Dear all,

Please find below the call for papers for next year’s Web Science Conference.

Best regards, Agnieszka Faleńska

*Call for Papers https://websci24.org/call-for-papers/* ACM WebSci’24 ● 16th ACM Web Science Conference May 21 – May 24, 2024 ● Stuttgart, Germany *Reflecting on the Web, AI, and Society*

*https://websci24.webscience.org/* https://websci24.webscience.org/

*Important Dates*

- *Thu, November 30, 2023: Paper submission deadline* - *Wed, January 31, 2024: Notification* - *Thu, February 29, 2024: Camera-ready versions due* - *Tue-Fri, May 21 – May 24, 2024: Conference dates*

*All dates are 23:59 **Anywhere on earth time* https://time.is/Anywhere_on_Earth *About the Web Science Conference*

Web Science is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to understanding the complex and multiple impacts of the Web on society and vice versa. The discipline is well situated to address pressing issues of our time by incorporating various scientific approaches. We welcome quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research, including social sciences and computer science techniques. In addition, we are interested in work exploring Web-based data collection and research ethics. We also encourage studies that combine analyses of Web data and other types of data (e.g., from surveys or interviews) and help better understand user behavior online and offline.

*Possible topics across methodological approaches and digital contexts include but are not limited to:*

*Understanding the Web*

- Automation and AI in all its manifestations relevant to the Web - Trends in globalization, fragmentation, and polarization of the Web - The architecture and philosophy of the Web - Critical analyses of the Web and Web technologies

Making the Web Inclusive

- Issues of discrimination and fairness - Intersectionality and design justice in questions of marginalization and inequality - Ethical challenges of technologies, data, algorithms, platforms, and people on the Web - Safeguarding and governance of the Web, including anonymity, security, and trust - Inclusion, literacy and the digital divide

*The Web and Society*

- Social machines, crowd computing and collective intelligence - Web economics, social entrepreneurship, and innovation - Legal issues, including rights and accountability for AI actors - Humanities, arts, and culture on the Web - Politics and social activism on the Web - Online education and remote learning - Health and well-being online - The role of the Web in the future of (augmented) work - The Web as a source of news and information, and misinformation

*Doing Web Science*

- Data curation, Web archives and stewardship in Web Science - Temporal and spatial dimensions of the Web as a repository of information - Analysis and modeling of human vs. automatic behavior (e.g., bots) - Analysis of online social and information networks - Detecting, preventing and predicting anomalies in Web data (e.g., fake content, spam)

*2024 Emphasis: Reflecting on the Web, AI, and Society*

In addition to the topics at the heart of Web Science, we also welcome submissions addressing the interplay between the Web, AI and society. New advances in AI are revolutionizing the way in which people use the Web and interact through it. As these technologies develop, it is crucial to examine their effect on society and the socio-technical environment in which we find ourselves. We are nearing the crossroads wherein content on the Web will increasingly be automatically generated, blended with that created by humans. This creates new potential yet brings new challenges and exacerbates existing ones in relation to data quality and misinformation. Additionally, we need to consider the role of the Web as a source of data for AI, including privacy and copyright concerns, as well as bias and representativity of resulting systems. The potential impact of new AI tools on the nature of work may bring a transformation of some careers while creating whole new ones. This year’s conference especially encourages contributions documenting different uses of AI in relation to how people use the Web, and in the ways the Web affects the creation and deployment of AI tools. *Format of the submissions*Please upload your submissions via EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acmwebsci24

*There are two submission formats.*

- Full papers should be between 6 and 10 pages (including references, appendices, etc.). Full papers typically report on mature and completed projects. - Short papers should be up to 5 pages (including references, appendices, etc.). Short papers will primarily report on high-quality ongoing work not mature enough for a full-length publication.

*All accepted submissions will be assigned an oral presentation (of two different lengths).*

All papers should adopt the current ACM SIG Conference proceedings template (acmart.cls). Please submit papers as PDF files using the ACM template, either in Microsoft Word format (available at https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-templateunder “Word Authors”) or with the ACM LaTeX template on the Overleaf platform, which is available at https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/association-for-computing-machinery... . In particular; please ensure that you are using the two-column version of the appropriate template.

All contributions will be judged by the Program Committee upon rigorous peer review standards for quality and fit for the conference by at least three referees. Additionally, each paper will be assigned to a Senior Program Committee member to ensure review quality.

WebSci-2024 review is double-blind. Therefore, please anonymize your submission: do not put the author(s) names or affiliation(s) at the start of the paper, and do not include funding or other acknowledgments in papers submitted for review. References to authors’ own prior relevant work should be included but should not specify that this is the authors’ own work. It is up to the authors’ discretion how much to further modify the body of the paper to preserve anonymity. The requirement for anonymity does not extend outside of the review process, e.g., the authors can decide how widely to distribute their papers over the Internet. Even in cases where the author’s identity is known to a reviewer, the double-blind process will serve as a symbolic reminder of the importance of evaluating the submitted work on its own merits without regard to the authors’ reputation.

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. All authors of accepted papers (including those who opt out of proceedings) are expected to present their work at the conference. *ACM Policies https://websci24.org/acm-policy-2/*

1. “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 https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.acm.org%2Fpublications%2Fpolicies&data=05%7C01%7Csdd1%40soton.ac.uk%7C2742000d61614e4c20e908daa5905785%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C638004336907772678%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=fBFX7MOZbBmGaMn9UVxs7f4VbmrHkiZxytLctsN0Ecs%3D&reserved=0, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.acm.org%2Fpublications%2Fpolicies%2Fresearch-involving-human-participants-and-subjects&data=05%7C01%7Csdd1%40soton.ac.uk%7C2742000d61614e4c20e908daa5905785%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C638004336907772678%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FOPZmAH36Tm3n%2F5ZdVYUXBgMvPzWBD%2Bhp46L4jr4T6c%3D&reserved=0. 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.” 2. “Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Forcid.org%2Fregister&data=05%7C01%7Csdd1%40soton.ac.uk%7C2742000d61614e4c20e908daa5905785%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C638004336907772678%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0AxAqDSxE5DopRCAV9wv9aTDyMLxnHTtyv3EcTa7jfs%3D&reserved=0, 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 https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fauthors.acm.org%2Fauthor-resources%2Forcid-faqs&data=05%7C01%7Csdd1%40soton.ac.uk%7C2742000d61614e4c20e908daa5905785%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C638004336907772678%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7cy3jBg5CWexdBF%2FsM%2FOtsZYD0%2B3oS1WiOFghp2FptA%3D&reserved=0. The collection process has started and will roll out as a requirement throughout 2022. 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.”

*Program Committee Chairs:* *Oshani Seneviratne (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)* *Luca Maria Aiello (IT University of Copenhagen)*

*Yelena Mejova (ISI Foundation)*

For any questions and queries regarding the paper submission, please contact the chairs at acmwebsci24@easychair.org.