The series of workshops on Computational Models of Natural Argument is continuing to attract high quality submissions from researchers around the world since its inception in 2001. Like the past editions, CMNA 16 acts to nurture and provide succor to the ever growing community working on Argument and Computation, a field developed in recent years overlapping Argumentation Theory and Artificial Intelligence.

AI has witnessed a prodigious growth in uses of argumentation throughout many of its subdisciplines: agent system negotiation protocols that demonstrate higher levels of sophistication and robustness; argumentation-based models of evidential relations and legal processes that are more expressive; groupwork tools that use argument to structure interaction and debate; computer-based learning tools that exploit monological and dialogical argument structures in designing pedagogic environments; decision support systems that build upon argumentation theoretic models of deliberation to better integrate with human reasoning; and models of knowledge engineering structured around core concepts of argument to simplify knowledge elicitation and representation problems. Furthermore, benefits have not been unilateral for AI, as demonstrated by the increasing presence of AI scholars in classical argumentation theory events and journals, and AI implementations of argument finding application in both research and pedagogic practice within philosophy and argumentation theory.

The workshop focuses on the issue of modelling "natural" argumentation. Naturalness may involve the use of means which are more visual than linguistic to illustrate a point, such as graphics or multimedia. Or to the use of more sophisticated rhetorical devices, interacting at various layers of abstraction. Or the exploitation of "extra-rational" characteristics of the audience, taking into account emotions and affective factors.

The workshop focuses on the issue of modelling "natural" argumentation. Contributions are solicited addressing, but not limited to, the following areas of interest:

The characteristics of natural arguments: ontological aspects and cognitive issues.
Personalisation and tailoring of argument to a specific audience
Models of arguer and models of audience
The use of models from informal logic and argumentation theory, and in particular, approaches to specific schools of thought developed in informal logic and argumentation.
Rhetoric and affect: the role of emotions, personalities, etc. in models of argumentation.
The roles of maneuvering and deceit and the ethical implications of implemented systems demonstrating such features.
The linguistic characteristics of natural argumentation, including discourse markers, sentence format, referring expressions, and style. Persuasive discourse processing (discourse goals and structure, speaker/hearer models, content selection, etc.). Language dependence and multilingual approaches. Empirical work based on corpora looking at these topics are especially welcomed.
Non-monotonic, defeasible and uncertain argumentation.
Natural argumentation and media: visual arguments, multi-modal arguments, spoken arguments.
Models of argumentation in multi-agent systems inspired by or based upon theories of human argument.
Empirically driven models of argument in AI and Law.
Evaluative arguments and their application in AI systems (such as decision support and advice giving).
Issues of domain specificity, and in particular, the independence of argumentation techniques from the domain of application.
Applications of computer supported collaborative argumentation, in realistic domains in which argument plays a key role, including pedagogy, e-democracy and public debate.
Applications of argumentation based systems, including, for example, the pedagogical, health-related, political, and promotional.
Methods to better convey the structure of complex argument, including representation and summarisation.
Tools for interacting with structures of argument, including visualisation tools and interfaces supporting natural, stylised or formal dialogue.
The building of computational resources such as online corpora related to argumentation.

The workshop encourages submissions in four categories:

Long papers, either reporting on completed work or offering a polemic discussion on a burning issue (up to 10 pages).
Short papers describing work in progress (up to 5 pages).
Demonstration of implemented systems: submissions should be accompanied by written reports (up to 3 pages).
Short abstract, describing a doctoral thesis summary or a project proposal (up to 2 pages).


It is highly recommended, but not mandatory, to submit papers using the final IJCAI camera-ready formatting style available at this link: http://ijcai-16.org/downloads/FormattingGuidelinesIJCAI-16.zip

Paper submission will be handled by the Easychair conference system. Please submit your paper here: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cmna16

KEY DATES

Paper submission (all categories): 1st May 2016
Notification to authors: 20 May 2016
Final version of papers: 17 June 2016
Early registration deadline: tba (monitor IJCAI website)
CMNA 16: tba (during the workshop programme, 9-11 July 2016)


PUBLICATION

CMNA16 proceedings will be published as CEUR Workshop Proceedings http://ceur-ws.org

Extended versions of selected accepted papers will be published as a special issue of the Journal of Argumentation in Context, (John Benjamins publishing) https://benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/jaic

CMNA STEERING COMMITTEE

Floris Bex
University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
F.J.Bex@uu.nl

Floriana Grasso (main contact)
University of Liverpool, UK
floriana@liverpool.ac.uk

Nancy Green
University of North Carolina Greensboro, NC
nlgreen@uncg.edu


PROGRAMME COMMITTEE

Andrew Aberdein, Florida Institute of Technology, US
Michał Araszkiewicz, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Kevin Ashley, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Katarzyna Budzynska, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland, and University of Dundee, UK
Tim Bickmore, Northeastern University, Boston, US
Guido Boella, University of Turin, Italy
Elena Cabrio, INRIA, France
Claire Cardie, Cornell University, USA
Chrysanne DiMarco, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Reva Freedman, Northern Illinois University, USA
Anne Gardner, Atherton, CA, USA
Massimiliano Giacomin, University of Brescia, Italy
Tom Gordon, Fraunhofer FOKUS, Berlin, Germany
Davide Grossi, University of Liverpool, UK
Stella Heras, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain
Helmut Horacek, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken Germany
Fabrizio Macagno, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Fabio Paglieri, ISTC-CNR, Rome, Italy
Vincenzo Pallotta, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Paul Piwek, Open University, UK
Chris Reed, University of Dundee, UK
Sara Rubinelli, University of Lugano, Switzerland
Patrick Saint-Dizier, IRIT-CNRS, Toulouse, France
Serena Villata, INRIA, France
Doug Walton, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Simon Wells, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Adam Wyner, University of Aberdeen, UK
Tangming Yuan, University of York, UK