Research Papers

ACM SIGSPATIAL 2026 Call for Papers - Research Track

Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acmsigspatial2026

Overview

The thirty-fourth ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems 2026 (ACM SIGSPATIAL 2026) will be held in Riverside, California, USA, in November 2026. The conference began in 1993 as a series of symposia and workshops to bring together researchers, developers, users, and practitioners on novel systems based on spatial data and knowledge, and foster interdisciplinary discussions and research across all aspects of spatial information systems. The conference provides a forum for original research contributions that cover all conceptual, design, and implementation aspects of geospatial data, ranging from applications to data storage and query processing to the Internet of Spatial Things and spatial AI. The conference is the premier annual event of the ACM Special Interest Group on Spatial Information (ACM SIGSPATIAL). Researchers, students, and practitioners are invited to submit original, unpublished research papers that are not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Important Dates

Research track contributions: two types of papers

There are two types of papers in the research track:

  1. Regular Research Papers
  2. Experiment, Benchmark & Experience Papers

1. Regular Research Papers

Papers about theory, models, and algorithms. These papers present original research on foundational concepts, such as novel models and algorithms for spatial computing. These papers are invited, where appropriate, to include a prototype implementation and evaluation that may include comparisons with alternate approaches. Example: a novel algorithm for complex query processing or a novel model of spatial causal inference.

Papers about systems. These papers describe the design, implementation, and empirical evaluation of a novel system, framework, or processing pipeline created to address a specific problem. It typically provides a detailed explanation of a real-world problem, the architecture, functionality, and performance of the system, and an evaluation that may include comparisons with alternate systems. Example: a platform for spatio-temporal data analysis in real-time.

2. Experiment, benchmark, and experience papers

Papers about experiments. These papers evaluate multiple existing solutions to a problem and, through extensive experimentation, offer novel insights through a comprehensive analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. Example: evaluating anomaly detection algorithms using various datasets.

Papers about benchmarks. These papers introduce new benchmarks for evaluating and comparing different techniques, systems, or algorithms. They provide a standardized reference point to guide experimental research and foster consistent evaluation practices. Example: benchmarking spatio-temporal causal analysis algorithms.

Papers about experiences. These papers provide insights, lessons learned, and real-world experiences from deploying existing systems. They focus on practical challenges and observations from real-world usage, which are crucial for understanding the limitations of existing solutions. All the co-authors of an experience paper can be from academia. Example: lessons learned from the deployment of a system for indoor tracking.

Topics of Interest

Spatial AI

Spatial Computing Systems and Big Spatial Data Infrastructure

Pervasive Spatial Computing and Internet of Spatial Things

Spatial Data Acquisition, Integration, and Processing

Spatial Search

Spatial Intelligence for Society

Quantum Spatial Computing and Technologies

Digital Twins in Spatial Computing Systems

Submission

Submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acmsigspatial2026

General information

As for Regular Research Papers and Experiment, Benchmark & Experience papers: papers are limited to 10 pages (excluding references), with up to 2 additional pages after the references to be used for appendices. Submissions that do not follow the page limit requirements will be desk-rejected without technical reviews.

Paper titles. Experiment, Benchmark & Experience should contain their type as a suffix in the title. The suffix is [Experiment]. For example: 'Evaluating spatial navigation systems on Mars [Experiment]'. If the paper is accepted, the suffix will not be part of the camera-ready copy.

Authors. ACM SIGSPATIAL is a single-blind conference; therefore, the names and affiliations of the authors should be listed in the submitted version. The author list is considered final after the submission deadline, and no changes, including the author order, are allowed to accepted papers.

Poster Papers. Based on the reviewers' evaluations, the Program Committee may recommend that certain papers be accepted as 4-page (including references) short papers for poster presentation. Both full and short papers will appear in the conference proceedings. The length is based on the ACM two-column conference proceedings template.

