Full Paper

Table of Contents

    Info at a Glance

    • Submissions are due on Thursday, April 10th, 2025, AoE (Friday, April 11th, 2025, 14:00 CEST) (NO EXTENSIONS).
    • Submission length should reflect the contribution and typically range between 4000 and 9000 words. Excessively long papers (more than 12,000 words) may be desk rejected.
    • Submissions will be reviewed in a double-anonymous fashion.
    • Submissions can be submitted in English or German.
    • Submissions are handled through Precision Conference.

    Call for Full Papers – Theme “Digital Diversity”

    The “Mensch und Computer” (MuC) conference, launched in 2001, is the largest conference series on human-computer interaction in the EU. It will take place in Chemnitz, a European Capital of Culture in 2025.

    Our theme for 2025 is “Digital Diversity”, exemplifying the myriad cultures, languages and regional practices that not only define us but continue to evolve and take shape in the digital age. This resonates with the explicit and active position of the Chemnitz University of Technology (https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/tu/diversity/index.html).

    The word Diversity has Latin roots, namely Dis- and Vertere, which, when taken together, means “to turn in different directions”. In other words, Diversity is an active initiative to turn away from conformity and uniformity. While adherence to norms and the pursuit of common goals can strengthen and mobilize communities, we remain and will always be inherently diverse as individuals. At MuC 2025, we seek an open discussion on whether and how digitalization has created a fertile environment for fostering and supporting diverse needs and requirements, providing equal access to opportunities for all.

    Digitalization has drastically lowered the costs and raised the accessibility of many services that, previously, had only physically existed in-real-life. From online shopping to filling out tax forms, it has granted those with limited physical mobility access to services. Nonetheless, this has greatly streamlined our behavior in the digital world. For the sake of convenience, we are often willing to accept the loss of choice so long as it is in the name of “best” practices—rarely pausing to consider “best for whom”. Increasingly, we rely on digital agents to provide us with the truth, rarely questioning “Whose truth?”.

    Digitalization could work for us as well as against us, individuals with diverse dreams and preferences, needs and requirements.

    Although it is not required for contributions to relate to this theme, we welcome work on under-served and marginalized communities (e.g., through participatory design approaches), work on how digital technology has been appropriated for purposes that they were not designed for, implications for design and implementation, and recommendations and good practices (e.g., reporting).

    Contribution Types

    • Empirical-Qualitative, e.g., ethnography, qualitative user studies.
    • Empirical-Quantitative, e.g., quantitative user studies, statistical methods, data modeling.
    • Empirical-Mixed Methods, e.g., combined qualitative and quantitative empirical research.
    • Technical, e.g., building novel systems, algorithms, visualizations, architectures, and implementing novel features in existing systems.
    • Artifact-Design, e.g., research through design, envisionments, guidelines, methods, and techniques.
    • Theoretical, e.g., conceptual frameworks, theoretical analysis, and essays.
    • Meta-Research, e.g., meta-analyses, systematic reviews.

    Important Dates

    All deadlines are set to Anywhere on Earth (AoE). In contrast to previous years, the deadline will not be extended at a later point. Please consider all dates and times final. 

    Paper Submission: Thu, April 10th, 2025 AoE (Fri, April 11th, 2025, 14:00 CEST) (NO EXTENSIONS)

    Decision Notification: Tue, May 27th, 2025 AoE (Wed, May 28th, 2025, 14:00 CEST)

    Camera-Ready Deadline: Tue, June 10th, 2025 AoE (Wed, June 11th, 2025, 14:00 CEST)

    Preparing Your Full Paper Submission

    We recommend that submitted papers range between 4,000 and 9,000 words; however, the contribution should reflect the length, and excessively long papers (more than 12,000 words) may be desk rejected. If a paper is less than 4,000 words, we strongly recommend that you submit your work to the Short Papers Track. Regardless, text length is expected to match the contribution made. Papers can be submitted either in English or in German. Papers in German require an English translation of the title and abstract to be added to the submission (as a subtitle and second abstract; this does not count towards the word count).

    Formatting

    Submissions should be prepared using the LaTeX or Word templates from ACM. The correct template for submission is the single-column Word Submission Template or single-column LaTeX using \documentclass[manuscript,review,anonymous]{acmart}.

    Supplementary Materials

    All videos and supplementary material must be anonymized. Videos should include closed captions as well as audio descriptions; see Accessible Presentation Guide. Other supplementary material may include, for example, survey text, experimental protocols, source code, and data, all of which can help others replicate your work. Any non-video supplementary material should be submitted as a single .zip file, including a README file with a description of the materials. Reviewers should be able to access the contribution of the paper solely based on the main PDF submission. That is, the paper submission must stand independently without the supplementary material.

