Message from Dan and Andrew, Co-Chairs Papers present significant contributions to research, development and practice in all areas of the field of human-computer interaction. All accepted papers are presented at the CHI Conference and appear in the CHI Conference Proceedings, which are published as an issue in SIGCHI's archival CHI Letters series. The CHI Proceedings are read and cited worldwide and have wide impact on the development of HCI principles, theories, and techniques, and on their practical application. We encourage you to submit your paper to CHI2004.
About Papers
As an interdisciplinary conference, CHI accepts the following types of contributions:
Design Briefings - accounts of the design (rationale, process, outcomes and evaluation) of an innovative application or system.
Interaction Technologies - a new technique, device, or other component of the user interface.
Interactive Systems - descriptions of the architecture, interface, and evaluation of a new interactive system.
Methodologies and Tools - new methods, processes, techniques, and tools for use in interactive system design, development, and deployment.
Reflective Analyses - thought-provoking, well substantiated analyses of HCI issues.
Results from Fieldwork and Ethnography - findings, guidelines, and so on, from studies of real world settings, or of technology use in such settings, with clear relevance to the design and deployment of interactive systems.
Results from Laboratory Studies - findings, techniques, methods, and so on, from controlled studies of systems, techniques, and other phenomena relevant to HCI.
Theories and Models - descriptions and evaluation of HCI theories, models, and other formal approaches.
In all cases, a paper must break new ground. The paper must contribute a clear benefit to the audience you address. Papers undergo a rigorous review process.
Preparing Your Submission
Before you start writing please download and read the Conference Publications Format that contains information about how your paper should be structured and the appropriate use of language.
Example papers
The following papers are offered as examples from CHI2003. Please note that there have been changes in the Conference Publication Format since these papers were published. In particular, papers now have to include the ACM classification and keywords.
CHI authors are expected to develop a 30-word contribution and benefits statement (hereafter the C&B statement) for their paper. This statement will be entered when the paper is submitted, and will be seen and assessed by reviewers along with the paper. A contribution/benefit statement describes the contribution made by the paper to HCI and the benefit that readers can gain from it. These are stated in two sentences, as shown in the following examples:
Describes an adaptive technique for improving focus-targeting in distortion-based visualizations, that flattens the view based on pointer speed. The technique can significantly reduce targeting times and targeting error.
Describes a sound-enhanced system based on Instant Messaging, supporting presence awareness and opportunistic interactions among mobile, distributed groups. Can help mobile people stay connected in a lightweight, enjoyable way.
Presents guidelines for designers of learner-centered tools based on a case study of a scaffolded software environment. Can assist in developing effective scaffolded tools.
Presents findings concerning males' outperformance of females in 3D navigation tasks. Explains how large displays and wide fields of view can be employed to improve females' performance dramatically.
Extends the Cognitive Walkthrough method to group situations by treating individual and collaborative tasks separately. Presents practitioners with a clear method for evaluating groupware usability.
Case study describing development of a physical environment that allows young children to program stories. Can assist designers in understanding how to involve users, especially in formative design stages.
Submissions
Your paper submission is in two parts. The first part of your submission is an abstract, due 29 September 2003. The second part of your paper submission is your final submission package, which includes a cover sheet, the abstract, and your paper, and is due 6 October 2003.
Your submission must be original work. It cannot have been published elsewhere, nor can it be under concurrent review for publication by another conference or journal.
Your submission must conform to the CHI Papers format and in its final PDF form must be no longer than eight pages, including references, appendices, and figures.
All references must be complete, accurate, accessible to the HCI public, and conform to the Conference Publications Format. Do not cite publications that are proprietary or confidential at the time of publication.
Your submission must be in the PDF file format, and be no larger than 4 megabytes in size.
Your submission must be in English.
Submissions should contain no information or materials that will be proprietary or confidential at the time of publication.
Submissions arriving after the deadline will never be considered.
Please download the Conference Publications Format for details on how to prepare your paper submission including anonymizing your paper, language usage guidelines, and how to produce and test your PDF document. The paper and abstract, as submitted for review, will be regarded as the final publication-ready version of your submission. Your submission must adhere to the following rules. Submissions that do not will be rejected without review.
Failure to meet any of these requirements is grounds for the rejection of your submission without further review.
How to Submit Your Paper
Part 1: Abstract Your abstract must be submitted by 5:00 PM (1700) PST on 29 September 2003 at the CHI2004 Submission web site. Abstract submission is mandatory; papers for which abstracts have not been submitted will be rejected without review. Include the paper’s title, authors, affiliations, and keywords. The abstract in the submitted paper need not correspond exactly to the previously submitted abstract, and the title can be changed later.
This information is used to assign your paper to reviewers, so it is to your benefit to be as complete and accurate as possible.
Part 2: Final Paper Your complete paper must be submitted as a PDF no later than 5:00 PM (1700) PST 6 October 2003 at the CHI2004 Submission web site. If you are unable to produce PDF files contact the co-chairs at chi2004-papers@acm.org by 1 September 2003.
Requests for Mentoring
CHI2004 provides mentors for those who would like assistance in preparing their submissions. Please see Mentoring for more information. The deadline to request a mentor is 21 July 2003.
