We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Tenth ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys 2016), the premier venue for research and applications of recommendation technologies. The tenth RecSys will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA on the MIT and IBM Research campuses from Sept 15th to Sept 19th, 2016. The conference will continue RecSys’ practice of connecting the research and practitioner communities to exchange ideas, frame problems, and share solutions. This year marks the tenth anniversary of RecSys, and the conference will feature events and a new track entitled Past, Present and Future to celebrate ten years of RecSys. The track invites submissions that reflect on past, present, and future research foci in the field of recommender systems, along with reflections on the role which RecSys played in shaping our research agendas. All proceedings will be published one week before the first day of the conference.
We construe recommender systems broadly, including applications ranging from e-commerce to social networking, platforms from web to mobile and beyond, and a wide variety of technologies ranging from collaborative filtering to knowledge-based reasoning. Topics of interest for RecSys 2016 include (but are not limited to):
Algorithm scalability
Case studies of real-world implementations
Conversational recommender systems
Context-aware recommenders
Evaluation metrics and studies
Explanations and evidence
Field and user studies
Group recommenders
Impact studies
Innovative/New applications
Machine learning for recommendation
Mobile and multi-channel recommendations
Novel paradigms
Personalization
Preference elicitation
Privacy and Security
Recommendation algorithms
Social recommenders
Semantic technologies for recommendation
Targeted advertising
Trust and reputation
Theoretical foundations
User interaction and interfaces
User modeling
This year authors will be asked to select whether their paper is primarily Algorithm or Application focussed. This will allow us to better assign reviewers and to balance the program. There are three paper submission categories:
LONG PAPER submissions should report on substantial contributions of lasting value. The maximum length is 8 pages (including references). Each accepted long paper will be included in the conference proceedings and presented in a plenary session as part of the main conference program. We expect the review process to be highly selective: the acceptance rates for full papers in the past three years were 20-24%.
SHORT PAPER submissions typically discuss exciting new work that is not yet mature enough for a long paper. The maximum length is 4 pages (including references). Each accepted short paper will be included in the conference proceedings and presented in a plenary session as part of the main conference . The presentation may include a system demonstration. Note that rejected long paper submissions will not be considered as short papers.
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE PAPER submissions celebrate the innovation and growth of the community, put forward innovative future applications or provide material that helps set a future research agenda for the Recommender System community. To mark the tenth year of the RecSys Conference, this track encourages papers that consider a broad perspective on how the field has evolved and the challenges and directions that lay ahead. We encourage, position papers, both qualitative and quantitative historical analyses, reflections on persistent or fleeting trends in the field and blue sky future agendas for recommender research. Papers can be up to 4 pages in length (including references) and will be judged on originality and creativity. Each accepted Past, Present, Future paper will be included in the conference proceedings and presented in brief entertaining oral presentations at one of the birthday events or technical sessions.
SIGCHI Submitter Agreement
RecSys 2016 is a SIGCHI conference and making a submission to a SIGCHI conference is a serious matter. Submissions require time and effort by SIGCHI volunteers to organize and manage the reviewing process, and, if the submission is accepted, the publication and presentation process. Thus, anyone who submits to RecSys 2016 implicitly confirms the following statements:
I confirm that this submission is the work of myself and my co-authors.
I confirm that I or my co-authors hold copyright to the content, and have obtained appropriate permissions for any portions of the content that are copyrighted by others.
I confirm that any research reported in this submission involving human subjects has gone through the appropriate approval process at my institution.
I confirm that if this paper is accepted, I or one of my co-authors will attend the conference. Papers that are not presented at the conference by an author may be removed from the proceedings at the discretion of the program chairs.
Paper Format and Submission
All submissions and reviews will be handled electronically. RecSys 2016 submissions should be prepared in PDF format according to the standard double-column ACM SIG proceedings format. Additional information about formatting and style files are available online. The peer review process is double-blind (i.e. anonymized). This means that all submissions must not include information identifying the authors or their organization. Specifically, do not include the authors’ names and affiliations, anonymize citations to your own previous work and avoid providing any other information that would allow to identify the authors, such as acknowledgments and funding.
