Multi-Year Special Track On AI and Social Good
Important Dates
Abstract submission deadline: January 12, 2026
Author information and Full paper submission deadline (including Appendix and resubmission information): January 19, 2026
Author response period: April 7-10, 2026
Paper notification: April 29, 2026
Camera-ready deadline: May 10, 2026 (tentative)
Conference: Saturday, August 15 to Friday, August 21, 2026
(all times are 23:59 Anywhere On Earth, UTC-12)
Desk Rejection: Submissions that violate Main/Track requirements can be rejected at any time.
In recent decades, regional and international organizations around the globe have designed initiatives to address pressing societal challenges in order to improve individual well-being and protect the environment. These global initiatives, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (see https://sdgs.un.org/goals) and the Leave No One Behind Principle (LNOB) (see https://unsdg.un.org/2030-agenda/universal-values/leave-no-one-behind), set an urgent call for action for all parties, communities, organizations, and countries.
In recent years, the scientific community, including Artificial intelligence (AI) and related sub-fields, has contributed and inspired alternative methodologies to address various societal challenges and initiatives. To design suitable methodologies for societal challenges that have potential paths to real-world impact, there is a need for active collaboration with key stakeholders/partners (e.g., from government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and research institutions) and multi-disciplinary domain experts (e.g., from various fields including computer, social, and natural sciences) to identify real-world domain challenges and/or guide the development of appropriate methodologies for potential deployment/implementation opportunities in the future.
With the above-mentioned challenges and needs in mind, this special track focuses on AI research, driven by real-world societal challenges and active collaboration with real-world stakeholders/partners and multi-disciplinary domain experts, towards the advancement of addressing pressing societal challenges. Moreover, the track focuses on AI research that aims to have a positive impact on current global and local societal challenges while strengthening collaboration with real-world stakeholders. Therefore, multidisciplinary research (e.g., from various fields including computer, social, and natural sciences) and multilateral collaborations (e.g., with nonprofit organizations, community organizations, and governmental agencies) are essential characteristics of the submissions to this track. This special track aims to share the current state of research and practice, explore directions for future work, and create opportunities for collaboration and real-world societal impact.
We invite two types of contributions closely connected to the focus of the track: research papers and research project proposals. The authors who wish to submit demos that are relevant to the theme of AI and Social Good are invited to submit them via the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 Demo track (see below). We also encourage the authors to closely examine the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 tracks (e.g., Main, AI and Health, Human-centered AI, and AI and Robotics) to determine the best fit for their submissions.
All AI and Social Good submissions will be primarily evaluated based on three primary and mandated criteria:
- The scientific quality of the work and contribution to state-of-the-art AI and social or natural sciences;
- The relevance and real impact on pressing societal challenges;
- The collaboration with stakeholders/partners and multi-disciplinary domain experts who have first-hand domain knowledge of the considered societal problem.
We are looking for bottom-up approaches in which stakeholders/partners and multi-disciplinary domain experts are not observers but active shapers of the papers/proposals. Therefore, all submissions must contain the following information.
Mandated Information To Be Included in Submissions: All submissions should clearly state in the main text explicitly what real-world societal problem is being tackled, who (including the stakeholders/partners and multi-disciplinary domain experts) is and how they are participating (e.g., their roles) in the project/paper, what the proposed methodologies are, how the methodologies are evaluated (e.g., metrics), and what the real-world impact of the methodologies is. For example, active collaboration with stakeholders/partners and multi-disciplinary domain experts can be explicitly documented in paragraphs near the contributions or in separate sections/subsections and emphasized throughout the main submission when appropriate.
For the two types of contributions submitted to this track,
● Research Papers should be anonymous.
● Research Project Proposals should not be anonymous.
Submissions that do not adhere to the above will be rejected without review at any time. Please see the following for more submission details. Unlike the submissions in the main track, there will be no summary reject phase. Accepted research papers and proposals in the AI and Good track will be included in the IJCAI proceedings. A separate award will be given to honor an outstanding research paper/proposal in this track.
