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CALL FOR PAPERS</div>
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INFORMS 2026 Data Mining Society Best Paper Award Competition</div>
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The Data Mining Society (DMS) of INFORMS announces the DMS Best Paper Award Competition to recognize excellence among the society's members. The competition has two tracks: </div>
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* General Track for the 2026 DMS Best Paper Award, and</div>
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* Student Track for the 2026 DMS Best Student Paper Award.</div>
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Four finalists will be selected for each track to make oral presentations at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting to be held in San Francisco, CA, on November 1-4, 2026.</div>
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The goal of the competition is to highlight significant research achievements by DMS members and to enhance the visibility and impact of their work. DMS invites high-quality, original research contributions that advance the methodology, theory, or applications
of data mining. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:</div>
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* Dimensionality reduction & feature engineering</div>
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* Pattern mining</div>
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* Cluster analysis & unsupervised learning</div>
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* Anomaly detection</div>
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* Classification & supervised learning</div>
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* Machine learning & deep learning for data mining</div>
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* Uncertainty quantification</div>
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* Data stream mining</div>
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* Text mining</div>
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* Longitudinal data analysis</div>
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* Time series mining</div>
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* Spatial and spatiotemporal data mining</div>
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* Graph/network data mining & social network analysis</div>
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* Web data mining</div>
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* Fairness & privacy preserving in data mining</div>
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* Federated and distributed learning</div>
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* Multimodal & heterogeneous data mining</div>
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* Bayesian analysis</div>
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* Simulation and optimization in data mining</div>
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* Interpretable/explainable data mining</div>
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* Generative AI in data mining</div>
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* Applications of data mining in healthcare, manufacturing, energy, environment, logistics, supply chain, finance, social media/systems, & more</div>
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Eligibility Requirements & Submission:</div>
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* The award nominee (lead author) must be a member of the Data Mining Society at the time of the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting.</div>
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* Student Track only: The award nominee (lead author) must be a student member of the Data Mining Society by the time of the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting, and the student must be the main contributor to the submitted work. A confirmation letter from the advisor
and lead author (student) is required at submission (link to form provided below).</div>
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* The submitted paper should be neither published nor accepted for publication elsewhere at the time of submission.</div>
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* An author may only serve as the lead author on at most one submission for each competition track. There is no limit to the number of submissions on which an author may serve as a non-lead coauthor.</div>
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* Previous finalists of either track of the DMS Best Paper Award Competition who wish to compete this year must submit new work that is clearly distinct from any previously recognized finalist submissions.</div>
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* Finalists will be announced prior to the annual meeting and will present their papers in the respective DMS Best Paper Award Competition (General or Student Track) sessions at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting. Presentations as a finalist will not count toward
the one presentation limit at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting.</div>
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* Papers selected as a finalist in either competition track may not simultaneously serve as finalists in other competitions at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting (including those organized within DMS). If such a conflict arises, please inform the competition co-chairs
(contact information is provided at the end of this document).</div>
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* Finalists in either the General Track or Student Track will have the opportunity to submit their papers through a fast-track submission to the INFORMS Journal on Data Science (IJDS). To be eligible, papers must not be under review elsewhere and must not be
