AfriChi 2023 Paper Submission
The 4th African Human Computer Interaction Conference (AfriCHI) will take place in East London, South Africa, from 27 November – 1 December 2023.
The theme of the conference is “Beyond Limit”. Under this theme, we want to reflect on the potentialities and limitations of interactive technologies as a tool for addressing the myriad problems facing the world today. Even as new technologies have led to tremendous improvement in the way we live and work, the world remains burdened by increasing poverty, poor education, high cost of healthcare, global pandemics such as COVID-19, inequality, injustice, terrorism, and climate change. We want to explore how the design and usability of interactive technologies could be improved to better meet the demands of our time, and what factors stand in the way of research and practice of Human-Computer Interaction in Africa in contributing more effectively to addressing these problems. In particular, we want to investigate the limits and barriers to leveraging African design knowledge for crafting innovative technologies and interaction models aimed to make the world a better place. The conference will focus on the following key questions:
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- What does “beyond limit” mean for African HCI?
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- What specific creative expressions give us peculiar advantages as researchers and designers in Africa?
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- What are the limits to designing in and for Africa? How can we push beyond those limits and break any existing barriers and limits? What new methods and sensibilities do we need?
The goal of the AfriCHI conference is to expand the participation of Africans in the practice and study of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design (IxD) and to advance HCI by increasing awareness of designs, tools, inventions, methods, theories, and pedagogies for creating or using technology on the African continent and beyond.
The conference is for anyone interested in people’s interactions with digital technology or media, who is African, based in Africa, or undertakes/wants to work on projects/research in Africa or with Africans. We welcome practitioners, professionals, scholars, and students in all fields and traditions that consider interactions with digital technology. This includes not only designers, engineers, or analysts of software, hardware, and media (e.g. user experience or mobile application designers, information architects, usability experts, etc.), but also educators in all aspects of digital life; researchers in all disciplines; change-makers, planners and managers in all sectors including government, NGOs and industries; entrepreneurs, artists, activists; and elders in grassroots/creative collectives.
We invite a broad range of contributions for presentation at AfriCHI2023, publication in the conference proceedings, and wider access to prestige online archives. This includes tracks for written papers and notes; panel discussions; posters; interactive installations and performances; workshops; and, doctoral and master’s symposiums. Contributions will be reviewed by international experts in HCI, its allied fields, and in African contexts and traditions and, if accepted, will be published in the Proceedings of AfriCHI2023.
We encourage submissions from people who have had few possibilities to participate in international conferences and also offer mentoring and collaboration to people seeking this kind of assistance. AfriCHI2023 is exploring real-time Internet links with institutions throughout Africa to ensure that people who cannot travel to South Africa can listen to talks. If you can help make this happen please contact the Remote Access Chair at: remote-access@africhi2023.org.
TOPICS
AfriCHI2023 is an interdisciplinary conference about all opportunities that connect people, digital technologies, and Africa and/or Africans. Topics of interest in all tracks include, but are not limited to the following in relation to Africa/Africans:
Contexts:
Places; people, users or developers; communities or groups; events; every day or unusual phenomena; languages; perspectives; trans-national, cross-cultural or cultural aspects etc.
Meanings, values and experiences:
Health, education, governance, citizenship, well-being, designing things that matter, empowerment, ethics, sustainability, privacy, gender and cultural diversity, accessibility, engagement, aesthetics, fun etc.
Processes:
Techniques, tools or methods for researching, designing, co-designing, evaluating, deploying or using interactive systems, etc.
Technologies:
Mobile devices; multi touch and touchless interaction; Web 2.0 technologies; social media; personal, community and public displays; decentralized (mesh) networks; Big Data; Quantified Self; Internet of Things, etc.
HCI and Al:
Predictive Interaction, UI/UX Design of Al tools, User Study on different Al domains; User Research on Different Al applications deployment, User Evaluation on different AI algorithms, Al technology assessment, Human-Centered Al
African identity for HCI:
Definition, Design and Implementation, Indigenous
Knowledge Systems, African Arts and Design
Pedagogies and epistemologies:
Teaching, learning or developing capacity in HCI/ Interaction Design; Afro-centric research, theory or invention; indigenous or traditional knowledge in HCI/ design; post-colonial perspectives etc.
