Call for Contributions

ACM RESPECT 2025 | Raleigh, North Carolina, USA   |   July 14–16, 2025

Important Dates

• November 15, 2024: Call for Papers
• January 31, 2025: Abstracts due in EasyChair
• February 7, 2025: Papers due in EasyChair
• April 7, 2025: Notification to authors
• April 21, 2025: Camera Ready submissions due 
• July 14–16, 2025: ACM RESPECT 2025 Conference

The ACM Conference on Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT) conference is the premier venue for research on equity, inclusion, and justice in computing and computing education. 

This year’s theme is Designing an Accessible Future for Equitable Computer Science. This is the 10th anniversary of the ACM RESPECT conference and 2025 is also the fiftieth anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. These anniversaries offer a chance to reflect on the progress we’ve made, as a community and with respect to disability inclusion, and an opportunity to envision the future of equity work. We can’t wait any longer to reflect on how the ACM RESPECT and larger broadening participation in the computing (BPC) community can design an accessible future for students with disabilities. Some of the questions we will tackle are:

• How can we work together to design an accessible future for disabled individuals in computing education and careers? 
• As we think about equitable and sustained participation in engineering, computing, and technology, how do we support other groups that get little attention in BPC efforts?

Since research in this area is inherently interdisciplinary, the conference invites contributions from sociology, learning sciences, cognitive and/or social psychology, feminist theory, gender studies, educational leadership and policy, human-computer interaction, as well as computer science education and related disciplines. Additionally, recognizing the important role that educators, students, and other community members play as partners in equity-focused efforts, ACM RESPECT 2025 welcomes the participation of those who have not traditionally identified as “researchers” to present, including teachers, students, advocates, and policy-makers.

Introduction

We invite submissions to ACM RESPECT 2025 in three submission tracks: Research papers, Experience Reports, and Perspectives papers.

• Research Papers: Research papers are completed works or works in progress that describe empirical studies of broadening participation research and are expected to be original work. Broadening participation research is inherently interdisciplinary; as such related literature and theory may be drawn from computer science education, education, learning sciences, cognitive or social psychology, social sciences, and other related disciplines. (Full paper: 8 pages; Works in progress: 4 pages).
• Experience Reports: Experience reports are completed works or works in progress that describe an educational or outreach approach, curricula, program, or initiative that focused on and impacted at least one underrepresented population in computing. Experience reports differ from research in that they usually lack a theoretical framework, research design methodology, and/or analysis to support the evaluation of the impact of the experiences reported.  All submissions in this track should provide a rich reflection on what worked, what didn’t, and possible explanations as to why in enough detail to allow others to adopt the approach/curricula/program/initiative. (Full paper: 8 pages; Works in progress: 4 pages).
• Perspectives (new): Perspectives papers should communicate new ideas, reflections, or provocations within and beyond our current discourse on equity-based computing and computing education. They may also present a concise summary of a timely, relevant issue or an evergreen issue to computing equity. The Perspectives track combines prior perspectives tracks (in 2024 and 2023) that were more focused on a single issue. Prospective authors may be informed by the examples set by the accepted works in those tracks. Submissions in this track must be grounded in theoretical literature and sufficient references to support the perspective presented must be included. Acceptance will be based on the degree to which the reviewers find the perspective to be convincing, well-supported in the literature, timely, and coherent. (6 pages maximum)

Please review the specific track submission instructions below to find the best fit for your work and to ensure your submission meets track expectations.

Submissions will be made through EasyChair: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=respect2025
(Please note that abstracts are due on Jan 31, 2025 – one week before full papers.)

Camera Ready Submissions for accepted submissions will be managed by Sheridan Communications (details to come). At least one author per accepted paper must attend the conference in person to present their work. The ACM RESPECT 2025 Proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library. Please note:

• By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy. https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/research-involving-human-participants-and-subjects
• Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID, so you can complete the publishing process for your accepted paper. ACM has been involved in ORCID from the start and we have recently made a commitment to collect ORCID IDs from all of our published authors. The collection process has started and will roll out as a requirement throughout 2022. We are committed to improve author discoverability, ensure proper attribution and contribute to ongoing community efforts around name normalization; your ORCID ID will help in these efforts.

Research Papers

Research papers can be either completed works or works in progress (up to 8 pages for full papers or 4 pages of works in progress). Both types of submissions should describe empirical studies of broadening participation research and are expected to be original work. Broadening participation research is inherently interdisciplinary; as such, related literature and theory may be drawn from computer science education, education, learning sciences, cognitive or social psychology, social sciences, and other related disciplines.

