Communication Science Futures is a conference that brings together scholars from across the communication discipline to address pressing issues and emerging trends shaping the future of social scientific research into human communication and social behavior. Following a successful inaugural meeting in 2024, Communication Science Futures will return to Michigan State University in 2026. This year's conference features a keynote address from James W. Pennebaker, along with panel presentations, hands-on demo and discussion sessions, and poster sessions.

About the Conference

Traditional conferences and workshops are invaluable venues for sharing research, networking, and accomplishing related goals, but they often lack the unstructured time and space needed to address pressing research challenges. In recent years, progress in a number of fields has benefited from the creation of non-traditional conferences such as "un"-conferences, hackathons, and summer schools. These formats, rather than emphasizing one-way transfer of information from presenters to participants, center interactive collaboration, conversation, and problem-solving.

The primary objectives of Communication Science Futures are: (a) to provide a venue for conversation concerning pressing challenges and opportunities facing the field of communication; (b) to create opportunities for communication scholars to share knowledge regarding skills, best-practices, and resources for conducting rigorous social scientific research into human communication processes and effects; and (c) to facilitate the development of collaborative relationships among researchers whose work examines similar topics but who may be located in different academic fields (or sub-fields).

Communication Science Futures is organized around a series of panel presentations, interactive breakout sessions, and poster sessions. Panels and presentations are aligned with one of three themes:

Futures in Research

Forces, trends, and topics shaping the future of communication research. Topics in this theme could include, but are not limited to:

• Misinformation & Trust: Understanding how misinformation spreads across platforms, how individuals assess the credibility of information sources, and the role of trust in shaping communication processes and effects.
• Human-AI Interaction: Investigating how people communicate with and about AI systems — from chatbots and voice assistants to generative AI — and the implications for interpersonal, mediated, and mass communication.
• Communication & Well-Being: Examining the role of communication in mental health, social connectedness, and well-being across face-to-face, mediated, and online contexts.

Futures in Theory

Issues and advancements in communication theory building and testing. Topics in this theme could include, but are not limited to:

• Complexity & Dynamics: Developing and refining theories that account for the emergent, dynamic, and multi-level nature of communication processes and effects.
• Theory Accumulation & Synthesis: Strategies for building cumulative knowledge within and across theories — integrating, pruning, and reconciling overlapping or competing theoretical accounts.
• Formalizing Theories: Approaches for computationally or algorithmically formalizing communication theories, including agent-based models, network simulations, and other formal modeling techniques.

Futures in Methods

New methods for collecting, analyzing, and reporting communication data. Topics in this theme could include, but are not limited to:

• AI-Assisted Research: Leveraging large language models and other AI tools for stimulus creation, experimental design, pilot testing, data coding, and other research tasks.
• Computational Techniques: Advancements and best practices in text and image analysis, digital trace data, and other computational methods for studying communication at scale.
• Multimodal & Physiological Data: Collecting and analyzing biophysiological, facial expression, eye-tracking, and other multimodal data streams in communication research.

In addition to panel presentations, Communication Science Futures will feature interactive demo and discussion sessions — hands-on workshops, tool demonstrations, and structured discussions submitted by attendees — as well as poster sessions for students and early career scholars.