We are inviting research papers from academia, research scholars, civil society organisations and government representatives to submit their research papers, experience papers and poster papers in any of the four broad theme areas of the summit – access, freedom of expression, privacy, and digital literacy and empowerment. We encourage papers with intersectional topics and new concepts covering any aspects of the broad themes.

  • Research papers: papers that document complete or ongoing research in one or more aspects of freedom of expression, privacy, access, and digital literacy and empowerment with proven or potential capability to advance the state of research in the field. Complete research papers are limited to 10 pages while ongoing research papers are limited to 4 pages.
  • Experience papers: papers that describe completed or ongoing innovations in privacy, access or digital literacy and empowerment policy or practice with proven or potential capability to advance the state of practice in the field, including critical success factors, challenges encountered and potential solutions. Complete experience papers are limited to 10 pages while ongoing experience papers to 4 pages.
  • Poster papers: papers that present new ideas and initiatives with potential to contribute to any of the broad themes’ research and practice, limited to 2 pages.

Submission Guidelines:

Research papers, both analytical and theoretical, position papers, or case studies will be considered. The length of submissions should be between 2500-5000 words. All submissions should be in English and citations in APA 6 style. Footnotes should be used instead of endnotes and submissions should be in Microsoft Word or OpenDocument Text Format.

Relevant papers that have been published previously (as far back as one year ago) will be considered.

Abstract submissions are due on 30th of June 2017 and must contain the following information:

  • Title
  • 250 word abstract

Authors with successful applications will be notified in mid-July with further instructions.

Submissions should be sent to: dcsregistrations@defindia.org and zothan.mawii@defindia.org

Evaluation criteria:

Relevance

Specific issues addressed in the paper should clearly correlate with the selected theme and the overarching theme of the Digital Citizen Summit 2017. Papers should address current issues of the time.

Uniqueness

Papers will be judged on their uniqueness – conceptually and with regard to issues discussed. The paper should have a unique angle and tackle the issues under question in a fresh and innovative manner.

Completeness

Submissions will be evaluated on the basis of the quality of the abstract submitted. Therefore abstracts should be concise and complete, clearly enunciating all important points covered in the paper.

Selected authors will be invited to present their papers at the Digital Citizens Summit to be held in Delhi on the 21st and 22nd of September 2017.

Please note that travel and accommodation will not be provided.