Call for Contributions

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*Submissions and presentations are in English.*

Note from the iPRES 2018 Organizing Team: This is the full Call for Contributions. Because we have received questions about the abstracts and papers process and about the deadlines, we are making the deadline for all submissions April 15 – please note that there will be no further extension to that deadline.

Come help us celebrate the first 15 Years of iPRES, the premier international conference on digital preservation! The theme for iPRES 2018: where art and science meet: the art in science and the science in art - aims to broaden the voices and approaches participating in the conference. iPRES brings together a broad array of practitioners, researchers, educators, providers, students, and others  to share lessons learned from engaging in digital preservation, including recent research, developments, and innovations. MIT Libraries and Harvard Library are co-hosting the conference is in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts on September 24-27, 2018.

The iPRES 2018 Organizing Team seeks contributions that tell stories about bridging knowledge gaps in teams, implementing technologies, and overcoming barriers towards proper digital stewarding of digital items, assets, works and collections. Be creative. Be inspiring. Be inclusive. In keeping with the theme, we will embrace creative proposals that demonstrate how research and theory directly impact and influence practice at all levels. 

• Optional Abstracts: We encourage authors to submit papers abstracts to receive feedback on your proposal prior to submitting your paper. The iPRES 2018 Organizing Team will provide feedback to submitters for abstracts received between 15 February and 20 March. 
• Papers: Long papers for peer review are due by 15 April.
  • Revised papers with revisions that address reviewer comments are due 15 June.
• All other peer-reviewed contributions: proposals for posters and demonstrations, workshops and tutorials, and panels are due 15 April.
• Notifications: All submitters of peer-reviewed contributions (papers, panels, posters, demonstrations, workshops, and tutorials) will be notified by 23 May.  
• Ad Hoc Programming: digital preservation games, original graphics, and lightning talks will not be submitted through EasyChair. These contributions will  have a rolling deadline and acceptance cycle: 11 June - 31 August. 
• Post-conference revisions: Authors are encouraged to update their papers based on discussions during the conference. Final revisions after the conference will be due by October 31. 

See instructions for each peer-reviewed submission type: abstracts and papers, poster or demo, workshop or tutorial, and panel.

Please send any questions you have to the iPres 2018 Organizing Team at: ipres2018contributions@gmail.com 

We invite original contributions that show the progress your organization has made in digital preservation -- describing practice- and theory-informed approaches to scientific models, daily practice, and creative solutions. We especially encourage collaborations with producers and people outside of the cultural heritage sector.

Contributions will address the overall conference theme and anniversary and/or cover exploration and activities related to but not limited to the following topics: 

• Mapping out sustainable digital preservation approaches and communities
  • As the digital environment expands in complexity, where are the boundaries of our efforts? How much can we reasonably capture, maintain according to accepted standards, and scale up?
  • What business and economic models can facilitate digital preservation feasibility?
  • Which frameworks can be most successful across institutional and national boundaries? How can such success be documented and/or measured?
  • How have you implemented digital preservation strategies? How will you maintain them?
  • How have you handled tiered digital preservation requirements; ie. specificity needed for some items versus large-scale ingest and processing?
• Technological infrastructure
  • What’s new in digital preservation storage? 
  • How do we sustain open technologies for digital preservation?
  • What are the environmental and systemic implications of what we have prioritized for long-term storage?
  • How do we successfully work on technology upkeep and maintenance across teams and shared services?
  • What technological gaps need further community or market development?
  • How do we best use diverse, overlapping technologies together to achieve the entirety of our digital preservation requirements?
• Taking stock of lessons learned within and across domains
  • What impact does implementing digital preservation have on the broader institution, the community, and/or the nation?
  • What approaches have non-cultural heritage domains taken to preserve their legacies in a variety of media?
  • How can we connect Research Data Management and Open Access efforts to digital preservation programs?
  • What are some Digital Preservation failures that led to new insights and approaches?
  • How can we successfully preserve private and confidential material for the long term?
• Collaboration and capacity-building
  • What does the digital preservation curriculum need to include to prepare future stewards? 
  • How do we best collaborate on certifying solutions &/or peer review systems, training, and technology?
  • How can we make digital preservation more inclusive of community-based collections, grassroots efforts and the records of people of color?
  • How do we raise awareness and build digital preservation capacity for content producers, creators, researchers, students, or private individuals?
  • How can we successfully translate the wealth of digital preservation literature and theory to accomplish information needs for both our own and neighbouring domains?
  • How do we keep up to speed with technology monitoring and bleeding-edge changes?
  • How do we overcome language and cultural gaps and build digital preservation awareness in both Western and non-Western hemispheres? How can we build bridges so that knowledge and practices can be shared while being mindful of differences in institutional, technological and cultural contexts?

