PAPER SUBMISSION

ISIC 2018: The Information Behaviour Conference

Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, 9-11 October 2018

(doctoral and pre-conference workshops - 8 October 2021)

2nd Call for Papers
We invite submissions of full papers, short papers, workshops, and panels.

ISIC 2018 is the twelfth ISIC conference. The ISIC conferences have a reputation for being an arena for discussing challenging work concerning people’s contextualised interactions with information of various kinds.

Keynote lectures by:
Professor Lisa M. Given, Swinburne University of Technology
Professor Paul Dourish, University of California, Irvine
Dr. Sabina Cisek & Dr. Monika Krakowska, Jagiellonian University

ISIC is multidisciplinary in scope: researchers from information science, information studies, library studies, communication studies, information management, education, management science, psychology, social psychology, sociology, STS, information systems, computer science, and other disciplines contribute to the research field. A common thread is the focus on contextualised information activities, expressed in different framings such as ‘information behaviour’, ‘information practice’, ‘information seeking’ ‘information experience’ and others.

The ISIC conference is particularly interested in analytical rather than descriptive investigations. The language of the conference will be only English and translators will not be available.

Associate Professor Theresa Dirndorfer Anderson,

Chair, Permanent ISIC Committee

Assistant Professor Remigiusz Sapa

Chair, ISIC2018 Committee

See also:

Important dates

Author guidelines

Call for doctoral workshop

Call for pre-conference workshop proposals

We invite proposals for ISIC 2018 panels

We especially encourage the submission of full or short papers. Panel submissions need to meet with the same high standards as papers. Although preference will be given to research and conceptual papers, panel discussions that make a solid contribution to the conference theme will be considere.

Any proposals should be submitted by e-mail to the ISIC2018 Conference Organisation Office (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) as a document (.doc or .docx extension)

Proposals should include (use following subtitles in your submission):

• Title of panel:

• Short abstract: Approximately 1 000 words

• Organizer(s): Names and affiliations of the moderator and other organizers or participants (if known)

• Length: Panels will be 90 minutes in length

• Participants: Expected/preferred number of participants

• Proposed format: Including draft schedule, explanation of how it will engage with the audience (approximately 300-350 words)

• Purpose, goals, expected outcomes and contribution to the conference theme (approximately 300-350 words)

• Special requests/equipment needs

Proposals will be peer-reviewed. Note that panels are expected to be based on (panel) discussion and active exchange of ideas instead of being sessions consisting of a series of paper presentations.

Paper Format

Full papers

The maximum length of a full paper is 5 500 words (excluding the list of references). Full paper submissions must describe original and unpublished work. The full paper should be prepared by following the author guidelines (http://www.isic2018.com/index.php/paper-submission/author-guidelines) and submitted for review on the template provided by the organisers in .doc format.

Short papers

ISIC2018 also solicits short papers. Similar to full papers, short paper submissions must describe original and unpublished work. Please note that a short paper is not a shortened long paper. Instead short papers should have a point that can be made in a few pages. Characteristics of short papers include:

• A small, focused contribution
• Work in progress

The maximum length of a short paper is 2 000 words (excluding the list of references). The short paper should be prepared by following the author guidelines (http://www.isic2018.com/index.php/paper-submission/author-guidelines) and submitted for review on the template provided by the organisers in .doc format.

Poster presentation

Posters provide an opportunity for an informal presentation featuring “give and take” with conference attendees. Presenting a poster is also a good way in which to discuss and receive feedback on a work in progress that has not been fully developed into a paper. The topic of a poster presentation is not limited. However, the topic should be relevant to the themes of the conference specified above.

Poster presentations at ISIC2018 will be competitive and if your proposal is accepted, your poster will be displayed in a poster session during the conference. You will be expected to present your poster at that time. At least one author for each accepted poster must register for and attend the conference.

The format for a poster proposal should follow the guidelines: http://www.isic2018.com/index.php/paper-submission/author-guidelines

Workshop

We invite proposals for Workshops to be held at the ISIC2018 Conference. All proposals should be submitted by e-mail to the ISIC2018 Conference Organisation Office (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) as a .doc document, no later than January 15, 2018. Please follow the guidelines for Workshop proposals (http://www.isic2018.com/index.php/paper-submission/call-for-workshop-proposals)

Paper presentation

Paper presentation format in the conference includes 30 minutes for full papers and 20 minutes for short papers.

Panel

Panels should be designed for 90 minutes.

Conference proceedings

Full and short papers presented in the conference will be considered for publication in Information Research –   a peer-reviewed international electronic journal (http://www.informationr.net/ir/). For more information click here.

