ICTIR 2025: Call for Papers

The 11th ACM SIGIR / 15th International Conference on Innovative Concepts and Theories in Information Retrieval (ICTIR 2025) invites submissions with substantial and original research on innovative and foundational contributions to the field of Information Retrieval.

Foundation is defined as a scientific result that others can build upon and use for their own research. This includes original research on the theoretical aspects of Information Retrieval, topics from neighboring fields with a strong and clear connection to Information Retrieval, and novel approaches and methods for developing, improving, and evaluating models related to the field of Information Retrieval.

The conference welcomes papers on all aspects of Information Retrieval. See the Call for Papers for SIGIR 2025 for a list of included topics. Topics from neighboring fields are also in scope, as long as there is a clear and significant connection to Information Retrieval.

Submission Types

New to ICTIR, we welcome two types of submissions:

• Regular submissions
• SIGIR-Revise-and-Resubmit (SIGIR-RR) submissions

SIGIR-Revise-and-Resubmit (SIGIR-RR) Submissions

SIGIR-RR submissions are for revised manuscripts of papers that were submitted to but not accepted by the SIGIR 2025 conference (only full and short paper tracks). Authors can use this option to address the issues raised in the SIGIR 2025 reviews and revise the paper accordingly.

In addition to the revised paper, the authors must attach the following information to the submitted PDF file:

• Explanation (1-3 pages with no style requirements): A text including the SIGIR paper ID and responses to the SIGIR reviews, explaining how the issues raised by the SIGIR reviewers have been addressed in the revised paper.
• SIGIR submission: The original anonymized submission file to SIGIR 2025.

Special Theme

“LLMs + IR, what could possibly go wrong?”

Even though ICTIR 2025 welcomes papers on all areas of Information Retrieval as detailed above, its program especially welcomes research papers related to the following theme. This theme stands on the long-term relationship between LLMs and IR. In order to foster a lively discussion on this theme, we are seeking both innovative and foundational technical research papers and discussion papers that methodologically study this theme by providing impactful perspectives, opinions, or positions on the matter.

If you think you can make a strong contribution to the panel on this theme, but are unable to submit a paper, please reach out to the PC chairs at pc-ictir2025@listes.isir.upmc.fr, with one abstract (1 page), articulating a talking point, and a short speaker bio.

Double-blind Reviewing and Submissions to arXiv

The conference will employ a lightweight double-blind reviewing process.

• A submission should not reveal the identity of the authors in any obvious way. In particular, the authors’ names, affiliations, or email addresses should be nowhere visible in the submission. Any reference to the authors’ own related work should be in the third person (that is, don’t say “our” when referring to such work).
• If sharing code, make sure it is anonymous (e.g., using Anonymous GitHub and removing author names from it).
• Nothing should be done in the name of anonymity that weakens the submission or makes the job of reviewing the paper more difficult. Important references should be neither omitted nor anonymized.
• Authors may post drafts of their papers on the web, submit them to arXiv, or give talks about them.

Submission Guidelines and Formal Requirements

• We encourage authors to follow this brief checklist to strengthen an IR paper.
• Research papers must describe original work that has not been previously published, not accepted for publication elsewhere, and not simultaneously submitted or currently under review in another journal or conference (including any archival workshops at SIGIR 2025).
• The page limit is 9 pages in ACM SIGIR style, excluding the references and the optional appendix. Shorter papers are equally welcome; the 9 pages is an upper bound, not a target.
• By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are 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.
• Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID, as well as an OpenReview account.

Format Requirements

• Submissions must be in English, in PDF format.
• The length limit is at most 9 pages (including figures, tables, proofs, acknowledgments, and any content except references and optional appendices).
• Use the current ACM two-column conference format.
• Suitable LaTeX, Word, and Overleaf templates are available from the ACM Website (use the “sigconf” proceedings template for LaTeX and the Interim Template for Word).
• For LaTeX, the following should be used when submitting the paper:

  \documentclass[sigconf,natbib=true,anonymous=true]{acmart}
  

• Submissions must be anonymous and should be submitted electronically via OpenReview.

Presentation at the Conference

• At least one author of an accepted paper must register and present the work at ICTIR 2025.
• The works will be presented either as a long or short talk, with an optional poster presentation or invitation to a panel.

Key Dates

• Paper submission deadline: Thursday, April 24, 2025 (AoE)
• Notification of acceptance: Thursday, June 5, 2025 (AoE)
• Camera-ready deadline: Thursday, June 26, 2025 (AoE)
• Conference date: Friday, July 18, 2025 (AoE)

Contact Information

You can contact the PC chairs via pc-ictir2025@listes.isir.upmc.fr or the SIGIR Slack channel #ictir2025. For more information, please visit the Organizers page.