Review Criteria
The form and content of submitted papers must be acceptable as received. All papers are assessed according to the following criteria:
Contribution and Benefit. A paper must make a clear contribution to an identified area of HCI. It should be evident how general the contribution is, and how the audience to which the paper is addressed will benefit. Papers making one clear, significant contribution are more likely to be accepted than papers making several lesser contributions.
Validity. To benefit from its contribution, a paper’s readers must be able to make use of its results with confidence. Thus, the paper must provide evidence of the validity of its results. Methods for establishing validity vary depending on the nature of the contribution. They may involve empirical work in the laboratory or the field, the description of rationales for design decisions and approaches, applications of analytical techniques, or “proof of concept” system implementations.
Originality. The paper must cite previously published work. It should show both how it builds on previous contributions, and how, where, and why it goes beyond what is currently known.
Clarity. The paper must be clearly and concisely written in international English, with appropriate use of tables and figures.
Review Process
HCI researchers and practitioners who have been screened for appropriate experience and expertise review paper submissions. An associate chair manages each paper’s review.
First, papers are reviewed by four to six reviewers. Second, the associate chair writes a meta-review that typically recommends acceptance or rejection based on the reviews received. Third, recommendations are reviewed at a two-day program committee meeting. In cases where a paper has received widely divergent reviews, it is read and discussed by associate chairs with appropriate expertise before the final decision is made.
Video Figures
Your paper may be accompanied by a short digital video figure up to two minutes in length, or an interactive illustration, no more than 30 MB final data size (please see the Guide to Successful Submissions: Video). Your paper must stand on its own without the video figure, as the video figure may not be available to everyone who reads the paper (video figures will be archived on the Conference CD). Acceptance of a paper does not guarantee acceptance of a video figure. Subject to the same data size limitation, you may alternatively submit an interactive illustration. Your interactive illustration must run cross-platform and require no additional software to be viewed (please, no .exe files). Appropriate formats include Microsoft Powerpoint Show, Macromedia Flash or Macromedia Director, QuickTime interactive movies, or any other self-contained format.
Please note that acceptance of your paper does not guarantee that your video figure will also be accepted.
CHI2004 requres that video figures accompanying a paper be submitted through the PCS system by the Paper submission deadline, 6 October 2003, 5:00 PM (1700) PST.
Upon Acceptance
Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection the week of 1 December 2003.
The primary author of an accepted paper will receive instructions on how to submit publication-ready copy.
Please note that submissions will not be published without a signed copyright release form. Responsibility for permissions to use video, audio, or pictures of identifiable people rests with the author, not CHI2004.
Confidentiality of Submissions
Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. All submitted materials for rejected papers will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted papers will be kept confidential until the date of the conference, 24 April 2004. Submissions should contain no information or materials that will be proprietary or confidential at the time of publication, and should cite no publications that will be proprietary or confidential at the time of publication.
At the Conference
Authors will present their work in a scheduled session with other papers. Presentations of papers are 28 minutes long (a 20-minute talk with 8 minutes for questions).
Presenters are encouraged to bring their own laptops for their presentation. CHI2004 will identify local vendors for on-site rental equipment at presenters' expense (details forthcoming) but due to budget constraints will not be able to provide computer support in every session. A digital projector (800x600 or better) will be provided for Macintosh or PC laptop projection.
After the Conference
Your paper will become and remain accessible to thousands of computing researchers and practitioners world-wide as part of the ACM Digital Library.
Paper Submission Checklist
Prepare and submit your abstract BY 29 SEPTEMBER 2003
Prepare and submit a video figure BY 6 OCTOBER 2003
Prepare and submit your paper and your contribution and benefits statement BY 6 OCTOBER 2003
Well in advance of the deadline:
If you wish to request a mentor, please see the description of the mentoring program and contact the Mentoring Liaisons no later than 21 July 2003.
Read all the above material and the Conference Publication Format
If your paper submission contains a video figure, read the additional information on video submissions on this web site.
Generate a test PDF file of your submission and check it prints out correctly in no more than 8 pages.
Prepare and submit your abstract
Write the 150-word abstract, clearly stating the paper's contribution to HCI.
Submit the text of your abstract, and your title, authors, authors' affiliations, and keywords 5:00 PM PST 29 September 2003 at the CHI2004 Submission web site.
If you wish, you may also submit your paper at the same time.
Prepare and submit a video figure, if you have one
If your submission includes a digital video or interactive illustration, prepare up to 2 minutes of video suitable for publication, and see the Guide to Successful Submissions: Video.
Note that the video figure or interactive illustration has a 30 MB data size limit and must require no special software requirements to be viewed. Please direct any questions on video figures to chi2004-chairs@acm.org.
Your video figure is submitted through the PCS system the same way your paper is submitted, with the same deadline.
Prepare and submit your paper and your contribution and benefits statement
Prepare a version of your paper in the Conference Publication Format; note that the body of the paper must contain an abstract as per the CHI paper format guidelines.
Make sure that the paper is anonymous, and conforms to the other submission requirements, as described above
Create a PDF file of your paper that is no more than 4 megabytes in size (see instructions above).
Test that your PDF file is correct and prints out in no more than 8 pages.
Prepare a 30 word contribution and benefits statement; this will be entered when you upload the PDF of your paper, (see Guide to successful submissions).
Go to the CHI2004 Submission web site and follow the instructions to submit the PDF file and contribution and benefit statement 5:00 PM PST on 6 October 2003. You may also make final changes to your title at this time.
