HIS 2015 is seeking original high quality Special Session on focused discussion addressing innovative research highlighting significant topics and emerging issues, which are related to the conference theme and with the desired expertise. Interdisciplinary session themes are strongly sought after. Each special session resembles a mini-conference within the main HIS meeting that will run throughout the conference in parallel to other tracks (except the keynote presentations).
Session organizer(s) will be responsible for advertising, promoting, managing paper selection and chairing the parallel special session during the conference. Papers will be reviewed by the panel reviewers from the Session Program Committee and approved by the General Conference Program Committee. Each Special Session is expected to have at least 5 papers and at least one author of each paper must register for the paper present during the session. Special Session paper submission will be done through HIS 2015 submission system and been evaluated with the same standard as the regular conference paper. All accepted papers will be included in the HIS 2015 conference proceedings.

Financial Constraints
Special Sessions are an integral part of the HIS 2015 meeting. Special Session chair and speakers will have to pay their expenses including registration for the meeting (unless it is waived by the General Chair). Therefore, we highly encourage session organizers to seek independent funding, and to include any commitment that they may have secured in the proposal. HIS 2015 will help in the administrative aspects of assigning the rooms, announcements and adding the detailed schedule to the conference program. Note that the HIS 2015 cannot financially support the speakers or the Special Session organizer(s).

Submission Evaluation
All proposal submissions will be reviewed by the HIS 2015 special session chair and the general conference committee. The following criteria will be considered:

• Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to HIS 2015 attendees.
• Complementarity to the HIS 2015 program provided by the other tracks.
• Completeness, clarity, and quality of the session proposal.
• Qualification of the submitter(s) to organize the workshop.
• Likely success of the proposed session.
• Overlap with other proposal or pre-selected activity.

Submission Guidelines
Please send the Special Session proposals to the special session chairs with the following information:

• Title of the Special Sessions
• Rationale of the need and objective of the session
• Session outline
• Specific topics of interest
• Short biography of the proposed session chair (s) 
• List of potential reviewers panel, including, affiliations and contact information

Workshops and Special Sessions Chairs
TBA

Important Dates
Special session proposals: July 15, 2015
Acceptance of special sessions: July 30, 2015