Conference Sponsor: University of Washington iSchool, Seattle, Washington

Conference Dates: July 9-11, 2021

Conference information can be found here.

Deadline for Research (Full) Paper Proposals: Extended to February 28, 2021

Deadline for Short Paper Proposals and Doctoral Symposium: Extended to April 20, 2021

Recent world events have presented challenges and hardships, but have also provided opportunities for demonstrations of resilience and optimism. Traditional approaches to knowledge organization (KO) have significant cultural and social dimensions, as do newer approaches, including understanding instances of resistance, online calls for social justice and freedom of information made using social media and other collaborative online platforms. Knowledge organization has the power to support or subvert specific points of view and frameworks of understanding, and must be applied ethically and conscientiously online, in libraries and information agencies, in social media, and beyond. KO has a significant role in today’s information environment, as researchers in North America and around the world support health informatics in the midst of a global pandemic, but also work to reconsider the power of the words we use in light of systemic racism. Fake news, #metoo, post-truths, and outright concerns about the validity and contextualization of information invite work by the KO community. NASKO 2021 seeks both to address these issues and to reflect on the full continuum of KO activity, from research exploring community, people, and human-driven practices to theoretical research focusing on core practices in KO.

The Eighth North American Symposium on Knowledge Organization (NASKO 2021) invites submissions covering, but not limited to KO history and foundations, theory, epistemological stances, domain analytical approaches, community of practices, community representation and misrepresentation, digital life-cycle, and computational approaches. Researchers studying topics from a KO perspective, including students, practitioners (e.g., librarians, archivists, information managers), and scholars from domains including information science, library science, human-computer interaction, and others are welcome to submit.

Proposal Categories include: Research (Full) Papers, Short Research Papers, and the Doctoral Symposium (described below).

Instructions

Proposals for research papers, position papers, posters, and the doctoral symposium are welcomed. Acceptable languages for conference submissions include English, Portuguese, French, or Spanish; presentations must be in English. Graduate students are especially encouraged to submit proposals. Proposals should include the name(s) of the author(s), their complete mailing and e-mail addresses, and their telephone numbers. The title of the proposal should include a term denoting the category of submission: Research Paper, Short Paper, or Doctoral Symposium.

All proposals should be uploaded to the EasyChair conference site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nasko2021

Proposal categories:

Research (Full) Papers:

Proposals should include a title and be no more than 1500 words with citations (citations not included in word count). Proposals should situate themselves within the extant literature of knowledge organization, and have a clearly articulated theoretical grounding and methodology. Those that report on completed or ongoing work will be given preference. Diverse perspectives and methodologies are welcome.

Research paper proposals undergo a rigorous double-blind review process. Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. Authors will develop accepted full paper proposals into full papers (4,000+ words); full papers will be published in the proceedings in the language of submission, and presented as paper presentations at the conference in English. 20 minutes presentation.

Short Papers:

Proposals should include a title and be no more than 1000 words with citations (citations not included in word count). A short paper could present a more focused study of smaller scope than a full paper. For example, work in progress, preliminary research analysis, or late-breaking results are suitable for short papers. Accepted short papers will be published in the proceedings, and presented as short paper presentations at the conference.

Short paper proposals undergo a rigorous double-blind review process. Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. Authors will develop accepted short paper proposals into short papers (1,500-3,000 words); short papers will be published in the proceedings in the language of submission, and presented as paper presentations at the conference in English. 10 minutes presentation.

Doctoral Symposium:

This is an opportunity for doctoral students to discuss their research in progress in a 15-minute presentation. Proposals should consist of a 500-word abstract with citations (citations not included in word count) and a full CV. Students will also have the opportunity to attend a general advising session to discuss their CVs, service commitments, and the job market. Students accepted into the doctoral symposium will have their conference registration fees waived (chaired by Joseph T. Tennis).

Publication:

All accepted papers will be published online in the University of Washington Archive (https://journals.lib.washington.edu/index.php/nasko/index); an open access repository. The papers most highly-ranked during the peer-review process will, with permission of the authors, be published in full in a future issue of Knowledge Organization.

Program Committee:

Vanessa Schlais, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, co-chair
Heather Moulaison Sandy, University of Missouri, co-chair
Joseph Tennis, University of Washington, co-chair
Melissa Adler, University of Western Ontario
José Augusto Chaves Guimarães, UNESP
Hyerim Cho, University of Missouri
Rachel Ivy Clarke, Syracuse University
Brian Dobreski, University of Tennessee
Thomas Dousa, University of Chicago
Jonathan Furner, UCLA
Tim Gorichanaz, Drexel University
Ann Graf, Simmons University
Jane Greenberg, Drexel University
Patrick Keilty, University of Toronto
Gregory Leazer, UCLA
Daniel Martínez-Ávila, UNESP
Hyoungjoo Park, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Laura Ridenour, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Ali Shiri, University of Alberta
Richard Smiraglia, Institute for Knowledge Organization and Structure
Barbara Kwaśnik, Syracuse University
Sandy Roe, Cataloging and Classification Quarterly
Shengang Wang, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee