The SIGIR 2005 workshop program

The SIGIR 2005 workshop program included seven workshops that were competitively selected from among eight proposals. Organizers of SIGIR 2004 workshops had reported that tight timelines for publicizing workshops and reviewing submissions had resulted in some workshop participants not being notified that a workshop paper had been accepted until the deadline for registration at regular prices had passed. The submission date for SIGIR 2005 workshop proposals was therefore advanced to occur one week after full papers were due. Expedited reviews of all workshop proposals were performed by a committee consisting of recent workshops chairs, augmented where necessary with additional reviewers to ensure that expertise in the topic of each workshop proposal was available. The review results were summarized in an email to the organizing committee and area chairs, and decisions were made by the PC chairs after an email discussion. Workshop organizers were notified of their selection shortly after the poster deadline, about 5 weeks earlier than in previous years. As a result, workshop organizers were generally able to solicit and review submissions sufficiently rapidly to permit workshop participants to qualify for discounted early registration rates.