For ACI2024, the conference's eleventh edition, we invite a wide range of contributions that have the potential to promote a constructive dialogue around how animals interact with technology and the design of interactive tools for animals. We welcome submissions from multidisciplinary areas, including computer science, veterinary science, design, and ecology. Our aim is to foster the development of Animal Computer Interaction (ACI) as a discipline. We encourage submission from those who work in the space between animals and technology.

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Submissions will be peer-reviewed. Accepted submissions will be included in the ACI2024 Conference Proceedings and archived in the ACM, including accepted full and short papers, workshop extended abstracts and doctoral consortium submissions.

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Submissions might address topics such as: the role of technology in shaping human-animal relationships; studies and/or analysis of large-scale technology for animal deployments; considerations on the wider context of technology for animal use; methods and reflections on studying the next generation of technology for animals; or how to conduct ACI research in a world where commercial design and deployment of technology for animals outpaces academic thought. High-quality submissions on any related topic related to ACI are welcome.

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Submission Tracks 
Contributions can be submitted to any of the following tracks: 

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Research papers: Submission Deadline May 31st, 2024
Workshop proposals: Submission Deadline June 7th, 2024
Emerging work: Submission Deadline August 2nd, 2024
Doctoral consortium: Submission Deadline August 9th, 2024

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Contribution Areas

Relevant contribution angles might include: 

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• Design: for example, interaction modalities that may need to be developed in order to make technology accessible to other animals; novel designs for users with different sensory apparatuses, cognitive capabilities, and ergonomic characteristics; multisensory interfaces and alternative interactional paradigms appropriate for ACI; design solutions developed within ACI applications that could inform design within other disciplines 

• Methodology: for example, methodological frameworks enabling animals to actively participate in the design process as legitimate stakeholders, contributors and users; multidisciplinary methodologies that can be called upon when designing with animals or investigating how technology affects them and their interactions with humans; methodologies that can be derived from other disciplines; more-than-human approaches developed within ACI that could contribute to other disciplines 

• Theory: for example, main challenges that ACI researchers may encounter in conceptualizing the interaction between humans, animals and technology; ways of interpreting the outcomes of applied studies, concrete designs and research practices to articulate such interactions; existing theoretical frameworks from other disciplines, that ACI theories can draw from or contribute to 

• Ethics: for example, legitimate technological applications for ACI; implications of ACI’s animal-centered perspective for conducting research that involves animal participants; ethical frameworks that may or may not be suitable to support the development of ACI; relation between ethics and methodology in ACI; potential influence of ACI ethics on research and practice in other disciplines  

• Applications: for example, ACI applications relating to animal studies or husbandry, or practices involving animals in a range of contexts; applications that mediate the interaction between humans and other animals, or interactions among other animals; animal technologies that do or do not constitute good examples of or models for ACI.

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Assessment Criteria 

All submissions will be assessed based on the following criteria: 

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• Contribution to the field. Submissions should make novel and significant contributions to the field of ACI proportionate to the submission category (e.g. full papers should make a more substantial contribution compared to late-breaking work). 

• Quality of the submission. Submission should be of high quality, both with regards to their content (e.g., the work presented should be well motivated concerning existing issues and related work; approaches and methodologies should be appropriately chosen and rigorously implemented; the significance of research findings should be properly discussed; arguments should be carefully constructed and claims adequately supported) and with regards to its presentation (e.g., the structure should be appropriate to the type of contribution; the work should be described clearly; the use of language should be correct; terminology should be accessible to non-specialists or any specialist terminology should be explained). 

• Transparency of the approach. The submission should clearly discuss design, methodological, and ethical considerations. In particular, each submission should explain how animals have been involved or represented, how their role and perspective have been accounted for in the work, and, if applicable, what ethical perspectives or frameworks have been applied. 

• No harm principle.   Research that intentionally or knowingly harms animals ('harm by design') will not be considered for presentation or publication at this conference. However, research that aims to minimise or eliminate harm to which animals are already subjected will be considered.