CHI Notes

CHI Note submissions are now closed, and final notifications have been sent. If you have not received final notification about your Note, please email us at chi2007-notes@acm.org

Co-Chairs:

Elizabeth Churchill, Yahoo! Research
Rob St. Amant, NC State University

Message from Elizabeth and Rob

CHI Notes as a participation category is in its second year. Modeled on the successful UIST TechNotes and CSCW Notes categories, CHI Notes are briefer and more focused than Research Papers, but follow the same deadlines and reviewing process used for Papers.

Make submissions via the SIGCHI PCS site

Introduction

How CHI Notes are similar to CHI Papers

CHI Notes are self-contained contributions to the research program.
CHI Notes must contain clear statements of significance and contribution relative to closely-related work.
CHI Notes must present original work. The work cannot have been published elsewhere, nor can it be under concurrent review for publication by another conference or journal.
CHI Notes will be rigorously peer-reviewed and evaluated on the basis of originality, significance of the contribution to the field, quality of research, quality of writing and contribution to conference program diversity. (See the Guide to Successful Submissions: Papers and CHI Notes)
CHI Notes are published in the main conference proceedings and the ACM Digital Library.
CHI Notes will be presented by the author(s) at the conference.
CHI Notes has the same submission deadline as Research Papers.
CHI Notes must be accompanied by a 30-word contribution and benefits statement for their CHI Note.

How CHI Notes are different from Research Papers

CHI Notes are shorter than Research papers. They have a maximum length of 4 pages.
CHI Notes are much more focused and succinct contributions to the research program and are likely to have a smaller scope of contribution than Research Papers. For example, notes on applications may not cover the entire iterative design cycle (observation, design, implementation, evaluation, etc.) but may instead go into depth in specific areas.
CHI Notes are not expected to include a discussion of related work that is as broad and complete as that of a submission to the Papers venue.

An accepted CHI Note is considered archival for purposes of future publication. As a result:

Submissions without a clear research contribution will not be accepted. A description of completed work (as in a project deliverables report or class project paper) is not acceptable.
Submissions of a preliminary nature will not be accepted.
Submissions with a high degree of intellectual overlap with a paper that has appeared in any publisher's formal printed proceedings (ACM, IEEE Computer Society, etc.) will not be accepted.

Submissions containing research contributions that authors would like to include in a full-length paper at a future conference should be submitted to the Work-in-Progress venue rather than to CHI Notes. To better understand whether CHI Notes is the right venue for you, please see the Table from CHI 2006 "How to determine whether to submit a Paper, a CHI Note or a Work-in-Progress".

Topics for CHI notes

CHI Notes will be drawn from the same general types of contributions discussed in the Papers call for participation. For some examples of potential topics for CHI Notes please see the section below on Example CHI Notes.

In addition, the following descriptive examples, which are characterized in contrast to submissions to the Research Papers venue, may be helpful in understanding what kind of submissions may be suitable for CHI Notes:

A new implementation approach that has demonstrably addressed a significant technical issue (without extensive detail of the design process or evaluation of the implementation).
A new interaction technique and evidence of its utility compared to known techniques (described in sufficient detail to assist an expert reader in replicating the technique, but without exhaustive implementation detail and evaluation).
An incremental improvement or variation of an existing interaction technique with convincing evaluation.
A new methodology for designing or studying interactive systems that has demonstrable benefits for the HCI community (without extensive evaluation of the methodology).
A case study of the use of a system in a domain not typically studied by HCI researchers.
An analysis of a specific situation that could benefit from HCI research, especially situations not typically considered by HCI researchers.

These examples are not intended to be exhaustive or to exclude any of the types of contributions listed for Research Papers. However, prospective authors should recognize that certain types of contributions (such as reflective essays on complex topics) may offer substantially stronger research contributions in the format of the Papers venue.

Example CHI Notes

Authors planning to submit a CHI Note to CHI 2007 may find it useful to read some of the following CHI 2006 Notes. These and all other CHI 2006 Notes are in the ACM Digital library.