See also:

Important dates

Author guidelines

ISIC 2018 – The Information Conference

Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, 9-11 October 2018

1st Call for Papers

ISIC 2018 is the twelfth ISIC conference. The ISIC conferences have a reputation for being an arena for discussing challenging work concerning people’s contextualised interactions with information of various kinds.

ISIC is multidisciplinary in scope: researchers from information science, information studies, library studies, communication studies, information management, education, management science, psychology, social psychology, sociology, STS, information systems, computer science, and other disciplines contribute to the research field. A common thread is the focus on contextualised information activities, expressed in different framings such as ‘information behaviour’, ‘information practice’, ‘information seeking’ ‘information experience’ and others.

ISIC 2018 intends to reflect and engage with the interdisciplinary character of information activities research and seeks to attract papers from all of these areas. ISIC is a conference for research papers exploring information as a rich site of study, going beyond the sole focus on technological aspects and exploring a wide variety of contexts. This legacy is borne out in the publication of the conference proceedings since the first conference in the series over 20 years ago.

Themes of the conference include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Theoretical conceptualizations of the cultural, social, cognitive, affective, and situational aspects of information needs, seeking, searching, use and sharing.
2. Research approaches and methodologies employing and developing qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches.
3. Specific contexts:  e.g. in different sectors and organisations (health care, education, cultural heritage, libraries, business, industry, the public services and government, the emergency services and others); in everyday life, and in social networks, including social media, gaming or virtual worlds.
4. Collaborative information practices: communities, boundary spanning and innovation practices.
5. Information use and value: meanings of information and how information is used to help solve problems, aid or support decision-making.
6. Information metrics and analytics, social media and enterprise analytics.
7. The role of information in building and enhancing the adaptive capacity of organisations: strategy and information absorption, transformation and integration.
8. The mediation of information practice: how human or software agents (algorithms) can respond to and support information activities and the design of information delivery systems.
9. Cross-disciplinary contributions: integrating studies on information seeking and interactive retrieval; integrating information science, management science and information systems.
10. Critical investigations of information activities in contemporary society and of ethical challenges.

The ISIC conference is particularly interested in analytical rather than descriptive investigations.

See also:

Important dates

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Preparing Your Paper

1. The paper should be prepared as .doc or .docx file (max. 20 MB).
2. Full paper submissions may contain max. 5,500 words, and short paper submissions max. 2, 000 words – excluding the list of references. Please, use A4 paper format, with the following layout: top margin 3.5 cm; bottom margin 3.0 cm; left margin 3.0 cm; right margin 3.0 cm.
3. Papers must be written in British style English.
4. Papers must be written using Times New Roman font, single spacing; left side alignment; page numbers inserted on the upper right side.
5. Include a 200-word maximum structured abstract, including the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Analysis, Results and Conclusions (for details, see http://www.informationr.net/ir/author2.html).  In addition, select at least three keywords from the list of terms in the Information Research subject index found at http://www.informationr.net/ir/irsindex.html .
6. Avoid footnotes. If these cannot be avoided, locate them at the end of the text, just before the references.
7. Any tables or figures must be numbered and have captions at the bottom.
8. Follow the style in the Style Manual at http://www.informationr.net/ir/StyleManual.html.
9. Do not use ad hoc abbreviations and acronyms. For example, do not refer to “information behaviour” as IB.
10. Please remove any hidden data and personal information (name, surname, institution, cv, acknowledgements) from the uploaded document to ensure blind review.

A template for submissions can be downloaded using the following link: Information Research Template. Submit your paper by easychair.org through the ISIC2018 paper submission site at EasyChair ISIC 2018.

This site is managed using the EasyChair conference management system. If you do not have an EasyChair account, you have to sign up for an account by following the instruction on the site before submitting your paper. If you have any problems or questions about the electronic submission process using the EasyChair system, please feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Preparing Your Final Paper Submission

When you receive the final acceptance notification, you will be asked to (re)include all the removed author information, like author(s) name(s), affiliation(s) and self-cited references in the final paper version. At the end of the paper, before the References, add:
About the author(s) [First level heading] – Brief biographies of the authors should provide only the basic details of the author’s education, present position, research interests, full mailing address and contact e-mail address.

Other Paper Writing Guidelines for the Final Submission are the same as the guidelines for Preparing Your Paper stated above. Authors whose native language is not English are encouraged to have their manuscripts read by a native English-speaking colleague before (re)submission.

