Introduction

The First Early Career Researchers’ Roundtable for Information Access Research workshop in conjunction with the ACM Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR) 2022 looks into the future of research, collaborations, and self-development to ask:

• Where are the opportunities for researchers in a (post-)pandemic environment, especially for ECRs?

• What do we need to do to get there?

• Which practical implementations can the broader CHIIR community support?

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we work, study, and conduct research. Ongoing stresses and uncertainties of the pandemic have impacted research activities and collaborations, especially for graduate researchers [1] and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) [2].

Format

The workshop will be hands-on and interactive. Rather than a series of technical talks, we solicit position statements from attendees on opportunities, problems, and solutions on (post-)pandemic research on information access within the wider CHIIR community.

The workshop provides a neutral platform for an open and honest discussion about the lessons learned from working in a pandemic.

The full-day workshop is formatted around two blocks to accommodate the hybrid conference format (and different time zones). Before the workshop, participants have been asked to share obstacles or opportunities they faced concerning research during the pandemic. These statements are used to guide the discussion.

The organisers will sort the statements prior to the workshop and allocate them to the two blocks for the discussion of the participants’ position statements and roundtable [1] discussion.

Before the ECRs4IR workshop

Statements and responses will be collected from potential participants that are willing to discuss challenges and opportunities to support researchers in a post-pandemic world.

A statement submission will consist of three main questions which will be submitted through the submission form.

Statement submission form

During the ECRs4IR workshop

We will have two virtual sessions to discuss statements and responses on challenges and opportunities related to supporting researchers in a post-pandemic world.

Participants can attend either one or both. During the sessions, workshop participants will collaboratively contribute to the writing of the workshop report, which will be submitted to SIGIR Forum after the ECRs4IR workshop.

Important Dates

Organisers

[1] By graduate researchers, we mean either: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Master of Philosophy (MPhil), a Masters by Research, Doctorate, or other graduate research degree.

[2] ECRs are typically emerging researchers within their first five to eight years of academic or other research-related employment, following completion of graduate research degree. There is no age limit on who can be an ECR but is defined by the researcher’s career progression.

[3] Roundtable is a discussion forum. Participants agree on particular topics to discuss and debate. Each participant is given equal right to participate, as represented by the notion of a circular layout suggested in the term roundtable.