Language Resources and Evaluation invites submissions to a Special Issue on 
Language Technologies for Health
Submission deadline: 7 December 2026
Full call for papers: https://www.aim-health.ufscar.br/lre_special_issue.html

Special Issue on Language Resources and Evaluation for Healthcare

Recent advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP), Speech Technologies, and 
Large Language Models (LLMs) have transformed the development of language-based 
applications in healthcare. From the analysis of electronic health records and 
patient-generated content to conversational agents, decision-support systems, 
and digital health applications, language technologies are increasingly being 
deployed in real-world healthcare settings.

The success of these technologies, however, depends critically on the 
availability of high-quality language resources and rigorous evaluation 
methodologies. Healthcare applications pose unique challenges, including 
specialized terminology, multilinguality, data scarcity, privacy constraints, 
annotation complexity, reproducibility, and the need for trustworthy and 
explainable systems. As language technologies continue to evolve, there is a 
growing need for resources, benchmarks, evaluation frameworks, and 
methodological studies that support reliable and responsible research and 
development in this domain.

This Special Issue aims to bring together researchers and practitioners working 
at the intersection of language resources, evaluation, and healthcare. The 
initiative builds on discussions from the First Workshop on Language 
Technologies for Health 
(Lang4Health<https://www.aim-health.ufscar.br/lang4health.html>) and welcomes 
contributions from the broader international community.

We invite original contributions addressing the creation, annotation, 
documentation, dissemination, evaluation, and application of language resources 
for healthcare-related language and speech technologies. Extended versions of 
papers presented at Lang4Health are welcome, provided they contain substantial 
new material. New submissions are equally encouraged.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  *   Data in health domain
     *   Dataset/Corpus construction and availability;
     *   Dataset/Corpus annotation;
     *   Anonymization and de-identification;
     *   Augment and synthetic data generation.
  *   Language technologies in health domain
     *   Interaction and conversational agents (e.g. chatbots);
     *   Information extraction and information retrieval;
     *   Named Entity Recognition;
     *   Summarization;
     *   Question Answering;
     *   Personalization;
     *   Speech processing;
     *   NLP-supported diagnosis;
     *   Accessibility and simplification of information;
     *   Language support for digital phenotyping.

Submissions involving any language are welcome. We particularly encourage 
contributions addressing Portuguese, Galician, and other under-resourced 
languages.

Manuscripts must present original and unpublished research and will undergo the 
standard peer-review process of the Language Resources and 
Evaluation<https://link.springer.com/journal/10579> journal.

Submission 
information<https://www.aim-health.ufscar.br/lre_special_issue.html#submission-information>

Submissions must present original and unpublished research that is not under 
consideration elsewhere. We welcome substantial contributions that advance the 
development, evaluation, documentation, dissemination, or application of 
language resources and evaluation methodologies for healthcare-related language 
and speech technologies.

Extended versions of papers presented at the First Workshop on Language 
Technologies for Health (Lang4Health) are welcome, provided that they contain 
substantial new material beyond the workshop publication. New submissions from 
the broader research community are equally encouraged.

Contributions may include, but are not limited to, new language resources, 
resource extensions, annotation methodologies, evaluation frameworks, 
benchmarking studies, reproducibility analyses, and innovative applications of 
language resources in healthcare settings.

Manuscripts should be prepared and submitted according to the guidelines of the 
Language Resources and 
Evaluation<https://link.springer.com/journal/10579>journal. Detailed submission 
instructions will be provided upon the launch of the Special Issue.

Review 
process<https://www.aim-health.ufscar.br/lre_special_issue.html#review-process>

All submissions will undergo the standard -blind peer-review process of the 
Language Resources and 
Evaluation<https://link.springer.com/journal/10579>journal. Each manuscript 
will be evaluated by at least two expert reviewers selected by the Guest 
Editors based on their expertise and the absence of conflicts of interest. 
Reviewers will assess submissions with respect to scientific quality, 
originality, methodological soundness, relevance to the Special Issue, and 
potential impact on the field. To support a rigorous and timely review process, 
authors submitting to the Special Issue may be invited to participate in the 
reviewer pool and review other submissions within their area of expertise. 
Reviewer assignments will be managed by the Guest Editors to ensure appropriate 
expertise and to avoid conflicts of interest. Revised manuscripts may undergo 
additional rounds of review when necessary.

Guest 
Editors<https://www.aim-health.ufscar.br/lre_special_issue.html#guest-editors>

  *   Prof. Aline Villavicencio, University of Exeter, UK

  *   Dr. Rodrigo Wilkens, University of Exeter, UK

  *   Prof. Helena Caseli, Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil

  *   Dr. Vânia Neris, Federal University of São Carlos, Brazil

Contact Information: [email protected]
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