Themes of Interest
This track is intended to explore how AI can contribute to achieving progress in addressing pressing societal challenges. Therefore, we invite high-quality research contributions, case studies, and proposals toward the advancement of addressing (one or more) societal challenges. For example, submissions that are closely related to the following themes are suitable for this track:
● AI for Environmental Sustainability
● AI for Healthcare and Well-being
● AI for Education and Learning
● AI for Public Health
● AI for Poverty Alleviation and Economic Development
● AI for Smart Cities and Urban Planning
● AI Ethics, Fairness, and Bias Mitigation
● AI in Human Rights and Justice
● AI for Marginalized and Vulnerable Communities
● Interdisciplinary Approaches to AI for Social Good
● AI for Global Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
We also welcome other suitable submissions consistent with the track’s focus, which might not necessarily fit into the above-mentioned themes.
Primary Paper Initiative: IJCAI-ECAI 2026 is launching the Primary Paper Initiative in response to the international AI research community’s call to address challenges and to revitalize the peer review process, while strengthening the reviewers and authors in the process. Under the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 Primary Paper Initiative, every submission is subject to a fee of USD 100. That paper submission fee is waived for primary papers, i.e., papers for which none of the authors appear as an author on any other submission to IJCAI-ECAI 2026. The initiative applies to the main track, Survey Track, and all special tracks, excluding the Journal Track, the Sister Conferences Track, Early Career Highlights, Competitions, Demos, and the Doctoral Consortium. All proceeds generated from the Primary Paper Initiative will be exclusively directed toward the support of the reviewing community of IJCAI-ECAI 2026. To recognize the reviewers’ contributions, the initiative introduces Peer Reviewer Recognition Policy with clearly defined standards (which will be published on the conference website). The initiative aims to enhance review quality, strengthen accountability, and uphold the scientific excellence of the conference. Details and the FAQ will be published on the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 website.
Submission of Research Papers
Research papers should have the same format (7 pages + 2 pages for references) and follow the same general instructions as for the main conference (see https://2026.ijcai.org/). Technical appendices (which can include, but are not restricted to, datasets and code) are allowed. Papers are expected to satisfy the highest scientific standards, similar to regular submissions to the main track of IJCAI-ECAI 2026. In addition, the research papers in this track are expected to provide multidisciplinary scientific contributions toward the advancement of addressing pressing societal challenges and document the active involvement of key stakeholders/partners (e.g., from government agencies and nonprofit organizations) and multi-disciplinary domain experts. The presentation of case studies is highly encouraged in this track as a way to demonstrate the societal impact of the paper.
In addition, similar to the research papers submitted to the main track of IJCAI-ECAI 2026, papers in this track should be anonymous. Unlike the submissions in the main track, there will be no summary reject phase. Accepted research papers in the AI and Good track will be included in the IJCAI proceedings.
An award will be given to honor an outstanding research paper in this track.
Submission of Research Project Proposals
This specific submission type of the AI and Social Good track goes beyond the publication of a paper. It aims to generate long-term and productive collaborative lines of work with a focus on real-world societal challenges. The aim of this submission type is to identify new ideas and facilitate collaboration between AI researchers, key stakeholders/partners (e.g., from government agencies and nonprofit organizations), and multi-disciplinary domain experts to jointly explore possible uses of AI to advance the achievement of addressing pressing societal challenges. Research project proposals are expected to connect the dots between the above-mentioned parties and highly focused challenges related to AI and the focus of this track. Submissions in this category can range from early-stage project ideas to projects already in development. However, they must demonstrate practical knowledge gained from real-world experience (in-the-field know-how), involve collaboration among diverse teams (multi-lateral teamwork approach), and include a well-defined implementation plan that outlines how the project will achieve meaningful societal impact.
