Call for Papers:
Workshop on Demographic Research with Web and Social Media Data
Munich, Germany, 11 June, 2019
Deadline for submissions: 22 March 2019
The workshop will take place at the International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM-2019) in Munich, Germany, 11-14 June 2019.
Complete information is available in the attached PDF file and on the MPIDR website.
The spread of the internet and online communities provide unprecedented opportunities for studying global population dynamics such as fertility, mortality, migration, and health. Internet users do not only leave ‘digital traces’ of their existence, the online world also influences their behaviour, from daily decisions (like commuting patterns and kin interactions) to major life events (like childbirth and migration). There are clear benefits inherent in connecting demography and data science. Demographers can help identify and answer research questions relevant to the social sciences using well-established analytical and theoretical frameworks. Data scientists possess invaluable technical and computational understanding of digital phenomena needed for this task. As social media services become a major source of social scientific data, the interaction with data science holds great potential to advance demographic research. Despite the great potential of these interactions, the communication between population researchers and data scientists has been very limited so far. This workshop is intended to favor communication and future collaboration between the two communities.
Examples of topics include:
- Nowcasting demographic processes (migration, fertility, mortality, etc.)
- Online experiments, surveys and simulations for demographic research
- Inferring age, gender and interests from text and images: recent developments
- Limitations of social media and internet data and how to overcome them
- Monitoring population health using social media data
- Inference from biased or non-representative samples
- Implications of the digital revolution on demographic behavior
- Demographic change, human mobility and disease dynamics
- Combining traditional sources with Web data
- Other…
This event is organized by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, in partnership with the IUSSP Panel on Digital Demography.
Attending the workshop:
Participants who would like to present must send an extended abstract (2-4 pages) or a full paper to icwsm2019@demogr.mpg.de by March 22, 2019 with the subject “Paper Submission”. The submissions will be evaluated by the Organizing Committee on the basis of quality and fit to the workshop theme. Accepted abstracts and papers will be presented as short presentations. All submissions and presentations must be in English.
Participants who are interested in attending but not in presenting a research paper should submit a paragraph by May 1, 2019 explaining why they are interested in participating, what they would gain from participation, and how they can contribute to the workshop. Participants who have submitted these paragraphs will be given priority to attend over walk-in attendees in case the workshop is full. These paragraphs should be submitted by email to icwsm2019@demogr.mpg.de with the subject “Attendance Only” and they will not undergo formal evaluation.
There will be no formal Proceedings for the abstracts and papers submitted. However, authors of high quality submissions will be invited to submit their paper to a special issue on Social Media and Demographic Research of the open access, peer-reviewed journal Demographic Research – one of the top journals in the field. The issue would include a selection of papers presented at workshops organized in collaboration with the IUSSP Panel on Digital Demography.
Please note that participants are expected to make their own travel and hotel reservations and to cover these costs.
Important Dates:
- March 22, 2019 – Deadline for abstract/paper submissions for presentations (in English). Submissions via email: icwsm2019@demogr.mpg.de (subject: “Paper Submission”).
- April 2, 2019 – Notification of acceptance of submissions for presentations.
- May 1, 2019 – Deadline for informal paragraphs outlining interest to attend. Submissions via email: icwsm2019@demogr.mpg.de (subject: “Attendance Only”).
- June 11, 2019 – Workshop to be held in Munich, Germany. Priority to attend will be given to presenters and participants who had sent in a paragraph by email before.