Papers must be electronically submitted to the EasyChair website by 23:59 (11:59pm) UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on April 20th, 2016. In order to be fair to all authors, there will be no extensions to the submission deadline. Papers not submitted by the deadline will not be reviewed.
Note that the EasyChair site allows you to upload updated versions of your paper until the deadline – so you may want to upload an early version of the paper which you can later (if you wish to) overwrite with a newer version of the paper until the deadline.
Please authors take note that the official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of your conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.
Important Dates
Abstract submission deadline: April 13th, 2016
Paper submission deadline: April 20th, 2016
Notification: June 14th, 2016
Camera-ready paper deadline: July 10th, 2016
Deadlines refer to 23:59 (11:59pm) in the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time zone.
RecSys 2016 is pleased to invite proposals for tutorials to be held in conjunction with the conference. The goal of the tutorials is to provide the larger conference community an opportunity to learn about recommender system concepts and techniques and serve as a venue to share presenters’ expertise with the global community of recommender system researchers and practitioners. Tutorials are 90 minute intensive instructional sessions focused on specific topics including, but not limited to:
Introductions to recommender systems or specific techniques (e.g., collaborative filtering)
Methods for evaluating and measuring the system performance
Building and deploying recommender systems in specific domains (e.g., music, tourism)
Designing the user experience
User/centric evaluation of recommender systems
Emotion and personality/aware recommender systems
Supporting the user decision making process
Group recommender systems
Preference learning
Context aware recommender systems
Recommender systems and deep learning
Mobile and wearable based recommender systems
Location-based recommender systems
Intersections of recommender systems with other domains (e.g., information retrieval, machine learning, human computer interaction, databases)
We actively encourage both researchers and industry practitioners to submit tutorial proposals that can target different expertises and interests.
Proposal Format and Submission
The tutorial proposal should be a PDF document no more than 2 pages long, submitted by e-mail to and organized as follows:
Tutorial Title
Name, email address, and affiliation for tutorial instructor(s). Each listed instructor should present at the conference.
Detailed bulleted outline of the tutorial (this should take most of the proposal’s space)
Targeted audience, prerequisite knowledge
Importance of this topic for the RecSys community
History of prior tutorials from the instructor(s)
List of relevant publications
Important Dates
Tutorial proposal submission deadline: May 15th, 2016
Tutorial proposal notification: June, 13th, 2016
Camera-ready tutorial summaries due: July 20th, 2016
Deadlines refer to 23:59 (11:59pm) in the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time zone.
RecSys 2016 is pleased to invite proposals for workshops to be held in conjunction with the conference. The goal of the workshops is to provide additional venues for discussing novel ideas as well as recent results of research in progress.
In 2016 our goal is to have a balanced workshop program which comprises workshop formats of different types. Different full-day and half-day workshop formats are possible, for example:
Novel interactive workshop formats with a correspondingly small number of participants. Such workshop formats might for example target at the exploration of a certain topic during the workshop through a moderated discussion or breakout sessions, resulting in a draft paper or report to be completed and published after the workshop. The usage and analysis of existing recommendation tools and the design and possibly execution of experimental studies represent other examples of alternative workshop formats. Particular priority will be given to these formats which require the active involvement of the participants.
Traditional mini-conferences on specialized topics; such workshops typically have their own paper submission and review processes. Proposals for continuations of existing workshop series are welcome; a brief statement on the development of the workshop series, e.g., in terms of topics, number of paper submissions and participants or post-workshop publications over the years should be provided.
Mini-competitions or challenges around selected topics with individual or team participation are also highly welcome.
