CFP: Career Advancement Research Grant (2023)
The Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC) invites interested members to apply for Career Advancement Research Grants up to $1,200. Proposed research projects should promote research pertaining to the design of communication, including (though not limited to) information design, information architecture, content development, user experience, help and documentation (traditional and user-contributed), social media, as well as technology that supports and enhances communication. The research methods should be rigorous and clearly situated within the fields of technical communication, user experience, and/or communication design.
These grants are specifically designed for early career and/or junior faculty who are working on one of their first major projects related to the design of communication. We encourage scholars at all levels to apply, especially doctoral students and members at non-research institutions, and we look forward to opportunities to support emerging scholarship in addition to established scholars.
Funds would be distributed as taxable income to awardees and may be used for expenses, materials, salary, or other research assistance. Grant recipients will also receive a registration cost waiver to the SIGDOC conference in the year following the allocation of their grant and will be invited to present their research in person. Since the amount is rather small, we suggest not working with your institution’s department of research.
Applications
To apply for a SIGDOC research grant, interested SIGDOC members should submit a 3-page proposal that contains the following information:
- Project title on all pages
- Name, title, institutional affiliation, and contact information for the project
investigator(s), on page 1, separable from items 3-6 (not included in page count) - Brief project description
- Discussion of the significance of the project to members of SIGDOC and
identification of how the research will be published/made available - Outline of the project methodology or research tasks, including plans for IRB
approval if human subjects are involved in any capacity - Description of how the stipend will support the research project
Evaluation
Three members of the Executive Committee (EC) score anonymous versions of the proposals. The EC members score the submissions along a five-point scale using the following three questions:
- Is this project clear in its goals?
- Is the methodology of high quality and sufficient rigor?
- Does this research fulfill the mission of SIGDOC?
Submission
Applications must be emailed to sigdocacm@gmail.com no later than 11:59 on November 15, 2023. Winners will be selected by December 7, 2023 in time for projects planned for spring 2024 or later. All applicants must be members of SIGDOC. To become a member, visit the ACM website. Recipients will be expected to produce a one-page report of their progress one year after receiving their grant. The SIG would also like to be informed of any final publications resulting from the project. Recipients are encouraged to submit their research to SIGDOC’s Communication Design Quarterly.
Questions
Please direct any questions to current Chair or Secretary-Treasurer.
Past Recipients
Past winners’ applications are linked to a PDF copy, if available.
2023
- “Recontextualizing the Document Design of Patient Information Leaflets” — Edzordzi Agbozo, Assistant Professor at UNC Wilmington
- “Dismantling Barriers to Publishing: Identifying Types of Negative Review Experiences and Strategies for Mitigating Them” — Hannah Stevens, Ph.D. Candidate, Utah State University
2022
- “Designing Crisis Crowdsourcing: A Dynamic Critical Interface Analysis of Crisis Response Documentation in China” — Chen Chen, Ph.D., Utah State University; Yeqing Kong, Ph.D., UNC Wilmington; and Lin Dong, Ph.D., University of International Business and Economics (Beijing, China)
- “Leveraging Wiki’s Connective Intelligence in the UX Classroom” — Mai Nou Xiong-Gum, Ph.D., Furman University and Laura Roberts, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Platteville
2021
- “Readying for Risk: Analyzing and Creating Effective Company Safety Initiatives” — Joseph E. Williams, Ph.D, Louisiana Tech University
- “Increasing Access to and Usability of Health Communications for Alaska Natives in Rural Alaska” — Jessica Lynn Campbell, Ph.D, University of Alabama in Huntsville
2020
- “Exploring Risk and Crisis Communication Practices of Transnational Feminists in Ensuring Equity and Justice During COVID-19” — Sweta Baniya, Ph.D, Virginia Tech
- “Queer Becomings: The Ethics, Rhetoric, and Materiality of Care in Trans Networks” — Avery Edenfield, Ph.D, Utah State University
2019
- “Ideals and Realities: Exploring Usability in Born-Digital Scholarship”—Rob Grace, Ph.D and Jason Tham, Ph.D.
- “Social Media Article Visualizer Project”—Stephen Carradini, Ph.D.
2018
- “Participatory Communication Design of Mapping Borderlands: Decolonizing Cartographic Information Design and Creating a Participatory Mapping Interface”—Eda Ozyesilpinar, Ph.D. and Victor Del Hierro, Ph.D.
- “Improving the Design of Visual Risk Communication through a Content Analysis of a Crowdsourced Public Health App’s Existing User Comments”—Kristin Bivens, Ph.D. and Candice A. Welhausen, Ph.D.
2017
- “Designing a Multilingual User Experience Research Center to Support Language Accessibility in a Binational Community”—Laura Gonzalez, Ph.D.
- “Story Mapping and Sea Level Rise: Bringing a Global Risk Home”—Daniel P. Richards, Ph.D., and Sonia H. Stephens, Ph.D.