Research project proposals are not intended to describe ongoing projects and current research results. The proposals should seek to appeal to AI researchers and the stakeholders/partners/multi-disciplinary domain experts on societal challenges and inspire further collaboration on developing methodologies for societal challenges. However, some selected proposals will be expected to report on their progress during the subsequent editions of IJCAI and submit research papers to one of these conference editions.
We suggest the following structure for research project proposals: problem statement definition (including how the goals of the project have been defined in active collaboration with stakeholders/partners/multi-disciplinary domain experts), strategies, methods, foreseen case studies, expected results and impacts on pressing societal challenges, evaluation criteria, challenges and limitations, ethical considerations, implementation plan and needs, scalability and economic sustainability of the solution, and project team description.
The evaluation criteria will include the team’s multidisciplinary expertise concerning the challenge and technology, the feasibility of the project implementation plan, the potential impact on real-world local challenges, the scalability and economic sustainability of the proposed methodologies, and the potential contribution to the state of the art in AI, social or natural sciences.
Research project proposals should follow the same format (7 pages + 2 pages of references) and general instructions as the main track submissions (https://2026.ijcai.org/) with the following exception: unlike papers submitted to the main track, research project papers must not be anonymous and must include a 1-page appendix not included in the page count, with short CVs of all team members. Technical appendices (which can include, but are not restricted to, datasets and code) are allowed. Unlike the submitted research papers in the main track, there will be no summary reject phase. Accepted research project proposals in the AI and Good track will be published in the IJCAI proceedings.
An award will be given to honor an outstanding research project proposal in this track.
Selection Process
Selection criteria: Please see the criteria in each of the contributions above (Research Papers and Research Project Proposals).
Full paper review: Each paper will be reviewed by a group of PC members (PCs). Area Chairs (ACs) will coordinate the review process and write meta-reviews with recommendations cross-checked by the Track Chair. Review criteria are based on the evaluation criteria mentioned above for each submission type. The submissions will be rejected at any time without review if they do not clearly satisfy the above-mentioned criteria appropriate for each submission type.
Author response: The full paper review process will allow authors to respond to the reviews. Author responses should be concise and are not intended to create a dialogue between reviewers and authors. Author responses will be visible to Track Chair, ACs, and PCs.
Notification: The final decisions on the submissions will be communicated via the provided authors’ emails. Beyond the standard desk rejection, rejection, and acceptance decisions, in rare circumstances, the track chairs may conditionally accept submissions to ensure that the final (camera-ready) submissions address concerns sufficiently. If the concerns are not satisfactorily addressed, the submissions may be rejected.
Participation in the conference: At least one author of each accepted paper must participate in the conference at Bremen and present the work. We are looking forward to the community meeting in person. Papers not presented in person will be excluded from the proceedings unless one of the authors provides notification of exceptional circumstances to IJCAI via pcchair@2026.ijcai.org. Any such exceptional circumstances must receive prior approval from IJCAI.
Ethics policy and ethics statement: IJCAI is committed to the highest standards of research integrity. Submissions must adhere to fundamental ethical principles, including the responsible use of datasets (respecting privacy, copyright, and informed consent) and mitigating potential societal harms (such as risks to safety, and issues related to discrimination and bias).
Consistent with the previous editions of the conference, IJCAI-ECAI 2026 will implement a streamlined ethics review policy. Reviewers will be asked to flag glaring violations of ethical principles. Such flagged submissions will be reviewed by the Ethics Chair. In rare situations, the Program Chair, advised by the Ethics Chair, reserves the right to reject a submission on ethical grounds. However, we anticipate that the primary approach to addressing ethical concerns will require authors to revise their submissions to include a discussion that identifies these concerns and proposes strategies for their mitigation.
Authors can include in the main body of their paper, or on the reference pages, an ethics statement that addresses both ethical issues regarding the research being reported and the broader ethical impact of the work. Note that such an ethics statement is not required, but we recommend that papers working with sensitive data or on sensitive tasks include such discussion. The IJCAI review form will include a section asking reviewers and ACs to flag any serious ethical concerns.
Conflict of interest policy: All individuals involved in the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 review process must adhere to the IJCAI conflict of interest policy. Details can be found at https://www.ijcai.org/IJCAI_Conflict_of_Interest_Policy.pdf. All authors of papers submitted to IJCAI-ECAI 2026 agree to be bound by the conditions outlined in this call for papers (w.r.t. multiple submissions, authorship, resubmission policy, submission limit, etc.). Authors and reviewers acknowledge that IJCAI may take action against individuals in breach of the conflict of interest and call for papers policies, including – but not limited to – rejecting their submissions without further review and banning individuals from submitting their work to a limited number of IJCAI conferences in the future.
Confidentiality policy: All submissions will be handled with strict confidentiality until their publication date.
Submission of Demos
Authors will not be able to submit demos directly to the AI and Social Good track. However, they are invited to submit demos relevant to this special track’s topic to the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 Demo track, indicating the “AI and Social Good” nature of the demo within the submission procedure.
Submission Process
Formatting guidelines: The updated LaTeX styles and Word template are available at https://www.ijcai.org/authors_kit.
Submission site: https://chairingtool.com/conferences/IJCAIECAI2026/ai-for-good?role=author
Mandatory abstract submission: The paper title, author names, contact details, and a brief abstract must be submitted electronically through the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 paper submission site (link above) by the abstract submission deadline. It will be possible to make minor edits to the title and abstract until the full paper submission deadline. However, submissions with “placeholder” abstracts may be removed without consideration.
Author Information: Full papers must be submitted through the same site by the paper submission deadline. The list of author names provided at the Author Information Deadline is final. Authors may not be added to or removed from papers following submission. (The author’s ordering may still be changed during the camera-ready period.) Providing accurate author details is essential for managing the paper workflow process. Therefore, all authors must register and fill out the author information form on the submission site by the Author Information deadline. Please note that ORCID is now compulsory! Submissions may be rejected without review if any co-author fails to register and submit the necessary information.
Submission limit: IJCAI-ECAI 2026 will enforce a strict submission limit. Each author is limited to no more than 8 submissions to IJCAI-ECAI 2026 in total across all tracks subject to the Primary Paper Initiative.
Keywords: When submitting abstracts, authors must choose up to three content area keywords. General categories should be used only if specific categories do not apply or do not accurately reflect the main contributions. The full list of keywords will be available on the submission site.
Copyright: IJCAI-ECAI 2026 will be conducted in accordance with IJCAI guidelines. All accepted papers will be published exclusively by IJCAI (open access), with IJCAI retaining the copyright.
Submission Requirements
Paper format: Papers submitted to IJCAI-ECAI 2026 must be formatted according to the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 guidelines (link above). Submissions must be self-contained. Authors are required to submit their electronic papers in PDF format. Submissions that violate the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 style (e.g., by decreasing margins or font sizes) will be rejected without review.
Additional Submission Requirements (from the Main Track)
Paper length: Papers must be no longer than 9 pages in total: 7 pages for the body of the paper (including all figures/tables), plus up to 2 additional pages with references; the optional ethics statement can be placed either in the body of the paper or in the reference pages. Overlength papers will be rejected without review.
Authors commit to reviewing: By submitting to the conference, each author volunteers to be entered into the pool of potential PC members/reviewers for IJCAI-ECAI 2026 and may be asked to review papers for the conference. This does not apply to authors who have already agreed to contribute to IJCAI-ECAI 2026 in some capacity (e.g., as PC/SPC members of the main conference or special tracks, area chairs, senior area chairs, or members of the organizing committee) and authors who are not qualified to be IJCAI PC members (e.g., undergraduate students, junior graduate students, or researchers with a limited track record in AI). This requirement may be waived in a limited range of exceptional circumstances (researchers leaving academia, parental leave, etc.).
Simplified procedure for resubmission information: Authors must declare whether their paper has been rejected from another peer-reviewed conference in the last 12 months before the submission. They will be requested to upload the latest rejected version (anonymized if necessary) with the reviewer’s comments; a cover letter responding to the reviews is optional. To avoid bias, the resubmission information will only be made available to reviewers after they submit their reviews. The program committee reserves the right to reject papers that fail to report resubmission information. Further, reviewers will be encouraged to check whether the resubmission addresses factual issues pointed out in the reviews of the previous version (e.g., typos, incorrect attribution of results, etc.) and to reject submissions that fail to do so.
Supplementary material: Authors may submit up to 50MB of supplementary material, such as appendices, proofs, derivations, data, or source code; all supplementary material must be in PDF or ZIP format. Supplementary material should be created by the authors that directly support the submission content. Like submissions, supplementary material must be anonymized. There are two entries for supplementary files in the paper management system: one is “Technical Appendix”, and the other one is “Resubmission File”. The latter should be used for providing resubmission information only. Reviewers may choose to consult the technical appendix at their discretion.
Anonymity: From the authors’ perspective, reviewing for IJCAI-ECAI 2026 is double-blind. As an author, you are responsible for anonymizing your submission. In particular, you should not include author names or affiliations in your submission and should avoid providing any other identifying information (even in the supplementary material). Acknowledgements of funding or assistance should also be omitted at the submission stage. When referring to one’s work, use the third person rather than the first person. For example, say, “Previously, Calvanese et al. [8] have shown that…” rather than “In our previous work [8], we have shown that…”. All identifying information can be added to the final camera-ready version of accepted papers. Supplementary material (including the resubmission information) and code should also be anonymized (including, for instance, hardcoded paths or URLs that may give away login identifiers or institutions). In case of resubmissions, if the previous version of the paper was not anonymous, the authors must anonymize the submission to IJCAI-ECAI 2026. The authors should also remove identifying information from the PDF metadata. Submissions that violate anonymity will be rejected without further review.
Preprints: The existence of non-anonymous preprints (on arXiv, social media, websites, etc.) and prior publication in non-archival venues will not result in rejection. Note that the submission to IJCAI-ECAI 2026 must always be anonymized regardless of whether a preprint has been released. Reviewers will be instructed not to look for such preprints actively, but encountering them will not constitute a conflict of interest.
Usages of Generative AI: Generative AI models do not satisfy the criteria for authorship of papers published in IJCAI-ECAI 2026. If authors use an LLM in any part of the paper-writing process they assume full responsibility for all content, including checking for plagiarism and correctness of the entire submission. Text generated by an LLM as part of the paper’s methodology or experimental analysis is allowed but needs to be properly documented and described in the paper.
Reproducibility: Authors must follow the reproducibility guidelines (available here) and checklist at the time of paper submission.
Dual submissions: IJCAI-ECAI 2026 will not accept any paper that, at the time of full paper submission, is under review for, has already been published in or has already been accepted for publication in a journal or another venue with formally published proceedings. Authors of IJCAI-ECAI 2026 submissions are also not permitted to submit their paper to a journal or another venue with formally published proceedings during the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 review period. (As a guideline, authors should regard publications with a DOI, ISBN, or ISSN as formal publications. Questions about submission eligibility should be referred to the Program Chair <pcchair@2026.ijcai.org> before the deadline.) These restrictions do not apply to workshops and similar specialized presentations without formally published proceedings.
Enquiries:
Please send all enquiries about the AI and Social Good Track to the IJCAI-ECAI 2026 AI and Social Good Track Co-Chairs:
Hau Chan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, United States
Yun Sing Koh, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Aparna Taneja, Google DeepMind India, Indiavia the following email: ai4good@2026.ijcai.org.