Call for Tutorials COLING 2025

The 2025 International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING 2025) invites proposals for tutorials to be held in conjunction with the conference. We seek proposals in all areas of natural language processing and computation, language resources (LRs) and evaluation, including spoken language, sign language, and multimodal interaction.

We invite proposals for three types of tutorials, and we especially encourage submissions from early-career researchers:

Cutting-edge: tutorials that cover advances in newly emerging areas. The tutorials are expected to give a brief introduction to the topic, but participants are assumed to have some prior knowledge of the topic. The focus of the class will be on discussing the most recent developments in the field, and it will spend a considerable amount of time pointing out open research questions and important novel research directions.

Introductory to computational linguistics/NLP topics: tutorials that provide introductions to topics that are established in the COLING communities. The lecturers provide an overview of the development of the field from the beginning until now. Attendees are not expected to come with prior knowledge. They acquire sufficient understanding of the topic to understand the most recent research in the field.

Introduction to Key Concepts in Linguistics including Semantics, Syntax, Psycholinguistics, Neurolinguistics, and Sociolinguistics: tutorials that provide introductions to topics that are established or emerging in areas adjacent to CL/NLP. The lecturers provide an overview of the development of the field from the beginning until now. Attendees are not expected to come with prior knowledge. They acquire a sufficient understanding of the topic to understand the most recent research in the field and the relevance for the CL/NLP domains.

Each of these types of tutorials can either be half-day (4h long including a coffee break (30m long)) or full-day (8h long including two coffee breaks (1h long in total) but excluding a lunch break).

In all cases, the aim of a tutorial is primarily to help understand a scientific problem, its tractability, and its theoretical and practical implications. Presentations of particular technological solutions or systems are welcome, provided that they serve as illustrations of broader scientific considerations. None of the tutorial types are expected to be “self-invited” long talks – the content should be a good balance between research from multiple groups and perspectives, not only from the teachers of the tutorial.

The tutorials will be held at COLING 2025 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on 19 and 20 January, 2025.

Important Dates

All deadlines are 11:59PM UTC-12:00 (“anywhere on Earth”).

Proposal submission due July 31, 2024
Notification of acceptance August 31, 2024
COLIING2025 tutorials January 19-20, 2025
COLING2025 conference January 21-24, 2025



Diversity and Inclusion
We particularly encourage submissions of underrepresented groups in computational linguistics, researchers from any demographic or geographic minority, with disabilities, or others. In the evaluation of the proposal, we will take these aspects into account to create a varied and balanced set of tutorials.

This includes several aspects of diversity, namely (1) how the topic of the tutorial contributes to improved diversity and increased fairness in the field, (2) if the topic is particularly relevant for a specific underrepresented group of potential participants, (3), if the presenters are from an underrepresented group.

Submission Details
They should contain:

A title that helps the potential attendees to understand what the tutorial will be about.
An abstract that summarizes the topics, goals, target audience, and type (see above) of the tutorial (this abstract will also be on the LREC-COLING website).
A section called “Introduction” that explains the topic and summarizes the starting point and relevance for our community and in general.
A section called “Target Audience” that explains for whom the tutorial will be developed and what the expected prior knowledge is. Clearly specify what attendees should know and be able to practically do to get the most out of your tutorial. Examples of what to specify include prior mathematical knowledge, knowledge of specific modeling approaches and methods, programming skills, or adjacent areas like computer vision. Also specify the number of expected participants.
A section called “Outline” in which the various topics are explained. This can be a list of bullet points or a set of paragraphs explaining the content. Explain what you intend and how long the tutorial will be.
A section called “Diversity Considerations”, discussing each of the three aspects of diversity mentioned above or others.
A section called “Reading List”: What are introductory papers or books that potential attendees can read to get a first impression of the tutorial content? What do you expect them to have read before attending? What does provide further information beyond the content of the tutorial?
A section called “Presenters” in which each tutorial presenter is briefly introduced in one paragraph, including their research interests, their areas of expertise for the tutorial topic, and their experience in teaching a diverse and international audience.
A section called “Other Information” which should include information on how many people are expected to participate and how you came to this estimate. You can also explain any other aspects that you find important, including special equipment that you would need.
A section called “Ethics Statement” which discusses ethical considerations related to the topics of the tutorial.
The proposals should be submitted no later than 31 July, 2024, 11:59 PM Samoa Standard Time (SST) (UTC/GMT-11, “anywhere on Earth”).

Submission is electronic. Please submit the proposals using the START system at this URL: https://softconf.com/coling2025/tutorialsCL25

Evaluation Criteria
The tutorial proposals will be evaluated according to their originality and impact, the expected interest level of participants, as well as the quality of the organizing team and Program Committee and their contribution to the diversity of the conference.

Each tutorial will be evaluated regarding its clarity and preparedness, novelty or timely character of the topic, the instructor’s experience, the audience interest, and the potential to increase diversity in our community.

Instructor Responsibilities
Accepted tutorial presenters will be notified by the date mentioned above. They must then provide abstracts of their tutorials for inclusion in the conference registration material by the specific deadlines. The abstract needs to be provided in ASCII format. The summary will be submitted in PDF format and can be updated from the version submitted for review. The instructors will make their material available in an appropriate way, for instance, by setting up a website. They will be invited to submit their slides to the ACL Anthology.

Tutorial Chairs
Email: coling25tutorialchairs@gmail.com

The tutorial chairs are:

Djamé Seddah, Senior Researcher, INRIA, Paris, Frace (on leave from Sorbonne University)
Shaonan Wang, Associate Professor at the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China