The 12th International ACM Conference on Web Science in 2020 (WebSci’20) is an interdisciplinary conference where a multitude of research disciplines converge with the purpose of creating a greater insight into a complex global Web than the sum of their individual parts.
As in previous years WebSci’20 invites participation from diverse fields including (but not limited to) art, anthropology, computer and information sciences, communication, economics, humanities, informatics, law, linguistics, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology.
Contributions may be analytical, creative, critical, predictive (or all of the above) and should aim, wherever possible, to cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. The conference provides a platform to a range of practitioners from Ph.D. students to experienced researchers and ideas ranging from early work through projects as well as final analysis and completed publishable work. We look to evaluate and value the impact of the Web Science approach, its current theoretical, methodological, and epistemological challenges as well as Web practices of individuals, collectives, institutions, and platforms.
Continuing our approach from previous conferences we welcome contributions that:
- have a broader perspective on the web and that combine analyses of web data and other types of data (e.g., from surveys or interviews) to better understand user behaviour (i.e., online and offline)
- carried out longitudinal studies
- present successful cases of inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary web research
- use mixed-method approaches or reflect on the methods used
- discuss responsible forms of Web Science (e.g. regarding standards, methods, generalisability of results), and/ or reflect on the societal impact of web research, how the web is perceived in the media and in society and whether this clashes with the self-image of Web Science
Important dates
February 14, 2020
Abstract submission deadline
February 21, 2020
Paper submission deadline
February 28, 2020
Paper submission deadline (extended)
April 10, 2020
Notification
May 15, 2020
Final versions due
Possible topics for submissions include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Ethical challenges of technologies, data, algorithms, platforms, and people in the web
- The interplay of AI and human intelligence in a Web Science context
- Interdisciplinarity in Web Science
- Modeling web-related structures, data, users and behaviours
- Impact of AI and machine learning on the development of Web Science
- Web Science approaches to data science, data analytics, and the web of data
- Detecting, preventing and predicting anomalies in web data (e.g., fake content, spam, algorithmic and data biases)
- Data curation and stewardship in Web Science
- Sharing web research data, web archiving, and scholarly uses of web archives
- The psychological, sociological, legal and technological aspects related to the temporal and spatial dimensions of the web as a repository of information
- The architecture and philosophy of the web
- Social machines, crowd computing, collective intelligence, and collaborative production
- Analysis and modeling of human vs. automatic behaviour (e.g., bots) and their influence on the structure of the web and responding behaviour
- Health and well-being online
- Humanities, arts, and culture on the web
- Web culture and web values
- Web Science and the Internet of Things
- Web economics, social entrepreneurship, and innovation
- Analysis of online social and information networks, social media analyses
- Safeguarding and governance of the web
- Personal data and privacy
- Legal issues: rights and accountability for AI actors
- Anonymity, security and trust for web access
- Web access, literacy, divides, inclusion, exclusions, and development
- Knowledge, education, and scholarship on and through the web
Format of the submissions
This year we will have only one format for submission: all contributors will submit an Abstract (max 400 words) followed by full papers of between 6 and 10 pages (inclusive of references, any appendix, etc.). The authors shall adopt the current ACM SIG Conference proceedings template (acmart.cls), which is available at https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template
We strongly encourage authors to consider using the ACM LaTeX template on Overleaf platform which is available (ACM Conference Proceedings “Master” Template) at https://www.overleaf.com/gallery/tagged/acm-official#.WOuOk2e1taQ
At the submission stage, there will be no distinction between long (full) and short papers. Upon acceptance, authors will be given the opportunity to express their preference between presenting their contribution as an extended talk (15 minutes), or short talk (10 minutes).
All contributions will be judged by the Program Committee upon rigorous peer review standards for quality and fit to the conference, by at least three referees (including a Senior PC member). We will adopt a single-blind review process. Do not anonymize your submissions. Submissions without authorship information will be desk-rejected without review.
For authors who wish to opt-out of publication proceedings, this option will be made available upon acceptance. This will encourage the participation of researchers from the social sciences that prefer to publish their work as journal articles. Opting-out of the proceedings does not prevent the authors from presenting their work as oral and poster.