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2026 IPC call for papers

The Special Interest Group on International Information Issues (SIG-III) of the Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) invites research papers from the library and information science (LIS) professionals of developing countries for the 26th International Paper Contest (IPC). The winners of the IPC-2026 will be awarded in the 89th Annual Meeting of the ASIS&T, which will take place in Bangkok, Thailand from 6-10 November 2026. The theme of the Annual Meeting is: " Crossing Boundaries:  Advancing Global Dialogue and Well-being
through Information Research and Practice". For more information, visit: https://www.asist.org/am26/

The purpose of this contest is to encourage researchers from developing countries (excluding applicants from developing countries who are currently working or studying in developed countries) and to share their work globally. It also focuses to push advancements in information, people, and technology in contemporary societies in the context of developing countries.

Papers submitted to this contest can discuss research problems, policies, new methodologies, and case studies highlighting practical issues in or outside of LIS work settings, and case studies on any aspect of the 2025 ASIS&T Annual Meeting theme from a local, regional, and/or international perspective.

Topics include, but are not limited to the following core areas:

  • Archives, data curation, and preservation
  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning applications in information science
  • Cultural Institutions
  • Data Science, analytics, and visualization
  • Domain-Specific Informatics
  • Education and Learning in Information Science
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Information and knowledge management
  • Information behavior
  • Information literacy
  • Information retrieval
  • Information systems
  • Information theory
  • Informetrics and scholarly publishing
  • Knowledge organization
  • Information privacy, ethics, and regulation
  • Open science, open data, and research transparency
  • Research into practice
  • Social media and social computing
  • Technology, culture, and society (for the list of subtopics, for more details, visit https://www.asist.org/am26/am26-instructions/)

Judging Criteria: The IPC papers will be judged using the following criteria.

  1. The originality of the research question and objectives
  2. Ability to situate problem statements against existing literature
  3. Rigor in research methods
  4. Novelty and significance of research findings
  5. Theoretical and/or practical implications and/or contributions
  6. Quality of presentation and the overall organization of information
  7. Consistency in citations, references, and grammar

Eligibility & Information for Authors: All authors should be citizens of and reside in a developing nation. Winners of the 2016-2025 contests are not eligible. The papers should be original, unpublished, and submitted in English. We encourage submissions from librarians, information and network specialists, and educators involved in the creation, representation, maintenance, exchange, discovery, delivery, and use of digital information.

Detailed PDF

Style format: Submissions should follow the Initial Submission Instructions at: https://www.asist.org/am26/am26-instructions/

Submissions must be formatted according to the AM26 Proposal Template Instructions.

Deadline: Authors are invited to submit manuscripts, not to exceed 5,000 words, by April 30, 2026, via submission form https://forms.gle/JSPCrQ8op8eaSNkB8  as a Microsoft Word attachment.

Notification: Winners will be notified by June 2, 2026, via email.

Winners and Award: The IPC Committee will select three winners. We encourage all three winners to attend the 2026 ASIS&T Annual Meeting for sharing their research. The first-place winner will receive a maximum of US $1,500 for offsetting the cost of attending and presenting their research poster at the 2026 ASIS&T Annual Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. In addition, all three winners will receive a two-year individual membership in ASIS&T. In the case of multiple authors, the first author will be awarded the ASIS&T membership.

Publishing opportunities:  All three winners are welcome to submit their papers to International Journal of Library and Information Services (IJLIS), which is indexed in ProQuest LISA, or Pakistan Journal of Information Management & Libraries for publication subject to the peer-reviewing process. All submissions will go through a peer-review process in those two journals.

Poster Presentation: The first-place winner will be expected to present a poster (48" by 36" inches) based on their research paper at the SIG-III Reception at the 2026 ASIS&T Annual Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

We look forward to receiving your submissions. Please feel free to distribute this call for papers widely to your colleagues in developing countries. Thanks!

International Paper Contest Committee

  1. Nourah Nasser Al-Hazzani, Professor of Knowledge Management Technologies, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Saudi Arabia.
  1. Priya Vaidya, Assistant Professor, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara (Punjab), MAXQDA Professional Trainer, Ex-SRF (UGC), DLISc, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.
  2. Dilhani Munasinghe, Senior Assistant Librarian, Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
  3. Nove E Variant Anna, lecturer and researcher in library and information and archival from Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia.
  4. Naailah Parbhoo, Senior Researcher, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse-Randburg, South Africa.
  5. Heba Mohamed Ismail (IPC Chair), Libraries Technical Manager, Egypt's Society for Culture and Development, Egypt.