ACM Conversational User Interfaces – CUI (pronounced “coo-ee”) was founded in 2018 to bring together researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines examining the design of speech and language technologies. In late 2022, CUI joined SIGCHI, the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.
The CUI 2026 conference theme is “Conversational AI: Agency and Identities!”. The conference seeks contributions from a broad range of disciplines, including human-computer interaction, computer science, engineering, speech technology, linguistics, psychology, cognitive sciences, sociology, and other cognate disciplines that advance fundamental and applied research in conversational user interfaces. For the S&WP Track submissions include short papers that present early-stage research and late-breaking work. Thus, this track is suitable for shorter, original contributions that do not require the length of submission or depth of detail and discussion that would be necessary for a publication in the Papers track. Submissions can include:
- Preliminary results of a short qualitative or quantitative study.
- Short prequels to or follow-ups of larger studies.
- Early student research.
- Other research that is better suited to an interactive discussion format.
For the submission and review process, you should write an Extended Abstract. The submission must describe original work that has not been previously published, not accepted for publication elsewhere, and is not simultaneously submitted or currently under review in another journal or conference (including the other tracks of ACM CUI 2026).
Submissions will be reviewed on their contribution to CUI, significance, originality, validity, and clarity.
If accepted, we will invite you to present your work as a poster at CUI 2026, with your Extended Abstract published in the conference proceedings.
Examples of previously successful short and work-in-progress submissions at CUI can be found in the ACM Digital Library.
Important Dates
| Deadline type | Date |
|---|---|
| Submission | Thu, April 9 2026 |
| Acceptance Notice | Thu, May 7 2026 |
| Camera-Ready in PCS | Thu, May 21 2026 |
| eRights completed | Thu, May 28 2026 |
| TAPS processing completed | Thu, June 4 2026 |
Format and Submission
Submissions of Extended Abstracts for short papers and work-in-progress must be in English, in PDF format, and approximately 3,000 words (including figures, tables, proofs, appendixes, and any other content excluding references and acknowledgments).
Three reviewers will review all submissions. Another programme committee member will lead the reviewing process, write a meta review, and later check on the paper for final acceptance if it got conditionally accepted (all accept decisions are conditional). Extended abstracts for which there is a very high agreement among reviewers regarding recommendations for inclusion in the proceedings will receive early acceptance decisions and will be conditionally accepted, pending the integration of any changes requested through the review process.
You must use the ACM LaTeX or Word templates to prepare your submission. We encourage the use of LaTeX and the official ACM template on Overleaf. LaTeX users must employ the following document class for submission:
\documentclass[manuscript,screen,review,anonymous]{acmart}. Word users must use the one-column submission template and should be prepared to submit to TAPS approximately one week earlier than the stated camera-ready deadline.
ACM’s CCS concepts and keywords are not required for submission and peer review but are required if your Extended Abstract is accepted and published by the ACM.
ACMs New Open Access Publishing Model
Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 1,800 institutions already part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 70-75%).
In the Short Papers and Work-in-Progress track, however, submissions will be published under ACM Open Access as an “Extended Abstract” article type. Extended abstract article types will not be charged an article processing charge (APC) for open access. For more information about which article types are subject to an APC, see the ACM article types summary.
New ACM Publication Policies
By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. (). Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.
Accessibility
Make sure to read and follow the accessibility requirements, which we will provide soon.
Anonymization
The CUI 2026 short papers and Work-in-Progress review process is doubly-anonymized; every aspect of all submissions must be properly anonymized. . If a submission contains any element (e.g., text or figures in the full paper document, artifacts, or supplementary materials) that violates the anonymization guidelines, it will be desk rejected. If there are exceptional circumstances, please contact the Program Chairs as soon as possible (pc2026@cui.org).
Sustainability Recognition
We recognize that sustainability remains a critical consideration in human-computer interaction research. We are pleased to continue highlighting papers that demonstrate thoughtful engagement with sustainable practices and impacts, regardless of their research focus.
We acknowledge the multifaceted nature of sustainability and consider it from various perspectives, including but not limited to environmental impact and climate action. We also welcome papers addressing a wide array of issues outlined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These goals include:
- Social sustainability: emphasizing the importance of inclusive communities where everyone can thrive, promoting equity and social justice.
