The 55th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Information Science

Call for papers

Edges are not only limits, but also points of contact, negotiation, and emergence. It is often at the edges of information science that its most consequential work takes shape.

For its 55th annual conference, CAIS/ACSI invites participants to turn their attention to these liminal spaces. What is lost when boundaries harden? What becomes possible when they are crossed, blurred, or redrawn?

We welcome contributions that engage with edges in their many forms, including but not limited to:

  • disciplinary borders and boundary objects;
  • communities and knowledges situated at the margins of dominant information infrastructures;
  • thresholds of access, inclusion, and exclusion;
  • hybrid and interstitial professional practices, and the shifting boundaries of the information professions themselves;
  • the edges of the document (what counts as record, archive, or data);
  • algorithmic and AI boundaries in the production and organization of knowledge;
  • temporal edges, and the thresholds where information passes from preserved to lost, or from remembered to forgotten;
  • geopolitical and linguistic edges, and knowledges that exist at the margins of dominant languages and Global North infrastructures;
  • methodological edges, where hybrid and emergent approaches resist easy disciplinary categorization.

We invite both those who study edges and those who work at them.

As CAIS seeks to be a home for information science across Canada, our annual conference routinely develops and supports scholarship in:

  • Information seeking and behaviour
  • Information literacy and education
  • Knowledge management and organization
  • Information technologies and systems
  • Social media
  • Bibliometrics and scholarly communication
  • Information policy and ethics
  • Cultural heritage and preservation
  • Health information management
  • Diversity, equity, and inclusion in information science

Diverse and innovative perspectives (theoretical and applied) and methodologies are welcome.

Types of proposals

CAIS/ACSI welcomes proposals for papers, lightning talks, or panels focused on empirical, theoretical, and practice-based research. Proposals may be submitted in English or French. All proposals will undergo peer review. Paper and lightning talks should be anonymized for submission; panel submissions will include identifying information.

  • Full paper: 2000-3000 words excluding references.
  • Work in progress: 1000-2000 words excluding references.
  • Poster: 500-1000 words excluding references.
  • Panel: 500-1000 words excluding references.

Submissions

Please use the submission template (in English) to prepare your submission. Then submit through our OJS portal.

Student research forum

We are pleased to invite master’s and doctoral students at any stage of their program to CAIS’s Student Research Forum. The Forum aims to allow graduate students to discuss their research projects, get feedback, and connect with other students. Please be prepared to present informally on an aspect of your research for 5-10 minutes. More information about participating in the Forum will be provided when Registration opens in March.

Important dates

  • Submissions due: January 8th, 2027
  • Peer reviews due: February 28th, 2027
  • Notifications to authors: mid-March 2027
  • Student Research Forum applications due: late March 2027
  • Final submissions due: end of April 2027
  • Conference: June 1–3, 2027