ACM SIGDOC 2003
The annual conference of the
Association for Computing Machinery
Special Interest Group for Documentation

San Francisco, California  USA
October 12–15, 2003

CALL FOR PAPERS
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Finding real-world solutions for documentation:
How theory informs practice and practice informs theory

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

In the broad field of documentation, the circle of experience, abstraction, testing and use can be completed in both directions. So SIGDOC 2003 provides a forum for documentation specialists, researchers, and educators to contribute to a field in which theory informs practice and practice informs theory. How can we bring new theoretical or methodological frameworks to bear on old problems?  How can we take advantage of practitioners’ experience to advance, improve, or combine the methods and methodologies used in documentation?  What are the benefits and costs if practitioners just ignore user modeling and charge ahead? How can we productively model context, activity, documents, and users? How does documentation experience affect user modeling? What tools enable quick and effective production of documentation and allow writers to own the content longer?

SIGDOC 2003 offers a forum for considering these questions and more. Like previous SIGDOC conferences, SIGDOC 2003 will be a uniquely intimate and affordable conference. The host city of San Francisco provides a particularly appropriate backdrop in which to consider the conference theme, as the Bay Area is one of the world’s leading sites for up-to-date practice and leading-edge theory in the field of documentation.

We invite you to submit an abstract for paper or poster, or a proposal for a panel, workshop or tutorial. Join us in creating a productive environment for exchanging ideas, sharing expertise, and building professional relationships in the field of documentation.

Our theme, “Finding real-world solutions for documentation: How theory informs practice and practice informs theory,” includes a wide range of topics. You are encouraged, though not required, to consider the following areas:

•	How best practices in industry can be modeled and disseminated
•	How documentation tools can improve productivity for authors and usability for users
•	Advances in modeling context, activity, documents, and users
•	Advances in methodology
•	When is theory essential and when can it be ignored

PRESENTATION TYPES

Important: For papers, panels, and posters, your proposal, as well as your completed submission, will be peer reviewed. Accepted papers, panels, and posters will be published in the conference proceedings and considered for publication in the ACM Journal of Computer Documentation. However, final acceptance for publication is contingent on registration for the conference. (In the case of multiple authors, at least one author must register.) If you are unable to attend the conference, a publication fee equivalent to your conference registration will be charged."

Papers
Papers describe well-developed documentation development processes, offer instructive case examples, outline cogent or provocative positions on the past, present, or future of documentation, or discuss the results of empirical, historical, or theoretical research. In all cases, a paper must break new ground and its contribution must offer a clear benefit. 

All abstracts (and subsequent full papers) are assessed according to the following criteria:

1.	Contribution and Benefit. A paper must make a clear contribution to an identified area of the documentation field. It should be evident how general the contribution is, and how the audience to which the paper is addressed will benefit. Papers making one clear, significant contribution are more likely to be accepted than papers making several lesser contributions. 
2.	Validity. To benefit from its contribution, a paper's readers must be able to make use of its results with confidence. Thus, the paper must provide evidence of the validity of its results. Methods for establishing validity vary depending on the nature of the contribution. They may involve empirical work in the laboratory or the field, the description of rationales for design decisions and approaches, applications of analytical techniques, or proof of concept system implementations. 
3.	Originality. The paper must cite previously published work. It should show both how it builds on previous contributions, and how, where and why it goes beyond what is currently known. 
4.	Clarity. The paper must be clearly and concisely written, with appropriate use of tables and figures.

Submit a 300- to 600-word description of the paper topic, outlining the thesis, main points, and implications for the field. See below for specific instructions for formatting and sending submissions. For approved descriptions, full papers will be solicited and reviewed. Papers accepted for and published in the proceedings can be up to 12 pages. Presentations at the conference, including time for discussion, will be 30 minutes.

Panels
Panels stimulate thought and discussion about ideas and issues of interest to the computer documentation community. They typically focus on controversial or emerging topics and are designed to explore a range of different viewpoints. Domain experts conduct an interactive discussion with the overall goal of helping audience members to broaden their understanding of the issues and perhaps even to modify their views. Panels last 90 minutes and typically include three to five panelists plus a moderator. A discussant may be used, but is not required. 

Panels may take many approaches. Some are analytic; they analyze and synthesize current practices in the various fields of documentation. Some are comparative; they compare distinct approaches, techniques, and models to a particular problem including evaluation, design, and implementation. They may focus attention on the theme of the conference or special areas and tracks within the conference. Other panels are historic; they revisit the past as a means to inform the present.

Submit a 800- to 1000-word description of the panel, including an overview of the topic, abstracts of the positions of the panelists, and proposed panel format. See below for specific instructions for submissions. We are especially interested in formats that generate interaction and discussion among panelists and with the audience; this is not the place for a series of prepared presentations. Individual panelists can be proposed, or the program committee can help accepted panel proposals find appropriate panelists if needed.

Posters
Posters are concise, visual presentations of a concept related to the conference theme.  Posters will be displayed during the conference and provide an excellent opportunity to discuss late-breaking and ongoing work in an informal setting. A two-page summary of each accepted poster will appear in the conference proceedings. 

Review criteria include the contribution of the work to the documentation community, validity of the results, originality of the work, clarity of presentation, and interest value. Summaries of wider findings or reduced versions of longer papers are not suitable for the Posters submission category. 