Submission Structure

Your paper should include the following parts, in the order listed:

• Title
• Author(s) and Affiliation(s): Full names, institution, and email addresses
• Abstract: 75–100 words that briefly state the purpose/equity issue(s) being addressed, process, and key takeaways. It should provide a connection to the conference theme. 
• Keywords 
• Introduction
• Theoretical framework 
• Research Goals/Questions/Hypotheses (aligned to Theoretical Framework)
• Positionality statement 
• Research design/methods
  • For completed works, a full description of the research design and methodology, strengthened by relevant literature.
  • For works in progress, this section can be more concise, providing a brief description of the approach and highlighting the rationale.
• Data collection/analysis
• Results/Findings
• Discussion
  • For completed works: Conclusions, limitations, assumptions,  recommendations for future research,  implications for practice, and connections to the reciprocal influences of research and policy.
  • For works in progress: Assumptions, limitations, and future directions,  implications for practice, and connections to the reciprocal influences of research and policy.
• References 
• Acknowledgment
  • If the submission contains acknowledgments, they should be placed immediately after the conclusion but before the list of references. This should be anonymized until acceptance.

Review Process

• Research paper submissions will undergo an identity-hidden peer-review process. Please fully anonymize your submission(s).
• All submissions submitted to the Research Paper track will be evaluated based on authentic inclusion of the above criteria, rigor, and alignment with the conference’s commitment to equity and engagement of communities. Please note, that the above criteria should not be interpreted as a checklist.
• All submissions, regardless of the type, will be reviewed for the track they are submitted to and will not be moved between tracks.  Please ensure that you submit to the correct track.
• Example of Theoretical Framework and Positionality Statement:
  • Rankin, Y. A., Thomas, J. O., & Erete, S. (2021). Real talk: Saturated sites of violence in CS education. ACM Inroads, 12(2), 30-37.

Page Length Requirements

Submissions of completed work for the Research Paper track must not exceed eight pages in length, excluding references. Submissions of Work in Progress for this track must not exceed four pages in length, excluding references. Accepted works in progress will be presented as a poster.

Experience Reports

Experience reports are completed works or works in progress (up to 8 pages for full papers or 4 pages of works in progress) that describe an educational or outreach approach, curricula, program, or initiative that focused on and impacted at least one underrepresented population in computing. Experience reports differ from research in that they usually lack a theoretical framework, research design methodology, and/or analysis to support the evaluation of the impact of the experiences reported.  All submissions in this track should provide a rich reflection on what worked, what didn’t, and possible explanations as to why in enough detail to allow others to adopt the approach/curricula/program/initiative.

Submission Structure

• Title
• Author(s) and Affiliation(s): Full names, institution, and email addresses
• Abstract: 75–100 words that briefly state the purpose/equity issue(s) being addressed, process, and key takeaways. It should provide a connection to the conference theme. 
• Keywords 
• Introduction
• Description of Practice: Including context, audience, goals, and outcomes
• Positionality statement 
• Limitations and assumptions
• Implications and next steps
  • For completed works: Implications, next steps, recommendations for research, practice, and policy.
  • For works in progress: Future directions, professional development needs, and implications for policy. 
• References 
• Acknowledgment
  • If the submission contains acknowledgments, they should be placed immediately after the conclusion but before the list of references. This should be anonymized until acceptance.

Review Process

• Experience report submissions will undergo an identity-hidden peer-review process. Please fully anonymize your submission(s).
• All submissions submitted to the Experience Reports track will be evaluated based on authentic inclusion of the above criteria, rigor, and alignment with the conference’s commitment to equity and engagement of communities. Please note, that the above criteria should not be interpreted as a checklist.
• All submissions, regardless of the type, will be reviewed for the track they are submitted to and will not be moved between tracks.  Please ensure that you submit to the correct track.

Page Length Requirements

Submissions for the Experience Reports track must not exceed eight pages in length, excluding references. Submissions of Work in Progress for this track must not exceed four pages in length, excluding references. Accepted works in progress will be presented as a poster.

Perspectives

Perspectives papers (up to 6 pages) should communicate new ideas, reflections, or provocations within and beyond our current discourse on equity-based computing and computing education. Perspectives papers differ from research papers and experience reports in that they are not expected to report results. However, they must be grounded in theoretical literature and sufficient references to support the perspective presented must be included.  These works can focus on any of the following: 1) provide constructive, critical takes on equity in computing education research and practice; 2) provide policy recommendations based on evidence and/or discussions regarding how federal, state, and local policies influence computing equity; 3) critically analyze and provide takes on issues in computing related to equity and access for people with disabilities or accessible education. Acceptance will be based on the degree to which the reviewers find the perspective to be convincing, well-supported in the literature, timely, and coherent.

