Information Science Trends (IST) 2025: Creativity, Transformation, Empowerment

Description

Sponsored by: ASIS&T Europe Chapter

Dates:

• June 11: Networking and Dinner (self paid), 7:00pm BST
• June 12: Keynote(s) and Presentations, 10:00am-5:00pm BST

The European Chapter (EC) of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) seeks participation in this year’s IST conference on Creativity, Transformation, and Empowerment in Information Science. The conference will be held in Manchester, UK, and presentations will also be viewable on Zoom.

The Information Science Trends (IST) conference series – background:

The event is part of the series on Information Science Trends (IST). The events focus on current research topics, including invited speakers from research and industry. Our first event in Hamburg (April, 2019) focused on the topic Search Engines and Information Retrieval. Our second, online, event focused on Health Information Behaviour (June, 2020) and our third on Information Science Research During COVID-19 and Post-Pandemic Opportunities (June, 2021), and our fourth on Untold Stories (June, 2022). Our fifth event was hybrid and focused on Information Science Perspectives on Documenting Processes and Practices (June, 2023), whereas the sixth was online and explored Living Online and Offline in Darkness and Light (July, 2024). The IST conferences have been awarded the ASIS&T Chapter Event of the Year multiple times. Our events provide an opportunity to network and share ideas and interests from the different fields of information science and related disciplines.

Call for Participation

• Submissions (abstract of 400-750 words): on EasyChair, using a completed abstract template
• Deadline for submissions: Thursday 17th April, 2025.

We invite researchers, practitioners and students to submit abstracts for talks (15 minutes presentation + discussion time, using the template linked above). Students may also submit proposals for posters. We welcome proposals from ASIS&T members and from non-members. The day-long schedule will consist of an opening keynote, paper sessions, lunch and networking, and a poster session. Further, all attendees are invited to join for dinner the night before the conference (self paid); registrants can indicate interest during registration.

For this event, themed Creativity, Transformation, and Empowerment, we invite submissions within information science/studies (broadly construed) covering research (completed or in progress), practical projects or examples, and conceptual work. The theme encourages an exploration of ongoing changes in digitality and digital environments, benefits and risks of emerging information technology and functionality, and information seeking and use as it can help (or hinder) people in meeting their information-related needs in the information society (including but not limited to the European region). We welcome broad interpretations on the conference theme, example topics include:

• Information Access, Use and Understanding in Transforming Contexts
  • Evaluating the value and validity of information: challenging assumptions, tradition, and stereotypes
  • Research on changing information behaviour/practices that respond to transformation, creativity, and power, including personal and professional information management contexts
  • Ethical concerns in the use of data, information and information technologies (e.g., education informatics, health informatics) for benevolent or malevolent purposes
  • Literacies for empowerment to address issues of information/data uses/abuses incl. privacy, democracy, responsible computing, digital sovereignty…
  • Literacies for emerging technology e.g. information seeking and (un)critical thought with AI
• Digital Transformation, Digital Culture and Everyday Experience
  • Research on digital inequalities, such as digital poverty and the digital divide, revealing exclusions or limitations faced by certain groups
  • Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in information studies: maintaining and defending representation of participants to promote equality and diversity in the digital society
  • Video Gaming: Exploring its role as a source of information creativity, transformation, and (dis)empowerment
  • Media and technology for transformation (good and bad): AI, Machine Learning; AR, VR, XR; Digital media; Online platforms…
  • Continuity and frictions in everyday information experience: exploring the dynamics of transitioning between online and offline realms in different aspects of life such as education, work, healthcare, and leisure
• New Perspectives on and Links Between ‘Creativity’, ‘Transformation’, and ‘Empowerment’
  • Uses and abuses of transformation at the scale of the individual, family, workplace, and society
  • The complex theme of Empowerment for varied demographic and cultural groups (in Europe and elsewhere) 

We interpret Information Science broadly to include all kinds of information research including but not limited to information management, information behaviour and literacy, information retrieval and processing, data science, information ethics and governance, information/knowledge organisation, and ways of knowing. If you are not sure whether your idea fits in with our theme do please email the conference co-chairs (see emails below).

Submission requirements
For both presentations and posters, we request an informative, structured abstract:

• 400 -750 words, in English
• Use the following headings: Aim of the contribution; Value of the contribution; Research outline; References (in APA7)

You will find our template at https://tinyurl.com/IST25template. You must submit via Easychair. All abstracts will be peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers. All presenters must register for the conference (see below for rates.) Submissions are due 17th April.

If your submission is accepted, we require you to later upload your revised abstract with a CC-BY 4.0 International License at Zenodo (community: Information Science Trends - ASIS&T European Chapter Series)

Opportunities for all researchers and practitioners
You may submit proposals for presentations (presentation of 15 minutes + 5 minutes for questions). Please submit your abstract and choose the submission type “presentation” in the submission form. Multimodal presentations, as well as traditional presentations, are welcome as long as they fit in the time limit. 

Additional opportunities for students
Poster submissions

In addition to the possibility to submit presentation proposals, students attending in-person may submit poster proposals. All posters will be entered in a Best Poster competition. Posters will be judged by the conference committee based on the quality of the presented research and efficacy of the visual presentation.

A poster session will take place on the day of the conference, where students must be present with their posters. Students are defined as BA/BSc, MA/MSc, or PhD students within Information Science (including related areas such as Data Science and Information Management). Please submit an informative, structured abstract (using this template https://tinyurl.com/IST25template), and be sure to choose the submission type “poster” in the submission form, and mention your student status and supervisor(s). Posters should be A1 size.

For more information:
We are happy to answer any questions you might have regarding this event. Please send an email to the IST conference co-chairs / ASIST Europe Chapter officers

• Jesse Dinneen, jesse.dinneen@hu-berlin.de, Chapter Chair
• Yuhua Wang, y.wang@mmu.ac.uk, Past chair
• Alicia Takaoka, takaoka@rsm.nl, Chair elect
• Sophie Rutter, s.rutter@sheffield.ac.uk, Chapter Officer
• Sheila Webber, s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk, Chapter Officer
• Tanja Merčun-Kariž, tanja.mercunkariz@ff.uni-lj.si, Chapter Officer