Wednesday, March 4, 2026

[DMANET] SPIRE 2026

33rd International Symposium on String Processing and Information Retrieval

October 13-16, Hamilton, Canada

First call for papers

The International Symposium on String Processing and Information Retrieval
(SPIRE 2026) will be held at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Canada.
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/spire-2026/

# SCOPE

SPIRE 2026 covers research in all aspects of string processing,
information retrieval, computational biology, and related
applications. Typical topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

- String Processing: String pattern matching, text indexing, data
structures for string processing, text compression, compressed data
structures, compressed string processing, text mining, 2D pattern
matching, automata-based string processing, combinatorics on words.
- Computational Biology: Algorithms for DNA sequencing, assembly,
alignments, read error correction, metagenomics, transcriptomics,
gene and regulatory element recognition, motif finding, pangenomics,
variants discovery, phylogenetics, genome rearrangements.
- Information Retrieval: Retrieval models and ranking, theoretical models
and foundations of IR, efficiency and scalability topics in IR, knowledge
acquisition in IR, machine learning and natural language processing for
IR, knowledge representation and reasoning for IR, user-centric aspects
of IR, IR evaluation, fairness, accountability, transparency in IR,
domain-specific IR applications, web search.

# SUBMISSIONS

SPIRE 2026 invites submissions in two categories:
- Long papers: Up to 12 pages, excluding references and optional appendices.
- Short papers: Up to 6 pages, excluding references and optional appendices.

Papers should be submitted electronically via EasyChair via the following link:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=spire2026

As in past editions, the proceedings of SPIRE 2026 will be published
by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. The
use of LNCS templates is mandatory. Suitable templates are available at
the Springer Website and on Overleaf. Use the LNCS style file as given:
do not change the margin size or the font; do not make a separate title
page, etc. Simultaneous submissions to other conferences with published
proceedings is not permitted. At least one author per accepted paper
is expected to register for the conference and present the paper. The
conference will be in-person, with online presentations only in
exceptional cases (e.g., authors with travel difficulties).

# AWARDS

The SPIRE 2026 Conference will present both a Best Paper Award and a Best Student Paper Award, each sponsored by Springer Nature for 500 euros, to recognize outstanding research contributions.

# IMPORTANT DATES

Submission deadlines:

- Abstract Deadline: June 18, 2026 AoE
- Full paper deadline: June 25, 2026 AoE (firm deadline)

Notifications: August 6, 2026

Camera-ready version: August 20, 2026

Events:
- SPIRE: October 13 to 15, 2026
- Workshop on Compression, Text, and Algorithms (WCTA): October 16, 2026

# GENERAL CHAIRS

Neerja Mhaskar, McMaster University, Canada
Ricardo Baeza-Yates, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden & University of Chile

# PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Neerja Mhaskar, McMaster University, Canada
Solon P. Pissis, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Netherlands

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