IASSIST 2027 - Call for Proposals

Sea Change: Transforming Data Practices

Call for Proposals

The International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) invites you to join us in-person in Vancouver, Canada for IASSIST 2027, our annual conference, on May 25-28, 2027.

Nestled between the Burrard Inlet and the Salish Sea (Strait of Georgia), Vancouver is the largest city in British Columbia. With a population of just over 660,000, Vancouver enjoys two research universities (Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia) along with several comprehensive universities and colleges. It is a beautiful and vibrant city with both cultural and outdoor attractions.

We welcome submissions for papers, individual presentations, panels, posters or demonstrations, lightning talks, or workshops that embrace our conference theme, Sea Change: Transforming Data Practices. We want to hear from data and data services professionals about how their data practices are adapting or changing in the current environment of Artificial Intelligence, budget and funding challenges, climate considerations, and the rapidly changing realities faced by academic and research institutions.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

• Reproducibility and the integrity of the data record
• Data reference, consultation, and collaboration
• Data discovery in a shifting landscape
• Ethics, governance, and data sovereignty and community-led approaches
• Data management under pressure
• Teaching and data literacy
• The changing data profession
• Partnerships across boundaries
• Data rescue and advocacy
• Data documentation and metadata
• Technology, platforms, and tools

We request that submitters limit themselves to one proposal per format type.

The deadline for submissions is November 13, 2026.

Decisions regarding submissions will be sent out in early January 2027.

See below for information about different presentation formats. Questions about presentation submissions may be sent to the Program Co-Chairs (Meryl Brodsky and Sandra Sawchuk) at programme [ at ] lists.iassistdata.org.

Financial Support for Attending the Conference

The IASSIST Fellows Program supports data professionals from countries with emerging economies and underrepresented regions who are developing information infrastructures regarding the use and preservation of public and private data, implementing information policy decisions, and providing data services at their home institutions.

The IASSIST Early Professional Fellows Program supports data professionals from under-resourced institutions. It recognizes the value of new and innovative ideas from graduates and professionals new to data in the social sciences, who may not otherwise have the funding to travel.

Applications will close on November 2, 2026. Please address questions about the Fellows Program to Fellows Committee Co-Chairs (Florio Arguillas and Robert Buwule) at fellows [ at ] iassistdata.org.

For information about traveling to Vancouver, check out the conference website.

Presentation Formats

The Program Committee welcomes proposals for the following formats:

• Individual Presentation: This format is a 15-minute talk. It can be accompanied by a written paper, but it is not required. If your proposal is accepted, you will be grouped into an appropriate session with similar presentations.

• Paper Competition: Paper writers are required to submit an original research paper in advance of the conference by April 15, 2027. You need not be present or attend the conference to submit a paper for the competition. A winning paper will be selected based on this rubric. The paper selected as “Best Paper” will win a prize of one free registration for a future IASSIST conference. All papers will be eligible for publication consideration in IASSIST Quarterly.

• Panel: You may propose an entire session (90-120 minutes) with a minimum of three speakers to “deep dive” into a specific resource or concept. The session can take a variety of forms, e.g., a set of three to four presentations, a discussion panel, a tutorial (with less substance than a pre-conference workshop), a discussion with the audience, etc. If accepted, the person who proposed the session becomes the session organizer and is responsible for securing speakers and a Chair. Please note: the names of all speakers and the moderator must be included in the proposal.

• Poster or Demonstration: Proposals in this category should be clear about the message being conveyed in the poster or demonstration.

• Lightning Talks: A lightning talk is a short, highly visual presentation. Presentations in this category are timed, and each speaker is restricted to 5 minutes. Presentations may have a maximum of 15 slides, but there is no restriction on how many minutes you stay on each slide or the exact format of the presentation as long as you stay within the strict time limit. These are not your typical conference presentations. They tend to be “lighter” either in the topic or delivery.

• Workshops: Successful workshop proposals will blend lecture and active learning techniques. The conference planning committee will provide classroom space and, possibly, computing supplies for workshops. Proposals should outline needed computer hardware and software, if any, or specify if participants should bring their own. Workshops are typically half-day with 2-hour and 3-hour options. PLEASE NOTE: All workshop leaders are required to register and pay the registration fee for the conference; registration for individual days will be available.

• Other Formats: Session formats are not limited to the ideas above; session organizers are welcome to suggest other formats. We will consider interactive formats that encourage audience participation.

NOTE: When submitting you will be required to select one of the proposal formats above, but it is possible that your submission may be accepted on the condition of adapting it to another format (e.g., an individual presentation proposal might be accepted if you are willing to adapt it to a poster or a Lightning Talk). If this is the case, you will be given the choice to accept this format change or to decline being in the conference program when notified of its acceptance.

Submitting a Presentation Proposal

Please use the online submission form on Openconf to submit your presentation proposal (below).

All submissions should include the proposed title and an abstract. The abstract should be no longer than 300 words and written for a general audience. NOTE: Abstracts longer than 300 words will be returned to be shortened before being considered. Also, if the reviewers can’t understand what a proposal is about, it will be rejected.

About IASSIST

The International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) is an international organization of professionals working with information technology and data services to support research and teaching.

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