    Submission

    Submissions are facilitated via the Precision Conference. Authors may submit and edit their materials until the submission deadline. Should you encounter any difficulties, or technical problems or have any questions about this process, please contact the Paper Chairs via papers@mensch-und-computer.de. 

    Metadata Integrity

    All submission metadata, including required fields in Precision Conference like author names, affiliations, and order, must be complete and correct by the submission deadline. This information is crucial to the integrity of the review process and author representation. No changes to metadata after this deadline will be allowed.

    Accessibility 

    Authors are expected to follow SIGCHI’s Guide to an Accessible Submission. If you have questions or concerns about creating accessible submissions, please contact the DEI & Accessibility Chairs via accessibility@mensch-und-computer.de early in the writing process (the closer to the deadline, the less time the team will have to respond to individual requests). Papers flagged as inaccessible by a reviewer will have to be reassigned. Note that while we strive to match the best reviewer to each paper – the best reviewers for the work may not be able to review an inaccessible submission.

    Inclusivity

    Submissions should be prepared with an active consideration towards the respectful use of language, particularly towards marginalized groups, particularly around gender and disability.

    Anonymity

    All submissions need to be fully anonymized. This includes any appendices or supplemental material as well as a potential acknowledgements section. Relevant prior works of the authors must be cited explicitly, but we recommend using neutral phrasings (e.g., ‘As previously shown by…’ as opposed to ‘As we have shown previously…’).  Reviewing will be conducted in a double-anonymous fashion, i.e., reviewers and authors are anonymous to each other. Papers that violate the anonymization policy, including supplemental materials or external links to datasets, code repositories, etc., will be desk rejected.

    Research Involving Human Participants

    As a researcher, you have an overriding obligation to protect participants’ welfare and safety and to ensure they are treated fairly and with respect. We recommended the following document by the European Commission on „Ethics in Social Science and Humanities“ for a wider and deeper understanding of the underlying basic ethical principles and “Research Ethics in Ethnography/Anthropology.” These include doing good (beneficence), avoiding doing harm (non-maleficence), and protecting the autonomy, well-being, safety, and dignity of all research participants. Moreover, all researchers involving participants must meet appropriate ethical and legal standards as outlined in the following document: ACM Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects.

    Use of Generative Tools

    All authors should be aware of the ACM Policy on Authorship, which articulates the authorised use of generative AI in submitted works. Text generated from a large-scale language model (LLM), such as GPT, must be clearly marked where such tools are used for purposes beyond editing the author’s text. All authors are responsible for the content created by these tools, the use of the tools must be disclosed (e.g., in the acknowledgements), and the tool cannot be listed as an author. As such, authors are responsible for plagiarism, misrepresentation, fabrication, or falsification of content and/or references generated through the use of generative AI tools and could be sanctioned with penalties, such as a publication ban. We will investigate submissions brought to our attention and will reject papers where LLM use is not clearly marked.

    Selection Process

    Full Paper submissions are formally reviewed by international peer HCI researchers and practitioners. Papers can be either Accepted with minor revisions or Rejected; there will be no rebuttal or revision phase. The criteria for evaluation are as follows:

    • Contribution/Importance of the Paper to Mensch und Computer: Does this work present research contributions or ideas that will stimulate interesting conversations among conference attendees?
    • Significance: How important is the problem or question that this submission addresses? Is there an audience at the conference that would find this work influential and/or compelling?
    • Originality/Novelty: How does the work build on or speak to existing work in the area? Does it make a novel contribution?
    • Correctness/Validity: How well are the chosen methods described and justified within the submission?
    • Clarity: How clear, understandable, and targeted is the writing? To what extent does the submission conform to all requirements?

    The submission should contain no sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at the time of publication. All submissions are considered confidential during the review. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity.

    For a sustainable reviewing process, all authors are required to volunteer as reviewers for at least two papers via Precision Conference.

    Upon Acceptance of your Full Paper

    Camera Ready Process

    Information on this process will be published after the acceptance notes are sent to corresponding authors.

    At the Conference

    For each accepted submission, at least one author must register for the full conference and present their work synchronously in-person or remotely through a video. Authors are allowed to present in English and German; however, we recommend having English slides.

    After the Conference

    Information on this process will be published after the acceptance notes are sent to corresponding authors.