Call for Papers
Overview
BlackboxNLP 2025 invites the submission of archival and non-archival papers featuring original and unpublished research on interpreting and explaining NLP models by taking inspiration from fields such as machine learning, psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience. We hope the workshop will serve as an interdisciplinary meetup that allows for cross-collaboration.
The topics of the workshop include, but are not limited to:
- Explanation methods such as saliency, attribution, free-text explanations, or explanations with structured properties.
- Mechanistic interpretability, reverse engineering approaches to understanding particular properties of neural models.
- Scaling up analysis methods for large language models (LLMs)
- Probing methods for testing whether models have acquired or represent certain linguistic properties.
- Analysing context mixing (e.g., token-to-token interactions) in deep learning architectures
- Adapting and applying analysis techniques from other disciplines (e.g., neuroscience or computer vision).
- Examining model performance on simplified or formal languages.
- Proposing modifications to neural architectures that increase their interpretability.
- Open-source tools for analysis, visualization, or explanation to democratize access to interpretability techniques in NLP.
- Evaluation of explanation methods: how do we know the explanation is faithful to the model?
- Understanding under the hood of memorization in LLMs
- Opinion pieces about the state of explainable NLP.
Paper Submission Information
We will accept submissions through OpenReview (submission link TBA). All submissions should use the *ACL template and formatting requirements, following the official EMNLP style guidelines. Archival paper must be fully anonymized.
Submission Types
- Archival papers of up to 8 pages + references. These are papers reporting on completed, original, and unpublished research. Papers shorter than this maximum are also welcome. An optional appendix may appear after the references in the same pdf file. Accepted papers are expected to be presented at the workshop and will be published in the workshop proceedings of the ACL Anthology, meaning they cannot be published elsewhere. They should report on obtained results rather than intended work. These papers will undergo double-blind peer-review, and should thus be anonymized.
- Non-archival extended abstracts of 2 pages + references. These may report on work in progress or may be cross-submissions that have already appeared (or are scheduled to appear) in another venue. These submissions are non-archival and will not be included in the proceedings. The selection will not be based on a double-blind review and thus submissions of this type need not be anonymized.
Accepted submissions for both tracks will be presented at the workshop: most as posters, some as oral presentations (determined by the program committee).
Dual Submissions and Preprints
Dual submissions are allowed for the archival track, but please check the dual submissions policy for the other venue that you are dual-submitting to. Papers posted to preprint servers such as arXiv can be submitted without any restrictions on when they were posted.
Camera-ready information
Authors of accepted archival papers should upload the final version of their paper to the submission system by the camera-ready deadline. Authors may use one extra page to address reviewer comments, for a total of nine pages + references. Broader Impacts/Ethics and Limitations sections are optional and can be included on a 10th page.
Contact
Please contact the organizers at blackboxnlp@googlegroups.com for any questions.
Anti-Harassment Policy
BlackboxNLP 2025 adheres to the ACL Anti-Harassment Policy.