Call for Late-Breaking Work (LBW)
The Late-Breaking Work (LBW) track at the SportsHCI Conference invites submissions that explore innovative intersections between sports and technology, investigating how athletes, coaches, analysts, fans, and technology come together to shape the future of sports.
This track provides a platform for emerging ideas that are not yet fully developed but demonstrate meaningful contributions to the field of SportsHCI. Whether you’re working on cutting-edge prototypes, early-stage data collection, or novel design concepts, the LBW track offers a space to share your work, engage with the community, and gather valuable feedback.
Accepted papers will appear in the Companion Proceedings of the SportsHCI 2026 Conference in the ACM Digital Library. Following the new ACM publishing model for conference proceedings, all accepted SportsHCI 2026 papers will be published Open Access. Please refer to the Proceedings and publications fees section on the call for papers page.
Contribution types
We welcome a diversity of contributions, examples might include:
- An original and innovative technology, technique, or prototype with or without an accompanying evaluation
- A short qualitative or quantitative study with a complete analysis.
- A “sequel” to a prior research contribution.
- A “prequel” to motivate or provoke novel conversations or future work.
- A theoretical or methodological contribution that provokes novel conversations for the area.
We welcome these contributions along a range of topics and domains, including but not limited to:
- Skill acquisition and motor learning
- Technology-enabled novel sporting practices (e.g. exergames, VR training, etc)
- Technology in relation to the experiential side of sports
- Technology adoption in existing sports practices
- Critical perspectives that investigate the somatic, social, cultural, and ethical dimensions of sports in a digital age
- Sports injury prevention, training load management, awareness and rehabilitation
- Sociality of sports, collaborative practices, and coach-athlete relationships
For more topics that might be relevant to your work, please also refer to the Full Paper CfP.
Submissions to the LBW track should highlight your project’s potential impact, even if your data collection, analysis, or design process is still ongoing. We welcome creative, experimental, and thought-provoking work that contributes to the broader conversation around sports and technology.
The review period for full papers and Late-Breaking Work submissions overlap. Therefore, in some cases, papers that the program committee is not able to accept as full papers but are more suitable as LBW submissions may be sent to that track with permission of the submission's authors. The authors are informed about this decision with the full paper notification (25 June 2026) and have to submit a revised version of their full paper submission according to the LBW requirements by 6 July 2026.
Important Dates
All times are in Anywhere on Earth (AoE) time zone. When the deadline is day D, the last time to submit is when D ends AoE. Check your local time in AoE (time.is).
- Submission deadline: 25 May 2026
- Full paper to Late-Breaking Work submission deadline: 6 July 2026
- Reviewer deadline: 09 July 2026
- Notification of acceptance: 16 July 2026
- Camera ready deadlines: 30 July 2026
Inclusivity
Authors should ensure their work and writing are as inclusive as possible; where this is not possible, it should be acknowledged. For example, authors should use gender-inclusive language when developing their papers (see e.g., HCI Guidelines for Gender Equity and Inclusivity) and consider what communities their work is -- and is not -- supporting, as well as their geographical context.
Submission Details
Please submit your papers on PCS by the submission deadline. All information can be edited up to the submission deadline. After the submission deadline, no changes will be allowed to the author list and order. Please review the ACM Policy on Authorship for more information.
ACM Selection Process Category: Reviewed. Submissions will undergo a light peer-review by 2 members from a panel of experts. All LBW submissions are semi-archival. Authors may re-use and re-submit the content to other peer-reviewed venues (e.g., could be reused in a future full paper submission).
Submissions should be formatted according to the ACM Master Article Submission Templates (single column). Submissions should not exceed 6 pages. In exceptional cases exceeding 6 pages is allowed to accommodate needed images, yet authors should not exceed 5000 words and are required to justify the extra paper length.
Anonymization policy
Submissions must be anonymous and should not include any author names, affiliations, and contact information. For more details, please refer to the CHI Anonymization Policy, which SportsHCI follows.
Presentation at the conference
All accepted submissions will be showcased during the conference in a poster presentation format designed to foster discussion and collaboration. At least one author is required to present the work in person at the conference.
Join us in advancing the field of SportsHCI by sharing your ideas, insights, and innovations. Help shape the technologies that will transform the way we play, train, compete, and connect through sports.
Papers accepted for the LBW track will be published in the companion proceedings of SportsHCI 2026 in the ACM International Conference Proceedings Series (ICPS).