ACM SIGMIS Computers and People Research 2023

Preparing IT workforce for new organizational and societal challenges

Conference Location: California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, USA 
Dates: June 1-3, 2023

Important Dates for Academic Papers, Posters, and Doctoral Consortium

For close to 60 years, ACM SIGMIS Computers and People Research (CPR) conference has engaged the academic and practitioner communities in understanding issues pertaining to the intersection of information technology (IT) and people. From its roots in the studies of the IT workforce, CPR has broadened its focus to investigate all aspects of this important and complex relationship.

Many business organizations and the organizing of work have been vastly challenged, and consequently changed, by the COVID-19 global pandemic, the broad social unrest of the last few years, and the growing cybersecurity concerns. As information technologies have penetrated our work and life, businesses and organizations have become more dependent on the use of information technologies as well as on the skills, knowledge and abilities of professionals working in the IT field, especially during the times of global health crisis and war. It’s a critical time for us both from academia and industry to ponder and ask: How can we better prepare our IT workforce for new organizational and societal challenges?

SIGMIS CPR 2023 calls for attention and concerted research in three key areas, including: (1)-Re-Imagining IT Workforce Post the COVID-19 Global Pandemic; (2) Embracing and promoting the diversity , equity and inclusion (DEI) in the IS career ecosystem; and (3)-Safeguarding the security of IT systems in the times of global instability.

The three areas with sample questions are described below. At the same time, papers on traditional IT workforce topics pertaining to personnel, training, workforce, and leadership are also most welcome.

(1)-Re-Imagining IT Workforce Post the COVID-19 Global Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the social distancing norms and nationwide lockdowns, giving rise to new ways of work and life, such as the common practices of work-from-home (WFH) by the general workforce, including the IT workforce. This calls us to update our views about IT careers and workforce development. Important questions arise as follows:

  • What challenges and opportunities arise for IT career and professional development in the computing and information technology fields during and post the COVID-19 pandemic?
  • What knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) will businesses and organizations require of IT workforce to adapt to the changing work environments (i.e., work-from-home; crowdsourced work etc)?
  • How will businesses and organizations manage IT workforce in the changing work environments (i.e., work-from-home; crowdsourced work etc)?
  • What will the future of IT profession and IT work look like?

(2) Embracing and promoting the equity, diversity and inclusion (DEI) in the IS career ecosystem

The recent editorial “Are we doing enough? A threefold approach to continue our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion” authored by K.D. Joshi and published in the Data Base Journal has pointed out the significant yet underexplored issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in our IS academia. As a conference dedicating to the development and education of IS workforce, ACMSIG CPR 2023 calls for more attention and efforts by IS education and IS Career through embracing and promoting the equity, diversity and inclusion (DEI) in the IS education and career ecosystem. A better understanding of DEI associated challenges and action plans starts with the following questions:

  • How can educational institutions improve the IT career’s visibility among diverse student populations (i.e., students of different gender and ethnic minorities, first-generation college students, students from minority-serving institutions, etc)?
  • How can educational institutions attract and motivate more students from economically and ethnically diverse backgrounds to choose IT major and consider IT career?
  • How can we build and sustain an education pipeline from high school to undergraduate and graduate programs in IT and IS?
  • What are the challenges and opportunities in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the IS education and career ecosystem?

(3)-Safeguarding the security of IT systems in the times of global instability

Last but not least, in many parts of the world, organizations and managers increasingly experience a threat to the security and privacy of their technical systems and data resources. As a result, they have a higher expectation on IT professionals to help them prevent or solve problems of IT security such as data damage or loss, hacker protection, etc. As the threats to IT security have increasing rapidly, it’s important to understand if our IT workforce is well educated and equipped to take on the challenging work of protecting organizational IT systems. Questions included but not limited to the following:

  • What IT security and privacy issues are challenging business operations and organization work?
  • How are businesses and organizations managing and adapting their IT security in the times of global stability (i.e., increasing hacker from foreign countries)?
  • What are the essential, new skills, knowledge and abilities (SKA) required of IT security professionals in local, national and global work environments?
  • What are best practices of safeguarding IT security across businesses, organizations, and government agencies?

These and many more questions will need to be examined as we move towards a new normal way of work and life transformed by digital technologies in the times of global crises. What and how will IT workforce seek to adapt to in a changing world of social unrest will allow us to broaden and reimagine the role and meaning of IT profession in the challenging world full of unrest and unpredictability. 

Format of Submissions

ACM SIGMIS CPR 2023 welcomes both completed papers and research-in-progress papers. All papers must be original, unpublished elsewhere, and submitted following the ACM guidelines available at https://authors.acm.org/proceedings and https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template. All reviewing will be double-blind. 

  • Completed papers may include conceptual papers, empirical papers and industry case studies. They must not exceed 5,000 words including all text, figures, and tables. The abstract, keywords, and references are excluded from this page count.
  • Research-in-progress papers must not exceed 2,000 words including all text, figures, and tables. The abstract, keywords, and references are excluded from this page count.
  • Poster presentations must not exceed 500 words and should provide a comprehensive overview of the topic, research approach, findings to date (if any) and future project plans.

Submit your work using the system at the following link:

Proceedings and Presentations

Accepted papers will be published by ACM in the refereed conference proceedings. Authors of accepted papers may choose to publish complete papers or extended abstracts of their research in the conference proceedings. All completed research papers that are to be published in their entirety in the conference proceedings will be considered for the Magid Igbaria Outstanding Conference Paper of the Year Award. The Magid Igbaria Outstanding Conference Paper and other exemplar papers will be invited for publication in the DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems—the quarterly journal publication of ACM SIGMIS.

Each paper must be presented during the conference. Articles will not be published in the event proceedings if at least one author of a submitted work is not registered or is unable to present their article at the conference.

Proceedings of all previous CPR conferences are available in the ACM Digital Library at:

http://portal.acm.org/dl.cfm