Preparing Your Poster

Please, limit your proposal for the poster to 2 pages. A list of the poster titles and authors will be included in the conference program. Poster proposals are not published in Information Research.

1. Proposer: include name, address, phone and fax numbers, email address (expect most correspondence by email), Web address (if applicable), etc. This item does not count in the page limit. Poster proposals do not undergo blind review, so this information should be included.
2. Statement of topic: a short title.
3. Significance and relevance of the topic (please, explain why the topic is significant).
4. Content: a description of the expected content of the poster.
5. Abstract: a short description of your poster (max. 250 words).

Submit your poster proposal by ISIC 2018 Template  through the ISIC2018 paper submission site at EasyChair ISIC 2018.
After the poster proposal is accepted you will be instructed to limit the size of the Poster to max. 70 x 100 cm. If you have any questions or comments concerning paper or poster submission please feel free to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Preparing Your Doctoral Workshop Submission

To apply as a student participant in the Doctoral Workshop, prepare a Thesis Summary, a short CV, and a Letter of Recommendation. More detailed guidelines: http://www.isic2018.com/index.php/paper-submission/pre-conference-doctoral-workshop

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ISIC 2018 Doctoral Workshop

Doctoral students are invited to submit an application for the participation in the Doctoral Workshop to be held in conjunction with the Information Seeking in Context Conference on Monday 8 October. During the Workshop, doctoral students will be invited to share their current dissertation work-in-progress with their peers and with an international panel of research mentors invited to take part in the Workshop.

The Workshop has the following objectives:

• To provide a setting for mutual feedback on participants’ current research, and guidance on future research directions;
• To develop a supportive community of scholars and a spirit of collaborative research;
• To contribute to the conference goals through interaction with other researchers and conference events.

Criteria for selection

Participants for the Doctoral Workshop will be selected on the basis of their anticipated contribution to the workshop goals. Emphasis will be placed on forming a diverse group of high quality students of approximately 20-24 selected participants. Students typically have settled on thesis directions, usually with a research proposal accepted by their thesis committee or departmental research committee. Further details on workshop activities will be available on the web site closer to the event.

How to apply

To apply as a student participant in the Doctoral Workshop, prepare a submission package consisting of the following:

1. Thesis Summary Paper: Prepare a two-page thesis summary, which outlines the problem being addressed, the proposed work plan and a description of your progress to date. Include in your summary the research problems you have encountered and would like to discuss at the workshop. The thesis summary format must be: Times New Roman font, size 12; single spacing; left side alignment; paragraph indenting of 1.5; with diagrams or pictures included only if essential to your work.
2. Short CV: This should include information typically found in a curriculum vitae, plus additional information on your background and relevant experience which may indicate your potential contribution to the workshop.
3. Contact details: Full name, address, phone number and e-mail address of the participant as well as for the advisor/supervisor with his/her institution included.
4. Letter of Recommendation from your thesis advisor or principal supervisor: This must include an assessment of the current status of your thesis research, and an expected date for thesis submission.

Doctoral Workshop Submissions should be submitted electronically to Easy Chair. Fill in the Contact details Form, Title, Abstract and Keywords Form and add a note in parentheses (Doctoral Workshop Submission) in the title form. Please upload one file that is a Word document containing the Thesis Summary Paper, a short CV, as well as all contact details. Please upload it in the EasyChair submission form “Thesis Summary + short CV“.

The second file is the Letter of Recommendation from your thesis advisor or principal supervisor. It should be hand signed and scanned as a .pdf file and emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Important Doctoral Workshop Dates

Financial information

The Doctoral Workshop is free of charge. Participants in the workshop can attend the conference sessions for a discounted fee (see the ISIC 2018 Conference website).

Further Information

Students accepted to participate in the workshop will be asked to provide supplemental information prior to the workshop that will help other participants and mentors understand the context of their research and the research challenges they wish to discuss at the workshop.

The Doctoral Workshop Thesis Papers will not be published as part of the Conference proceedings in Information Research, but we intend to publish the Doctoral Workshop Thesis Papers as separate ISIC 2018 conference proceedings. Additionally, a possible outcome of the Workshop may be creating an e-publication about the participants’ work.

As part of the mentorship process characteristic of the Workshop, participants will receive feedback that will assist them with the further publication of their work.

