, depending on the number of applicants.
Doctoral Consortium Chairs
- Hui Fang, University of Delaware
- Lizi Liao, Singapore Management University
Contact
For further information, please contact the SIGIR 2024 DC Co-chairs by email to sigir24-dc@easychair.org.