About

ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems (TiiS, pronounced “T double-eye S”) is an ACM journal for research on intelligent systems that people interact with.

TiiS publishes articles on research concerning the design, realization, or evaluation of interactive systems that incorporate certain form of machine intelligence. Such interactive intelligent systems are associated with a set of defining characteristics. In addition, TiiS articles come from a wide range of research areas and communities. An article can take any of several complementary views of interactive intelligent systems as described below, with a focus on (a) the intelligent technology, (b) the interaction of users with the system, or (c) both aspects at the same time. This journal is published on a quarterly basis. 

Defining Characteristics

The first defining characteristic of interactive intelligent systems is that they include some form of intelligence – in the sense used in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), though in some cases the technology in question is no longer primarily or strongly associated with the AI field.

The second defining characteristic, interactivity, normally means that what the system does is perceived by – and influenced by – its users. Where no user input to a system is possible, the system can still be considered interactive if it is intended to support some sort of action on the part of the users. For example, a system that generates performances of virtual characters for the entertainment of passive viewers would not be considered interactive. But if the characters’ performances are intended to support some sort of decision-making or action by users, the system can be viewed as interactive, because it raises many of the same general issues that are raised by systems that are interactive in a narrower sense.

TiiS solicits paper submissions on all aspects of interactive intelligent systems, consistent with the aims and scope of TiiS as defined in the About page. Please see the extensive list of relevant research topics below. On the other hand, papers that fail to demonstrate its relevance to the two defining characteristics of an interactive intelligent system are likely to be rejected.

Type of Submissions

TiiS welcomes submissions of original research work that has not been previously published in a journal, nor is currently under consideration elsewhere. A manuscript that includes material that has been previously published, as in widely disseminated conference proceedings, should contain significant new material (e.g., at least 30% or more new content). The TiiS submission might include a deeper exploration of the algorithms, perhaps including new theorems, proofs, or implementation details; and/or a deeper exploration of the interaction issues, perhaps including the consideration of new design alternatives or a more in-depth evaluation with users. The submission should offer strong new impact, not a repackaging of the same material. Authors should include a cover letter that gives a link to the previously published paper, identifies the new contributions, and explains how their importance justifies publication in TiiS.

Literature reviews or survey articles will be considered if they present a new perspective or otherwise clearly benefit the field. Such an article can go beyond a summary of literature by, for example, defining its topic in a new way or identifying common themes and results concerning different systems or studies.

If your paper is a re-submission of a previously rejected submission to TiiS, please add a letter-of-changes addressing all comments by the reviewers from the previous submission.

More detailed information about ACM’s general policies concerning simultaneous and prior submission can be found in a separate ACM page. Authors should also be aware of ACM policy concerning author representations (i.e., statements implicitly made by an author who submits a manuscript). 

Topics of Submissions

Research on interactive intelligent systems covers a wide variety of research topics. TiiS welcomes relevant submissions from all of these topic areas, and its board of Associate Editors has been selected with the goal of ensuring expert reviewing of all relevant submissions.

The following list of topics, though representative, is not exhaustive; and different terms are sometimes used to describe the areas. TiiS therefore publishes some articles on topics that do not match any of the phrases listed below. On the other hand, in some of these areas only a fraction of the research that is conducted concerns interactive intelligent systems. Therefore, not every manuscript that falls into one of these topics is relevant to TiiS.

        Machine Intelligence for Novel User Interfaces

                Augment Reality and Virtual Reality
                Multimodal interfaces
                Natural language interfaces
                Embodied conversational agents
                Computer graphical interfaces
                Accessible computing

        Machine Intelligence for Interactive Systems

                Crowd computing
                Recommender systems
                Information retrieval
                Intelligent learning environments

        Machine Intelligence for Developing and Testing User Interfaces

                Model-based design of user interfaces
                Automated usability testing

        Machine Intelligence on More Than One Level

                Information visualization and visual analytics
                Human-robot interaction
                Semantic technologies
                User modeling for adaptive and personalized systems
                Internet of Things
                Ubiquitous computing
                Mobile computing
                Games
                Knowledge capture

Note: “Artificial intelligence”, “human-computer interaction”, and “intelligent user interfaces” are not listed as separate areas here, since each of them overlaps with many of the listed areas.
Length of Submissions

Most published articles are between 20 and 35 pages long in the ACM style.

Since the overall goal is to publish high-quality, high-impact articles, even submissions with unusual lengths will be considered if their content is consistent with this goal. In particular, the length of a manuscript intended as the definitive publication on a major project or line of research may exceed the typical range of length just mentioned. On the other side, if a manuscript presents a significant advance that can be described concisely, there is no point in adding unnecessary material just to reach a typical length.