We encourage you to contact us in advance with workshop ideas; we will work with prospective workshop organizers to help them design successful proposals. In particular for workshop proposals with novel interactive formats we are happy to assist you in further developing and implementing your ideas.
We encourage both researchers and industry practitioners to submit proposals.
Proposal Format and Submission
The workshop proposal should be a PDF document no more than 4 pages long, submitted by e-mail to and organized as follows:
Workshop title
A short description of workshop including the rationale for the workshop and how and why it fits the audience of RecSys. This description should include also the topic, format, and details about what type of submission is requested from prospective attendees.
Name, email address, and affiliation for workshop chair(s) and a brief description of their experience in organizing such events.
Requested duration (half day or full day), and expected number of participants. Note, there will be a maximum number of participants for each workshop in 2016.
Description of workshop activities. Outline how the workshop will be organized and how the time will be spent. In particular, please sketch how you will engage participants to foster more interactivity and engagement during the workshop.
For more interactive workshop formats, also outline the process of selecting or inviting the participants.
Description of plans for promoting the workshop and disseminating the results.
History of prior workshops on this topic, if any.
Important Dates
Workshop proposal submission deadline: February 28th, 2016
The ACM Recommender Systems 2016 Doctoral Symposium provides an opportunity for doctoral students to explore and develop their research interests under the guidance of a panel of distinguished researchers from both academia and industry. We invite students who feel they would benefit from this kind of feedback on their work to apply for this unique opportunity to share their work with students in a similar situation as well as senior researchers in the field. The strongest candidates will be those who have an idea and an area, and have made some progress, but who are not so far along their research that they can no longer make changes. Typically this means that they have defined their topic and have completed some research, but still have at least a year of research remaining before completing a dissertation (in many universities this corresponds to the dissertation proposal stage). The feedback from attendees in previous years has been very positive and the Doctoral Symposium has been considered very useful in providing research guidance.
The symposium has the following objectives:
Provide a supportive setting for feedback on students’ current research and guidance on future research directions.
Offer each student comments and fresh perspectives on their work from faculty and students outside their own institution.
Promote the development of a supportive community of scholars and a spirit of collaborative research.
Contribute to the conference goals through interaction with other researchers and conference events.
Student participants will have their extended abstracts (4 pages) published in the conference proceedings. They will also have the opportunity to present a poster of their work during the poster session at the main conference.
RecSys 2016 is seeking funds to support participation in the doctoral symposium. While funding has not yet been awarded, we expect to be able to provide complimentary registration for both the symposium and the RecSys 2016 conference, and we hope to provide additional travel support.
Symposium Format and Participation Expectations
The doctoral symposium will run all day on Friday, September 16th, 2016, culminating with a group dinner. Participants are expected to attend the entire symposium, including the dinner, and are expected to attend the ACM RecSys 2016 conference.
The format of the symposium will be primarily student presentations supplemented by one or two panel sessions to provide advice and Q&A opportunities with senior researchers in the field. Student presentations will be structured to provide maximum feedback. In particular:
Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes, followed by 20-25 minutes for feedback and discussion;
Two of the symposium faculty will be assigned to provide “primary” feedback for each presenter; following this primary feedback there will be a period of open feedback from all participants;
Students will be expected to take notes for another participant so that each of you can focus on interacting during the discussion surrounding your presentation;
During the main conference, you will also present your dissertation work and plans in the form of a poster presentation.
Being accepted into the symposium is an honor, and involves a commitment to giving and receiving thoughtful commentary with an eye towards shaping the field and upcoming participants in the research area.
Application Format and Submission
Applications are invited from graduate students pursuing a PhD project who would benefit from detailed workshop discussions of their doctoral research by a panel of established researchers.
Applications should include the following:
An extended abstract (see below).
A curriculum vitae.
A one-paragraph statement of expected benefits of participation, including questions for symposium mentors.
Submit these three items in a single PDF file to . Your contribution should be named lastname_ds.pdf, where lastname is your family name. The file must be no larger than 5 Mbytes.
