Doctoral Consortium

The OzCHI 2026 Doctoral Consortium (DC) provides a supportive forum for PhD researchers to co-present their research, receive constructive feedback, and connect with peers. This full-day event will take place on Sunday, 22 November 2026, before the main conference begins.

We welcome PhD students at any stage of candidature. However, accepted submissions are normally from students who are at least six months into their PhD program, as this ensures participants have had sufficient time to develop their research direction and benefit meaningfully from feedback on their doctoral work.

PhD students wishing to participate should submit a short paper of up to 4,000 words in the single-column ACM format, following the instructions below. Selection will be based on a review of the submitted papers by the DC chairs. Please note that accepted DC papers will not be published as part of the OzCHI 2026 conference proceedings.

There is no fee to attend the DC. However, participants must register for at least one day of the OzCHI conference. Accepted PhD students will be asked to deliver a short in-person presentation of their paper. The DC chairs will provide constructive feedback and facilitate discussion.

Please note that the DC is not a hybrid event and will be held in person only. Accepted authors will be asked to register and confirm that they are able to travel to Adelaide and attend OzCHI 2026.

Preparing and Submitting Your DC Paper

Step 1: Download the ACM Master Template

• LaTeX users download the template here or use the Overleaf template.
• Word users download the template here.
• Please ensure that you use the correct template. The single-column format must be used for the reviewing phase. Using different templates or formats may result in desk rejection.

Step 2: Write your DC Paper 

Write up to 4,000 words in the single-column ACM format structured as follows:

1. Introduction: setting up your PhD study’s research area and background in order to help the DC panel understand the context of your research, list your specific research aims, questions, and expected contributions, and argue why your research problem is significant based on key references to related works
2. Methodology: outlining your overall research approach
3. Work-in-progress: including your findings to date (if applicable) and next steps
4. Questions and issues for discussion and what you hope to gain from attending the DC
5. Author Bio: keep it short
6. References formatted using the ACM style guide and including DOIs. Figures, photos, graphs, illustrations are very welcome.

Your paper including references must not exceed 4,000 words. Submissions that exceed the word length requirement will be rejected.

• Keep in mind that the DC is NOT about presenting polished research findings, or a traditional conference paper based on a completed study! Please include any issues or questions regarding challenges you experience in your research that you would like to discuss during the DC.
• Authors should acknowledge the use of generative AI in the creation of their content, including specifying the AI tools used and the extent of their contribution to the research, writing, or design process.
• DC papers are single authored by the PhD student, i.e. the supervisors/advisors are not co-authors.

Step 3: Complete Submission

Submissions should not be anonymised. Submissions should be in PDF format (less than 5MB file size) and emailed to the doctoral consortium chairs: dc.chair@ozchi.org

Important Dates

• 4Th August 2026: Submissions Due
• 24th September 2026: Notification of Acceptance

Dates are given in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. The deadline for submission is 11:59 PM AoE on the specified date. You can check the current AoE time here.

Contact

Doctoral Consortium Chairs
Dannielle Lottridge
Hayley Wang
dc.chair@ozchi.org