IJCAI 2020 – Special Track on Computational Sustainability and Human Well-being

Artificial Intelligence technology will bring many transformations in a large variety of aspects of our everyday life.
At the core of this transformation is the deployment of AI in applications that will improve the quality of life – or well-being – of the world’s population covering all aspects of sustainability.

This special track invites research papers on novel concepts, models, algorithms, and systems, that address problems in computational sustainability and human wellbeing.
We are looking for a broad range of papers ranging from formal analysis to applied research. Examples include papers explaining how the research addresses specific computational problems, opportunities, or issues underlying sustainability challenges and human well-being related problems. Also papers describing a sustainability or human well-being challenge or application that can be tackled using AI methods. Papers proposing general challenges and data sets are also welcome.

All AI topics that can address computational sustainability and human well-being issues are appropriate, including machine learning, optimization, reasoning, vision, and robotics. Sustainability domains include natural resources, climate, and the environment (for example, climate change, atmosphere, water, oceans, forest, land, soil, biodiversity, species), human well-being (for example, health, aging, poverty, infectious diseases, over-population, resource harvesting) and socio-technical systems (for example, transportation systems, cities, buildings, data centers, food systems, smart grid, agriculture).

Important Dates

Submission site opening: January 7, 2020

Abstract submission deadline: January 15, 2020 (11:59PM UTC-12)

Paper submission deadline: January 21, 2020 (11:59PM UTC-12)

Summary reject notification: February 21, 2020

Author response period: March 21-25, 2020

Paper notification: April 19, 2020

Submission site: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/IJCAI2020

Formatting guidelines, LaTeX styles, and Word template: https://www.ijcai.org/authors_kit

Submission Process

The paper title, author names, contact details, and a brief abstract must be submitted electronically through the IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 paper submission site (link above) by the abstract submission deadline.

Full papers must be submitted through the same site by the paper submission deadline. At least one author of each accepted paper is required to attend the conference to present the work.

Paper Length and Format

Papers submitted to the Special Track must be formatted according to IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 guidelines (link above) and must be no longer than seven pages in total: six pages for the body of the paper (including all figures), plus up to one additional page with references that do not fit within the six body pages. (For accepted papers, up to two additional pages may be purchased at an additional cost per page, but note that at the time of submissions, papers are required to adhere to the 6+1 format above.) Authors are required to submit their electronic papers in PDF format. Over-length papers will be rejected without review. Submissions must be self-contained. IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 will not accept any supplementary materials other than those specified in the paragraph “Resubmissions of Substantially Improved Recent Submissions,” below.

Policy on Multiple Submissions

IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 will not accept any paper that, at the time of submission, is under review for, has already been published in, or has already been accepted for publication in, a journal or another venue with formally published proceedings. (As a guideline, authors should regard publications with a DOI, ISBN, or ISSN as formal publications. Questions about submission eligibility should be referred to the program chair in advance of the submission deadline.) Authors are also required not to submit their papers to venues with formal publication during the IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 review period. Submission is also permitted for papers that are available as a technical report (or similar, e.g., in arXiv). In this case, we suggest the authors not cite the report, so as to preserve anonymity. Multiple submission is grounds for immediate rejection of the submitted paper.

Confidentiality Policy

All submissions will be treated in strict confidence until the publication date.

Conflict of Interest Policy

All individuals involved in the IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 review process must adhere to the IJCAI conflict of interest policy. Details can be found at http://ijcai.org/.

Review Process

Reviewing for this Special Track at IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 is the same as the main track, which is double blind (reviewers do not know the author’s identity or vice versa). The first page, on which the paper body begins, should include the title and abstract, but not names or affiliations of the authors. Acknowledgments of funding or assistance should also be omitted. Submissions should not contain pointers to supplemental material on the web. When referring to one’s own work, use the third person, rather than the first person. For example, say “Previously, Bessiere and desJardins [7] have shown that…”, rather than “In our previous work [7] we have shown that…”. All identifying information can be added back to the final camera-ready version of accepted papers.

Selection criteria include originality of ideas, correctness, clarity, significance of results, and quality of presentation. Each submission will first be evaluated by Senior Program Committee members (SPCs). If the SPCs in charge of the submission believe that the paper has no chance of being accepted, they will inform the Area Chair (AC). If the AC concurs with this assessment, then the paper will be rejected without entering the standard reviewing process (summary reject). Papers passing this step will go through a full reviewing process by multiple reviewers. This process will include the opportunity for authors to point out errors in the reviews (response). Author responses will be limited to clear factual errors in the reviews, and are not intended to create a dialogue between reviewers and authors. By submitting a paper, authors acknowledge that they are aware of the possibility of receiving a summary rejection notification within one month after submission without any written review. Authors also accept that all decisions of the program committee (i.e., summary reject, standard reject, or accept) will be final and cannot be appealed.

Submission Restrictions

IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 is enforcing a strict submission limit. Each individual author is limited to no more than 6 submissions to IJCAI-PRICAI 2020. The list of authors provided at submission time is final. Authors may not be added to, or removed from, papers following submission. (Author ordering may still be changed.) Finally, for each submitted paper to IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 the set of authors commit themselves to review up to three submissions to IJCAI-PRICAI 2020, if asked to. (For example, authors X and Y who submit two papers together could be asked to review up to six papers.) This rule does not apply to papers for which at least one of the authors is already a PC member, an SPC member, or an AC of IJCAI-PRICAI 2020.

Resubmissions of Substantially Improved Recent Submissions

Authors of papers that have been rejected from AAAI 2020, ECAI 2020, AAMAS 2020, ICCV 2020, or ICAPS 2020 are permitted to resubmit substantially improved versions to IJCAI-PRICAI 2020. In this case, authors must declare the resubmission by including a cover letter with their submission. The cover letter should summarize the main reasons for rejection and should describe the changes the authors have made to address the reviewers’ comments. The cover letter should be inserted at the beginning of the submitted PDF, along with the previous reviews and previous anonymized rejected submission, before the 6+1 pages of the paper. Such resubmissions must contain, in a single PDF file:

  • the cover letter, headed by the title of the rejected paper, the tracking number (if any), and the name of the conference to which this paper was submitted,
  • the full reviews from the rejected conference,
  • the anonymized version of the rejected paper, and
  • the new submission.

A paper rejected from these conferences and omitting to declare resubmission will be directly rejected without further review.

Note that IJCAI-PRICAI 2020 is a joint conference held under the IJCAI rules. The papers published there will be solely IJCAI publications with IJCAI as copyright holder. This applies to all main conference contributions regardless of the track.

Enquiries

Please send all enquiries about the Special Track on AI in Sustainability and Human Well-being to the Special Track Co-Chairs Michela Milano (michela.milano@unibo.it) and Sabine Storandt (sabine.storandt@uni-konstanz.de).