A New Participatory Model for Best Paper Award Selection at KICSS 2025

Rethinking How We Select the “Best Paper”

Why change the traditional approach to select “Best Paper”?
As part of the traditional approach, the Best Paper is selected through Program Chairs’ deliberation based on reviewers’ evaluations and scores. While valuable, this method has inherent limitations and potential biases. Critics note that it can favor well-known researchers and reflect the preferences of a small group—often just two or three reviewers—rather than the broader community or conference attendees. Furthermore, with the rapid spread of Large Language Models (LLMs) in academic writing and peer review, conferences face increasing challenges in assessing the true value and authorship integrity of submissions.

Our response.
To address these concerns, KICSS 2025 introduces a participatory selection model that combines expert judgment with community input. The goal is to recognize outstanding work in a way that is rigorous, transparent, fair, and inclusive, while also establishing a more democratic framework for future Best Paper Award selections.

How the Best Paper Award Will Be Selected

First of all we will nominate three Best Paper candidates, each chosen through a different route:

1. Conference PC Candidate
   Selected before the conference by the KICSS 2025 Program Chairs, based on reviewer evaluations, comments, and scores.
   
   

2. Session-Vote Candidate
   At the end of each of the nine technical sessions, we will have a 15-minutes time slot for Discussion & Voting where attendees of the session will discuss presented papers and finally vote for best presented paper.  They will use HyperDemocracy system for discussion and use SurveyMonkey vote.  In voter list the presented paper of that specific session will be listed.

After voting is completed in all 9 technical sessions, we compare the vote share (percentage of votes) for the top paper within each session.
The paper with the highest vote share across all sessions will be selected as the Session-Vote Winner.

3. Conference-Vote Candidate
   During the closing ceremony, all attendees vote for their favorite paper among all 31 presented (21 long, 12 short) presented throughout  nine sessions.
   The paper that receives the highest number of votes will be selected as the Conference-Vote Winner. 

Final Selection

During the closing ceremony on December 5, the three finalists (PC Candidate, Session-vote candidate, and Conference-Vote candidate) will compete in a final attendee vote.
The paper receiving the most votes will be awarded Best Paper.

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Below is a more detailed overview of the selection process and its schedule:

How the Best Paper Award Will Be Selected

We will nominate three Best Paper candidates, each chosen through a different route:

1. Conference PC Candidate (Traditional Route)

Selected before the conference by the KICSS 2025 Program Chairs, based on EasyChair submission systems reviewer evaluations, comments, and scores

They will make their selection and nominate their candidate first. This candidate will be one of the three finalists in the final round of voting.

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The remaining two candidates will be selected by conference attendees through the following routes:

2. Session-Vote Candidate ( Session-Attendees Vote)

At the end of each of the nine technical sessions, attendees will participate in a “Best Paper Discussion & Voting” segment using the HyperDemocracy system followed by voting through SurveyMonkey.

The paper with the highest total vote share across all nine sessions becomes the Session-Vote Candidate.

Session Voting Schedule

Day 1 – December 3 (Wed)

10:20–12:05 Session 1: Creativity Research and Human-AI Collaboration (Room D)
→ Discussion & Voting: 11:50–12:05

14:45–16:20 Session 2: LLM Foundation Technology and Evaluation
→ Discussion & Voting: 16:05–16:20

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Day 2 – December 4 (Thu)

10:15–12:20 — Parallel Sessions
Session 3: LLM Applications and AI Dialogue (Room C)
→ Discussion & Voting: 11:50–12:05
Session 4: Educational Systems and Learning Support (Room D)
→ Discussion & Voting: 12:05–12:20

13:45–15:50 — Parallel Sessions
Session 5: Mental Health and Well-being (Room C)
→ Discussion & Voting: 15:35–15:50
Session 6: Collaborative Learning and Groupwork (Room D)
→ Discussion & Voting: 15:25–15:40

16:00–18:10 — Parallel Sessions
Session 7: Data Analysis and Machine Learning Applications (Room C)
→ Discussion & Voting: 17:40–17:55
Session 8: Business and Creativity (Room D)
→ Discussion & Voting: 17:50–18:05

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Day 3 – December 5 (Fri)

09:00–10:35 Session 9: Social Systems, Policy and Dialogue (Room C)
→ Discussion & Voting: 10:20–10:35

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3. Conference-Vote Candidate (All Conference-Attendees Vote)

During the closing ceremony, all attendees will vote via SurveyMonkey to select the best paper from among all 31 presented papers (21 long papers and 12 short papers).

The paper with the highest vote share becomes the Conference-Vote Candidate.

Conference Voting Schedule

Day 3 – December 5 (Fri)
10:35–10:40 Conference-Vote Candidate for Best Paper

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Final Selection: Choosing the Best Paper

During the closing ceremony, the three finalists—

• Conference PC Candidate

• Session-Vote Candidate

• Conference-Vote Candidate
  
  

—will compete in a final vote by all attendees (via SurveyMonkey).

The paper receiving the largest number of votes will be awarded the Best Paper Award.

Final Voting & Award Announcement Schedule

10:40–10:45 Best Paper Voting
10:45–11:00 Award Announcements & Closing Remarks

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