subject to copyright restrictions from other journals or conferences. Fast-track submissions to IJDS must be completed no later than November 30, 2026. More details will be provided to the finalists. </div>
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* Required paper format: Maximum of 12 total pages (including all sections, e.g., including references, appendices, etc.), 1-inch margins, 11-point font or higher, single column, single-spaced, and 100-word abstract. Papers exceeding the 12-page limit will
be automatically disqualified from the competitions.</div>
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Evaluation:</div>
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All paper submissions will be evaluated by external referees using a double-blind process. Four finalists for each track will be selected by an external review evaluation. The winners of each track will be determined based on the external review evaluation
and the oral presentation at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting. Authors will be notified of finalist decisions by August 14.</div>
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Submission Guidelines:</div>
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Prospective authors should prepare the following files:</div>
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* A file of the blinded version of the paper in PDF format.</div>
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* A file of the unblinded version of the paper in PDF format.</div>
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* Student Track only: A signed confirmation letter from the advisor and lead author (student) in PDF format:
<a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1xwzww7WdV5zbO-kCxN4nDoTHWq4SXrnY%2Fedit%3Fusp%3Dsharing%26ouid%3D100192380556046275283%26rtpof%3Dtrue%26sd%3Dtrue&data=05%7C02%7Ciefac.list%40mailman.clemson.edu%7Cb195d6e487844605fc8b08ded62831d9%7C0c9bf8f6ccad4b87818d49026938aa97%7C0%7C0%7C639183665821151742%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=vXd2kAHIq8ES5vG3bMFL1vLiyusSRLNzX%2B9oqlF2Gjg%3D&reserved=0" originalSrc="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xwzww7WdV5zbO-kCxN4nDoTHWq4SXrnY/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100192380556046275283&rtpof=true&sd=true" id="OWA6b2855bf-2317-9aaa-b92a-eb5ad1d6798b" class="OWAAutoLink">
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xwzww7WdV5zbO-kCxN4nDoTHWq4SXrnY/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=100192380556046275283&rtpof=true&sd=true</a> </div>
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(You may download as a Word document to make changes.) </div>
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Please upload all files and complete the submission form(s) before the deadline of Tuesday, June 30, 2026, 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Late submissions will not be accepted. The submission forms are available at:</div>
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* General Track: <a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fforms%2Fd%2Fe%2F1FAIpQLSc2SrfxGNayXmRK7q1mmeMoH45VDr-GsDwY53nsocpVZdcBtA%2Fviewform%3Fusp%3Dpublish-editor&data=05%7C02%7Ciefac.list%40mailman.clemson.edu%7Cb195d6e487844605fc8b08ded62831d9%7C0c9bf8f6ccad4b87818d49026938aa97%7C0%7C0%7C639183665821177620%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ttqm%2F0Ssyfl27B8a6iuzOTro9QoDcWtkF4ZnI6fk68k%3D&reserved=0" originalSrc="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc2SrfxGNayXmRK7q1mmeMoH45VDr-GsDwY53nsocpVZdcBtA/viewform?usp=publish-editor" id="OWAb706815e-c255-2b4e-0a1e-07676864fd43" class="OWAAutoLink">
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc2SrfxGNayXmRK7q1mmeMoH45VDr-GsDwY53nsocpVZdcBtA/viewform?usp=publish-editor</a></div>
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* Student Track: <a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fforms%2Fd%2Fe%2F1FAIpQLSevT44gID2eK1LHq_lGs4GpD21uNV8aA4gmd09LdW1-OGTr4Q%2Fviewform%3Fusp%3Dpublish-editor&data=05%7C02%7Ciefac.list%40mailman.clemson.edu%7Cb195d6e487844605fc8b08ded62831d9%7C0c9bf8f6ccad4b87818d49026938aa97%7C0%7C0%7C639183665821200157%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C80000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cmgoy5DQSZWvTpN9J1PBwKeEkGXZm7qWGz3oxuJxc8Q%3D&reserved=0" originalSrc="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevT44gID2eK1LHq_lGs4GpD21uNV8aA4gmd09LdW1-OGTr4Q/viewform?usp=publish-editor" id="OWA0a71c59c-247a-8542-24d9-903a760e00e5" class="OWAAutoLink" style="pointer-events: auto;">
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevT44gID2eK1LHq_lGs4GpD21uNV8aA4gmd09LdW1-OGTr4Q/viewform?usp=publish-editor</a></div>
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Key Dates:</div>
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* June 30: Paper submission deadline (General Track and Student Track)</div>
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* August 14: Announcement of competition finalists</div>
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* November 1-4: Presentations by finalists at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting (exact date, time, and room TBD)</div>
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If you have any questions, please contact the INFORMS 2026 Data Mining Society Best Paper Award Competition Co-Chairs:</div>
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* Dr. Adam Meyers (axm8336@miami.edu), University of Miami</div>
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* Dr. Zimo Wang (zimowang@binghamton.edu), Binghamton University</div>
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* Dr. Hadis Anahideh (hadis@uic.edu), University of Illinois Chicago</div>
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