Call for Submissions

SISAP 2026 Doctoral Symposium provides a forum for PhD students to present their research ideas and receive feedback from senior members of the research community. The Doctoral Symposium fosters a collaborative environment, encouraging constructive discussions and sharing of ideas.

We welcome submissions from active PhD students devoted to all issues surrounding the theory, design, analysis, practice, and application of content-based and feature-based similarity search who are in the early/mid-stage of their research and are expecting to graduate in more than one year. You will find a detailed list of possible topics of interest on the SISAP 2026 call for paper

Submissions from students who are in the early stages of their research should provide a clear statement of the problem being addressed, and a clear outline of the planned methodology. Submissions from students who are in the mid-stage of their research should clearly state the contributions made so far, and the work lying ahead.

Submission Guidelines

A submission to the doctoral symposium consists of a paper and an additional 1-page appendix (both in PDF format). Submissions must be single-author and written by the student alone. The paper should be no longer than 6 pages (plus up to 2 pages of references) and should be formatted with the same rules as SISAP papers. Please find these rules summarised here.

The manuscripts should contain the statement of the problem being addressed, an outline of the planned methodology, contributions made so far, and the work lying ahead. It is anticipated that the thesis work has been published elsewhere or submitted for publication, and concurrent submission of a regular paper to SISAP with technical contributions is encouraged.

An addition to the paper, the applicants are expected to provide a 1-page Appendix that should describe the benefits that would be obtained by attending the doctoral symposium, including:

• A statement by the student saying why they want to attend the Doctoral Symposium.
• A statement by their advisor saying how the student would benefit by attending the Doctoral Symposium.
• Advisors should also specifically state whether the student has written, or is close to completing, a thesis proposal (or equivalent) and when they expect the student would defend their dissertation if they progress at a typical rate.
• A list by the student of the 2 or 3 members from the SISAP Program Committee who are likely to be the best experts to review the paper.

Authors should submit two separate files– one for the paper (uploaded to the ‘Paper’ field) and one for the appendix (uploaded to the ‘Additional Information’ field)- through the EasyChair conference management system:

https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=sisap2026. When submitting, please select the 'SISAP 2026 Doctoral Symposium' track.

SISAP Doctoral Symposium papers will be published as part of the main conference proceedings.

Review Process

Submissions will be reviewed by at least two members of the SISAP Program Committee, including one of the reviewers cited by the student. By identifying experts, it is expected that the feedback and the discussions will be as profitable as possible. The review and decision of acceptance will balance many factors. This includes the topic and the quality of your proposal, quality of presentation, potential for future impact of the research on the field and expected benefit to the other doctoral students attending the conference. It also includes external factors, such as ensuring that as a group the accepted candidates exhibit a diversity of backgrounds and topics. Candidates who have a clearly developed idea, who are formally considered by their institution to be working on their dissertation, and who still have time to be influenced by participation in the PhD Doctoral Symposium will receive the strongest consideration.

Further Information

• Accepted papers will be presented during a dedicated session at SISAP 2026.
• A one-to-one discussion between a student and the reviewer in charge of the accepted paper will be organized during the conference: Either on-site if both are present on-site, or on-line if the PC member is away.
• If three or more submissions are received, the author of the best Doctoral Symposium paper will receive an award during the conference banquet, along with a monetary prize given to the student directly.
• PhD students of the accepted Doctoral Symposium papers who register for another paper, will not be asked to pay a second registration fee.
• PhD students of the accepted Doctoral Symposium papers coming to the conference solely to present their Doctoral Symposium paper will be entitled to a student registration fee for the entire conference.