Student Research Competition – FAQ

What are the benefits of entering the SRC?

The SRC is a great opportunity to share your work with other students, researchers, and professional communicators.
You’ll get feedback on your project from the SRC judges.
If you place first, second, or third in the competition, you’ll receive a monetary award ($500, $300, and $200 respectively). Winners also have the opportunity to participate in the national ACM Grand Finals.

You enter the SRC by submitting a proposal of 400–600 words to the conference website. Your abstract is evaluated by the reviewers, then if it is accepted, you will be invited to participate in the competition.
All SRC participants have the option of writing a 2-page extended abstract about their research project. You will receive feedback on your extended abstract, and have the opportunity to revise it for publication in the conference proceedings.

We are trying a new approach this year: a two-track calendar for submissions. Ready to share a project now? Submit your proposal by February 1, 2025 for an early decision and more time to write an extended abstract for the proceedings. Need a little more time, or want to share a Spring 2025 project? We’ll take your submission until April 30, 2025 — and you can still write an extended abstract if accepted.

At the conference itself, the SRC is a two-round process: first presenting your research at a poster session, and then a second oral presentation session for those who are selected to go on to the next round.
Students cannot present the same project in both the main conference and the SRC. For example, you could enter the SRC individually with one project, and the main conference with a team, but the projects must not be closely related. We recommend presenting in the SRC at least once before proposing a session for the main conference, but you are welcome to make this decision on your own in consultation with your faculty advisor.
Please do not submit to both the main conference and the SRC — this raises the workload for SIGDOC members reviewing proposals.

If you’re a current student and expect to continue to be enrolled in your current program at the time of the SIGDOC conference, then yes!
Otherwise, no. Unfortunately, the SRC is only open to students who will be enrolled as students at the time the conference is underway — October 24–25, 2025.

Research projects are “the result of a systematic investigation into some type of phenomenon.” In order to be accepted to the SIGDOC conference, your research topic should fit into the general areas of communication design, professional and technical communication, and/or user experience design. Projects could be either practical/empirical or theoretical. There are many possibilities!
Many students present on a project they have been working on for a course or an independent study project. Some specific examples include
1. studying the social implications of communication design (e.g., how people react to a communication tool, or how a product affects a particular group of users),
2. analyzing specific examples of communication (e.g., an app, website, or outreach campaign), or
3. user-centered project development (e.g., involving users in usability testing or user-centered design when building a tool).

Think of your poster as a graphical representation of your research project. The poster should convey what you did, why you did it, and what you discovered. However, it should also be easily readable and not too cluttered or text-heavy.
You can create a poster using graphic design software (e.g., Illustrator, InDesign, Publisher, Canva), or slideshare software (e.g., PowerPoint),.
We recommend you plan not only your poster, but also the pitches you’ll use to interact with conference attendees. Here’s some help on both: Making Research Posters, by Bradley Dilger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-uujNxL1Qw

In general, judges want to see that you can clearly explain what you did and why, and that you can connect your project to larger issues and questions in your field. You should be prepared to answer questions about the methods and theories that you used, explain why your project is unique and/or valuable, and outline possible next steps for your research.
Your visuals should be clear, helpful, and attractive (SIGDOC is a design conference, of course!), but it’s also important to sound confident when presenting your work. It’s normal to be a bit nervous, but practicing can help you prepare you for the presentation and questions. Practicing in front of other people can be very helpful, especially if they know enough about your field to ask you questions so you can practice answering those as well.
You should also prepare your talk and slide presentation for the second round of the competition before coming to the conference. Think of this as writing an award acceptance speech in case you win.

SRC participants will all present their work via posters. You should have a brief introduction prepared about your project (what you did, why, and what you found) to share with your audience. Keep this short — about a minute.
Judges will ask you questions, so you should be prepared to discuss the details of your project. You should work with the poster to tell the story of your research, pointing to specific sections or visuals as needed.
Remember that judges have multiple posters to judge, and they probably want to see other posters too. So take care to introduce your project and answer their questions — but keep it brief.

The day after the poster session, students who are selected to move to the second round will give oral presentations of their work in a special conference session.
All students selected will present in turn, and then the audience (including judges) will ask questions across all the presentations, as in a regular conference panel. The specific time allotted for each presenter and the Q&A will be determined once the number of second round participants is finalized. Expect 10± minutes for the presentation and then 15 minutes of Q&A.

Students usually dress in business or business casual attire. Pick an outfit that helps you be comfortable. Conference venues are often overly air-conditioned, so it’s a good idea to wear a jacket or sweater.
We want to acknowledge that conference attire is a complex topic, as professional clothing has classist, heteronormative, sexist, and racist implications. SIGDOC strives to create a welcoming environment for all, so it’s unlikely that you will be judged on the price tag of your outfit or whether your presentation conforms to gender-normative standards.

The judges will give you written feedback on your research, visuals, and the actual presentation of your work. Usually this will include evaluation of your presentation, and suggestions for improving your presentation skills. Judges may also suggest next steps for your research.