Submission Structure

• Title
• Author(s) and Affiliation(s): Full names, institution, and email addresses
• Abstract: 75–100 words that briefly state the purpose or equity/policy/accessibility issue(s) being addressed, process, and key takeaways. It should provide a connection to the conference theme. 
• Keywords
• Introduction
• Body:
  • For equity-focused papers:  Lessons learned, critical opinions, implications for theory, reflections, etc.
  • For policy-focused papers:  Description of the policy landscape related to computing equity, including the implications of policy on computing equity and/or approaches to inform policy through computing equity work and recommendations for policy-related work. 
  • For accessibility-focused papers: Critical opinions, impact on accessibility, and identified groups, if any, implications for policy or theory on accessibility in computing, reflections, etc.
• Positionality statement 
• Implications for the ACM RESPECT community
• References 
• Acknowledgment
  • If the submission contains acknowledgments, they should be placed immediately after the conclusion but before the list of references. This should be anonymized until acceptance.

Review Process

• Perspectives papers will undergo an identity-hidden peer-review process. Please fully anonymize your submission(s).
• All submissions to the Perspectives track will be evaluated based on their authentic inclusion of the above criteria, rigor, and alignment with the conference’s commitment to equity and community engagement. Please note that the above criteria should not be interpreted as a checklist.
• All submissions, regardless of the type, will be reviewed for the track they are submitted to and will not be moved between tracks.  Please ensure that you submit to the correct track.

Page Length Requirements

Submissions for the Perspectives track must not exceed six pages in length, excluding references.

Accessible Submissions

New for this year, all papers are required to be accessible PDFs. This requirement applies to both anonymized submissions for peer review and final submissions. Papers that are not accessible may be desk rejected. Note that making PDFs accessible will take considerable time (i.e., adding alt text to images, tagging content, etc.). We advise that you plan to leave ample time before the submission deadline to do this.

• Please view the Accessible PDF Author Guide from SIGACCESS to learn how to add basic accessibility to your papers.
• If you are making an accessible PDF from a Word document, SIGACCESS provides a guide for Making an Accessible ACM Submission Using Microsoft Word.

General Writing Tips

• Length should be commensurate with the completeness and/or thoroughness of the work. For example, complete works may be eight pages and works in progress may be shorter. 
• Figures, tables, and formulations are welcomed as long as they fit within the four page limit.
• Please use equitable language when describing participants, communities, and target populations.
• All submissions are expected to focus on the experiences of at least one underrepresented, historically marginalized group in computing (e.g., women, African-American, Latinx, Native Americans, LGBTQIA+, persons with disabilities, community college, rural, socio-economically disadvantaged, first-generation college students). 
• Refer to the resources within each track on theoretical frameworks, positionality statements, limitations, and assumptions. 
• Additional resources:
  • Cameron, J. J., & Stinson, D. A. (2019). Gender (mis)measurement: Guidelines for respecting gender diversity in psychological research. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13(11).
  • Edraw (n.d.). The Actionable Guide: How to Build a Theoretical Framework.
  • Hampton, C., Reeping, D., & Ozkan, D. S. (2021). Positionality statements in engineering education research: A look at the hand that guides the methodological tools. Studies in Engineering Education, 1(2).
  • Haynes, C., Joseph, N. M., Patton, L. D., Stewart, S., & Allen, E. L. (2020). Toward an Understanding of Intersectionality Methodology: A 30-Year Literature Synthesis of Black Women’s Experiences in Higher Education. Review of Educational Research, 90(6), 751–787.
  • Secules, S., McCall, C., Mejia, J. A., Beebe, C., Masters, A. S., L. Sánchez, Peña, M., & Svyantek, M. (2021). Positionality practices and dimensions of impact on equity research: A collaborative inquiry and call to the community. Journal of Engineering Education, 110(1), 19-43.
  • Strunk, K. K., & Hoover, P. D. (2019). Quantitative methods for social justice and equity: Theoretical and practical considerations. In Research Methods for Social Justice and Equity in Education (pp. 191-201). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Formatting

Submissions must be formatted using the ACM two-column format and uploaded to EasyChair as a PDF file. You are required to use one of the templates below in order to format your RESPECT submission for inclusion in the proceedings, which is submitted for publication in the ACM Digital Library.

MS Word Authors: Please use the interim Word template provided by ACM.

LaTeX Authors:

• Overleaf provides a suitable two-column sig conference proceedings template.
• Other LaTeX users may alternatively use the ACM Primary template, adding the “sigconf” format option in the documentclassto obtain the 2-column format. (ACM has recently changed the ACM template and we have not yet had a chance to verify that the new version works correctly.)