AfriCHI conference is debuting a special track to facilitate the fast publication of papers that are at an advanced stage. These papers have gone through a previous peer review process in adjacent venues (conferences and journals, including previous AfriCHIs). The AfriCHI’25 Leap Papers Track invites original, unpublished Full & Short Papers that advance Human-Computer Interaction(HCI) grounded in African contexts or perspectives. Authors should consider how their topic is relevant to African people, places, events, processes,phenomena, languages, experiences, meanings, values, livelihoods, or aesthetics in Africa and should align with this year’s theme, “Re-centering African Wisdom in HCI”.
This year,AfriCHI has adopted a Revise and Resubmit model, therefore, the Leap track aligns to this process and ensures publication quality while capitalizing on the community resources. Your submission to the leap track should include (your original paper, your previous reviews, a rebuttal, and a cover letter stating where this paper was previously submitted and when in a zip file) and the edited new paper that you wish to publish. The rebuttal should include a discussion of how you addressed the previous reviewers' points in your edited paper and the points you did not edit but have a response to. You should also include your views of the previous reviews. This is preferred to be in a table format. All papers published through this track will have an oral presentation slot at the conference (on-site).
To foster a rich and inclusive scholarly community, it is encouraged to review African scholarship and local knowledge and consider citational justice best practices. Highlighting African scholarship will help build upon the rich body of HCI research originating from Africa and integrate African perspectives and knowledge systems. Upon acceptance authors could consider presenting their work as being inspired by African narrative structures, such as storytelling.
The Leap Track submissions may include both Full Papers& Short Papers, so long as they have been previously reviewed in other HCI-related conferences or journals. When it comes to the Word count and other considerations:
● Full Papers should be 12000 words max(excluding references), with a title and a 250-word abstract included.
● Short Papers should be 6000 words max (excluding references), with a title and a 250-wordabstract.
Papers exceeding this length will undergo additional scrutiny and may be desk-rejected if the length does not match the contribution. Papers should be stand-alone and include all the necessary tables, figures, and other relevant information.
Submissions must be anonymized, with no reference to the authors' names or institutions in the manuscript or document properties. However, citing your work in the third person is an acceptable practice.
All submissions must use the official conference template and follow the conference's author guidelines. While we value the diversity and richness of African languages, we will have to adhere to the ACM publication language, which is English.
Please submit your paper through the submission system
All submitted papers will undergo an additional round (after the existing submitted reviews),a double-blind peer review process.
Review criteria
● Value and relevance to HCI within African contexts or perspectives
● Quality of presentation
● Coherence and integrity of scholarly argument
● Originality and importanceof the contribution
● human-centered technology, not purely technical papers
Content in a Leap Paper should be significant and original and not contain material that has been previously published unless it has been “significantly” revised. According to the ACM Policies on Pre-Publication Evaluation and Prior Publication and Simultaneous Submissions guidelines, a significant revision contains more than 25% new content (e.g.,new insights or results) and markedly amplifies or clarifies the original material. Papers are also assessed on their coverage of the literature. We strongly encourage contributions that cite African works, within and beyond HCI/Interaction Design, along with citing the background or related literature typically associated with the topic.
Upon acceptance,a camera-ready submission must be uploaded to the conference submission system following the ACM camera-ready standards. At least one author of each accepted paper must register and present at the conference. The accepted papers will be published in the ACM Digital Library during the conference proceedings.
Timeline:
● Submission(Paper and Zip folder) June 15, 2025
● Notification of acceptance/rejection July 15, 2025
● Camera ready July 22, 2025
Leap Paper Chairs
● Hafeni Mthoko - IIE Varsity College, South Africa
● David A. Shamma -
contact: technical-chairs@africhi2025.org
