Call for Participation

Where & When

ICAD 2022, the 27th International Conference on Auditory Display, will be held virtually, June 24–27, 2022.

The Student Think Tank (Student Research Consortium) will be on Friday, June 24, 2022,  before the main conference.

Why ICAD 2022?

ICAD is a highly interdisciplinary academic conference with relevance to researchers, practitioners, musicians, and students interested in the design of sounds to support tasks, improve performance, guide decisions, augment awareness, and enhance experiences. The conference is unique in its singular focus on auditory displays and the array of perception, technology, and application areas that this research area encompasses. Like its predecessors, ICAD 2022 will be a single-track conference, open to all, with no membership or affiliation requirements.

Submission Dates – extended deadlines

Papers: April 22, 2022 (Friday)
Workshops & Tutorials: April 22, 2022 (Friday)
Student Think Tank:  April 30, 2022 (Saturday)
Sonification Concert: April 22, 2022 (Friday)
Installations: April 22, 2022 (Friday)
Extended Abstracts: April 29, 2022 (Friday)

Submission Site

Easychair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icad2022

Theme: “Safe and Sound”

Sound is used in a wide variety of applications to alert listeners to the status of a person or environment. At ICAD 2022, we want to highlight sonification work that can be used to maintain awareness in some capacity (outside navigation, hospitals, air traffic control, etc). Papers are not limited to this theme, as we will value and embrace all types of submissions, including papers, posters, multimedia (videos/audios), demos, and concert pieces

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

Art & Design

  • Sonification-inspired music composition, integrative arts, and performing arts.
  • Culture-specific sonification
  • Speculative, aspirational, and prototype designs
  • Sonic information design paradigm, theory, and taxonomy
  • Design methodology, design examples, case studies, and real-world applications
  • Users, experiences, and contexts of using sonification
  • Philosophical perspectives on sonification, particularly as it impacts upon everyday life, but also in terms of more foundational ontological, aesthetic, and epistemological issues.

Science & Engineering

  • Methods, processes, and tools for sonification
  • Participatory approaches
  • Auditory user interfaces
  • Design of a new sensor, device, or platform for auditory displays & sonification
  • Psychology, cognition, perception and psychoacoustics
  • Computational/algorithmic approaches·
  • Accessibility, inclusive design, and assistive technologies
  • Human Factors, Ergonomics and Usability
  • Spatial/3D sound
  • Soundscapes and auditory scene analysis
  • Sonification in Health and Environmental Data (soniHED)
  • Sonification in the Internet of things, big data, & cybersecurity
  • Sonification in automated vehicles


Where to Submit

ICAD 2022 will be using the EasyChair system for managing some of the submission categories. Easychair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icad2022 

Form of Submission and Assessment Criteria

Submission Templates

For Paper, Poster and other written material

The safest way to obtain the correct format is to paste your text, etc. into a copy of the template. Please ensure that your submission is formatted correctly, with the headers and footers included in the template. For reference, please consult the PDF of the .doc template.
LaTeX Template
Word Template

Audio and other Media files

Submissions should contain a link to audio and other media files in Dropbox, iCloud Soundcloud, Vimeo or other online site, and provide a password if the link is not public.

Submission Accessibility

Making conference materials accessible promotes equal access for researchers in our field. We highly encourage researchers to provide accessible submissions and require that camera-ready papers be accessible.

Checking Your PDF is Accessible

If you can, use the Adobe Acrobat Pro Accessibility Checker (Full Check) to verify the accessibility of your PDF. See Adobe’s detailed instructions for more information.

If you don’t have access to Adobe Acrobat Pro, there are some free accessibility checkers available online that may be able to help.

Fixing Accessibility Problems

A lot of accessibility problems can be fixed directly in Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker. However, Microsoft Word for PC can generate PDFs with many accessibility features and it’s often easier to correct issues in the Word source file. SIGACCESS provides detailed instructions. Unfortunately, Word for Mac and Latex users will need to manually add accessibility features.

