First Workshop on Causal Inference & NLP

We invite papers broadly related to the intersection of causal inference and NLP. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

  • Causal inference methodology for language: Includes methodology for causal inference and optimal policy learning with experimental or observational data, where text is a treatment, outcome, mediator or moderator.

  • Language processing systems and causality: Includes research on counterfactual predictions with text, causal model interpretation and explanation, causal model debiasing, and datasets to benchmark the sensitivity and robustness of causal NLP systems.

  • Society, language, and causality: Includes research on language as a mechanism of influence and provocation, and causal questions related to linguistic framing, medical notes and clinical outcomes, and political messaging and propaganda.

Important Dates

  • Submissions due: August 5, 2021
  • Notification of acceptance: September 5, 2021
  • Camera-ready papers due: September 15, 2021
  • Workshop: November 10, 2021

Submission Information

The workshop will have two tracks: archival and non-archival. Only archival papers will be included in the proceedings as archival publications. All submissions should be in PDF format, follow the official EMNLP 2021 style guidelines, and be submitted here.

In the archival track, we invite the submission of long and short papers, describing original and unpublished research on topics related to the main workshop themes. Long papers may consist of up to 8 pages of content + references. Short papers may consist of up to 4 pages of content + references. Readable supplementary material can be added after references, in the appendices section. Submissions in this track should be anonymous. Upon acceptance, both types of papers will be given one (1) additional page of content. Authors are encouraged to use this additional page for addressing reviewers’ comments in the final version.

In the non-archival track, we invite extended abstracts that may consist of up to 4 pages of content + references. Extended abstracts describe preliminary work or results that have already been published, or work in progress that will be later submitted to archival venues. In this track we also allow the submission of papers that were published in top-tier venues over the last few years, in cases the authors believe that presenting these papers will contribute to the discussion at the workshop. Such papers can be submitted as a PDF file according to the format of the conference or journal in which they were originally published and papers should indicate this at submission time.

In both tracks, we welcome both empirical and theoretical papers, as well as opinion and discussion papers.