Advancing Ambiguity, K. Boehner, J. T. Hancock, Cornell University

Girls, Technology and Privacy: "Is My Mother Listening?", W. March, Intel Reseach and C. Fleuriot, featherhouse

Prototyping Retractable String-Based Interaction Techniques for Dual-Display Mobile Devices, G. Blaskó, Columbia University, C. Narayanaswami, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and S. Feiner, Columbia University

A New Error Metric for Text Entry Method Evaluation, J. Gong, P. Tarasewich, Northeastern University

Design and Experimental Analysis of Continuous Location Tracking Techniques for Wizard of Oz Testing, Y. Li, E. Welbourne, University of Washington and J. A. Landay, University of Washington and Intel Research Seattle

Mentoring

CHI 2007 will try to provide mentors for individuals who have not been published at CHI before and would like assistance in preparing their submissions. Please see Mentoring for more information.

Please do not request mentoring if your only question is the most appropriate venue to which to submit. Questions specifically about the CHI Notes venue should be directed at the chairs, chi2007-notes@acm.org. More general questions should be directed at the technical program chair, chi2007-tp@acm.org.

Preparing your submission

Before you start writing please download and read the Conference Proceedings Publication Format that contains information about how your note should be structured and the appropriate use of language.

Blind Reviewing and Paper Anonymity

The CHI 2007 review process is a 'blind review' process. Therefore, CHI Notes should be anonymized so that the identity of the authors is not immediately obvious - remove author and institutional identities from the title and header areas of the CHI Note, as noted in the submission instructions. It is not necessary to conceal all traces of identity from the body of the note, especially where such concealment leads to central content being removed. Authors should leave citations to their previous work unanonymized, so that those responsible for reviewing the note can ensure that all previous research has been taken into account by the authors.

Contribution and Benefits Statement

CHI Notes and Research Paper authors are expected to develop a 30-word contribution and benefits statement for their CHI Note. This statement will be entered when the note is submitted, and will be seen and assessed by reviewers along with the note. A contribution/benefit statement describes the contribution made by the note to HCI and the benefit that readers can gain from it. Examples can be found in A Guide to Successful Submissions: Papers and CHI Notes: (Note: Examples of Contribution and Benefit Statements).

Submissions

A complete CHI Note submission, which includes descriptive information (meta-data) you provide during the PCS upload process, as well as the abstract, your note, and contribution and benefits statement, is due 29 September, 2006, 5:00PM (1700) PDT.

Your submission must conform to the Conference Proceedings Publication Format and in its final PDF form must be no longer than four (4) pages, including references, appendices, and figures.
All references must be complete, accurate, accessible to the HCI public, and conform to the Conference Proceedings Publication Format. Do not cite publications that are proprietary or confidential at the time of publication.
Your submission must be in the PDF file format, and be no larger than 4 megabytes in size.
Your submission must be in English.
Submissions should contain no information or materials that will be proprietary or confidential at the time of publication.
Submissions arriving after the deadline or with improper formatting or anonymization will not be considered.
Please download the Conference Proceedings Publication Format for details on how to prepare your CHI Note submission including anonymizing your CHI Note, language usage guidelines, and how to produce and test your PDF document. The CHI Note, abstract and Contribution and Benefits statement, as submitted for review, will be regarded as the final publication-ready version of your submission.

Failure to meet any of these requirements is grounds for the rejection of your submission without further review.

Video Figures

Your CHI Note may be accompanied by a short digital video figure up to two minutes in length, or an interactive illustration, no more than 30 MB final data size (please see the Guide to Successful Submissions: Video). Your note must stand on its own without the video figure, as the video figure may not be available to everyone who reads the note (video figures will be archived on the Conference CD and the Digital Library).

CHI 2007 does not accept digital video clips requiring a specific computing platform or additional software to play. If you compress your video with unusual software or codecs reviewers may not be able to watch your clip, or it will be unsuitable for the conference disc. We strongly recommend QuickTime (.mov) and QuickTime-compatible file formats for your digital video submission. Any video file that can be played with the latest version of QuickTime Player (available from the QuickTime web page) is acceptable

CHI 2007 requires that a video figure accompanying a CHI Note be submitted as an additional file attached to your submission through the PCS system by the CHI Notes submission deadline, 29 September, 2006, 5:00 PM (1700) PDT.

