IEEE VIS 2026 Program Committee Volunteering

Thank you for your interest in volunteering to become a member of the Program Committee (PC) for the IEEE VIS 2026 Full Papers program! Even though volunteering does not guarantee a spot on the program committee, we will consider all volunteers with great interest and gratitude. The VIS 2026 Papers Chairs Committee (PCC) will consider several factors when selecting PC members. At an absolute minimum, PC members should have a Ph.D. degree (or equivalent terminal degree), have published at least one full paper at VIS, and have reviewed at least one full paper for VIS (preferably in the last five years). Key factors that the PCC will consider include * papers published at VIS and related venues; * reviewing experience at VIS and related venues; * achieved academic degree in our field; * previous PC experience for related venues; and * areas of expertise. The volunteering period will be closed on December 31, 2025. DUTIES OF A PC MEMBER Serving as a PC member is a significant commitment of time, effort, and energy. It involves taking the responsibility as a Primary or Secondary reviewer for the peer review of approximately six papers. Consequently, being a PC member is significantly more work than reviewing. Below follows a brief description of the main duties. Bidding on paper abstracts and identifying conflicts of interests As a PC member, you must bid on paper abstracts and identify all conflicts of interest with paper authors in the time between the abstract submission and the full paper deadline. Recruiting external reviews and ensuring high-quality reviews As a PC member, you need to find at least one expert to review each of the papers that are assigned to you as secondary. These external reviewers must be competent with a strong knowledge in the topic and/or methods of the paper, but needs to come from a different institution than your own. Reviewers will often be unavailable or committed to reviewing other papers. In such cases, you are responsible for quickly finding replacement reviewers. It is the responsibility of the PC members to ensure that high-quality reviews (i.e., detailed, fair, and encouraging; both your own and those of the externals) are submitted on time. As the review deadline approaches, this often requires some pestering of reviewers and occasionally requires some gentle prodding when reviews are inadequate. Writing high-quality reviews As a PC member, you are required to perform a full, high-quality review of all the papers assigned to you (again: detailed, fair, and encouraging). Facilitating discussion and writing summary reviews As a Primary Reviewer, you need to write a summary review, summarizing the assessment of all reviewers, including yours. You are also required to initiate and facilitate a discussion between the reviewers. The period for writing primary summary reviews begins right after the review deadline and ends approx. one week later. Facilitating a discussion and writing summary reviews entails a significant amount of work in a short timeframe, with a firm deadline. It is very important to be sure that your schedule can accommodate this workload before committing to be a PC member. (TENTATIVE) SCHEDULE FOR IEEE VIS 2026 All dates are in the year of 2026. * abstract submission deadline: March 21 * final full paper submission deadline: March 31 * PC members update their areas of expertise, identify conflicts, and bid on papers: March 22–31 * paper assignments to PC members: April 7 * PC members find competent external reviewers: April 8–14 * PC members track progress, ensure high-quality reviews, and write a full review: April 8 – May 7 * all reviews due: May 8 * online, written discussion between reviewers: May 8–15 * summary reviews due: May 15 * reviews to authors: June 6 * revision (for the second round reviews) deadline: July 1 * second round reviews due: July 14 * final notification to authors: July 15 HOW TO VOLUNTEER You can volunteer to become a PC member for IEEE VIS 2026 by filling out this form: all fields are required unless otherwise noted. Even though the PCC will primarily look at the information collected from this form, most of the relevant information is also part of your profile in PCS. So, before you complete and submit this form, make sure to update your profile by following the instructions below: * visit https://new.precisionconference.com/vgtc, login and click the “Reviews” tab * complete the “Provide areas of expertise” section * complete the “Provide sample publications” section