Events

Paper-a-Thon

TIMELINE

Submissions Open: June 17, 2025
Submissions Deadline: August 20, 2025
Notification of Acceptance: September 5, 2025

overview

The Paper-a-Thon is a “paper hackathon” aimed to facilitate new research collaborations, help scholars develop their research ideas while making new professional connections, and—for the most promising projects—to accelerate a publication review process. The Paper-a-Thon begins with an intense two-day working session where researchers are organized into interest-related project teams to collaborate under the mentorship of prominent IS scholars. This initial two-day workshop phase concludes with each group pitching their research projects to a panel of senior scholars (judges), who will select up to three papers to be presented during ICIS. After ICIS concludes, one or more of the presented papers can undergo a supportive process toward submission to one of the journals represented by the judges.

application process

If the event is appealing to you and you can commit to attending in full, you are highly encouraged to apply—there are no restrictions on who can apply to the Paper-a-Thon. The application process includes participation in a survey (see below) in order to identify what interests, abilities, and resources you can contribute to a project team (e.g., data, methods, perspectives, and domain expertise). We encourage participants to arrive with ideas about potential projects, yet we also ask that you remain open-minded to project ideas that emerge through collaboration with your project team and the mentor. “All topics, methods, and approaches are welcome. A cross-section of mentors will be chosen to represent the diversity of the field as much as possible.”

Apply Now

The application deadline is August 20th, 2025, 11:59 p.m. local time in Nashville, USA (GMT -5).

You should only apply to participate in the Paper-a-Thon if you can commit to attending the initial two-day workshop and the ICIS presentation if your paper is selected.

Please note: All accepted participants are required to register for the ICIS 2025 conference to participate in the Paper-a-Thon.

Agenda

Day 1: Saturday, December 13, 2025

13:00 Kick-off and introductions
13:15-14:00 “Brainstorming” — Initial group meeting to brainstorm new paper ideas, and matching of mentos and groups. Bring your data, theory, phenomenon, good writing skills, and/or eagerness. Meet others who can complement what you have. We ask groups to self-organize and form based upon shared interests. However, we would suggest the maximum group size to be five excluding potential mentors (see below). We will then identify suitable mentors for all groups.
14:00-16:00 In-depth working session of project team and project mentor to brainstorm, filter, and refine paper ideas and identify an “overnight” work plan.

  • Mentor and project team should reach mutual understanding about the potential for future mentor involvement in project (e.g., if any continued involvement and/or interest in co-authorship collaboration)
“Overnight”
(16:00-22:00)		 Project team members work together to craft an extended abstract and prepare the “pitch” presentation.

Work hard. Have fun. There is less than 24 hours to develop an extended abstract. If applicable, analyze data to prepare preliminary results. Articulate contributions to literature and possible implications for practice. Prepare the “pitch” presentation.

    Day 2: Sunday, December 14, 2025

    Morning

    (07:00-13:00)

    		 Continue working as project teams to prepare an extended abstract and the “pitch” presentation.

    • It is highly recommended to discuss the project ideas with the mentors to refine the presentation.

    Teams send their final pitch presentations to the paper-a-thon co-chairs.
    14:00-17:00 “Pitch” presentations to the Journal Editor Panel.

    • Each project team will have up to 5 minutes to present their work in front of editors and other senior scholars.
    • Up to three finalists may receive an “acceptance” in the conference proceedings (as a research-in-progress paper). After further development of the paper during the conference, these project teams will present on the last day of ICIS and may also be considered for fast-track review for a top journal.Wednesday, December 18

    Wednesday, December 17

    11:00-12:30 Invited teams present their accepted pitches as Research-in-Progress papers in a ICIS paper session (location TBA)

    Mentors

    • Alexander Benlian, TU Darmstadt
    • Leona Chandra Kruse, University of Agder
    • Nan Chen, National University of Singapore
    • Christy Cheung, Hong Kong Baptist University
    • Jennifer Claggett, Wake Forest University
    • Kazem Haki, University of St. Gallen
    • Nina Huang, University of Miami
    • Seung Hyun Kim, Yonsei University
    • Brent Kitchens, University of Virginia
    • Gwanhoo Lee, American University
    • Julian Lehmann, Arizona State University
    • Carmen Leong, University of New South Wales
    • Marta Stelmaszak Rosa, University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • Karl Werder, IT University of Copenhagen
    • Tong Yu, Zhejiang University

    Editor Panel Judges

    • Han Zhang, Editor-in-Chief, Information & Management
    • Kieran Conboy,  Editor-in-Chief, European Journal of Information Systems
    • Wendy Currie, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Information Technology
    • Iris Junglas, Editor-in-Chief, MISQ Executive

    Paper-A-Thon

    December 13-14

    Submissions Deadline

    August 20

    Apply Now

    Notification of Acceptance

    September 5

    Paper-a-thon Co-Chairs