About GIScience

The Thirteenth International Conference on Geographic Information Science will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 26-29 August 2025, hosted by the University of Canterbury in collaboration with the GIScience academic research community across New Zealand. GIScience 2025 is the flagship conference in geographic information science and continues the highly successful conference series which started in 2000.

The conference regularly attracts over 250 international participants from academia, industry, and government to discuss and advance the state-of-the-art in geographic information science. August 26 is dedicated to Workshops and Tutorials. The main conference runs from August 27 to 29 and includes a single refereed paper track and an abstract track for posters and demo submissions.

GIScience research spans the gamut of interrelated discovery activities related to geographic information from the invention of new computational instruments, the gathering of data via observation or experimentation, and discovery of descriptive generalizations patterns in data through to the creation of explanatory theories and the testing of theories. The GIScience conference series seeks submissions that make fundamental advances to the field through this multifaceted process.

GIScience 2025 welcomes papers, posters and demos covering emerging topics and fundamental research findings across all sectors of geographic information science, including (but not limited to) the role of geographic information in geography, computer science, engineering, information science, linguistics, mathematics, cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, social science, and geostatistics. We welcome participation from community members sharing work at various stages of development, including position pieces, works in progress, as well as full papers for inclusion in the conference proceedings.

Download the Call for Papers PDF

News:

• March 10: 8 Workshops have been accepted! See here for more info.
• March 20: We have several scholarship opportunities for students and early career researchers. See below for more information on how to apply.
• March 20: Registration site is LIVE!
• April 9: We have accepted 19 papers for presentation and inclusion in the conference proceedings.
• May 14: We are thrilled to announce our 3 keynote speakers: Michelle LaRue, Matt Duckham, and Krzysztof Janowicz!
• May 15: We have accepted 67 abstracts for talks, 6 demos, and 76 posters for presentation.

Call for Submissions

We are accepting three types of submissions for GIScience 2025:

• Proceedings paper submissions [Submission Link]
• Abstract submissions [Submission Link]
• Demo submissions [Submission Link]

Proceedings paper submissions

Submissions may range in length from 6 to 15 pages. Authors are invited to submit papers with a length that is commensurate with the contribution. High-quality submissions will be selected for oral presentation at the conference and published in the conference proceedings. Manuscripts must describe original work that has not been previously published or submitted for review elsewhere. Papers should be written in English and must not exceed 15 pages (not including references and appendices) in the required format.

All paper submissions will be peer-reviewed by at least three members of the international program committee.

Link for Paper submissions: https://openreview.net/group?id=giscience.org/GIScience/2025/Conference

GIScience proceedings will be published in LIPIcs, the Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics series. LIPIcs volumes are peer-reviewed and published according to the principle of open access, i.e., they are available online and free of charge. Each article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY license, where the authors retain their copyright. Also, each article is assigned a DOI and a URN. The digital archiving of each volume is done in cooperation with the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek/German National Library. A number of high-standing international conferences have already made the move to LIPIcs.

Formatting instructions

All proceedings paper submissions to GIScience, should follow the LIPIcs instructions for authors and use the LIPIcs LaTeX template. The GIScience review process is double-blind, so please do not include any identifying information in the paper PDF.

Authors who are unfamiliar with LaTeX, but keen to try, are highly encouraged to use Overleaf, an online LaTeX editor that is easy to use and does not require any local installation. Overleaf comes with the LIPIcs class and template pre-loaded. Authors who want to use other text editors should stay close to the sample article’s layout for their paper submitted for review. Should their papers be accepted for publication, they must be converted to LaTeX using the LIPIcs LaTeX class and template. Authors are responsible for the conversion of their papers to LaTeX.

Datasets / code repository

We encourage the sharing of open datasets and code alongside published proceedings papers to support the FAIR principles of scientific data management. GIScience 2025 will provide a dedicated Zenodo community for authors to optionally co-publish datasets or code. Each research artifact shared this way will have a unique DOI.

Abstract submissions

For GIScience 2025 we also welcome abstract submissions. Accepted abstracts will be selected for oral or classic poster presentation. Abstracts provide an opportunity for participants to share work in progress, preliminary results, late-breaking research findings, and position statements.

Abstracts should clearly and concisely convey the essence of new research content, highlighting its contribution to, and its novelty in, GIScience. They should provide a brief overview of the context or problem, the main objective, and the approach or methods used. Most importantly, they must lucidly articulate what makes the work original, significant and how it advances knowledge or practice in the field of research.

Please note that the programme committee will assess the abstracts based on their novelty, fit to the conference themes and rigour, so it is important that these aspects are clearly demonstrated.

You can select a preference for oral or poster presentation. Submissions should include a 300-word abstract (no need to submit a full poster for review).

Link for Abstract submissions: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeSupUdI1UWj-esHiDjU8IpH3tW6bh_skkO0PyCbGQCNYHt3g/viewform?usp=sharing

Demos

Demos provide a valuable opportunity to showcase cutting-edge research and receive direct feedback from the research community. Submissions should feature functional systems or platforms built on or extending advanced GIScience and data analytics technologies that go beyond commercial software or basic statistical analysis. Presentation space will be made available for presenting your demo at the conference.

Demo submissions should include a 300-word abstract along with up to three pages of visual representations of the demo. Inclusion of a link to a video demo is recommended where applicable.

Link for Demo submissions: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd19RtdJALUoNDYOLjU0EqmwZjc6xZ6mn_frVhUmNSUpTD7UQ/viewform?usp=sharing

Abstract and demo repository

Authors of accepted abstracts and demos will be given the option to archive their submission in the GIScience 2025 Zenodo community, which will provide a unique DOI and persistent link to each contribution.

Final decisions on acceptance and presentation format (oral presentation or poster) will be made by the Program Chairs.

Call for Workshops

The call for workshops has concluded. Click here to view the selected Workshops.

NSF Student and Early Career Scholarships

The GIScience 2025 Conference organizers are excited to announce the NSF travel awards to help U.S. potential attendees with international travel and conference costs (up to $2000 USD per awardee) to attend the GIScience 2025 conference held in Christchurch, New Zealand. The funding for the travel awards comes from a grant hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Principal Investigator: Dr. Song Gao) and sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). We are truly grateful for NSF's support to the GIScience community.

• Applications due: May 17, 2025
• Decision: May 25, 2025

For more information on selection criteria, eligibility, and how to apply go here: https://forms.gle/8dTAaSeLCE7kQmeJ6

Esri Student Scholarships

Thanks to a generous contribution from Esri, we are accepting applications for Student Scholarships to attend GIScience 2025 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Each scholarship will pay for registration, including the full conference, workshop day, and conference dinner, for select student delegates.

• Applications due: May 17, 2025
• Decision: May 25, 2025

Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Priority to student authors of accepted proceedings papers, followed by abstracts, demos and workshop submissions.
• Financial need and justification for scholarship support.
• Contribution to diversity and inclusion in GIScience.
• Quality and clarity of short statement (150 words max).

Link for scholarship applications: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfirHCrMRksiGjt0vaPSQp8ba2PNy6zT_aofJwq4ZpItyCIkg/viewform?usp=sharing