Call for Papers: SDW@WebSci'26

** Call for Papers **
1st International Workshop on Science Discourse on the Web (SDW'26)

We are excited to announce the 1st International Workshop on Science
Discourse on the Web (SDW'26), collocated with ACM Web Science
Conference 2026, 26-29 May, Braunschweig, Germany

In recent years, a growing number of people have been engaging in
science-related discussions on online platforms. This typically informal
and sometimes decontextualized discourse may result in
oversimplification, misinterpretation or instrumentalization of
scientific knowledge. Analyzing such discourse is challenging: it
differs from general online talk, spans multiple platforms, and requires
interdisciplinary methods.

This workshop provides a venue for interdisciplinary exchange on
computational and social scientific approaches and resources to
platform specific and cross platform analysis of science-related
communication.

***Workshop Themes***
   - Methodological challenges related to the analysis of science-related
discourse on the Web, including data acquisition and processing
   - Insights concerning science-related discourse on the Web, e.g., its
characteristics, evolution, and impact

Topics of interest within these themes include, but are not limited to
the following:

   - (Cross-platform-) crawling approaches for science-related discourse
   - Methods for the detection and filtering of science-related online
discourse data
   - Issues and methods related to tracking/linking of users and messages
within and across different platforms (e.g., X, Bluesky, Mastodon,
Threads)
   - Practical/legal/ethical issues concerning data access
   - Detection of arguments, claims, evidence, sources, or stances in
science-related online discourse data
   - Classification of scientific claims w.r.t. verifiability,
credibility, or veracity (including distinguishing different types of
misinformation such as oversimplification)
   - Analysis of science-related discourse on social media platforms and
in online news
   - Assessment of the expertness of social media users (e.g., scientist,
expert, lay person)
   - Classification of sources w.r.t. credibility, political leaning, and
other biases
   - Usage of social media platforms (e.g., X, Bluesky, Mastodon,
Threads) by different user groups
   - Usage of memes in science-related discourse on social media
   - Analysis of LLM-generated text in science-related discourse
   - Usage of preprints and open access publications in science-related
Web discourse


***Submissions***
We invite contributions from Computer Science, Computational Social
Science, Communication Science, Information Science, Computational
Linguistics and related fields. We accept both technical and
non technical submissions, including research papers (completed or in
progress and unpublished work), annotated datasets, questionnaires,
novel data collections, tools, and other resources. Emphasis is placed
on discussion and exchange of ideas, thus we welcome submissions of work
in progress.
   - full papers (6 - 10 pages, including references, appendices, etc.),
   - short papers (up to 5 pages including references, appendices, etc.),
   - extended abstracts for posters and demos (up to 2 pages including
references, appendices, etc.).

All accepted contributions except extended abstracts will be part of the WebSci'26
workshop proceedings, which will be published in a companion volume in
the ACM Digital Library.
Submission of all papers is electronic, using the EasyChair conference
management system: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sdw26

Please find more information on the workshop website:
https://sdw2026.wordpress.com/dates-and-submission/


***Important Dates***
Papers due: March 17, 2026 (extension likely)
Paper notifications: March 31, 2026
Paper camera-ready versions due: April 14, 2026
Workshop: May 26, 2026


We look forward to your contributions!


***Workshop organizers***
Katarina Boland (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany)
Dimitar Dimitrov (GESIS, Germany)
Michelle Riedlinger (Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane,
Australia)
Philipp Meier (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany)
Sebastian Schellhammer (GESIS, Germany)
Stefan Dietze (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf & GESIS, Germany)

***Contact***
dimitar.dimitrov@gesis.org<mailto:dimitar.dimitrov@gesis.org>
katarina.boland@hhu.de<mailto:katarina.boland@hhu.de>

https://sdw2026.wordpress.com/




Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov

Head of team Information Extraction & Linking

KTS / Information Extraction & Linking


[cid:image002.png@01DCAA50.88E2C1E0]<https://www.gesis.org/en/home>

Unter Sachsenhausen 6-8 | 50667 Köln

+49 (0) 221 47694 512

dimitar.dimitrov@gesis.org<mailto:dimitar.dimitrov@gesis.org>



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