For additional information, contact the conference organizers or the workshop convenors, Associate Professor Camilla Moring, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Dr Nicola Parker, University of Technology Sydney, Australia (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Local Organising Committee: Doctoral student Magdalena Zych (MA) - doctoral workshop, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

See also:

Important dates

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We invite proposals for ISIC 2018 Pre-Conference Workshop

In addition to running a doctoral workshop on Monday, 8 October 2018, we are also considering ideas for pre-conference workshops to hold on this day before the ISIC conference formally begins. If you are interested in convening such a workshop, please submit a workshop proposal containing the following information:

• Title
• Key issues addressed by the workshop (description - maximum one page in length)
• Statements on:
   - How is the workshop relevant to, and complementary with, the main conference?
   - Why is the workshop of particular significance at this time?

• Names, affiliations, postal addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of the workshop organisers
• Expected number of attendees (estimating minimum and maximum values);
• Requirements for participation (e.g. knowledge prerequisites)

All proposals should be submitted by e-mail to the ISIC2018 Conference Organisation Office (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) as a document (.doc extension) no later than 15 January 2018.
Proposers will be notified of the committee’s decision no later than 15 February 2018.

See also:

Pre-Conference Doctoral Workshop

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We invite proposals for ISIC 2018 panels

We especially encourage the submission of full or short papers. Panel submissions need to meet with the same high standards as papers. Although preference will be given to research and conceptual papers, panel discussions that make a solid contribution to the conference theme will be considered.

Any proposals should be submitted by e-mail to the ISIC2018 Conference Organisation Office (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) as a document (.doc or .docx extension)

Proposals should include (use following subtitles in your submission):

• Title of panel:

• Short abstract: Approximately 1 000 words

• Organizer(s): Names and affiliations of the moderator and other organizers or participants (if known)

• Length: Panels will be 90 minutes in length

• Participants: Expected/preferred number of participants

• Proposed format: Including draft schedule, explanation of how it will engage with the audience (approximately 300-350 words)

• Purpose, goals, expected outcomes and contribution to the conference theme (approximately 300-350 words)

• Special requests/equipment needs

Proposals will be peer-reviewed. Note that panels are expected to be based on (panel) discussion and active exchange of ideas instead of being sessions consisting of a series of paper presentations.

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Papers presented at the conference will be considered for publication in Information Research – a peer-reviewed international electronic journal.

The condition of submitting to the conference is that the text has to be original and not published elsewhere. Information Research is applying Creative Common licence and is entirely open access in all possible senses. However, the papers should not be published by the authors in institutional repositories and elsewhere before being published in Information Research. The author may publish an abstract, but not the whole paper. Only after the journal publishes original articles it is allowed to re-use the paper with no restrictions.

Posters and Doctoral Workshop papers will not be published as a part of the ISIC2018 Conference proceedings in Information Research, but we intend to make them publicly available in electronic format.

Please, follow the ISIC 2018 Author Guidelines to prepare your paper in a proper style and format.

Proceedings of previous ISIC conferences:

First ISIC conference, Tampere, 1996: Information seeking in context. Proceedings of an international conference on Information Seeking in Context, Tampere, Finland 1996. London: Taylor Graham Publishing, 1997.

Second ISIC conference, Sheffield, 1998: Exploring the contexts of information behaviour. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Research in Information Needs, Seeking and Use in Different Contexts, Sheffield, 1998. [Note: the papers of the first and second conferences are reproduced with the kind permission of Peter Taylor of Taylor Graham Publishing.]

Third ISIC conference, Gothenburg, 2000: the proceedings were published as The New Review of Information Behaviour Research, Volumes 1 and 2. Permission has not been received from the publisher to deposit the papers in this archive.

Fourth ISIC conference, Lisbon, 2002: the proceedings were published as The New Review of Information Behaviour Research, Volumes 3 and 4. Permission has not been received from the publisher to deposit the papers in this archive.

Fifth ISIC conference, Dublin, 2004: the Proceedings were published in Information Research, Volume 10, Number 1 and Number 2.

Sixth ISIC conference, Sydney, 2006: the Proceedings were published in Information Research, Volume 11, Number 4 and Volume 12, Number 1.

Seventh ISIC conference, Vilnius, 2008: the Proceedings were published in Information Research, Volume 13, Number 4.

Eighth ISIC conference, Murcia, 2010: the Proceedings were published in Information Research, Volume 15, Number 4 and Volume 16 Number 1.

Ninth ISIC conference, Tokyo, 2012: the Proceedings were published in Information Research, Volume 17, Number 4 and Volume 18 Number 1.

Tenth ISIC conference, Leeds, 2014: the Proceedings were published in Information Research, Volume 19, Number 4 and Volume 20, Number 1.

Eleventh ISIC conference, Zadar, 2016: the Proceedings were published in Information Research, Volume 21, Number 4, and Volume 22, Number 1

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