At a minimum, make sure your document is tagged, tab order follows the document structure, figures and inaccessible equations have alternative text, table headers are marked, and the document language is specified. As a note, the built-in auto-tagging feature of Acrobat is not 100% reliable with our templates. Please manually check that any auto-generated tags are logical.

More Information

ACM SIGACCESS has a number of resources for making conference materials and presentations more accessible.

Workshops & Tutorials

Thinking outside the box for workshops is encouraged! The call is not limited to fully finished work. The call can include works in progress, projects you’d like to brainstorm on, as well as fully developed work. If you have any questions don not hesitate to to contact the workshop chair: Derek workshops@icad2022.icad.org.

ICAD workshops and tutorials provide in-depth opportunities for conference attendees to discuss and explore important aspects of the field of auditory display with like-minded researchers and practitioners. Sessions can range from applications and programming methodologies to interdisciplinary research skills, emerging research areas, and challenge problems.

General topic areas for focused workshops and tutorial sessions include, but are not limited to:

  • Sonification/Compositional Maker sessions
  • Applications, usability, accessibility, and evaluation
  • Auditory rendering techniques, technologies, and tools
  • Design theory, methods, philosophy, and culture
  • Psychology, Cognition, Perception, and Psychoacoustics
  • Sonification of data:
    • Context, range of scale, and utility
    • Motivations, frameworks, methodologies, and techniques

Proposal format and submission information

Proposals should be one page in length and include the following:

  • Title, brief abstract, outline of objectives (e.g., tutorial syllabus, organized discussion, presentations, submissions, etc.), relevance for ICAD attendees.
  • Proposed duration (full day or half day).
  • Invited speakers (if any).
  • List of organizers, a designated contact person, and contact information for all organizers (address, email, and ‘phone).
  • Technical and space requirements.

Note that workshops inviting extended abstracts and/or papers can arrange to have their contributions included in the ICAD 2022 Conference Proceedings as a supplementary section of non-referreed submissions. These materials will be accessible online via the DOI number for the 2022 proceedings volume.

Workshop and tutorial proposals (as well as inquiries) should be submitted via the EasyChair system.

Space, facilities, technical support, and the number of sessions that can be accepted are limited, so early submission of proposals is encouraged. Workshop and tutorial organizers are expected to collaborate with the conference committee, issue calls for participation, gather and review contributed materials (if appropriate), and decide upon the final programme for their session.

Sonification Concert (1-2 pages)

This submission category is intended to provide a framework for the presentation of artistic works involving sonification. Works in stereo or for up to eight separate channels can be supported for playback/amplification.

The peer review is of the combination of the written and media submission.

  • Written content
      • The written component of the submission should include a discussion of the goals and aesthetics of the work and the motivations for the design/compositional choices. A review should be made of other relevant works and how the submitted work fits into these references. Details of the underlying dataset should be provided together with an outline of the sonification approach/methodology used. A technical discussion should be provided concerning computational or display issues. User reactions, experience, and feedback should be discussed. Any other forms of representation necessary for reviewers to obtain an understanding of the logistical and contextual issues involved and an evaluation of the perception difficulty may be included. You should use the ICAD 2022 papers format.
  • Media content
      • Submissions should contain a link to audio and other media files in Dropbox, iCloud Soundcloud, Vimeo or other online site, and provide a password if the link is not public. For review purposes this file should be limited to 2-channel audio. If accepted, a copy of the submitted file will be included in the proceedings archive. Review of the work will consider the “coherence” of the sound with the practitioner’s explanation of what was intended.
  • Important considerations
    • If the concert piece involves any live performance elements, these must be indicated in the written content, and authors must make their own arrangements to bring performers and any necessary instruments or required equipment themselves.
    • Concert pieces should last no longer than 15 minutes; note, this is a maximum duration and not an expectation — short compositions are as welcome as longer ones.
    • To be accepted for the concert and to be included in the proceedings, authors agree to register for and attend ICAD 2022. No concert pieces will be played in the author’s absence.

Authors should not anonymize the submission for reviews.

Please submit your proposal to the  EasyChair System. NOTE: please ensure you choose ‘Concert’ in the Category selection drop-down list in the ‘Other Information and Files’ section of the submission form.