A brief letter of recommendation from your doctoral advisor or mentor focused on how your participation in the doctoral symposium will benefit your dissertation research.
This letter should be sent directly to us at .
Extended Abstract
Prepare a four-page extended abstract of your thesis work in the ACM SIG Proceedings Format. The extended abstract will be evaluated with regard to:
Originality of the work with respect to current concepts and techniques.
Importance of the work with respect to fundamental issues in recommender systems.
Rigor and validity of claims, argumentation, methodology, results, and interpretations.
Clarity and persuasiveness of expression.
The accepted extended abstracts will be published in the Conference Proceedings and available in the ACM Digital library, where they will remain accessible to thousands of researchers and practitioners worldwide.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until two weeks prior to the start of the conference. Submissions should contain no information or materials that are proprietary at publication time.
Selection Criteria
To provide maximum feedback to each student, participation in the doctoral symposium is limited to no more than 8 doctoral students. Selection is based on two broad criteria:
Value of the symposium to the student
The degree to which the applicant is positioned to benefit from participation, including the student’s position in the doctoral process (the greatest benefit is for students with a developed research idea but much of the work yet undone).
The degree to which the student may otherwise lack access to a diverse set of feedback and input on his or her research plans (e.g., availability of local experts and advisors).
Value of the student’s participation to other students
The quality of the extended abstract (as identified above), both as a model of excellent research and as an indication of the student’s potential in the field.
Diversity of participation, including diversity by institution, country, research topic and approach, and demographics. In general we will limit participation to one or two students per institution, depending on the number of applicants.
Evidence that the student will be an effective and active participant, providing feedback to others and helping to build a research network.
Application Checklist
Well in advance of the deadline:
Create your submission materials:
Write an extended abstract according to the ACM SIG Proceedings Format.
The abstract must print to no more than 4 pages.
Write a curriculum vitae.
Write a one-paragraph statement of expected benefits of participation.
Package all materials into a single PDF file. Name it according to the following convention:
lastname_ds.pdf. Submit it to .
Test that your PDF prints correctly and that is it no larger than 5 Mbytes.
Confirm that your advisor has sent a letter of recommendation.
The demo session provides an exciting way for researchers and developers to present new recommender ideas, show off their work, and get valuable feedback from the recommender systems community.
We invite demonstrations of developments in all aspects of recommender systems, including (but not limited to):
Interaction techniques (preference elicitation interfaces, recommendation presentation, explanations, and more)
Tools for development and analysis of recommender systems (design tools, evaluation systems, analytics tools)
Innovative applications of recommender systems
Recommender experiments (showing something new to RecSys attendees could be a valuable source of data on user interaction with your recommender concept)
RecSys demos provide innovators and researchers a unique opportunity to get feedback from the recommender systems community on their ideas. RecSys has an excellent history of being well-attended by industry representatives — past conferences have had attendees and presenters from Ebay, Pandora, Twitter, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Netflix, Amazon, IBM, etc. The blend of industry and academic attention provides an excellent environment to demonstrate and discuss your latest invention or idea. Taking advantage of this environment, the demo track is particularly useful for several groups:
Researchers wanting to allow attendees to interact with their work, not just see it presented, and possibly gather usage data for feedback
Deployed recommender systems available to interact with
Early stage start-ups looking to showcase their ideas and gain feedback and exposure
Submissions
Demos should be submitted in a single PDF file through the EasyChair system and must include the following, in order:
A two-page demo summary that includes a link to a narrated screen capture of your system in action (ideally a video). This two-page summary of accepted demos will be published in ACM RecSys Extended Proceedings. For a formatting template, please see here.
A one-page description of the demonstrated system and the required setup. If the system will feature an installable component (e.g., mobile app) or web site for users to use throughout or after the conference, please mention this. The description should also provide information about the presenter(s), including their relationship to the project.
