The 12th International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD 2022), to be hosted at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA on June 27-29, 2022, invites you to submit research papers and notes.

ICTD 2022 provides an international forum for scholarly researchers to explore the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social, political, and economic development. The ICTD conferences have been taking place approximately every 18 months since 2006. Recent proceedings have been published in the ACM Digital Library. 

NEWS: ***A selection of the best papers will be invited to publish on the journal Special Issue “Information & Communication Technologies and Development better world with better technologies” of Information Frontiers***

Background

For the purposes of this conference, the term “ICT” comprises electronic technologies for information processing and communication, as well as systems, use of big data, interventions, and platforms built on such technologies. “Development” includes, but is not restricted to, the process of improving people’s lives through poverty alleviation, education, healthcare, communication, gender equality, better governance, improved infrastructure, improved agricultural practices, environmental conservation, and sustainability. The conference program will reflect the multidisciplinary nature of ICTD research and publishing traditions, with anticipated contributions from fields including (but not limited to) anthropology, sociology, communication, geography, HCI, data science, design, economics, computer science, electrical engineering, information systems, political science, public health, and relevant different methodological approaches. Considering the character of the conference, papers need to address and appeal to a wider multidisciplinary audience. 

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are ever more pervasive in the lives of people around the world. ICTs can facilitate different areas of people’s daily lives, ranging from economics to health care, education to governance, advocacy to work, family life to artistic expression. The disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have further increased the need and the presence of ICTs and the Internet in all aspects of people’s lives, as many sectors were forced to a rapid digitization. At the same time, the pandemic exacerbated pre-existing inequalities and divides, especially for underserved social groups who may lack meaningful and quality access, and for communities who are not represented or are suffering from historical and structural forms of oppression. 

There are multidisciplinary challenges associated with the research, design, engineering, application, and adoption of ICTs by underserved communities or by social groups in low- and middle-income regions and other resource-constrained settings. These have implications for methodologies, design, policy, and practice. ICTD provides a forum for analyzing, critiquing, refining, and inventing new ways in which individuals, communities, and societies interact with and make use of ICTs. 

Full Papers

    To be accepted, a Full Paper must make a new research contribution and provide complete and substantial support for its results and conclusions. Accepted papers typically represent a major advance for the field of ICTD. 
    Full Papers will be evaluated via double-blind peer review by a multidisciplinary panel of at least three readers, one of whom will come from outside the paper’s disciplinary domain in order to ensure broad readability. Reviewers will have 4 weeks to complete their reviews.
    Full Papers will be evaluated according to their novel research contribution, methodological soundness, theoretical framing and reference to related work, quality of analysis, quality of writing and presentation, and relevance to a broad audience of researchers. Manuscripts considering novel designs, new technologies, project assessments, policy analyses, impact studies, theoretical contributions, social issues around ICT and development, and so forth will be considered. Well-analyzed negative results from which generalizable conclusions can be drawn are also sought. Authors are encouraged to address the diversity of approaches in ICTD research by providing context, implications, and actionable guidance to researchers and practitioners beyond the authors’ primary domains. Full Papers typically present mature work whereas Notes (see below) are used for presenting preliminary research that is still work-in-progress.
    All acceptance will be conditional , the final version of the paper will be checked by the initial reviewers before final acceptance.
    To be considered Full Papers, contributions should be more than six pages long (single column template, as specified in the “Submission Instructions” section below). There is no hard page limit, but long papers without a proportional contribution are more likely to be rejected. Previous papers (if converted to the new ACM single-column format) would have run 14-18 pages in length.