If you have any queries about the concert please contact the Concert Committee at concert@icad2022.icad.org

Installations and Demonstrations (1-2 pages)

The peer review considers the combination of the written and media submission.

  • Written content statement
      • The context statement should include a discussion of the goals and aesthetics of the work and the motivations for the design/compositional choices. A review should be made of other relevant works and how the submitted work fits into these references. A technical discussion should be provided concerning computational or performance issues. Listener reactions, experience, or feedback should be discussed. Any other forms of representation necessary for reviewers to obtain an understanding of the logistical and contextual issues involved in the public presentation of the work: manuscript scores and an evaluation of the performance difficulty, spatial layout diagrams, sound levels and ideal ambient noise and isolation conditions etc. may be included. You should use the ICAD 2022 papers format.
  • Media content
    • An example representing the work must be provided. Submissions should contain a link to audio and other media files in Dropbox, iCloud Soundcloud, Vimeo or other online site, and provide a password if the link is not public. For review purposes this file should be limited to 2-channel audio.
    • Review of the work will consider the “coherence” of the sound with the practitioner’s explanation of what was intended. It must be noted that it may not be practical for aural submissions to be performed, played, or rendered at or during the conference due to complexity, length, or other factors determined by the Program Committee. If the submission is accepted, the submitted file will be included in the proceedings archive. Acceptance of the submission does not imply an obligation of host organization to perform the work.
  • Important considerations
    • To assist with the reviewing and curation process, authors must also make clear what their expectations are in terms of the kind and size of space required for the installation. Installations cannot be accepted until the exact requirements are agreed with the organisers.
    • It is up to the artist/installation author to install and set up the piece and to bring the necessary equipment.
    • Attendance at ICAD 2022 is mandatory

Authors should not anonymize the submission for reviews.

NOTE: please ensure you choose ‘Installation/Demo’ in the Category selection drop-down list in the ‘Other Information and Files’ section of the submission form. 

If you have any queries about the concert please contact the Installations and Demos Committee at concert@icad2022.icad.org

Full Papers (5-8 pages)

  • Full papers represent the core of the ICAD conference and they are judged accordingly. Works in any content category should be self-contained, and withstand objective criticism.
  • To ensure integrity in the reviewing process, 
please ensure that full paper submissions have no indications of author and/or institutional affiliation.
  • At least two external reviews, conducted by reviewers outside of the Program Committee, will be carried out.
  • Acceptance is determined solely on the merits of the submitted work.
  • In the review process, there is no distinction between whether the presentation mode will be oral or a poster.
  • Attribution of accepted papers to either oral or poster presentation is determined by the Program Committee although submissions may indicate a preferred method of presentation.
  • Accepted papers will appear in the proceedings and will be archived accordingly.
  • Please note, presentations of sonification research work so much better when accompanied by relevant audio or audio-visual material, therefore, the review criteria will include an assessment of the quality and relevance of media files (or links) included in the submission. Submissions without accompanying media may not be reviewed as favourably as those that do (though this will depend on the type of paper being submitted).

Extended Abstracts (2-4 pages)

  • Extended Abstracts are used to present “works in progress” for which a discussion with the community is of interest and could be beneficial to the development of the work in question.
  • Authors are not allowed to anonymize the submission for reviews.
  • As Extended Abstracts are not presenting completed work, they are expected to be reviewed principally for thematic pertinence to the ICAD community.
  • A single review is necessary and can be carried out by the Program Committee.
  • Extended Abstracts may be archived in a separate supplement to the conference proceedings, so as to clearly indicating that they have not been peer reviewed. They will not be assigned DOI numbers.
  • Extended Abstracts will be assigned to the either oral or poster presentation mode.
  • Please note, presentations of sonification research work so much better when accompanied by relevant audio or audio-visual material, therefore, the review criteria will include an assessment of the quality and relevance of media files (or links) included in the submission. Submissions without accompanying media may not be reviewed as favourably as those that do (though this will depend on the type of paper being submitted).