Grand Unified Grammar of Graphics (GUGOG)

A Workshop at IEEE VIS 2026

Declarative, modular, and compositional approaches to visualization specification—collectively known as graphical or visualization grammars—have proliferated across visualization research and practice. However, despite sharing intellectual roots in Wilkinson’s Grammar of Graphics, these systems differ substantially in their abstractions, primitives, design goals, and target users.

GUGOG is a half-day hybrid workshop at IEEE VIS 2026 that brings together researchers and practitioners working on grammar-based visualization to seek a unified view of this diverse landscape. The workshop provides a dedicated forum for cross-system comparison, meta-theoretical reflection, community consensus building, and practitioner perspectives—structured opportunities that the main conference program rarely affords.

Read the full workshop proposal here.

Call for Submissions

We invite submissions to the Grand Unified Grammar of Graphics (GUGOG) workshop at IEEE VIS 2026. This is a half-day hybrid workshop open to both in-person and remote participants.

Scope of Topics

Workshop topics include, but are not limited to:

• Grammar evaluation methodology
  • Comparative analyses of existing grammar systems
  • User perspectives on grammar-based tools
  • Implementation and design reflections
• Critical reflections on
  • Domain-specific grammars
  • Formal and algebraic foundations
  • Cross-disciplinary perspectives
• Novel research directions
  • Understanding grammar extensions and ecosystems
  • Learnability, adoption, and natural language interfaces

Submission Types

The workshop accepts two types of non-archival submissions:

Short position papers (less than 4 pages)

Conceptual or philosophical arguments about grammar-based visualization. System descriptions will only be considered if they are illustrative prototypes closely tied to a specific conceptual argument.

Discussion abstracts (up to 500 words)

Provocations, opinions, and observations on all aspects of grammar-based visualization research.

Submission Guidelines

• Submissions are not anonymous: authors must include their full names, emails, and affiliations.
• Accepted submissions will be hosted on this website and are not considered archival—authors are encouraged to reuse content in follow-up publications.
• Authors are encouraged to share their work via open-access services.
• At least one author per accepted submission must register for the conference.

Timeline

Call opens	May 1, 2026
Submission deadline	Aug 1, 2026
Notifications	Sep 1, 2026
Camera-ready	Oct 7, 2026

Submission Portal

Details on the submission portal will be announced when the call opens on May 1, 2026.