SIGIR 2008: Data Points from Organizers

July 21st, 2008

The organizers of SIGIR 2008 shared numbers at the start of the conference. Highlights follow.

Healthy registration numbers, similar to those seen in 2007.

Event 2008 2007
Conference 574 599
Tutorial 464 363
Workshops 292 287


Slightly lesser overall numbers understandable, given that Singapore is 10-20 hrs away from most of Europe and Americas. Tutorial numbers high, thanks to a “package” registration initiated this year — an idea that could be adopted by other conferences as well. A quarter of the attendees are from the US. 19 are from India, not bad, but not high enough either.

In total, 85 full papers were accepted for an overall acceptance rate of 17%. The conference also features 99 posters (acceptance rate 50%), and 11 demonstrations (acceptance rate 58%).

The Program Committee shared some interesting numbers on acceptance rate by geography.

Geo Submitted Accepted
North America 159 41
EU 104 15
Pacific Rim (except US) 186 24
India 31 1


North America has a very high hit-rate. Acceptance rate for submissions from India needs much improvement, but its good to see 31 papers submitted, a good sign.

Lastly, the organization committee shared that they convinced the Singapore Government to host the National food festival
during SIGIR. Imagine something similar in other parts of the world!

Leave a Reply