Note: CHI 2026 has no hybrid or remote attendance.
Important Updates
- Announcing: The CHI 2026 Student Mentoring Program Submission Forms Are Live!
- A closer look at the renewed Student Mentoring Program
Important Dates
All times are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE.
- Thursday, January 22, 2026: Submission deadline
- Thursday, February 19, 2026: Notification deadline
- Thursday, February 26, 2026: e-rights completion deadline
- Thursday, March 5, 2026: Initial TAPS upload deadline (Author must upload their paper to TAPS)
- Thursday, March 12, 2026: Publication-ready deadline (Authors upload FINAL TAPS-approved version to PCS)
Submission Details
The Student Mentoring Program includes three activities (see detailed descriptions below): #1: CHI 101; #2: Building a Research Cohort; and #3: Dissertation Research Roundtable. Activity #1 is open to all (on a “first come, first served” basis) while the other two require online submission through two separate forms within the PCS Submission System, as described below:
To apply for Activity #2: Building a Research Cohort, students must submit an application through the CHI 2026 > Student Mentoring Program: Building a Research Cohort form, including:
- A benefits statement.
- Background information.
To apply for Activity #3: Dissertation Research Roundtable, applicants must submit an application through the CHI 2026 > Student Mentoring Program: Dissertation Research Roundtable form, including:
- A benefits statement.
- Background information.
- A research description (6 pages max., excluding references) using the ACM Master Article Submission Template (single column).
Please note that, in both cases, submissions are not anonymous. See detailed instructions for preparing your submission below. We recommend that authors read the following two policies before submitting:
- The April 2023 ACM Policy on Authorship and use of large language models (LLMs), and the SIGCHI blog post about it.
- The 2021 ACM Publications policy on research involving humans.
ACM Selection Process Category
About the Program
At CHI 2026, the Doctoral Consortium program has been re-envisioned and renamed to be the Student Mentoring Program (SMP). This reflects the changed vision for the program. The intent is to broaden access to resources for early career scholars to navigate CHI and, more broadly, their career in Human-Computer Interaction.
The primary goal of the program is to provide a forum for in-depth research discussions while also fostering an environment where participants can network both with mentors and other peers. The 2026 Student Mentoring Program will be completely offline, taking place in the afternoons during the on-site conference.
This renewed SMP program extends a traditional Doctoral Consortium format to include a broader range of activities to cater to the needs of students at different stages of their career. There are 3 events which will take place during two separate afternoons of the conference:
- Activity #1: CHI101. An information session (including a panel with researchers at different career stages) where students at any stage of their training will get access to information and advice about how to navigate conferences and get the best out of CHI.
- Activity #2: Building a Research Cohort. A cohort-building activity where students at any stage of their training can find peers with shared affinities and grow their network.
- Activity #3: Dissertation Research Roundtable: An in-depth mentoring session for mid-stage Ph.D. students, where they will get a chance to discuss their in-progress research with other peers as well as with expert mentors. Those participating in this activity will also be asked to showcase a poster at a general poster session. Students accepted into this activity will be awarded a complementary student registration.
Participation in Activity #1: CHI 101 is open to all students attending CHI without the need for making a PCS submission. Spots will be filled on a “first come, first served” basis. The other two activities are by invitation. To participate, students must submit an expression of interest using the corresponding form on PCS; there are two forms on PCS, one for each activity that requires application. Students who get an invitation to participate in any of the activities will be responsible for registering for the conference. Details about these activities, eligibility, and submission guidelines can be found below.
In addition to the above, we will also be hosting a number of parallel activities such as a career panel (open to all conference attendees), and informal social events that do not require a PCS submission or a formal invitation. These activities will be announced in the future. Please look out for those announcements.
Overall, our goal with this renewed Student Mentoring program is that a broader pool of students can:
- Gain new ideas and perspectives on their research directions;
- Support each other by constructively offering their feedback to the other attending Ph.D. students;
- Form new friendships with the other attendees, together becoming a supportive cohort of emerging scholars with a spirit of collaborative research; and
- Engage with the full CHI conference by participating in many of the events and opportunities that CHI offers, and by enjoying interactions with other CHI attendees.
Further details about the Student Mentoring Program and all the activities involved will come soon.
ACM Open
Some content in this track 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.
Publication Policies & Requirements
Authors must review ACM’s publications policies. Please read this separate page for them.
Metadata Integrity
The abstract/metadata deadline is a hard deadline for listing all author names; there are no exceptions. Changes to the order of authors are allowed only during the Publication-Ready submission phase. The abstract/metadata is crucial to the integrity of the review process and author representation. If any of the authors need to be added or removed after the abstract/metadata deadline, the authors would need to withdraw their submissions/papers.
Minor changes to the title and abstract are permitted during the revision period.
Policy on Use of Large Language Models
Text generated from a large-scale language model (LLM), such as ChatGPT, must be marked where such tools are used for purposes beyond editing the author’s own text. Please review the April 2023 ACM Policy on Authorship before using these tools. The SIGCHI blog post describes approaches to acknowledging the use of such tools, which we refer to 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. 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.
Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects
Any research in submitted manuscripts that involves human subjects must go through the appropriate ethics review requirements that apply to the authors’ research environment. As research environments vary considerably concerning their requirements, authors are asked to submit a short note to reviewers that provides this context. Please also see the 2021 ACM Publications policy on research involving humans before submitting.
Accessibility
Accessible submissions are essential for reviewers and are good practice. Authors are expected to follow SIGCHI’s Guide to an Accessible Submission. If you have any questions or concerns about creating accessible submissions, please contact the Accessibility Chairs at access@chi2026.acm.org early in the writing process (the closer to the deadline, the less time the team will have to respond to individual requests).
Preparing and Submitting Your Student Mentoring Program Application
Activity #1: CHI 101 is open to all students attending CHI and does *not* require submitting an application. Activities #2: Building a Research Cohort and #3: Dissertation Research Roundtable are by invitation. Interested students must apply via the PCS Submission System before Thursday, January 22, 2026.
Who Should Apply?
Activity #2: Building a Research Cohort is available to students at all stages of their training. Activity #3: Dissertation Research Roundtable will give preference to mid-stage Ph.D. students who are currently working towards, or developing their dissertation, so they may be able to benefit from feedback received in the mentoring session. Students may apply to both activities if they’d like, but we cannot guarantee they will be accepted to both; acceptances are independent. Please note that students participating in Activity #3 will be required to read several other students’ Extended Abstracts prior to the in-person meeting.
How To Apply?
Applications must be submitted through two separate forms within the PCS Submission System.
To apply for Activity #2: Building a Research Cohort, students must submit an application through the CHI 2026 > Student Mentoring Program: Building a Research Cohort form, including:
- A benefits statement to help the jury understand why they should be selected for the activity.
- Background information, which will help us ensure diversity in the cohort of participating students.
To apply for Activity #3: Dissertation Research Roundtable, applicants must submit an application through the CHI 2026 > Student Mentoring Program: Dissertation Research Roundtable form, including:
- A benefits statement to help the jury understand why they should be selected for the activity.
- Background information, which will help us ensure diversity in the cohort of participating students.
- A research description (6 pages max., excluding references) using the ACM Master Article Submission Template (single column). If accepted, this document will be published as an Extended Abstract in the ACM Digital Library.
In both cases, submissions should *not* be anonymized. Students must be the only authors of the submission (and any associated documents, e.g., the Extended Abstract in Activity #3), meaning advisors or collaborators cannot be listed as co-authors.
Selection Process
Overview: As soon as the submission deadline passes, the Student Mentoring Program committee will review and select candidates via an ACM reviewed process that considers both research quality and the goal of identifying a set of students who will benefit significantly from the event and support each other. We will seek diversity in backgrounds, identities, abilities, intellectual viewpoints, topics, and geographic areas. Only invited students will be allowed to participate in Activities #2 and #3. A priority will be accommodating as many (and as diverse) students as possible.
Supporting a wide group of institutions/advisors: Besides the selection criteria above, and to ensure diversity, even excellent submissions may not lead to invitations. For example, we probably cannot accept more than 2 students from the same institution, and might not accept more than 1 student with the same advisor.
Confidentiality of submissions: Submissions should not contain sensitive, private, or proprietary information that cannot be disclosed at publication time. Before publication time, we will keep your submission confidential in these ways:
- During the review process: Confidentiality of submissions will be maintained throughout the review process.
- If your submission is accepted: Your accepted submission will be kept confidential until the start of the doctoral consortium activities, except for title and author information, which will be published on the website before the conference. The research description will be published as CHI Extended Abstracts. All other materials (e.g., Benefits Statement, Personal Information) will be kept confidential in perpetuity.
- If your submission is not accepted: Your submission will be kept confidential in perpetuity.
Upon Acceptance of your Submission
Students with successful submissions will receive invitations on Thursday, February 19, 2026. Invitations will include further information on participation requirements, event timings, and planned activities. Students accepted into Activity #3: Dissertation Research Roundtable will also be asked to submit a camera-ready version of their Extended Abstract by Thursday, March 12, 2026 for publication in the ACM Digital Library, and will have to prepare a printed poster to present during one of the conference’s general poster sessions.
All participants of the Student Mentoring Program Dissertation Research Roundtable will be awarded a complementary student registration. Building a Research Cohort students are responsible for the costs of their own conference registration. Both groups will be responsible for traveling costs to the in person conference. If your institution cannot provide support, you may consider applying for the Gary Marsden Travel Fund.
For students attending the Roundtable Mentoring Session, they must follow the instructions on preparing and submitting a final version of the Extended Abstract by the Publication-Ready Deadline. If the author cannot meet these requirements by the Publication-Ready deadline, the venue chairs will be notified and may be required to remove the paper from the program. The publication-ready version has to follow the LaTeX and Word templates from ACM. Note that submissions will not be published without a signed ACM copyright form. Obtaining permissions to use video, audio, or pictures of identifiable people or proprietary content rests with the author, not the ACM or the CHI conference. Should you need technical assistance, please direct your technical query to: publications@chi2026.acm.org
Contact Us
Student Mentoring Program Chairs:
Ferran Altarriba Bertran, Elizabeth Churchill, Yvette Wohn
Student Mentoring Program Assistants:
Haoyu Dong, Vikram Mohanty
studentmentoring@chi2026.acm.org