ACL-2000 Call for Theme Proposals

[Priscilla Rasmussen]

                 ACL-2000 CALL FOR THEME PROPOSALS


ACL-00 Conference:
  The 38th Annual Meeting of the Association for
  Computational Linguistics

  Hong Kong
  October 3--6, 2000

  The Association for Computational Linguistics would like to encourage
  the submission of papers on substantial, original, and unpublished
  research on all aspects of computational linguistics. To broaden both
  the thematic coverage and geographical origin of submissions, we are
  continuing the special theme sessions format introduced in the 1999
  ACL conference.  Some proportion of the conference will be given over
  to special sessions, somewhat like a special issue of a journal,
  organized around themes proposed by members of the NLP community.  The
  aim is to incorporate some of the intensity and excitement of the
  traditional pre/post-conference workshops, without replacing those
  workshops---we expect, as has become traditional, that there will also
  be a set of workshops that will remain separate from the main
  meeting. This call invites proposals for thematic sessions in
  accordance with the considerations below; a final Call For Papers,
  that includes the list of selected themes will be sent out in
  mid-January.

  What is a Thematic Session?

  We are soliciting proposals for themes that will provide a sufficient
  number of quality papers to form one or two sessions (3-4 papers per
  session) in the main conference. Proposers of accepted themes, who
  will become the chairs of those sessions, will have similar
  responsibilities to those of workshop organizers in terms of arranging
  reviewing and the delivery of camera ready copy. However, the papers
  will be scheduled as part of the main sessions and will be published
  as part of the main conference proceedings. The quality of theme
  papers is expected to be equal to that of the papers in the general
  sessions of the conference.  In terms of subject area coverage, we
  expect thematic sessions will be closer to workshop topic areas in
  focus.

  Format of Theme Proposals

  The theme proposals should be approximately two pages in length and
  should be divided into the following headings.

    Chair Details: Name, address, email, telephone number, fax

    Theme Title:

    List of Topics: This should include some keywords describing the
    topics to be covered by the theme. This information will be used
    primarily to check for overlap with other proposed themes.

    Summary: A brief description of the proposed subject area, and summary
    of why the inclusion of the proposed theme would meet the aims of
    theme sessions.

    Viability of Theme: Given the number of papers that can populate one
    or two sessions at the conference and the typical ACL acceptance
    rates, to be viable a theme should receive 10--30 submissions. In this
    section, proposers of the theme should provide evidence that
    sufficient number of submissions can be expected.  Such evidence for
    the viability of the theme might include the citation of workshops,
    symposia, special journal issues etc. in the theme topic.  In
    situations of emerging fields, such evidence may not be available. In
    lieu of such evidence, proposers might provide evidence for an
    existing community interested in the topic by providing a list of
    people who have indicated interest in the theme. Of course, proposers
    can offer other types of evidence to show that a sufficient number of
    submissions can be expected.

    Proposed Review Committee: Each paper submitted should be reviewed by
    at least three people. As part of the proposal, proposers should
    suggest a potential review committee who are likely to serve on the
    committee if the proposal is accepted. The list would also demonstrate
    the spread of interest in the area in the community, encouraging both
    international participation and the participation of a broad range of
    researchers, including both senior members of the community and
    graduate students.



  Theme proposals should be submitted to the email address provided
  below.  Proposers of themes are encouraged to indicate their plans in
  advance of the submission date by sending email to this
  address. Informal enquiries as to what might work as a theme can also
  be directed to this address.  Possible themes might be topics like:
  NLP and Information Retrieval (or topics that include a community in
  the periphery of language technology); Methods for Asian Language
  Processing; Computational Linguistic Issues in Alternate/Augmentative
  Communication; Spoken Dialog Systems; Multi-lingual Language
  Processing.  These examples are provided only as indications of the
  variety of topic areas that will be considered. A list of theme topics
  included in the ACL 1999 conference can be found by following appropriate
  links from http://www.mri.mq.edu.au/conf/acl99/.


  Important Dates

   This call issued:                        December 3, 1999

   Theme submissions deadline:              January 7, 2000

   Notification of selected themes:         January 17, 2000

   Call for papers:                         January 20, 2000

   Paper submissions deadline:              March 31, 2000 (approx. date)

   Notification of acceptance:              June 15, 2000 (approx. date)




  General Submission Questions

  Co-chairs for the ACL-99 program are Chang-Ning Huang and K. Vijay-Shanker.
  All queries regarding the program should be sent to acl2k at cis.udel.edu;
  this forwards to both co-chairs.

  Submission Format

  Theme proposals should ideally submitted in ascii by email to
  acl2k at cis.udel.edu with the subject: "ACL99 THEME PROPOSAL".
  PostScript, PDF and Word files will be accepted if they print on the
  first try.  Hardcopy proposals should be faxed or mailed to both of
  the chairs, clearly labeled "ACL99 THEME PROPOSAL". Proposals should
  be received by 5pm GMT on January 7, 2000.


   Chang-Ning Huang (Co-Chair)              K. Vijay-Shanker (Co-Chair)

   Microsoft Research, China	            Dept. of Computer Science
   5F, Beijing Sigma Center                 University of Delaware
   No.49, Zhichun Road                      Newark, DE 19716, USA
   Beijing 100080, P.R.C

   cnhuang at microsoft.com                    vijay at cis.udel.edu
   Tel: (86-10)6261-7711 -5760              Tel: +1 302 831 1952
   Fax: (86-10)8809-7305                    Fax: +1 302 831 8458


   Hitoshi Iida (General Chair)             Aravind K. Joshi (Honorary Chair)

   Speech and Language Information          Department of Computer and
          Processing Lab                          Information Sciences
   SONY Computer Science Labs, Inc.         University of Pennsylvania
   Tokyo 141-0022, Japan                    Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA

   iida at csl.sony.co.jp                      joshi at linc.cis.upenn.edu
   Tel: +81 3 5448 4380                     Tel: +1 215 898 0359
   Fax: +81 3 5447 1942                     Fax: +1 215 573 9247