Please submit your contributions for peer review through the Easy Chair conference tool. You will be prompted to create an account if do not already have one. After creating an account, you will be prompted to submit your contribution. After submitting, you will receive an acceptance notice and notification from the program committee after the peer review process. Papers and all other contributions are due 15 April 2018. Detailed instructions are available for submitting all types of contribution types (see links below).

Papers and Abstracts

Contributions for iPRES 2018 include an optional paper abstract review. The iPRES 2018 Program Committee will provide feedback and suggestions for abstracts received between 15 February and 20 March. While submitting your paper abstract is voluntary, this is an important opportunity to get feedback about your proposal prior to submitting your paper and we hope to hear from many of you about your ideas. Your abstract should be at least 300 words and not exceed 500 words. In addition to the text of your abstract, your abstract should identify your contact information, paper title, and conference theme(s) you are addressing. 

Please note that submitting a paper abstract does not mean that the final paper will be accepted: all papers are subjected to the same review process.

Authors may also submit a paper by the 15 April deadline without submitting an abstract. 

We invite two kinds of papers:

• Long papers (8 to 10 pages) must be novel, reporting on previously unpublished work.
• Short papers (3 to 5 pages) focusing on new challenges and work in progress. All contributions must report on novel efforts.

All papers are due by 15 April. 

Final papers with revisions to address reviewer comments are due 15 June.

Panel sessions

Proposals for thematic panels to be held during the main conference program. Panel proposals will be judged on the merits of the proposal and relevance for the expected audience. Proposals must detail the subject and desired outcomes for the panel discussion as well as the proposed panelists. The Program Committee may also identify individual thematic papers and invite submitters to form a panel or invite panelists to join a thematic panel, e.g., the 15th iPRES anniversary.

Posters and Demonstrations
Posters are ideal for reporting on emerging issues and on works in progress. Demonstrations provide an opportunity to highlight and share innovative solutions. Both require an extended abstract of up to 2 pages that  clearly describes the topic to be presented and states its unique contribution to the field. Posters and demonstrations should aim to improve knowledge, show new technical capabilities, or share solutions and experience in the field.

Please refer to these detailed Instructions for Submitting Posters and Demos.
 

Workshops and Tutorials

We welcome proposals for workshops and/or tutorials that address the conference themes for iPres 2018.

• Workshops are intended to be hands-on and interactive, and proposers are free to decide how to structure and design them. Workshops usually involve the development of a skill, related to the topic covered in the workshop. While workshops involve more hands-on learning, they should also allow for discussion, interaction and debate on the topic of the class. 
• Tutorials should focus on a single topic and designate whether it aims at an introductory level or an expert level. Tutorials allow time for group discussion of content and debate on the themes and concepts covered in the class. Tutorials need not be hands-on. Proposers are free to decide how to structure them. 

An extended abstract of up to 2 pages describing the proposed content and agenda is required.

Please refer to these detailed Instructions for Submitting Workshops and Tutorials.

The non-peer reviewed submissions include: lightning talks, digital preservation games, original digital preservation graphics, and possibly other submissions types that we may add in planning for iPRES 2018. For additional information, see Ad Hoc Programming for iPRES 2018. Please note that Ad hoc sessions will not go through a formal peer review process, and will not be submitted through EasyChair as peer review sessions were.