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The Multidisciplinary Information Research Symposium (MIRS) is an annual symposium that showcases the work of scholars and practitioners researching information and its impact on people. One of the primary goals of MIRS is to encourage and empower participants who are new to scholarly communication. Therefore, graduate and undergraduate students at all levels and early professionals are highly encouraged to submit their work. 

The 2025 MIRS Conference will take place on February 21, 2025. The tentative location for MIRS is the UNT Student Union. The conference will begin at 9:00am. Once reviews are complete, specific times and locations for specific sessions will be announced later in February.   

The College of Information’s 2025 Multi-disciplinary Information Research Symposium (MIRS) Conference Call for Proposals is now open. The papers are short. Submissions are due by Tuesday, February 4, 2025. Please email Daniella Smith (Daniella.Smith@unt.edu)  and  Ijay Kaz-Onyeakazi (ijay.kazonyeakazi@unt.edu) if you have questions.

Word limits for proposals
The word limits are as follows. You can do this! 
• 15 words or fewer for Paper Titles  
• 150 words (@1000 characters) for poster abstracts and presentations (without a paper).  
• If accepted, 750-1000 words (@4000-5000 characters) for Full Paper proposals considered for awards.  
Note that papers and abstracts that exceed the word limits and have excessive typos will not be accepted for the proceedings. Unfortunately, we can not accommodate longer submissions this year.

How do I submit? 
The templates are here. They are for preparing the information you need for your submission and include the submission formats. Once you have completed the information on the template, you can copy and paste it into the online system.  Please watch this video: https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cTV3nLnfD3m.  The submission link is https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=2025mirs.

How can participating help you? 
Presenting and publishing will help you develop your scholarly communication skills. Final versions of Full Papers must be submitted by March 15 for Conference Proceedings. Since these publications will be peer-reviewed, accepted full papers will count towards the IS PhD program publication requirements. Remember, IS PhD students need at least one peer-reviewed article and one peer-reviewed conference paper. Students in the LT program should consult with the program director. Plus, we have prizes for the best papers and posters!   
 
What can you publish or present? Here are some ideas.  
• It is fine to submit papers based on the papers developed for the core classes in the IS Ph.D. courses. However, papers that have already been published or submitted elsewhere must not be submitted. Works in progress papers and posters are welcome.  
• Papers with multiple authors are welcome.  
• You can convert a poster into a paper.
• Discuss a theory and how it relates to your intended research area.
• Publications from publicly available data are acceptable. 
• Observations and action research are acceptable. 
• Try completing a bibliometric study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321003155  or https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11846-024-00738-0 .
• Preliminary literature reviews, which summarize findings, are excellent. See this article that discusses systematic and scoping literature reviews: https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12874-018-0611-x .
Can you use previous publications? 
The answer is yes and no. Here is a tip. If you have previously published a paper, revise how you analyzed the data to create a new topic. A revision may be using a different theory, publishing using a different mode of analysis (i.e., natural language processing, utilizing data visualization options, or switching to qualitative, mixed-methods, or qualitative approaches). You can also look over different literature about your topic.   
 
When is the event? 
The tentative location for MIRS is the UNT Student Union. The conference will begin at 9:00 am. Once reviews are complete, specific times and locations for specific sessions will be announced later in February. 
  
Who is the keynote speaker? 
Dr. Sharad Sharma (UNT College of Information, Associate Dean of Research) will be the keynote speaker at the event. 

Who can present?
UNT College of Information students are welcome to present. In addition, anyone who is presenting with a UNT College of Information student can present. 
 
How do I print my poster?
This year, posters will be in electronic format. You don't need to print them. Poster presentations will be done using a tablet or laptop computer.