Submission Guidelines for Authors
ICMI welcomes high-quality submissions on theoretical and empirical foundations, component technologies, and combined multimodal processing techniques that define the field of multimodal interaction analysis, interface design, and system development.
All submissions are expected for reviewing in PDF. The submission format is the double column ACM conference format. The length depends of the different submission categories:
- Long paper: maximum length is 8 pages
- Short paper: maximum length is 4 pages
- Blue Sky paper: maximum length is 4 pages
Note: References do not count towards the page limit. Papers can have additional pages beyond their page limits that are used exclusively for references. Up to two supporting files also be submitted. Supporting file can be a PDF for the appendix. Videos or source code can also be submitted, in a ZIP file. Supplementary material is optional during the review process. In other words, review assessments will be primarily done based on the content of the main paper, not the supplementary material.
ACMs New Open Access Publishing Model
Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 1,800 institutions already part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 70-75%).
Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open will need to pay an APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a financial or discretionary waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions in ACM Open and review the APC Waivers and Discounts Policy. Keep in mind that waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria set by ACM.
Understanding that this change could present financial challenges, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy for 2026 to ease the transition and allow more time for institutions to join ACM Open. The subsidy will offer:
• $250 APC for ACM/SIG members
• $350 for non-members
This represents a 65% discount, funded directly by ACM. Authors are encouraged to help advocate for their institutions to join ACM Open during this transition period.
This temporary subsidized pricing will apply to all conferences scheduled for 2026, including ICMI.
Prior Publications
Papers submitted at ICMI 2026 must not have been published previously. A paper is considered to have been published previously if it has appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, magazine, book, or meeting proceedings that is reliably and permanently available afterward in print or electronic form to non-attendees, regardless of the language of that publication. A paper substantially similar in content to one submitted to ICMI 2026 should not be simultaneously under consideration in any other venue including for another conference or workshop or journal.
ICMI 2026 does not consider a paper on arXiv.org and other open repositories as a dual submission, however, the papers deposited to paid-access repositories (such as ResearchGate, Academia) will not be accepted.
Anonymization and mandatory contents
The reviewing for all tracks will be double blind, so submissions must be anonymous: do not include the authors’ names, affiliations, or any clearly identifiable information in the paper (including in the Acknowledgements and references). It is appropriate to cite past work of the authors if these citations are treated like any other (e.g., “Smith [5] approached this problem by….”). The authors can omit references only if it would be obviously identifying them. Program chairs will desk-reject non-anonymous papers after reviewing begins.
After the paper submission deadline, author list and author order will be considered as final. After that date, authors cannot be switched, added or removed. Changes to the authorship will be permitted only in exceptional circumstances after validation by program and publication chairs. The final submission will require a valid ORCID id for all authors.
Authors are encouraged to fill at submission time ACM Categories & Subject Descriptors sections and Author Keywords at submission time. This information is mandatory on the first page of your final version to appear in the proceedings and ACM Digital Library. If your submission is accepted, you will be notified within the acceptance notification of the updated ICMI’26 ACM copyright-permission text to include in the camera ready version.
The use of generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT) is permitted, but all authors are responsible for the content created by these tools, and the use of the tools must be disclosed. Please see the updated ACM policy on authorship for detailed guidelines: https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/new-acm-policy-on-authorship
Preparing paper with Latex
Submitted papers should conform to the latest ACM LaTeX. For LaTeX templates and examples, download the acmart-primary.zip file. To prepare the 2-column submission, authors should use the sample-sigconf.tex template with \documentclass[sigconf,anonymous,review]{acmart} to add line numbers and anonymized the author information. Please note that a non-anonymous author block may require a larger space than the anonymized version.
If you are including any LaTeX packages in your article, they must be part of the list of accepted packages. The set of instructions also includes other important information, for example the use of \citestyle and the mandatory use of \Description{} commands for the figures.
Preparing paper with Word
Authors who decide to use the Word template should be aware that an extra validation step will be required during the camera-ready process for accepted papers (see Preparing Your Article with Microsoft Word). At camera-ready stage, use of free software like LibreOffice for instance will not be possible as finalizing the article will require usage of Word macros provided by ACM.
To prepare your submission using Word, you can use the 2-column ACM Word interim template.
Safe and Responsible Innovation Statement
As part of our commitment to ethical and responsible research and aligned with this year’s conference theme, i.e. Safe and Responsible Multimodal Interaction, all submissions to ICMI must include a Safe and Responsible Innovation Statement (around 100 words). This statement should briefly address potential societal impacts, ethical considerations, and responsible deployment of the work. Authors should consider aspects such as data privacy, bias mitigation, inclusivity, and potential risks or misuse of their contributions. The goal is to encourage reflection on the broader implications of multimodal interaction research and ensure responsible innovation. This statement must be included in the 8-page limit for submissions (excluding references). Submissions exceeding the page limit, including the statement, will not be considered.
Quick Links
- LaTeX template (Use sample-sigconf.tex for submissions using \documentclass[sigconf,anonymous,review]{acmart} in LaTeX preamble)
- Overleaf template (or search for ACM Conference Proceedings Primary Article Template). Use sample-sigconf.tex for submissions with \documentclass[sigconf,anonymous,review]{acmart} in LaTeX preamble.
- Microsoft Word interim template
Rebuttal Period
Authors will be able to see the reviews and post a short rebuttal addressing any major misinterpretation or error. The rebuttal period will be followed by a discussion period between the reviewers and Senior Program Committee members (not visible to authors). Authors will be notified of the final decision soon after.
Online Submission
Abstract submission is through the same system. Please create a submission without a pdf and submit. After the abstract submission deadline, you will not be able to create a new submission and you will be able to update the existing abstract submission. The paper title and author list should not change between the Abstract submission and Full paper submission.
Click here to submit your paper
Publication
Authors of accepted papers will be required to sign an ACM copyright release.
The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of your conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work. (For those rare conferences whose proceedings are published in the ACM Digital Library after the conference is over, the official publication date remains the first day of the conference.)