Doctoral Consortium (CFP)

The ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL 2013) is a major international forum focusing on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, organizational, and social issues. JCDL encompasses the many meanings of the term digital libraries, including (but not limited to) new forms of information institutions and organizations; operational information systems with all manner of digital content; new means of selecting, collecting, organizing, distributing, and accessing digital content; theoretical models of information media, including document genres and electronic publishing; and theory and practice of use of managed content in science and education.

The Doctoral Consortium is a workshop for Ph.D. students from all over the world who are in the early phases of their dissertation work. Ideally, students should have written or be close to completing a thesis proposal, and be far enough away from finishing the thesis that they can make good use of feedback received during the consortium.

The goal of the Doctoral Consortium is to help students with their thesis and research plans by providing feedback and general advice in a constructive and international atmosphere. A panel of prominent professors and experienced practitioners in the field of digital library research in organizations from different countries and continents will conduct the workshop. They will review all the submissions and comment on the content of the thesis abstract as well as on the presentation.

The workshop will take place July 22, 2013.  During the day, each student will have 20 minutes to present their research, focusing on the main theme of their thesis, what has been achieved so far and the plans to continue their work. Another 10 to 20 minutes is reserved for discussion and feedback from the expert panel as well as other participants. Small group sessions will be held in the afternoon to facilitate more in-depth discussions.

There is no registration fee for doctoral students who are accepted for the Doctoral Consortium.

Call for Papers and Topics

Students interested in participating in the Doctoral Consortium should submit an extended abstract describing their Digital Library research. Submissions relating to any aspect of Digital Library research, development, and evaluation are welcome, including:

  • technical advances
  • usage and impact studies
  • policy analyses
  • social and institutional implications
  • theoretical contributions
  • interaction and design advances
  • innovative applications in the sciences, humanities, and education.

To apply for participation at the Doctoral Consortium, please provide an extended abstract of your doctoral work in the ACM Conference style (for LaTeX, use the "Option 2" style) and upload it via the EasyChair. The extended abstract is restricted to 4000 words.  Submissions should be submitted electronically in pdf format. The abstracts should:

  • Be solely authored by the student and based on his or her dissertation research,
  • Clearly formulate the research question,
  • Identify the significant problems in the field of research,
  • Summarize the current knowledge of the problem domain, as well as the state of the art for solutions,
  • Clearly present any preliminary research plans and ideas, and the results achieved so far,
  • Sketch the research methodology that is to be applied,
  • Describe the expected contributions of the applicant to the research area, and
  • (For technical research) describe how the research is innovative, novel or extends existing approaches to a problem.

The following should be appended to the abstract:

  • A detailed statement why you want to attend the Doctoral Consortium, and
  • A statement by your advisor / supervisor saying how you would benefit by attending the Consortium.

Submissions will be judged on originality, significance, correctness, and clarity, and potential for benefit to your PhD program.  Workshop participation is limited, with a probable maximum of 12 students. 

Accepted abstracts will be distributed to Doctoral Consortium participants in separate workshop proceedings, but will not be published in the JCDL Proceedings.  Participants will be invited to publish a revised version of their extended abstracts in a special issue of the TCDL Bulletin, the publication of the IEEE-CS Technical Committee on Digital Libraries.

The submission deadline is 24th April 2013 (date extended) at midnight Hawaiian Time.
Doctoral Consortium Abstracts are to be submitted via EasyChair.

Doctoral Consortium co-chairs:

  • Sally Jo Cunningham, University of Waikato, New Zealand
  • Edie Rasmussen, University of British Columbia, Canada

Doctoral Consortium committee members:

  • Ingeborg Sølvberg, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

  • José Borbinha, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal

  • David Bainbridge, Waikato University,  New Zealand

  • Miles Efron, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

  • Richard Furuta, Texas A&M University, USA

  • Shigeo Sugimoto, University of Tsukuba, Japan

  • Schubert Foo, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

  • Michael Nelson, Old Dominion University, USA

  • Yin Leng Theng, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

  • Nicholas Belkin, Rutgers University, USA

  • George Buchanan, City University London, UK

  • Min-Yen Kan, National University Singapore, Singapore

  • Xiao Hu, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Important Dates

DEADLINE EXTENDED: new submission date Wednesday, April 24
May 6, 2013                       Notification of acceptance
July 22, 2013                      Doctoral Consortium
July 22-26, 2013                JCDL Conference