We’re excited to announce that VISxVISION will be hosting a workshop at IEEE VIS 2026! It will include keynote, paper talks, and a panel discussion. The theme of the workshop this year is:

Leveraging Vision Science Approaches to Ground Theory, Methods, and Reliability of Visualization.

About the Workshop

VisXVision focuses on contributions relating vision science (e.g., human perception and cognition) to all areas of visualization. We believe our field needs at least two things to stay well-grounded: new ideas, and confidence that those ideas hold up.

To support both, we accept 2 types of submissions — research/position papers and replication-focused papers, which retest whether prior perceptual and cognitive findings about visualization replicate.

We accept short paper submissions of up to 4 pages (without counting references). The length of the submission should be commensurate with the contribution.

Program & Schedule (TBD)

The workshop will be a half-day event held as part of IEEE VIS 2026 in Boston, USA. The program date is TBD A detailed schedule will be posted here closer to the event. 

Call for Papers

All submissions should be formatted in the VGTC conference paper style. Suitable templates, in LaTeX and Word, can be downloaded from: https://tc.computer.org/vgtc/publications/conference/. The submission itself, however, must be made in PDF format. Authors can decide whether they want to reveal their names on the submission (single-blind) or submit anonymously (double-blind).

To submit, create an account and submit the paper to the submission system at: https://new.precisionconference.com/user/login. Choose VGTC -> VIS 2026 -> VIS 2026 VisxVision to create a submission. Please clarify whether you are submitting a research/position-focused or replication-focused paper.

We plan to publish accepted papers in the IEEE digital library, including the assignment of DOIs to individual papers. Authors can optionally submit Non-Archival papers not included in the proceedings.

Important Dates 

  • Deadline for submission: July 10, 2026 (AoE)
  • Notification of acceptance: July 31, 2026 
  • Deadline for revision: August 14, 2026 (AoE)
  • Final notification: August 18, 2026

Research / Position Paper

VisXVision focuses on all areas of the intersection between vision science and visualization research. We invite research paper submissions that apply psychological theories to VIS challenges or use visualization as a lens to study human perception. Submissions presenting preliminary results, novel theoretical frameworks, or cross-disciplinary case studies are all welcome. We also invite position papers to envision open directions on these relevant topics. Representative prior peer-reviewed papers can be found at: https://visxvision.com/research/.

Example topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Ensemble Coding and Scene Statistics
  • Color Perception
  • Affective Cognition
  • Visual Foraging and Saliency
  • Peripheral Vision and Responsive Visualization
  • Memorability and Recall
  • Gestalt, Grouping, and Segmentation
  • Visualization Psychology Theories and Models

Replication Paper

Replication papers are dedicated to the verification of existing findings in visualization research. We encourage replications that seek to confirm or challenge past findings in the VIS literature. We invite direct or conceptual replications of previously published VIS papers, including user studies, perceptual experiments, and systems/data benchmarks.

Example topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Replicating Color Perception Behaviors in Multi-Class Scatterplots
  • Replicating the “Effectiveness of Visual Channels” Hierarchy
  • Verification of the “Truncated Y-Axis” Bias
  • Reproducing Inattentional Blindness in Dynamic Charts
  • Reproducing Performance Improvements of a Visualization Technique

A Preliminary Replication Study Guideline

We suggest the following standard for replication paper submissions for those who are not familiar with this topic.

  1. Shareable Materials and Platform

We suggest using reVISit as the primary platform for developing and hosting replication studies. reVISit is an open-source framework designed specifically for web-based visualization experiments, ensuring the study is modular, shareable, and reproducible.

  1. Pre-Experimental Rigor

We recommend considering pre-experimental rigor for a replication study, e.g., determining the sample size required to detect the original effect size with at least 80% power or documenting your hypothesis, stimulus design, and exclusion criteria on a platform like OSF before replication study begins.

  1. Stimuli & Environmental Control

For Direct Replication, a study will need to replicate the visual angle, luminance, and resolution of the original study as closely as possible. For Conceptual Replication, a study can update the stimuli/design structure while maintaining the underlying study task in a desired new condition.

  1. Analysis & Comparison

If your results differ from the original, analyze potential moderators—such as changes in participant demographics, display technology, or the complexity of the data distribution. If possible, please do not simply report “Success” or “Failure” based on p-values. Compare the Effect Size (e.g., Cohen’s d or eta^2) of your results against the original study whenever possible.

  1. Reporting Null Results

A replication that fails to find the original effect is a significant contribution to the field. It prevents the community from over-generalizing ghost effects and encourages the refinement of the original theory. We evaluate replication papers based on the quality and transparency of the process, not the p-value significance of the outcome.