For all our friends and colleagues preparing for, and recovering from these catastrophes, our hearts and minds are with you. Watching the news reports and hearing many of the stories coming out of the Caribbean and southern U.S. is truly gut-wrenching. In the past few days, we have received several inquiries about the possibility of a deadline extension for CHI 2018 Papers. Obviously, for those affected by these storms, the preparation of CHI submissions has taken a backseat to much more immediate needs, and we wanted to respond more generally for the whole community.
While we are deeply sympathetic to the disruption these storms have caused, we cannot move the deadline. The CHI papers process is a massive, complex, and somewhat fragile thing—the timing tolerance in going from submissions to reviews to the conference in April is literally on the order of a day or two, and any delays would jeopardize the technical program in Montréal. We have checked to see if there are any creative things we can do, but we are so close to the deadline that there just isn’t any way for us to change the process at this point. We are deeply sorry—we know how important CHI is for students, scholars and professionals in our community and these tragedies hit the whole community.
We hope that all those affected are safe and managing the aftermath with their loved ones. We stand with you and hope to see you all in Montréal next spring.
Ed Cutrell, Anind Dey & m.c. schraefel, CHI 2018 Papers Chairs
Anna Cox & Mark Perry, CHI 2018 Technical Program Chairs
Quite honestly this is downright offensive and unacceptable. If this is the kind of response the CHI community has to natural disasters – which upend nearly every aspect of an academic’s personal and professional life – we have some serious work to do. THIS is why mental health in academia is so poor. I’m sure those of us who aren’t impacted by Irma and Harvey would be more than willing to pitch in extra review hours so that those who are affected can be accommodated with a later submission date. I know I would be.
It’s not only paper submissions that are coming from Irma/Harvey-affected areas, but reviews from PC members and external reviewers in these areas as well. It is unfair to the whole CHI community to not take natural disasters of this scale into consideration. That CHI is willing to draw service from these members of the community but not recognize such limitations seems quite unacceptable.
This is extremely offensive and disappointing. I stand with those in the affected areas. I try to attend CHI every couple years and this would be one of those years. In light of this ruling, I’ll be skipping it and supporting a difference conference. I’ll also be withdrawing my services as a reviewer. Shame on you.
Seriously?
This kind of reads like, “Special note, suck it!”
Stop whining, people! If the failure to submit a CHI paper is going to determine your academic career, then it’s time to take a deep look into your academic system itself, and not the submission regulations. Can’t submit to CHI this time? Well, come up with a plan B: try another later conference; wait for next year; put your research out as a blog post, etc.
Also, there probably wouldn’t have been a blog post, let alone angry internet comments, if this was happening somewhere else in the world, and not North America. There were recent floods in Asia which killed a lot more people, and disrupted a lot more lives. I’m sure there might be some authors and potential papers affected by this as well? Are we going to address that somewhere too?
To the above commenter – the impact of the floods in Asia should have been addressed as well. All of us “whining” on this thread are simply pointing out the irony of a conference that claims to want to improve lives through research deciding to be so rigid on its deadline, given the local and broader international situation regarding such natural disasters. It’s not those submitting who need to reorganize their priorities; it’s those contributing to a culture so toxic as to prioritize deadlines over accommodating the very researchers that drive these kinds of conferences. It seems there is a better compromise to be had.
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