15th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems
Amsterdam, Netherlands, 27th September-1st October 2021
The ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys) is the premier international forum for the presentation of new research results, systems and techniques in the broad field of recommender systems. RecSys brings together the major international research groups working on recommender systems, along with many of the world’s leading companies active in e-commerce and other adjacent domains. It has become the most important annual conference for the presentation and discussion of recommender systems research. In recognition of the role of the conference in bringing the recommender systems community together, the theme of RecSys 2021 will be “A place to meet and exchange” and the conference venue will be the Amsterdam Stock Exchange Building, which has been transformed into the Amsterdam Conference Centre.
We are planning a physical conference Amsterdam, Netherlands, with an inclusive format that makes possible remote attendance for those who need it.
Statement on Inclusion and Safety
As the organizers of RecSys 2021, we are committed to providing an inclusive, safe, and respectful conference environment for all attendees. As we increasingly realize the impact of our community’s work on society, we appreciate now more than ever the importance of providing an inclusive and accessible conference that brings together a diverse recommender systems community.
As an ACM conference, RecSys and its organizers, speakers, and attendees are bound by the ACM Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment, which applies to both the conference venue and social media. As organizers, this is a policy that we fully endorse.
RecSys has made efforts over the last several years to be an accessible and inclusive community, across various perspectives, and we have sought throughout our planning of RecSys 2021 to continue and expand those efforts. We have appointed Cynthia Liem and Sole Pera as the Inclusion and Accessibility Chairs for RecSys 2021, and invite you to contact them with any concerns or feedback. The General Chairs (Humberto Corona, Martha Larson, and Martijn Willemsen) also welcome your input.
Accessibility and Inclusion at RecSys. The RecSys conference values and cares about diversity, accessibility and inclusion. We have always been diverse in terms of disciplinary backgrounds (e.g. including both HCI- and data-focused work), professional affiliations (e.g. strong representation from both academia and industry), and application domains of our work. We are aware that members in our community may come from historically underrepresented groups, for which we wish to pro-actively encourage and support increased participation. To ensure the conference and its activities are accessible to all, we also explicitly seek to address the visible or invisible support needs members of our community may have.
In preparing for a hybrid conference, we will face challenges and opportunities regarding improved community diversity, accessibility, and inclusion. We are committed to tackle the challenges and invest in the opportunities, so that RecSys continues to embrace and enrich its growing, vibrant, and diverse community, and indeed include and acknowledge everyone, even if attendance will be distributed.
Publications and Presentations. RecSys hosts a variety of scientific discussions. Historically, we have prepared guidelines for accessible and inclusive presentations. Currently, we are in progress of revising these guidelines for the anticipated hybrid attendance setup, and a live working version can be found in this document. We would like to emphasize that inclusive, safe and respectful addressing does not only apply to conference presentations, but also to the whole process leading towards these presentations, including the way in which research is presented and reviewed. We therefore would like to encourage our community members to already keep our best practice guidelines on inclusive language in mind, when preparing their manuscripts and peer reviewing.
Contact. Should you experience or witness a violation of the anti-harassment policy, or have any other concerns regarding your ability to fully and safely participate in the conference, please email Sole Pera and Cynthia Liem or RecSys General Chairs; you can also directly reach them at the conference venue.
We hope you have an amazing RecSys.
Humberto Corona, Martha Larson, Martijn Willemsen, Sole Pera and Cynthia Liem