Note: At least one of the authors of each accepted demo is required to attend the conference.
Important Dates
Demo submission deadline: April 30th, 2016
Demo notification: June 10th, 2016
Camera-ready demo summaries due: July 20th, 2016
Deadlines refer to 23:59 (11:59pm) in the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time zone.
The poster session offers an opportunity for presenting late-breaking research results and speculative or innovative work in progress. The informal setting of the poster session encourages presenters and participants to engage in lively discussions about the presented work. All submissions should convey a scientific result or work in progress that is not yet ready to be published as a full length research paper at a refereed conference, but the preliminary results are already interesting.
Submissions
Posters should be submitted in PDF format through the EasyChair system. The submission shall consist of a two-page poster summary describing the late-breaking research. For a formatting template, please see here. The two-page summary of accepted posters will be included in separate CEUR proceedings (see proceedings for RecSys 2015 Posters here).
The peer review process is single-blind (i.e. author names are visible to reviewers, but reviewer names are not visible to authors). This means you should include author names and affiliations in your submission and refer to your work without any anonymization (e.g., when referring to previous work, your company, your customers, or acknowledgements).
In addition to the two-page submission, accepted poster authors will be asked to create a poster to be displayed at the conference in a dedicated poster area, and present their work during the poster session.
Note: At least one of the authors of each accepted poster is required to attend the conference.
Important Dates
Poster submission deadline: July 1st, 2016
Poster notification: July 30th, 2016
Camera-ready poster summaries due: August 12th, 2016
Deadlines refer to 23:59 (11:59pm) in the UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) time zone.
Alejandro Bellogin, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Fidel Cacheda, Universidad de A Coruña
Iván Cantador, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Shuo Chang, University of Minnesota
Simon Dooms, Trackuity
Casey Dugan, IBM T.J. Watson Research
Michael Ekstrand, Boise State University
Brent Hecht, University of Minnesota
Bart Knijnenburg, Clemson University
Noam Koenigstein, Microsoft
Julian McAuley, UC San Diego
Rishabh Mehrotra, University College London
Cataldo Musto, University of Bari
Michael O’Mahony, University College Dublin
Vito Claudio, Ostuni Politecnico di Bari
Javier Parapar, IRLab
Denis Parra, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Luiz Pizzato, 1-Page
Shaghayegh Sahebi, University of Pittsburgh
Alan Said, University of Skövde
Rodrygo Santos, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Oren Sar Shalom, IBM Research
Yue Shi, Yahoo Labs
Saúl Vargas, University of Glasgow
Amy Zhang, MIT
Call for Industry Talk Proposals
We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Tenth ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys 2016), the premier venue for research and applications of recommendation technologies. The tenth RecSys will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA on the MIT and IBM Research campuses from Sept 15th to Sept 19th, 2016. The conference will continue RecSys’ practice of connecting the research and practitioner communities to exchange ideas, frame problems, and share solutions.
Industrial practitioners are invited to submit talk proposals to the RecSys conference industrial track. This track seeks presentations about practical solutions and challenges to significant real-world issues facing industrial practitioners. We especially encourage submissions from people of backgrounds that have been traditionally under-represented in the RecSys community.
Examples of talk topics include, but are not limited to:
Techniques that solve significant issues in practice
Challenges faced by industrial practitioners that need help from the research community
Interesting data sets available for the community
Algorithm scalability
Case studies of real-world implementations
Evaluation metrics and studies
Field and user studies
Novel recommender system applications
Proposal Format and Submission
We are accepting proposals for 20 minute long talks. Proposals must include the following:
Title and abstract of the proposal presentation (1 page)
Short CV of the presenter(s) (up to 300 words)
Talk proposals should be emailed to .
Important Dates
Proposals must be submitted before the submission deadline of April 13th, 2016 to receive full consideration.
Submitters will be notified of talk acceptance or rejection by May 13th, 2016.
