This is a call for submissions for the PhD consortium that will be part of the program of the Nineteenth Open Conference of the IFIP WG 8.3 on Decision Support Systems (IFIP DSS 2018) to be held during 13–15 June 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The theme of this year conference is “DSS Research Delivering High Impacts to Business and Society”, more info available at http://ifip2018dss.ijs.si/

Overview
The doctoral consortium has been designed to bring together PhD candidates and experienced academics in order to facilitate focused and in-depth discussions around candidates’ research. The consortium is especially designed for students who are engaged in developing their dissertation research. Students who will have completed their dissertations by September 2018 or are close to completion will not be accepted.

Proposal
A submission outlining the candidate’s research should be in the form of an abbreviated dissertation proposal. The proposal should provide the research question or topic, a justification for the importance of the research, a presentation of the theoretical basis and context for the research, a description of research approach and method, preliminary findings and expected contributions to knowledge. The proposal should also include a progress report as an appendix, indicating the estimated completion date and the work that remains to be done as of the date of submission. The proposal may not exceed 3,000 words and while preparing, we recommend PhD students to reflect upon the following questions:

  • What makes the research I do especially appealing for me?
    • For the discipline?
    • For practice?
  • How can I justify that my research results will
    • match the goals of the dissertation?
    • contribute to advancing the field?

Important dates

  • April 20, 2018 – Deadline for submissions of proposals by PhD candidates
  • May 11, 2018 – Notification of acceptance
  • June 1, 2018 – Updated proposals/ research papers expected for distribution before the consortium
  • June 12, 2018 – PhD Consortium

Submission
Submissions to the consortium have to include:

  • Cover page
    • Information about the candidate, including name, university affiliation, name of dissertation supervisor, web site address, and contact information: email address, mailing address, and phone numbers
    • Title of the proposal
  • Research proposal (2000 – 3000 words): including motivation, research question, research design/ methodology, current status of research and completion plan. Please use Times New Roman or equivalent font at 12-point font size and 1.5 line spacing
  • Statement by the supervisor or PhD program director confirming the status of the candidate and a recommendation for participation in the consortium

All of the above should be submitted via conference email (ifip2018dss@ijs.si) as well as to Tadhg Nagle (t.nagle@ucc.ie) and Ljupčo Todorovski (ljupco.todorovski@fu.uni-lj.si).

Program and Venue

PhD Consortium will take place on June 12, 2018 afternoon, at the Jožef Stefan Institute.