- Technological sustainability: stressing the need to think critically about how our innovations impact society and the environment.
- Economic sustainability: focusing on creating robust economic systems that support innovation and provide fair opportunities for all.
Additionally, we value papers that demonstrate a commitment to sustainable research practices. This includes minimizing the environmental footprint of research activities, promoting ethical data collection and usage, and ensuring accessibility and inclusivity in research design.
If you believe your paper contributes to sustainability in CUI research and would like it to be considered for a sustainability recognition, when submitting your paper, you will have the option to describe in 1-2 short paragraphs why and how your paper relates to sustainability. This includes the impact of your contribution in the context of sustainability and/or the actions you have undertaken to make your work more sustainable.
Supplementary Materials
Authors have the opportunity to upload up to three supplemental files in conjunction with their Extended Abstract. These materials may be submitted via the “Supporting File 1,” “Supporting File 2,” and “Supporting File 3” sections within the submission form in the submission system. While authors are encouraged to upload all supplementary materials directly, it may be infeasible to upload certain items directly (e.g., large data sets or code repositories). In this case, authors may upload a document with a link to where these anonymized supplemental materials are hosted.
Supplementary materials are not required for a submission. If authors do choose to submit supplementary materials, such materials may not be used to get around the suggested word limit for full papers. It is important that any supplemental materials that are uploaded are also properly anonymized. Any submission that contains any element (paper or supplementary materials) that violates the anonymization guidelines will be desk rejected.
In general, there are three main types of supplemental materials that may be submitted: videos, appendices, and artifacts (e.g., software, hardware, data sets, etc.).
Video Guidelines
Authors may submit a 1-minute video (up to 100 MB) as a supplement to their Extended Abstract. Videos are not mandatory but may be helpful to visibly showcase a working system, experimental conditions, environment context, results, etc. Only MPG, MPEG or MP4 video formats can be used. Ensure that videos are properly anonymized prior to submission (more information coming soon).
Artifact Guidelines
Across all paper tracks, we encourage submissions that introduce a novel “artifact” as an enabler to reproducibility, replicability, and recreation of CUI research, and/or to support new lines of CUI research. An artifact could be software, hardware, data sets, protocols, new evaluation measures, etc. Submissions should contain a detailed description of the artifact introduced, proposed, or implemented, as well as information about how it is novel and different from other existing artifacts, and, if possible, a link to an anonymized, live version of the artifact at time of submission for review.
Authors submitting artifacts must include with it a text file providing relevant details regarding any aspects related to artifact clearance and release (e.g., obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) clearance for releasing data collected by human participants, organizational clearances for the release of software/hardware, etc.). Ensure that artifacts are properly anonymized prior to submission. Any submission that includes any element (full paper, artifact, or supplementary materials) that does not follow the anonymization guidelines will be desk rejected.
Appendix Guidelines
Authors may upload an appendix directly or provide a link to supporting appendix material hosted anonymously online. Appendices are only for supplementary materials that would interrupt the flow of the text if presented in the main document. Examples may be questionnaires used as measurements, tables of supplementary data, or figures of experimental apparatus.
Appendices may not be used to get around the paper-length suggestions for submissions. Additional experimental analysis, additional results, and lengthy text that clarifies aspects of the submission is not appropriate for an appendix (in other words, Extended Abstract submissions must stand on their own without requiring further explanation, analysis, or results provided in the appendix). Any submissions that attempt to use appendices or supplementary materials in general in a manner that violates the suggested word limits will be desk rejected.
Note that appendices should not be added to the main document (even if the LaTeX template allows it).
Studies with Human Participants
As a published ACM author, you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects (Note: ACM has instituted a new policy on research involving human participants and subjects as of August 15, 2021. Please check the above links if your studies involved human participants and subjects).