Conflict, authorship, and content

ACM Policy on Authorship. Authors should review and follow the ACM Policy on Authorship, which includes guidelines on the use of generative AI software tools for manuscript writing. In particular, the authors are responsible for all submitted manuscripts and should disclose the use of AI software tools in the paper. Generative AI tools and technologies, such as ChatGPT, may not be listed as authors of an ACM-published work. The use of generative AI tools and technologies to create content is permitted but must be fully disclosed in the Work. For example, the authors could include the following statement in the Acknowledgements section of the Work: ChatGPT was utilized to generate sections of this Work, including text, tables, graphs, code, data, citations, etc. PC Chairs reserve the right to desk-reject a paper without review if the use of AI software tools is not marked appropriately.

ACM Policy on Conflict of Interest. As part of the submission, you will be asked to mark your conflict of interest with the Program Committee members. Authors should review the Conflict of Interest Policy for ACM Publications to decide if there is a conflict of interest. In summary, the following is a non-comprehensive list of examples of COI:

When in doubt, please contact the Program Committee Chairs or mark any potential conflicts on the submission website and include a note explaining why you believe they should be flagged. The Program Committee Chairs will review them and decide how to use that information. PC Chairs reserve the right to desk-reject a paper without review if COIs are not marked appropriately.

Note on EasyChair: EasyChair does not have a mechanism to indicate that a paper has no COIs. If you confirm that there are no conflicts, then you do not need to submit the COI form.

ACM Policy on Inappropriate Content. ACM Publications cannot be used to propagate political or religious views or denigrate individuals or groups of people. See https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/inappropriate-content-policy

Formatting Templates. Manuscripts should be submitted in PDF format and formatted using the ACM templates available at http://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template. ACM SIGSPATIAL uses the Conference Proceedings Primary Article template with a two-column format for both reviewing and camera-ready versions. Do not use any software options, either in LaTeX commands or any other editors, that generate single-column manuscripts either for reviewing or camera-ready versions. Alterations to the template, especially to gain more space, will be grounds for desk rejection without further technical review.

All papers should be submitted through EasyChair using the following link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=acmsigspatial2026

Accepted Papers, Registration and Presentation. Papers accepted for ACM SIGSPATIAL 2026 will be published in the ACM Digital Library under the Proceedings of the 34th ACM International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems. Upon the paper acceptance, the contact author(s) will receive detailed instructions on how to prepare and submit the camera-ready copy of the accepted paper. Each accepted paper must have a separate paid author registration (i.e., an author cannot pay a single registration for more than one paper), and one author must attend the conference in person to present the accepted submission. Otherwise, the accepted submission will not appear in the conference proceedings or the ACM Digital Library version of the conference proceedings.

Important note on ACM OPEN

Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access (https://libraries.acm.org/acmopen). All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. To sustain this approach, ACM will charge Article Processing Charges (APCs) for certain types of manuscripts, listed on https://libraries.acm.org/acmopen/article-types. If the accepted paper has at least one author affiliated with an OPEN participating institution (see the complete list at https://libraries.acm.org/acmopen/open-participants), the paper’s APC is already covered, and the authors will not pay any extra charges. If none of the authors has such an affiliation, the other option is to pay the APC. To ease the transition in 2026, the ACM has implemented policies on waivers and discounts, available at https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/policy-on-open-access-apc-waivers-and-discounts. The 2026 discount guidelines state that articles where one of the named co-authors is an ACM or SIG Member, the subsidized rate is $250/article (down from the list price of $700), and for articles where none of the named co-authors is an ACM or SIG Member, the subsidized rate is $350/article (down from the list price of $1,000). For articles eligible for 50% geographic discounts, the discount will be applied to the applicable subsidized rate.

For the ACM SIGSPATIAL 2026 conference, SIGSPATIAL accepts and handles requests for waivers for authors who have financial hardship according to the ACM policies, accessible on https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/policy-on-discretionary-open-access-apc-waivers. Guidelines for submitting waiver requests will be released along with the camera-ready instructions.

Program Committee

Research Track PC Chairs

Research Track Senior PC Members

Research Track PC Members