Welcome to the ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS 2023)

August 16-19, 2023, Cape Town, South Africa

Inspired by the broad agenda of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, COMPASS is an international forum for the presentation and publication of original research that supports the growth of sustainable societies worldwide, from disciplines including computer and information sciences, social sciences, environmental sciences, and engineering.

The COMPASS community has a particular commitment to approaches and research that address the challenges faced by underrepresented and marginalized communities, and explicitly promotes multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary research and practice that address key challenges for sustainable societies including, but not limited to, equity, health, education, poverty, accessibility, conservation, climate change, energy, infrastructure and economic growth. We also welcome research on the ethics of technology, especially from a critical perspective, that explores limitations and concerns with technology-led solutions for sustainable societies.

Call for Full Papers

New this year! The COMPASS’23 full papers process will be handled by the new ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies (JCSS). Papers must be submitted to JCSS following the JCSS author guidelines. JCSS submission tracks  include:

  • Systems and IoT for Sustainable Societies
  • HCI, Design and Critical Perspectives
  • AI, ML and Data Science for Sustainable Societies
  • Development, Economics and Policy
  • Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change
  • Technology, Media, and Social Practice

Papers can be submitted to JCSS at any time, on a rolling basis. Reviews and decisions (accept/minor revision; revise and resubmit; or reject) will be sent to authors roughly 8 weeks after the initial submission. Papers that receive an initial decision of “revise and resubmit” must resubmit their revised paper no earlier than one month and no later than six months after receiving the initial reviews. Final decisions will be sent to authors roughly 4 weeks after they submit the revised version.

All papers that are accepted by JCSS between October 1, 2022 and June 15, 2023 will be invited to present at the COMPASS’23 conference in Cape Town. (Papers accepted after June 15, 2023 will be invited to present at COMPASS 2024.) Authors will be expected to confirm their attendance/presentation at COMPASS’23 by July 1, 2023. Authors can present their work either in-person or virtually; the conference will support both virtual and in-person attendance. 

Submission Deadlines

Because papers can be submitted to JCSS at any time and on a rolling basis, there is no official paper submission deadline. However, we strongly encourage authors who want to present their paper at COMPASS’23 in Cape Town to submit the paper to JCSS before February 15, 2023, expecting that most papers will require time for a “revise and resubmit” cycle prior to being accepted. We anticipate that only a small number of papers (e.g., 10-15%) will receive a decision of “accept/minor revision” in the first round of review. 

Put another way, February 15, 2023 is the latest date by which authors can submit a paper to JCSS, receive a first round decision of “revise and resubmit” (April 15), prepare and submit their revised paper (May 15), which is then accepted (June 15) for presentation at COMPASS’23.

For very strong papers, April 15, 2023 is the latest date by which authors can submit a paper to JCSS and receive a first-round decision of “accept/minor revision” (June 15) for presentation at COMPASS’23.    

Below is one example of a possible full paper submission timeline: 

  • Feb 1, 2023: initial paper submission to JCSS
  • April 1, 2023: authors receive reviews; invited to revise and resubmit 
  • May 15, 2023: authors submit revised paper
  • June 15, 2023: paper accepted, authors invited to present at COMPASS’23
  • July 1, 2023: authors confirm attendance/presentation at COMPASS’23 (in person or virtual)

Other Calls for Participation

COMPASS’23 offers authors many opportunities to publish and present work, interact, discuss, and learn. Details and calls for participation are now available under the ‘Calls’ section, including:

Visit COMPASS 2022 Site
Visit COMPASS 2021 Site