Geoinformatics 2026 (the 33rd CPGIS Annual Conference) will be held on July 19-22, 2026, at the University Town (UTown), National University of Singapore. We invite you and/or your students to participate in the Best Student Paper Competition. The competition is a long-standing tradition of the CPGIS for promoting the academic development of young scholars in geographic information sciences.

Awards

The awards will include

·      One First-Place Award (600 USD + CPGIS lifetime membership!),

·      One Second-Place Award (300 USD)

·      Two Third-Place Awards (150 USD each).

·      One waived Article Processing Charge (APC) for Annals of GIS

The award will be disbursed in local currency. All finalists will be eligible for a waived Article Processing Charge (APC) for Annals of GIS, subject to their interest in submitting to the journal. If multiple finalists request the waiver, priority will be given to the winner of the Student Paper Competition. Additional awards may be offered depending on available budget.

Requirements

As a tradition in the past, the flagship journal of CPGIS, Annals of GIS (published by Taylor & Francis, a world-leading academic publisher), will continue to hold the privilege of considering publishing the awarded papers. If submitted, all awarded papers will go through the peer-review process of the journal. Awarded papers published in Annals of GIS will also be eligible for competing for the journal’s annual best paper awards. Note: Annals of GIS is now included in the Emerging Science Citation Index.

Different from other full papers submitted to the conference, it is recommended that papers submitted to the competition follow the formatting requirements of Annals of GIS. To be eligible for the competition, the first author of the paper must meet ALL of the following conditions:

(1)  The author is currently an enrolled graduate or undergraduate student, or graduated within a year by the time of submission;
(2)  The author undertakes the majority of the research and the drafting of the manuscript;
(3)  The paper has not been published or is under consideration for publication elsewhere;
(4)  The paper has not been submitted for applications for other awards.

Selected participants will be invited to present in an in-person oral session. Once accepted into the oral session, participants must register for the conference and attend in person to deliver their presentation and remain eligible for the competition.

The Student Paper Competition Committee will invite scholars in relevant fields to review all submissions. The committee will make award decisions based on the quality of the paper and the oral presentation.

Submission

To enroll in the student paper competition, please submit your full paper (Word document) to Xiao Huang (xiao.huang2@emory.edu). Please mention CPGIS Student Paper Competition in the Email subject.

Important Dates

Submission of full paper to the competition: March 23, 2026

Notice of acceptance for the oral competition session: April 24, 2026

Early bird registration ends: May 1, 2026

Thanks for your interest. We look forward to your participation.

Best regards,

CPGIS Student Paper Competition Committee:

Xiao Huang (Chair), Xiang Chen, Dameng Yin, Lu Liang, Xiaolin Zhu, Xining Yang, Xinyue Ye