The Perspectives Paper Track solicits papers presenting original ideas and research vision bringing attention to novel directions in information retrieval research. We are particularly calling for papers offering (1) novel, exploratory solutions with sufficient experimental support or proof, (2) visions describing a new or open problem in information retrieval research, and (3) a novel perspective on existing information retrieval research.
Perspectives papers are considered SIGIR full papers. Accepted perspectives papers will appear in the SIGIR 2022 main conference proceedings.
Important Dates
Time zone: Anywhere on Earth (AoE)
Perspectives papers due: Mon, Feb 14, 2022
Perspectives paper notifications: Thu, Mar 31, 2022
Submission Guidelines
Perspectives papers are expected to have a high component of novelty. Perspectives papers can also address an understudied, open problem in IR, which may receive less attention in the full paper track. However, perspectives papers should still support their ideas with sufficient scientific argumentation, and where appropriate experimentation or proof. The papers also require high clarity in presentation.
Difference between regular full papers and perspectives papers
Perspectives submissions do not require new empirical results that outperform a state-of-the-art baseline, unlike traditional SIGIR submissions. However, perspectives submissions that focus on novel, exploratory solutions still need to support their ideas with sufficient experimental evidence.
Perspectives submissions that focus on novel perspectives on existing problems, or new research vision do not require empirical results but still are expected to defend their position with solid scientific arguments based on the relevant literature. In-depth discussions and explanations of implications are also expected.
Examples of Appropriate Perspectives Submissions
- Submissions presenting novel, exploratory solutions that have never previously been applied to information retrieval tasks.
- Submissions presenting novel solutions from outside the information retrieval community that may enable fundamental, significant advances in information retrieval.
- Research trajectory/agenda for a new and currently unsolved information retrieval problem, with solid support from literature demonstrating that it has not been addressed.
- Proposals envisioning a uniquely different solution for a resolved problem using evidence from the literature (possibly from other disciplines) and/or proof-of-concept.
- A scientific critique of a core assumption underlying information retrieval research or systems, supported by relevant literature from other disciplines and/or sufficient experimental evidence.
Examples of Inappropriate Perspectives Submissions
- A submission that is suitable for the SIGIR full paper track but with lower quality.
- A literature review without novel arguments.
- A submission without sufficient connection to information retrieval.
- An opinion piece about a core assumption underlying information retrieval research without scientific evidence or support from the relevant literature.
Reviewing criteria
A separate reviewing committee will review the perspectives papers. The reviewing will be a similarly rigorous process that all regular SIGIR papers go through. However, the reviewing criteria will be different from the full paper track, with a high novelty component being taken into consideration.
Submissions will be evaluated using the following criteria:
- Novelty: Are people already studying this problem in the information retrieval community? In other communities?
- Conceptual leap: How does it change our way of thinking about a problem, a method, or its execution? How much will research in this area advance our state of knowledge?
- Depth of impact: How many supporting subproblems requiring foundational research might arise from the observations in the submission?
- Breadth of impact: What stakeholders inside or outside of the SIGIR community are impacted?
- Relevance to SIGIR: Who from the SIGIR community might this problem be directly relevant to?
Format
Submissions of perspectives papers must be written in English. The page length limit is at most 9 pages (including figures, tables, and proofs), plus unrestricted space for references. The submission should be in PDF, using the current ACM two-column conference format. Suitable LaTeX, Word, and Overleaf templates are available from the ACM Website (use the "sigconf" proceedings template).
Submissions should be submitted electronically via EasyChair. Note the perspectives track must be selected in the submission form. The submission site is:
https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=sigir22.
At least one author of an accepted paper is required to register for and present the work at the conference.
Anonymity
The perspectives paper review process is double-blind. Authors are required to be responsible for preserving the anonymity of their submission. The submission must not include the author's information and must not include citations or discussion of related work that would make the authorship apparent. While authors may upload to institutional or other preprint repositories such as arXiv.org, we generally discourage this because it places anonymity and a fair review at risk. If the paper is already on arXiv, please change the title and abstract so that it is not immediately obvious they are the same. Do not upload the paper to a preprint site after submission to SIGIR—wait until the notification deadline to avoid reviewers seeing the paper in daily digests or other places. Submissions breaking anonymity risk being desk rejected.
Authors should carefully go through ACM’s authorship policy before submitting a paper. To identify reviewers with conflict of interests (COIs), we request the complete author list must be specified at submission time. No changes to authorship will be permitted after the submission deadline under any circumstance.
Perspectives Papers Chairs
- Filip Radlinski, Google
- Grace Hui Yang, Georgetown University
Contact
For further information, please contact the SIGIR 2022 Perspectives Co-chairs by email to sigir22-perspectives AT easychair DOT org.