To support building a strong evidence base in CUI, and encourage future reproducibility of published work, all submissions involving studies with human participants clearly outline their methodology regardless of the theme they are submitted to, including:
- Participant demographics and sampling approach, e.g. gender, ethnicity, etc. (c.f., de Graaf 2017, Section 2.3, recommendations in Schlesinger et al., 2017, and HCI Gender Guidelines)
- Data collection and analysis methods (c.f., Paepcke and Takayama 2010, Section V)
- Study environment and context (c.f., Short et al. 2018, Section 3.5)
- If a Wizard-of-Oz paradigm was used, a detailed description of the robot, wizard, user, etc. (c.f., Riek 2012, Table 2)
- If a CUI system was used, a detailed description of the platform, its level of autonomy, capabilities, etc. (c.f., Beer et al. 2014, Figure 5).
In addition, studies that involve human participants need to include an ethical approval statement. According to the ACM Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects, “It is the authors’ responsibility (each author individually and the authors collectively) to comply with and provide evidence of compliance with this Policy. Where local ethical review boards are required, authors are responsible for having their research reviewed and approved by such boards. Authors are also responsible for the overall ethical conduct of their research. All ACM Authors must be prepared to provide documentary evidence to ACM that they have adhered to local ethical and legal standards, as ACM may require documentary evidence of such approval at any time following submission of the Work and prior to or after publication of the Work.” In the case of child users, in addition to consent from legal carers / parents, authors should describe how they obtained the oral assent from minors. Examples of such statements are “the study was approved by our Institutional Review Board” or “the study design, the experiment protocol, and the consent forms received approval from the Ethics Committee of our institution” (note that these statements must be anonymized). Additionally, during paper submission, authors will be asked to declare whether their research involves human participants, and if it does, whether approval from a relevant ethics committee was obtained.
We recognize that some researchers may work in jurisdictions where there is no mandated ethical review, or may not have access to an institutional ethics committee. In such cases, we will follow the ACM’s Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects, which lists a basic set of standards and practices that a research should follow, and states that “where such research is conducted in countries where no such local governing laws and regulations related to human participant and subject research exist, authors must at a bare minimum be prepared to show compliance with the above detailed principles.” In addition to the declaration mentioned above, the paper submission form contains also an optional question allowing authors to describe additional context related to human participant protection. If additional explanations regarding institutional review are needed, and in particular if no ethics approval was obtained for the research, the authors should answer this question with enough detail to show that their research was done in full compliance with the ethical research principles stated in the ACM Policy.
Policy on Use of ChatGPT or Similar Models
Text, images or any material generated from foundation models (LLMs, VLMs etc.), such as ChatGPT, must be clearly marked where such tools are used for purposes beyond editing the author’s own text. Please carefully review the April 2023 ACM Policy on Authorship before you use these tools. The SIGCHI blog post describes approaches to acknowledging the use of such tools and we refer to it for guidance. Note that the LaTeX template will default to hiding the Acknowledgements section while in review mode – please make sure that any LLM disclosure is available in your submitted version for review. While we do not anticipate using tools on a large scale to detect LLM-generated text, we will investigate submissions brought to our attention and desk reject papers where LLM use is not clearly marked.
Furthermore, CUI follows the ACM Policy on Authorship. Please carefully review this policy. Any AI system, including Generative Models, such as ChatGPT, BARD, or DALL-E, do not satisfy the criteria for authorship of papers and, as such, also cannot be used as a citable source in papers published by ACM. Authors assume full responsibility for content, including checking for plagiarism and veracity of all text.
Desk rejects
Desk rejects are made during the initial checks of submissions to save our reviewers’ time. The main reasons for a desk rejections include:
- Scope: clearly out of scope for conference (e.g., no relevance to Conversational User Interfaces).
- Anonymization: any violation of the rules detailed in the anonymization guidelines
- Incomplete submissions: missing submission information (including an obviously placeholder title or abstract, etc.).
- Formatting issues:
- violating the suggested word limits
- using an incorrect submission format.
- Other obvious issues, such as paper clearly unfinished, obvious use of foundation models for generating the contents, not written in English, etc.
Contacts
If you have any questions, contact the Program Chairs.
Program Chairs: Justin Edwards (University of Oulu), Hannah Pelikan (Linköping University), Email: pc2026@cui.org