Call for papers

SoGood 2021 – 6th Workshop on Data Science for Social Good

Affiliated with ECML-PKDD 2021, 13-17 September 2021

This is the sixth edition of the workshop; the previous workshops were held jointly with ECML-PKDD 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

The possibilities of Data Science for contributing to social, common, or public good are often not sufficiently perceived by the public at large. Data Science applications are already helping in serving people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, aiding people with special needs, helping international cooperation, and dealing with environmental problems, disasters, and climate change. In regular conferences and journals, papers on these topics are often scattered among sessions with names that hide their common nature (such as "Social networks", "Predictive models" or the catch-all term "Applications"). Additionally, such forums tend to have a strong bias for papers that are novel in the strictly technical sense (new algorithms, new kinds of data analysis, new technologies) rather than novel in terms of social impact of the application.


This workshop aims to attract papers presenting applications of Data Science for Social Good (which may, or may not require new methods), or applications that take into account social aspects of Data Science methods and techniques. There are numerous application domains, a non-exclusive list includes:

• Government transparency and IT against corruption

• Public safety and disaster relief

• Access to food, water, and utilities

• Efficiency and sustainability

• Data journalism

• Economic, social, and personal development

• Transportation

• Energy

• Smart city services

• Education

• Social services, unemployment and homeless

• Healthcare

• Ethical issues, fairness, and accountability.

• Trustability and interpretability


The major selection criteria will be the novelty of the application and its social impact. Position papers are welcome too.

We are also interested in applications that have built a successful business model and are able to sustain themselves economically. Most Social Good applications have been carried out by non-profit and charity organisations, conveying the idea that Social Good is a luxury that only societies with a surplus can afford. We would like to hear from successful projects, which may not be strictly "non-profit" but have Social Good as their main focus.

There will be an award for the best paper.


Paper submission:

Authors should submit a PDF version in Springer LNCS style using EasyChair.

The maximum length of papers is 16 pages, consistent with the ECML PKDD conference submissions.

Submitting a paper to the workshop means that if the paper is accepted, at least one author will attend the workshop and present the paper. Papers not presented at the workshop will not be included in the proceedings.

In light of COVID-19, we will follow ECML PKDD’s policy for virtual attendance and presentation.


Paper publication:

Accepted papers will be published by Springer as joint proceedings of several ECML PKDD workshops.


Workshop format:

  • Full-day workshop

  • 1-2 keynote talks, speakers to be announced

  • Oral presentation of accepted papers

  • Panel discussion with the audience