HCI for Emerging Technologies:
Immersive Technology, 3D Printing, Robotics, Cloud Computing, Blockchain, Context-Aware Computing, Multi-Nodal Interaction, Green Technology, Bioinformatics etc.
All-Encompassing HCI (Interaction & Union):
Haptic/hardware design/material science factor in facilitating and improving interactions between different fields. Intersection & Union of HCI with other fields such as arts, media studies, architecture etc. Unlimited Virtual Design.
Usable Security & Privacy:
Field studies of security or privacy technology; Usability evaluations of new security and privacy technologies such as blockchain; Usability evaluations of new or existing security or privacy features; Security testing of new or existing usability features; Longitudinal studies of deployed security or privacy features, User study on Cybersecurity, Usable Password/Authentication etc
Theory & Practice:
Interaction Paradigms, Research Methodologies, Collaborative Systems, Workplace Studies, interactive displays, intelligent user interfaces
Important Deadlines
Call out: – 12 December 2022Mentorship request submission for all types: – 10 March 2023Paper and Notes submission: – 19 June 2023Feedback for Paper & Note: – 7 August 2023
Poster & Demo submission: – 10 August 2023
Feedback for Poster & Demo: – 31 August 2023
Workshop & Panel: – 15 August 2023
Feedback for Workshop & Panel: – 31 August 2023Postgraduate Paper: – 1 August 2023Feedback for Postgraduate: – 1 September 2023
Camera ready submission: – 25 September 2023
Submission Details
Only Postgraduate paper are submitted “here” while all other submissions are made online through AfriCHI’s submission system. This includes the main files, conforming to the templates and formats for the relevant track, abstract and descriptive information (e.g. authors, keywords). We will open AfriCHI’s submission system in March 2023. Authors may submit and resubmit their materials as often as they wish after this date and before submission deadlines. All deadlines on the date associated with a submission track are midnight GMT. We urge authors to test uploading submissions before the relevant deadline and contact the appropriate track chairs to arrange alternatives in advance if they predict problems e.g. due to Internet issues. Submissions should not have been previously published or be concurrently under submission elsewhere.
Submission format
Long research papers are 5 to 10 pages long. Short research papers are 4 pages long. The submission of video material to accompany papers is encouraged.
AfriCHI’s anonymization policy is the same as for the CHI conference and it states: authors are expected to remove author and institutional identities from the title and header areas of the paper, as noted in the submission instructions (Note: changing the text color of the author information is not sufficient). Also, please make sure that information that may identify you does not appear in the document’s meta-data (e.g., the “Authors” field in your word processor “Save As” dialogue box). Further suppression of identity in the body of the paper is left to the authors’ discretion. We do expect that authors leave citations to their previous work anonymized so that reviewers can ensure that all previous research has been taken into account by the authors. However, authors are encouraged to cite their own work in the third person, for example, avoiding “As described in our previous work [10],…” and using instead “As described by [10],…”
Template
LaTeX template
Overleaf template: Select ACM Conference Proceedings “Master” Template
Selection process
Submissions should be anonymized and will undergo a double-blind review process unless stated otherwise. Therefore, authors should not reveal their names, or affiliations on the title page, text, or any document metadata.
Reviewing and Selection
AfriCHI’23 applies a revise and resubmit process to papers and notes. This involves two rounds of reviews, Round 1 and Round 2. We kindly advise authors that a two-round review is not for submitting draft manuscripts and that Papers and Notes reviewed in Round 1 must be complete submissions. Authors who require assistance in preparing Papers or Notes for review should consider participating in the AfriCHI mentoring program which is completely independent of reviewing and selecting papers for AfriCHI.
Round 1
Submissions of papers and notes received by 24 April 2023 are refereed in Round 1 double-blind peer reviews. Submissions will be assigned to a total of 3 reviewers. Papers and Notes are assessed for:
value and relevance to African contexts and perspectives to HCI
quality of presentation
coherence and integrity of scholarly argument, and
originality and importance of the contribution.
A primary criterion for acceptance is that a Paper or Note contributes to the field of HCI in Africa. Since Notes are shorter, its contribution may not be as in-depth as a Paper. There are many ways that a Paper or Note can contribute to the field of HCI in Africa, such as by breaking new ground or presenting original research or insights with relevance to Africa or by considering the implications of a HCI theory or practice for Africa.
Content in a Paper or Note should be new and not contain material that has been previously published unless it has been “significantly” revised or was previously in a language other than English. In the ACM Policies on Pre-Publication Evaluation and Prior Publication and Simultaneous Submissions guidelines for determining the “significance” of a revision, a significant revision contains in excess of 25% new content (e.g. new insights or results, etc.) and markedly amplifies/clarifies the original material.
Additionally, work that was previously presented or published in a language other than English may be translated and published in English at AfriCHI’23; however, the original author should also be the author (or co-author) of work translated into English and the new presentation should clearly indicate it is a translation. For more information see http://www.sigchi.org/conferences.
Papers and Notes are also assessed on their coverage of literature. We strongly encourage contributions that cite African works, within and beyond HCI/Interaction design. Along with citing the background or related literature that is typically associated with a topic, Papers are expected to have more comprehensive literature than notes.
All authors will receive notification of the outcome on 5 June 2023 and detailed reports by independent reviewers that have been consolidated by a meta-reviewer overseeing that submission. Reports in Round 1 will indicate the Paper or Note’s strengths and weaknesses, recommend improvements, and specify areas that must be addressed for the Paper or Note to be considered for acceptance to AfriCHI’23. For Notes, there are two possible outcomes of Round 1 reviews, and for Papers, there are three possible outcomes.
The notifications sent to authors of Notes on 5 June 2023 will be a confirmed rejection or an invitation to resubmit the note for a second round of reviewing (Round 2). Authors of Notes that are eligible for Round 2 review must revise the Note according to the reviewer’s reports. Authors receiving a confirmed rejection should consider whether they can re-frame some of the material in a Poster for submission to the Poster track.
The notifications sent to authors of Papers on 5 June 2023 will be a confirmed rejection or an invitation to either resubmit the Paper or revise the Paper into a Note for a second round of reviewing (Round 2). Authors of Papers that are eligible for Round 2 review must revise the Paper according to the reviewer’s report and depending on the notification, resubmit it as a Paper or Note. Authors of papers that are invited to submit a Note instead should now revise their Paper into a Note for Round 2 reviewing.
Round 2
Authors receiving invitations to resubmit a Paper or Note or revise a Paper into a Note should resubmit their manuscripts, revised according to the reviewers’ reports, by 3 July 2023. Authors who submitted a Paper and received an invitation to revise and submit it as a Note should carefully attend to separate criteria for Notes. The same meta-reviewer responsible for reviewing the initial submission will coordinate Round 2 reviews of the Paper or Note. Often Notes that were originally submitted as Papers will be reviewed by the same independent peer-reviewers that reviewed the earlier Paper.
All authors submitting Papers or Notes to Round 2 will receive notification of the outcome on 31 July 2023 and further reports by reviewers. Notification sent to authors of Papers or Notes in Round 2 will be a confirmed rejection or a conditional acceptance.
Along with a conditional acceptance, authors will also receive information to guide them in preparing and submitting the final, camera-ready version of the paper or note. Authors of papers or notes that are conditionally accepted must attend carefully to the reviewers’ reports, revise their manuscripts accordingly and submit this version by 4 September 2023. Provided the final version of the paper or note conforms to all requirements, including those on copyright and ethical publication, and one author of the paper or note registers for AfriCHI then the paper will appear in the proceedings. A member of the program committee will check the final version of each Note to confirm it meets publication requirements and if so, will finalize acceptance. If a Paper or Note does not meet publication requirements by the camera-ready deadline then we may omit it from the program.
Presenting at AfriCHI’23
At least one author of accepted submissions must present at the AfriCHI’23 conference. Each presentation will last 20 minutes in an assigned thematic session. You will be informed of your session reference and the time of your presentation about 4 weeks before the event. If your personal circumstances restrict you from presenting your paper on a specific date, please send us an email (at general-chairs@africhi2023.org or technical-programme@africhi2023.org) with your request as soon as possible.
Technical setup at the conference
Research papers will be presented during the conference. A video projector and sound system will be available.
Publication
All accepted submissions are published in the conference proceedings and will be widely accessible in a prestigious online archive.
Authors should please familiarize themselves with the new ACM submission guidelines accessible at https://authors.acm.org/proceedings/production-information/taps-production-workflow
ConfTool (conftool.net) is the conference management system. We will share further details about using the ConfTool for submissions on the conference’s website (https://www.africhi2023.org).