Call for Proposals
The organizing team for Communication Science Futures invites submissions for the 2026 meeting, to be held September 18th-20th, 2026 at the MSU Union on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. This year's conference will feature a keynote address by James W. Pennebaker, panel presentations, interactive breakout sessions, and poster sessions for students and early career researchers.
Two categories of submissions will be considered: research abstracts and demo & discussion proposals.
Research Abstracts
We invite abstracts describing original research relevant to the interdisciplinary, social scientific study of human communication and social behavior. Submissions should be aligned with one or more of the following conference themes:
- Futures in Research — Forces, trends, or topics shaping the future of communication research.
- Futures in Theory — Issues and advancements in theory building and testing.
- Futures in Methods — New methods for collecting, analyzing, and reporting communication data.
Submissions that speak across multiple sub-areas of communication research (e.g., interpersonal, organizational, technological, mediated, and/or mass communication) are especially encouraged.
Research abstracts should include a concise summary of the research question(s), theoretical or conceptual framework, methods (planned or completed), and (if available) preliminary findings or expected contributions.
Format: Research abstracts should be no more than 500 words in length (excluding references) and should include a title, names and affiliations of all contributors, and a list of 3-5 keywords.
Presentation format: A select number of submissions (5-8 per theme) will be chosen for stage presentations during the Saturday and Sunday panel sessions. Presenters selected for stage presentations should plan on a 10-12 minute presentation with slides. All remaining accepted submissions will be invited to present during one of two poster sessions. Poster presenters should prepare a 48" x 36" poster.
Demo & Discussion Proposals
We also invite proposals for interactive demo and discussion sessions to be featured during the conference breakout blocks. These sessions are intended for researchers who want to share a specific tool, dataset, technique, or methodological challenge with other attendees in a hands-on, collaborative format.
Demos and discussions might include:
- A walkthrough of a software tool, package, or platform (e.g., "Git and GitHub for Academic Researchers")
- An introduction to a publicly available dataset and its research applications
- A hands-on tutorial on a specific analytical technique
- A structured discussion around a shared methodological challenge or debate about best practices
Each accepted demo or discussion will be allocated a 45-minute breakout slot, with multiple breakouts happening concurrently. Proposals should describe the topic, its relevance to the conference themes, and what participants can expect from the session (e.g., a live demonstration, a guided exercise, a facilitated discussion). As with research abstracts, proposals should be aligned with one or more of the conference themes listed above.
Format: Demo & discussion proposals should be no more than 250 words in length and should include a title, names and affiliations of all contributors, and a list of 3-5 keywords.
Submitters are welcome (and encouraged) to submit to both tracks. Some overlap between research abstract and demo/discussion submissions is expected, but each submission should be unique and not a simply a duplicate of another submission.
Submission Guidelines
- Deadline: Friday, May 1, 2026 at 11:59 PM (Anywhere on Earth)
- Notification: Decisions will be communicated by May 15, 2026.
- Limit: Each submitter may be first author on up to three submissions across both tracks.
- Review: All submissions will be reviewed by the organizing committee.
Submissions are open to scholars at all career stages and from all disciplinary backgrounds.