Tracking the follow-up of work in progress papers

Academic conferences offer numerous submission tracks to support the inclusion of a variety of researchers and topics. Work in progress papers are one such submission type where authors present preliminary results in a poster session. They have recently gained popularity in the area of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as a relatively easier pathway to attending the conference due to their higher acceptance rate as compared to the main tracks. However, it is not clear if these work in progress papers are further extended or transitioned into more complete and thorough full papers or are simply one-off pieces of research. In order to answer this we explore self-citation patterns of four work in progress editions in two popular HCI conferences (CHI2010, CHI2011, HRI2010 and HRI2011). Our results show that almost 50% of the work in progress papers do not have any self-citations and approximately only half of the self-citations can be considered as true extensions of the original work in progress paper. Specific conferences dominate as the preferred venue where extensions of these work in progress papers are published. Furthermore, the rate of self-citations peaks in the immediate year after publication and gradually tails off. By tracing author publication records, we also delve into possible reasons of work in progress papers not being cited in follow up publications. In conclusion, we speculate on the main trends observed and what they may mean looking ahead for the work in progress track of premier HCI conferences.