Review process and Criteria

The form and content of submitted notes must be acceptable as received. All notes are assessed according to the following criteria:

Clarity. The CHI Note must be clearly and concisely written in international English, with appropriate use of tables and figures.
Contribution and benefit. The ultimate criterion of acceptance of a CHI Note lies in its contribution and benefit. A CHI Note must make a clear contribution to an identified area of HCI and offer significant benefit or benefits to its target readers. It should be evident how general the contribution is, and how the audience to which the note is addressed will benefit. Notes, because of their length, should focus on one clear, significant contribution.
Originality. The CHI Note 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.
Validity. To benefit from its contribution, a CHI Note reader must be able to make use of its results with confidence. Thus, the note 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.

Review Process

Paper submissions are reviewed by HCI researchers and practitioners who have been selected for their expertise. An Associate Chair manages each CHI Note's review. The process for review is as follows:

CHI Notes are first reviewed by a minimum of three expert reviewers.
Second, authors are invited to read the reviews. Authors are given the opportunity over a one week period to write a succinct response to correct factual review errors.
Third, the Associate Chair completes a meta-review that typically recommends acceptance or rejection based on the reviews received, and taking into account the author(s)’ response to the reviews.
Fourth, recommendations are reviewed by the CHI Notes program committee. In cases where a CHI Note has received widely divergent reviews, it is read and discussed by Associate Chairs with appropriate expertise before the final decision is made.
Fifth, an Associate Chair will work with authors to finalise camera ready versions of accepted CHI Notes.

Upon Acceptance

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection in December 2006.

The primary author of an accepted submission will receive instructions on how to submit publication-ready copy.

Please note that submissions will not be published without a signed copyright release form. Responsibility for permissions to use video, audio, or pictures of identifiable people rests with the author, not CHI 2007.

Confidentiality of Submissions

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 the start of the conference. Submissions should contain no information or materials that are proprietary at publication time.

At the Conference

Authors will present their work in a scheduled session with other notes and papers. Presenters of notes will be allowed 10 minutes to present their work, followed by some time for questions.

Presenters are encouraged to bring their own laptops for their presentation. See Standard Technical Support for information about the computing and A/V equipment that will be provided by the conference.

After the Conference

Your CHI Note will be stored in the ACM Digital Library which is available to subscribing members of the ACM.

CHI Notes Submission Checklist

If you wish to request a mentor, please contact the mentoring program before the deadline.
Read all the above material and the Conference Proceedings Publication Format.
If your paper submission contains a video figure, read the Guide to Successful Submissions: Video.
Generate a test PDF file of your submission and check it prints out correctly in no more than 4 pages. Submissions do not need to use 4 pages; they should be the minimum length needed to communicate the work.
Prepare and submit your CHI Note and your Contribution and Benefits statement
Prepare an anonymized version of your note in the Conference Proceedings Publication Format; note that author names and affiliations must be removed from the title page. In addition, the body of the CHI Note must contain an abstract as per the Conference Proceedings Publication Format guidelines.
CHI Notes Submission procedure:
Double check that the note has been anonymized, and conforms to the other submission requirements, as described above. Notes that fail to meet the submission requirements by the submission deadline WILL NOT BE REVIEWED. Please direct any questions or problems to chi2007-notes@acm.org.
Prepare a 30 word Contribution and Benefits statement.
Create a PDF file of your note and Contribution and Benefits statement that is no more than 4 megabytes in size (see instructions above).
Prepare an abstract (of no more than 150 words) clearly stating the note's contribution to HCI. This will be entered into the PCS system when you upload the PDF of your note, and is also part of your note.
Go to the CHI 2007 Submission web site and follow the instructions to submit the PDF file by 29 September 2006, 5:00 PM (1700) PDT (in the interest of fairness to all authors NO EXTENSIONS will be granted). You may also make final changes to your title at this time.
Prepare and submit a video figure (optional)
If your submission includes a digital video or interactive illustration, prepare up to 2 minutes of video suitable for publication, and see the Guide to Successful Submissions: Video. Note that the video figure or interactive illustration has a 30 MB data size limit and must require no special software to be viewed.
Your video figure is submitted to the PCS system as an additional file for your note, with the same deadline.