Doctoral Consortium Call for Contributions

The JCDL doctoral consortium is a venue for students to share their work and receive feedback and mentorship. The consortium also offers the opportunity to attend JCDL, the pre-eminent venue in the digital libraries field.

We are accepting submissions from students who are at or beyond thesis proposal stage, typically one year in for those in a three-year PhD program in e.g. UK or Australia. Students should have at minimum settled on their topic, completed a significant literature review, and have some idea of what methodology they are going to use in their research. If you are unsure whether you are ready to participate, please contact the chairs for a preliminary conversation.

Structure of the DC

We would love to see you in person! This will be a one-day event where students have the opportunity to present their work, and receive feedback on it. Alongside group sessions and feedback, students will each receive some one-on-one time with a hand-picked digital libraries scholar for mentorship (subject to mentor availability these sessions may be hybrid).

Benefits of attending the DC

  • Opportunity to present your work and receive feedback from several DL scholars
  • One-on-one time with a mentor
  • Publication of the abstract for your DC proposal in the JCDL proceedings
  • There might be scholarship available for DC participants to apply for

How to Participate

We welcome submissions from students in all areas of digital libraries including but not limited to topics listed in the call for papers page of this conference.

Students who wish to participate in the DC should submit a 2-page + references description of their work in the ACM 2-column format. This description should include an abstract of up to 200 words, a research question motivated by the relevant literature, and the methodology the student is using to address the question. If early results are available, these may also be included however this is not obligatory. The student should be the sole author of this their extended abstract. However, if this is a problem for an individual student, please contact the DC chairs.

Alongside this extended abstract, students should include a (maximum 500 word) personal statement of why they are interested in attending the DC and how far they have progressed in their PhD. They should also attach a maximum one-page letter of recommendation from one of their advisors/supervisors stating why the DC would benefit them, and what they can bring to the DC. Submissions are to be made via https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=jcdl2024  (the same EasyChair URL used by the rest of the conference); use “Doctoral Consortium” for the Track. 

By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID, so you can complete the publishing process for your accepted paper.  ACM has been involved in ORCID from the start and we have recently made a commitment to collect ORCID IDs from all of our published authors. We are committed to improve author discoverability, ensure proper attribution and contribute to ongoing community efforts around name normalization; your ORCID ID will help in these efforts.

Proposals will be assessed by the DC chairs and accepted based on stage of PhD, quality of the abstract, and potential for the student to benefit from attending the DC.

Important Dates

In recognition of the difficulties some students face in getting travel visas, the DC will have two deadlines. The first deadline, for early submission, is to allow an extended period for visa applications. Students who are not accepted in the early submission round are ineligible to reapply in the later round. We strongly recommend all students who need to apply for a visa submit to the early submission round.

All dates are Anywhere on Earth (AoE)

  • Early submission deadline: July 8, 2024 
  • Early acceptance notification: July 22, 2024 (5 months prior to JCDL)
  • Late submission deadline: October 8, 2024 
  • Late acceptance notification: October 22, 2024

Doctoral Consortium Chairs

For more information and any questions, please contact the JCDL 2024 doctoral consortium co-chairs: