There is still time to submit contributions to the next iSchools iConference. However, if you are working on a research paper (full or short), or a poster, next week’s Monday deadline is fast approaching.

The key submission dates are:

• Monday 15th September 2025 (anywhere in the world): submission deadline for full research papers, short research papers, and posters
• Monday 20th October 2025 (anywhere in the world): submission deadline for all workshops and interactive sessions including the Student symposium, Doctoral colloquium, Early career colloquium; and Chinese research papers, Spanish and Portuguese research papers

Entitled Information literacies, authenticity and use: the move towards a digitally enlightened society, the conference will be hosted by Edinburgh Napier University in spring 2026. The virtual academic programme takes place from Monday 23rd to Thursday 26th March 2026. This is followed by the on-site academic programme in Edinburgh, Scotland from Sunday 29th March to Thursday 2nd April 2026.

The 2026 iConference invites scholars, practitioners, creators, and community voices to contribute to critical conversations around information literacies, authenticity, and the use of digital technologies in shaping a more enlightened and inclusive digital society. Rooted in a re-examination of the Scottish Enlightenment — a movement that championed reason, education, inquiry, and civic progress — the 2026 theme challenges us to critically reflect on both the promise and limitations of these ideals. The Enlightenment catalysed revolutionary thinking about human potential and the organisation of knowledge, laying foundations for public libraries, encyclopaedias, scientific method, and democratic discourse. Yet it also advanced progress through Eurocentric and exclusionary frameworks, marginalising voices through colonial, gendered, and class-based structures.

This conference asks:

• How can we carry forward the Enlightenment’s commitment to learning and justice, while also confronting and redressing its embedded inequalities?
• How can information systems today promote not just efficiency and access, but authenticity, trust, equity, and inclusion?

As digital infrastructures increasingly shape how we learn, communicate, govern, and remember, the iConference offers a space to explore what it means to be digitally literate and ethically informed.

Conference submissions that interrogate the ethical, social, political, and cultural dimensions of information — from AI and misinformation to decolonisation, community archives, open data, and digital storytelling – are particularly welcomed. Work that addresses broader issues related to information, technology, and people, beyond the core conference theme are also of interest. It is anticipated that the contributions taken together will shape the discourse around digital authenticity and access, building a future where technology and information serve the goals of collective flourishing, justice, and an inclusive, digitally enlightened society.

For further details about submissions, including the full time line for submission and review, please see the call for papers.

The on-site academic programme will take place at Edinburgh Napier University