Submission Instructions

CLEF 2026 features multiple kinds of submissions:

• Conference Papers, peer-reviewed articles published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.
• Lab Working Notes, peer-reviewed reports describing the experiments carried out during the CLEF evaluation campaigns, published in digital form in the CEUR-WS Proceedings.
• Task Overview Papers, submitted by task organizers describing data, teams, and results of their task, published in digital form in the CEUR-WS Proceedings.
• Condensed Lab Overviews, condensed lab/workshop overviews submitted by lab organizers describing the lab/workshop as a whole, published in the Springer LNCS series.

CLEF 2026 uses EasyChair for all submission types.

Conference Paper Submissions

Authors are invited to electronically submit original papers, which have not been published and are not under consideration elsewhere. Two categories of papers will be accepted:

• Long papers: 12 pages plus references
• Short papers: 6 pages plus references
• Past, Present, Future papers: 12 pages plus references

Papers should be anonymous, sharing code and data with reviewers should be done via anonymous repositories like, for example, https://anonymous.4open.science/.

Accepted papers are published in the Spring LNCS Series; previous CLEF proceedings can be found via SpringerLink. We request that all contributing authors adhere to the Springer Code of Conduct. Papers are to be submitted in Springer LNCS format. Author information, formatting instructions, and templates can be found in Springers’ official author instructions. The License-to-Publish form will be distributed together with acceptance notifications.

Lab Working Notes

For each task at CLEF 2026, participants must submit working notes describing their systems. The organizers of each task are responsible for collecting the working notes from their participants.

Submissions are expected to be in English language and 5 pages minimum, with no maximum page limit.

Working notes are to be submitted in 1-column CEURART format.

Task Overview Papers

For each lab/workshop at CLEF 2026, organizers must submit an extended overview for the CEUR-WS Working Notes, describing the lab/workshop, the data used, the teams that participated and their approaches, the results obtained, and the analysis of those results. Organizers may submit either a single overview covering the entire lab, or separate overviews for each task within the lab where greater detail is helpful.

The extended overview must include a section briefly summarizing each participant’s approach and main findings, with explicit references to their papers.

Please note that the extended CEUR-WS overview and the condensed LNCS overview (see Condensed Lab Overviews) must be distinct: the extended version must not replicate the condensed one and should add further material and analysis. Where a lab has not generated enough material to justify a substantially different extended overview, submit instead a brief extended abstract (2–4 pages) summarizing the lab and referring readers to the LNCS overview for full details.

To keep titles identifiable and consistent across CLEF, use the format Overview of <Lab Name> 2026, adapted per task where separate overviews are submitted.

Submissions are expected to be in English language and 5 pages minimum, with no maximum page limit. Task overviews are to be submitted in 1-column CEURART format, via EasyChair within your lab/workshop track.

Condensed Lab Overview Papers

For each lab/workshop at CLEF 2026, organizers must submit a condensed overview describing the lab/workshop as a whole. Condensed overviews are peer-reviewed by the lab chairs and published in the Springer LNCS proceedings, alongside the conference papers.

The condensed LNCS overview and the extended CEUR-WS overview (see Task Overview Papers) must be distinct — the extended version must not replicate the condensed one, and the two must carry clearly different titles to prevent indexing services such as Google Scholar from merging them. Where a lab has not produced enough material for a substantially different extended overview, the condensed overview acts as the primary publication and the CEUR-WS Working Notes instead include a brief extended abstract (2–4 pages).

To keep titles identifiable and consistent across CLEF, use the format Overview of <Lab Name> 2026 with an optional subtitle. Communicate the chosen title to your participants early so they can cite it correctly.

Submissions are expected to be in English language and with a maximum length of 25 pages. Condensed overviews are to be submitted in Springer LNCS format, via EasyChair within your lab/workshop track. The License-to-Publish form will be distributed together with acceptance notifications.