SIGDOC 2023

Orlando, FL | October 26-28, 2023

When: October 26-27, 2023

Proposals due: Friday, May 6th, 2023

SRC Registration Page [external link to event.com]

ACM's official SRC logo

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on the Design of Communication (SIGDOC) invites undergraduate and graduate students to submit a proposal to this year’s Student Research Competition (SRC). The SRC offers a forum for students to present their original research at an ACM-sponsored conference before a panel of judges and attendees. Participants also have the option of preparing an Extended Abstract to be published in the conference proceedings.

SRC participants are responsible for ACM student membership, which begins at $19/year. Conference registration fees will be waived for participants at the student member rate. Participants will be reimbursed for travel expenses to the conference. We are still finalizing the reimbursement amounts based on conference budget and sponsorships, but this will be at least $200 per person and up to a maximum of $500.

Download the CFP as a PDF.

What is the SRC?

The SRC consists of two rounds of competition at the conference, as well as the possibility to move on to a grand finals competition at a later date. A list of SRCs from other ACM Special Interest Groups for 2023 are available here: https://src.acm.org/submissions. You may also check out SIGDOC SRC extended abstracts published in the conference proceedings in past years here: https://dl.acm.org/conference/doc/proceedings.

Winners will be chosen in each division, undergraduate and graduate. Winners will receive a medal and $500, $300, and $200 prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, respectively.

Three Rounds of Competition

1 Poster Session: The first round of competition is a poster session. This is your opportunity to present your research in the areas specified in the Call for Submissions. Judges will review the posters live and speak to participants about their research; five semi-finalists from each division (undergraduate and graduate) will be chosen to present at the second round of the competition.

2 Oral Presentation: Semi-finalists continue by giving a short oral presentation of their research before a panel of judges, with supporting slides/visual aids. Evaluations are based on the presenter’s knowledge of their research area, contribution of the research, and the quality of the oral and visual presentation. Three winners will be chosen in each division (undergraduate and graduate) and will receive a medal and $500, $300, and $200, respectively.

3 The SRC Grand Finals: First-place undergraduate and graduate student winners from the SRC have the option to advance to the SRC Grand Finals. A different panel of judges evaluates SIGDOC winners against winners from other ACM Special Interest Groups online. Three undergraduates and three graduates will be chosen as the SRC Grand Finals winners.

Proposal Information

Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit proposals of up to 800 words on topics related to communication design, technical communication, and/or user experience including, but not limited to:

  • Content strategy
  • User experience design and experience architecture
  • Learning systems and environments
  • Open source design solutions
  • Collaborative platforms
  • Design methods and principles
  • Digital humanities and design
  • Project management
  • Information design and architecture
  • International and intercultural communication design
  • Computer-mediated communication
  • Social impacts of technical communication

Proposals must be sent directly to both of the SRC Chairs: Dr. Chen Chen (chen.chen@usu.edu) and Dr. Daniel Richards (dprichar@odu.edu). Up to 15 undergraduate and 15 graduate students will be selected to enter the SRC, to be held at SIGDOC ’23 in Orlando, FL, USA. Students must attend in-person to compete in the SRC.

Important Due Dates

This year’s SRC will include a first round poster session on October 26 and second round presentation October 27. To participate in the SRC, please observe the following due dates:

  • Proposals due: Friday, May 6th, 2023
  • Acceptances by May 20th, 2023
  • Extended Abstracts (optional) due: June 26th, 2023
  • Reviewer comments back by July 15th, 2023
  • Final version of Extended Abstracts (optional) due: August 12th, 2023

Requirements for Participation

SRC participants are responsible for ACM student membership, which begins at $19/year. Conference registration fees will be waived for participants at the student member rate. The other requirements for participation in the SRC are:

  • You must be a current SIGDOC student member
  • If selected, you must register for the SIGDOC 2023 conference
  • You must still be a student at the time of the conference
  • You must apply by submitting a proposal of no more than 800 words on a topic of relevance to SIGDOC
  • Undergraduates may propose individual or team-based research. Graduate students must propose individual research projects
  • For undergraduate teams, one person should be designated by the team to attend the conference and make the oral presentation
  • If you propose to the SRC, you can also propose to the main SIGDOC conference only if you are proposing a different project or if you are a co-presenter