Submit a PDF file of the poster. The deadline for posters only is June 9, 2003. See below for specific instructions for formatting and sending submissions.

Workshops

Workshops provide a valuable opportunity for small communities of people with diverse perspectives to engage in rich discussions about a topic of common interest. Interaction among participants is important, so participants must have informed positions based on prior experience. Workshops can focus on research or applied topics. Workshops addressing the conference theme are encouraged. We encourage submissions addressing basic research, applied research, and new methodologies, emerging application areas, design innovations, and education. Each workshop should result in a short article for submission to the Journal of Computer Documentation that gives the SIGDOC community a new, organized way of thinking about the topic and that suggests promising directions for future research.

All workshops are one-half day in length. Design your schedule for a length of 4 hours, including one coffee break. Most workshops have 12 to 15 participants. A fee is charged to each workshop participant to cover materials. The workshop fee will be waived for two of the workshop's organizers.

Review criteria include the workshop's potential for generating stimulating discussions and useful results; the expected community interest level in the topic; the organizers' ability to demonstrate through the proposal that the workshop will be well organized; the overall balance of topics in the Workshops program; and the fit with the conference theme or special areas. If multiple submissions are received on the same or similar topics, the organizers may be encouraged to merge them.

In the workshop proposal, describe the topic, the plan for conducting the workshop, and the organizers' backgrounds. The topic description should communicate the names of all organizers (identifying the two whose fees will be waived), the goals of the workshop, the nature of the topic in a clear and detailed description, and the importance and timeliness of the topic. The workshop plan should communicate a preliminary schedule of workshop activities with estimated times, a breakdown of subtopics within general topic, the desired number of participants, the participant selection criteria, the approach to facilitation for workshop activities, any pre-workshop activities, the planned dissemination of results (e.g., plans for a Journal of Computer Documentation article), and whether a conference poster will be created by organizers. The organizer's background should include relevant biographical information including projects, publications, and presentations on the workshop topic, and relevant past experience with workshops at similar conferences. 

The workshop proposal should be 800 to 1000 words, plus a 250-word call for participation suitable for publication in the SIGDOC 2003 Advance Program and on the SIGDOC 2003 Web site. It should describe the workshop, the participant selection criteria, and where potential participants should send position papers. See below for specific instructions for formatting and sending submissions.

Tutorials
Tutorials are either half-day or full-day training sessions that explore a conference topic. Tutorial leaders should be experienced teachers or trainers with significant expertise in the tutorial area. Tutorial leaders will receive an honorarium of $250 for a half-day workshop or $500 for a full-day workshop, as well as travel and lodging for one night. Note: If fewer than six students register for a tutorial, it will be canceled and the tutorial leader will not receive an honorarium or the travel and lodging payments. In the case of a tutorial with two or more leaders, the honorarium and travel reimbursement will be divided among them.

In the tutorial proposal, describe the topic, the plan for conducting the tutorial, and the organizers' backgrounds. The topic description should communicate the goals of the workshop, the nature of the topic in a clear and detailed description, and the importance and timeliness of the topic. The tutorial plan should communicate a preliminary schedule of activities with estimated times, a breakdown of subtopics within general topic, the desired number of participants, the session activities, and any pre-tutorial activities. Be sure to discuss how hands-on activities will be included. The organizer's background should include relevant biographical information including projects, publications, and presentations on the workshop topic, and relevant past experience with workshops at similar conferences.

The tutorial proposal should be 800 to 1000 words, plus a 250-word call for participation suitable for publication in the SIGDOC 2003 Advance Program and on the SIGDOC 2003 Web site. See below for specific instructions for formatting and sending submissions.

SUBMISSION FORMAT AND DEADLINE

Abstracts for papers and proposals for panels, workshops and tutorials must be submitted as a plain-text message to sigdoc2003@acm.org by March 14, 2003. Full versions of solicited papers are due by June 16, 2003, for full review.  All abstracts and proposals should include contact information for the proposer(s). The body of an abstract for a paper should be anonymous; the abstract’s text will be copied from the e-mailed submission message before being reviewed by the program committee. 

Posters must be submitted as a PDF file of the complete poster to sigdoc2003@acm.org by June 9, 2003. The accompanying message should include contact information.

Accepted papers, poster abstracts, and panel descriptions will be published in the conference proceedings. Papers accepted for presentation at the conference will only be published in the Proceedings if the author have registered for the event and have firm plans to present their work.

ADDRESS FOR SUBMISSION AND INFORMATION
sigdoc2003@acm.org

CONFERENCE CHAIR
Susan Jones, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PROGRAM CHAIR
David Novick, University of Texas at El Paso

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Lissy Abraham, Apple Computer
Michael J. Albers, University of Memphis
Cornelia Boldyreff, Durham University
Sandy Korzenny, Apple Computer
William Hart-Davidson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Johndan Johnson-Eilola, Clarkson University
Kevin Knabe, The Vanguard Group
Bunny Laden, Apple Computer
Jim Palmer, Certive
Cecile Paris, CSIRO Australia
Michael Priestley, IBM Canada
Stuart Selber, Penn State University
Clay Spinuzzi, University of Texas at Austin
Saïd Tazi, University of Toulouse II
Scott Tilley, Florida Institute of Technology
Ken Wong, University of Alberta