ISMIR 2026 | First Call for Papers
Juan P Bello
Dear all,
The 27th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2026) will be held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and online from Nov 8-12, 2026.
ISMIR 2026 welcomes contributions in all the areas related to MIR and its applications. ISMIR is a truly interdisciplinary community, which fosters collaboration between researchers, developers, educators, librarians, students, and professionals from the disciplines involved in Music Information Retrieval, such as musicology, cognitive science, library and information science, computer science, electrical engineering, and many others. ISMIR 2026 will foster the discussion and exchange of ideas among the attendees, with special attention to new topics, emerging problems, inclusion, and diversity.
The theme of ISMIR 2026 will be "Crossroads". This resonates with the region's geographical position of being at the crossroads between the East and the West, and the fact that this region has been at the intersection of diverse cultures that continue to exchange and fuse. In MIR research, the exchange and fusion of technological development and human-centric dimensions such as social impact, responsibility and ethics, health and education are becoming increasingly important in the era of artificial intelligence. As such, the scientific program of ISMIR 2026 will give emphasis to human-centric dimensions in the design and evaluation of MIR techniques and systems.
Important Dates:
Time zone : Anywhere On Earth (AOE)
Paper submission portal opens: Feb 19, 2026
Abstract submission: April 20, 2026
Full Paper submission: April 27, 2026
Notification to authors: July 10, 2026
Camera-Ready submission: July 31, 2026
Conference dates: November 8-12, 2026
Additional information about the relevant topics and the review process can be found here: https://ismir2026.ismir.net/authors/call-for-papers
Detailed information on the submission procedure will be updated soon.
Hybrid Conference Format
ISMIR 2026 will be organized in a hybrid format with the aim of enabling both in-person and online participants to engage with the conference program and share their work. In-person participation is highly encouraged, and the organizing team is committed to helping presenters who wish to attend in person do so (regarding e.g., visa issues, financial support). Remote presenters will be required to attend (online) the specified session of the in-person program to which their paper is assigned.
New-to-ISMIR Paper Mentoring Program
New-to-ISMIR Paper Mentoring Program is designed for members new to ISMIR to share their advanced-stage work-in-progress ISMIR paper drafts with senior members of the ISMIR community as mentors to obtain focused review and constructive feedback. The program supplements the generic submission guidelines and will be run closely aligned with the paper submission deadlines. Please refer to the New-to-ISMIR Paper Mentoring Program webpage for the details.
Use of LLMs and AI tools:
In ISMIR 2026, we are introducing an LLM usage policy for authors and reviewers. In short, authors are allowed to use LLMs and AI tools but are responsible for the final submission, while reviewers are prohibited from using them entirely. We try to promote an AI-free review process at ISMIR 2026. We request you to please review the policy carefully for additional details.
Please contact the Scientific Program Chairs via email (ismir202...@ismir.net) if you have any additional questions.
Best Regards,
Vinoo Alluri, Juan Pablo Bello, Zhiyao Duan, Shuqi Dai, Ajay Srinivasamurthy
Scientific Program Chairs of ISMIR 2026