The 1st International Online Conference on Social Sciences
The 1st International Online Conference on Social Sciences
Part of the International Online Conference on Social Sciences series
Event's Timezone: Central European Summer Time
23 February 2026
23 March 2026
25 May 2026
Family Studies, Gender Studies, Childhood, Crime, Justice
The IOCSS2026 is now OPEN for Abstract Submission and Registration.
Instruction for authors are available online.
Submit your abstract HERE.
For any inquiries, please contact us at iocss2026@mdpi.com
Welcome from the Chairs
This conference will offer a platform for scholars, researchers and experts from across the social science community to exchange innovative and impactful research. The conference is oriented around general themes across the social sciences, including, but not limited to, the following:
We anticipate submissions encompassing individual paper presentations and pre-arranged panels on specific thematic topics, as well as plenary sessions involving invited world-leading speakers.
The event will take place via Sciforum.net, a platform developed and sponsored by MDPI to organize and provide technical support for electronic conferences. The conference’s virtual format offers the distinct advantage of eliminating the need for travel and its associated expenses, allowing you to engage in quick and direct exchanges of the latest research findings and innovative ideas.
We look forward to welcoming you to this exciting event and providing an opportunity to hear about your research.
Kind regards,
Professor Daniel McCarthy, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
Dr. Lawrence Ho, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei City, Taiwan
Event Chairs
McCarthy is currently Professor in Criminology in the Department of Sociology/Co-Director of the Centre for Criminology. He specialises in research in areas of policing, inter-agency working, and more latterly in the area of prison/family effects and incarceration. He also has interests in cross-national research, including emphasis on public attitudes to policing and punishment (especially the death penalty). Prof. McCarthy's wider interests concern the effects of family contact on prisoner re-entry, the impact of prison conditions on prisoner behaviour during and beyond their sentence, as well as more generally in the application of criminological theory. He is author of 'Soft Policing: The Collaborative Control of Anti-Social Behaviour' (Palgrave, 2014), 'The Impact of Youth Imprisonment on the Lives of Parents' (with Maria Adams, Routledge, 2023) and 'Beyond Porridge' (with Maria Adams, Jon Garland, Vicki Harman, Erin Power and Talitha Brown( Waterside Press, 2024), as well as numerous articles in the fields of criminology and sociology. He has received several grants and awards including the 2014 British Society of Criminology (Policing Network) award, the 2014 Economic and Social Research Council, Future Leaders Award, as well as the 2015 Vice Chancellor's 'Researcher of the Year' Award. He also was co-awarded the Faculty Teacher of the Year Prize (2019).
National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei City, Taiwan
Lawrence Ka-ki HO currently works at the Department of Social Sciences (SSC), The Education University of Hong Kong. He is also Fellow of the Centre for Criminology, The University of Hong Kong. Lawrence does research in History and Sociology of Policing, Comparative Policing Practices, Policing Issues and Challenges in Greater China and East Asia. He also extends his researches to sports in these years. Issues of politics and sociology of sports are under research.
Registration
The registration for IOCSS 2026 will be free of charge! The registration includes attendance to all conference sessions.
If you are registering several people under the same registration, please do not use the same email address for each person, but their individual university email addresses. Thank you for your understanding.
Please note that the submission and registration are two separate parts. Only scholars who registered can receive a link to access the conference live streaming. The deadline for registration is 25 May 2026.
Instructions for Authors
The 1st International Online Conference on Social Sciences will accept abstracts only.
The accepted abstracts will be available online on Sciforum.net during and after the conference.
• Deadline for abstract submission: 23 February 2026.
• Announcement of oral and poster abstract results: 23 March 2026. You will be notified of the acceptance of an oral/poster presentation in a separate email.
Certificates of Participation are available in your logged-in area of Sciforum.net, under “My Certificates” after the conference.
Abstract submissions should be completed online by registering with www.sciforum.net and using the "Submit Abstract" function once logged into the system. No physical template is necessary.
• The abstract structure should include the introduction, methods, results, and conclusions sections of about 200–300 words in length.
• All abstracts should be submitted and presented in clear, publication-ready English with accurate grammar and spelling.
• You may submit multiple abstracts. However, only one abstract will be selected for oral presentation.
Detailed Requirements:
1. The submitting author must ensure that all co-authors are aware of the contents of the abstract.
2. Please select only one presenter for each submission. If you would like to change the presenter after submission, please email us accordingly.
Note: We only accept live presentations.
The slot for the oral presentation is 15 minutes. We advise that your presentation lasts for a maximum of 12 mins, leaving at least 3 mins for the Q&A session.
• Authors are encouraged to prepare a presentation in PowerPoint or similar software, to be displayed online along with the abstract.
• Slides will be displayed online alongside the abstract via the Sciforum.net proprietary viewer.
• Please convert your slides to PDF format before submission to ensure compatibility.
• Slide preparation should follow standard conference practices, as for any event where research results are shared.
• Should include the title, authors, contact details and main research findings, as well as tables, figures and graphs where necessary.
• Size in pixel: 1080 width x 1536 height–portrait orientation.
• Size in cm: 38,1 width x 54,2 height–portrait orientation.
• Font size: ≥16.
• Examples of successful submissions can be viewed here at the following links: (1), (2), (3)
• You can use our free template to create your poster. The poster template can be downloaded HERE.
It is the author's responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Any financial support for the study must be fully disclosed in the "Acknowledgments" section.
MDPI, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting an abstract to this conference, you retain the copyright to the work, but you grant MDPI the non-exclusive right to publish this abstract online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means you can easily submit your full paper (with the abstract) to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher if required.
Publication Opportunities
1. Social Sciences Journal Publication
Participants in this conference are cordially invited to contribute a full manuscript to the conference's Special Issue, published in Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760; IF: 1.7), with a 20% discount on the publication fee. All submitted papers will undergo MDPI’s standard peer-review procedure. The abstracts should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper.
Please note if you have IOAP/association discounts, conference discounts will be combined with IOAP/association discounts. Conference discounts cannot be combined with reviewer vouchers.
2. Proceeding Paper Publication
All accepted abstracts will be published in the conference report of the 1st International Online Conference on Social Sciences in Proceedings (ISSN 2504-3900); if you wish to publish an extended proceeding paper (4-8 pages), please submit it to the same journal after the conference.
Authors are asked to disclose that it is a proceeding paper of the IOCSS 2026 conference paper in their cover letter. Carefully read the rules outlined in the Instructions for Authors on the journal’s website and ensure that your submission adheres to these guidelines.
Proceedings submission deadline: 17 July 2026.
• Manuscripts for the proceedings issue must be formatted as follows:
• Title;
• Full author names;
• Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses;
• Abstract;
• Keywords;
• Introduction;
• Methods;
• Results and Discussion;
• Conclusions;
• Acknowledgements;
• References.
Please click HERE to submit your proceeding paper to Proceedings.
Proceedings Template
Event Awards
The Awards
Number of Awards Available: 4
These awards may be given to oral presentations or posters, depending on the quality and distribution of submissions. The final allocation will be determined once the conference begins, based on the number and type of submissions received.
The winners will receive a certificate and 200 CHF each.
Sponsors and Partners
For information regarding sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please click here.
Organizers
Media Partners
Conference Secretariat
Ms. Dora Szepesi
Ms. Yvonne Chu
Email: iocss2026@mdpi.com
For inquiries regarding submissions and sponsorship opportunities, please feel free to contact us.
