Call for Papers for The Eighth Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology: Mental Health in the Face of Change

A hybrid workshop to be held in conjunction with NAACL 2022

clpsych.org


Since 2014, CLPsych has brought together researchers in computational linguistics and NLP, who use computational methods to better understand human language, infer meaning and intention, and predict individuals’ characteristics and potential behavior, with mental health practitioners and researchers, who are focused on psychopathology and neurological health and engage directly with the needs of providers and their patients. This workshop’s distinctly interdisciplinary nature has improved the exchange of knowledge, fostered collaboration, and increased the visibility of mental health as a problem domain in NLP.


The continued pressure resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, with many people experiencing long-term financial, health, and social stressors, has globally exacerbated threats to mental health that experts have expressed serious concerns about. CLPsych has an important role to play in bringing people together to discuss and exchange their recent work and results. Together, we hope to be able to advance the common goal of using human language as a tool to better understand emotional and mental state, and reducing emotional suffering and the potential for self-harm.


This year we are adopting a theme around mental health in the face of change. This ties in with our shared task with making longitudinal predictions, but also with the kind of aspects that technology would need to have (e.g. explainability and fairness) to be integrated into clinical practice. We are also highly interested in papers that seek to understand people who are difficult to reach, who are traditionally less likely to seek and receive help, or who may be socially or digitally excluded because of conventional measurement/diagnosis or care models.


Given the uncertainties associated with the pandemic, we are planning for a hybrid workshop that will permit in-person participation if the physical conference takes place as planned, while also permitting remote participation. This will not only expand the reach of the workshop to people who might not typically attend in person, but it will also enable a smooth transition to a fully virtual workshop if that proves necessary.


Paper submission instructions

All paper submissions must describe substantial, original, completed, and unpublished work. In addition to papers describing algorithms, models, or experimentation, we are happy to receive carefully argued and supported position papers, insightful reviews or synthesis of relevant literature, or informative descriptions of real-world experiences deploying language technology (including prototypes) in relevant clinical settings (Topics include, but are not limited to, the ones listed in the Intent To Submit form -- see under Important Dates below) .


A key goal of this workshop is to foster the conversation with clinicians and clinical researchers, both at the workshop and when these papers are read in the future. We therefore include practicing clinicians and clinical researchers on our program committee, and the ability to communicate ideas, approaches, and results clearly to people who are not computational linguists will be as important as the technical quality of the work.


Although ACL has adopted ACL Rolling Review (ARR) for submission, CLPsych submissions will be done using softconf, and detailed information will appear at clpsych.org. We will be taking submissions of both long papers (up to eight pages of core content) and short papers (up to four pages of core content); plus unlimited references. Up to an extra page can be added in the final camera-ready version to allow space for addressing the reviewers’ comments. We require all authors to include relevant discussions of ethical considerations and impact in the body of the paper.


Authors may optionally include appendices, but these constitute additional information and might not be looked at by reviewers. If anything in the appendix is an important part of the contribution, or important for the reviewers to assess the work, they should be a part of the main paper, and not appear in the appendix.


All submissions must be fully anonymized to preserve the double-blind reviewing policy. Insufficiently anonymized submissions will be considered for desk-reject.


Authors should adhere to NAACL 2022 submission policy and requirements that are posted under PAPER SUBMISSION INFORMATION on ACL Rolling Review https://aclrollingreview.org/cfp with respect to author guidelines, double submission, anonymity period, double blind review, data management, human subjects discussion, and referencing prior work. Word and LaTeX templates are also available using the same link under Paper Submission and Templates.


In order for the paper to appear in the proceedings, at least one author must register for the workshop by the early registration deadline. Authors of accepted papers will be asked to provide a pre-recorded video presenting their work and to participate in discussant-led breakout sessions, in which their paper will be discussed.


Important dates

March 10, 2022: Authors are encouraged to send in an optional "intent to submit" at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1VlqnuS_yXuvuOBxAqXz1aVIlSfJQrRX8ZMeZw6cCGt0/edit?usp=sharing by this date, to help in planning.

April 8, 2022: Workshop paper submissions are due, see clpsych.org for how to submit

May 6, 2022: Notification of acceptance

May 20, 2022: Camera-ready papers due

July 14-15, 2022: NAACL (Exact workshop date to be announced soon)


Shared task

We are planning a shared task on the topic of capturing moments of change in longitudinal posts by individuals on social media. The shared task will be announced separately in February 2022. It will have its own important dates, but you should assume that the camera-ready paper deadline is the same as above.


Organizers

clpsych2022-organizers@googlegroups.com


Dana Atzil-Slonim, Bar-Ilan University (co-chair)

Maria Liakata, QMUL/Turing (co-chair)

Ayah Zirikly, Johns Hopkins University (co-chair)


Steven Bedrick, Oregon Health & Science University (organizer)

Bart Desmet, National Institutes of Health (organizer)

Molly Ireland, Receptiviti (organizer)

Andrew Lee, University of Michigan (organizer)

Sean McAvaney, University of Glasgow (organizer)

Matthew Purver, QMUL (organizer)

Rebecca Resnik, Rebecca Resnik & Associates (organizer)

Andrew Yates, University of Amsterdam (organizer)


Workshop site: http://clpsych.org/

NAACL conference site: https://2022.naacl.org/