SIGCOMM 2011

AUGUST 15-19, 2011

TORONTO, ON, CANADA


Paper Submission Requirements

The SIGCOMM 2011 conference seeks papers describing significant research contributions to the field of computer and data communication networks. Paper submissions typically report novel results firmly substantiated by experimentation, simulation, or analysis. As an aid to the community, the SIGCOMM Web site provides useful advice to authors planning to submit to SIGCOMM conferences. Papers published in previous SIGCOMM conferences also serve as excellent examples of anticipated scope, rigor, and length.

To submit papers to the SIGCOMM 2011 conference, first carefully read the following sections on:

Then use the paper submission site to:

These are hard deadlines and no extensions will be given. These dates will not change.

The information on this page is intentionally comprehensive. Veteran authors will likely find it familiar, but new authors may not. Our goal is to ensure that all authors have consistent expectations for the submission process, and that everyone observes them fairly. If you have any questions about submitting papers to SIGCOMM 2011, or encounter problems with the paper submission site, contact the TPC chairs well before the deadlines.

Paper Registration

Registration only requires submission of paper metadata: paper title and abstract, author names, affiliations, contact email addresses, and conflicts with TPC members. The paper itself does not need to be submitted at the registration deadline. However, the paper title and abstract submitted during registration must be complete - not placeholders - and correctly characterize the paper that will be submitted. Authors can change the wording of their titles and abstracts for submission, but their essence should not fundamentally change. The TPC will use the information provided during registration as a basis for making review assignments.

Both authors and TPC members provide TPC conflict information. The TPC will review paper conflicts to ensure the integrity of the submission process, adding conflicts where necessary. Broadly, we define conflict of interest with a TPC member using the following principles:

  1. You are currently employed at the same institution, have been previously employed at the same institution within the last 12 months, or are going to begin employment within the next 6 months at the same institution.
  2. You have a professional partnership as follows:
    • Past or present association as thesis advisor or thesis student.
    • Collaboration on a project, publication, or grant proposal within the last 48 months.
    • Co-editing a journal or conference proceedings within the last 24 months.

If there is no basis for TPC conflicts provided by authors, those conflicts will be removed. In particular, do not improperly identify TPC members as conflicts to avoid an individual who might review your paper.

Paper novelty

Under no circumstances should authors submit previously published work, submit the same work simultaneously to multiple venues, or submit papers that plagiarize the work of other authors. Like other conferences and journals, SIGCOMM prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have committed them. In some cases, the program committee may share information about submitted papers with other conference chairs and journal editors to ensure the integrity of papers under consideration. If the TPC discovers a violation of these principles, sanctions may include, but are not limited to, contacting the institutions of the authors and publicizing the details of the case.

SIGCOMM will review extended versions of previously-published short preliminary papers (such as workshop papers) in accordance with published SIGCOMM policy and the ACM Plagiarism Policy. To preserve author anonymity, authors MUST cite this related prior work, while making a good-faith effort not to reveal common authorship. For example, such a submission should not explicitly point out that specific text has been adopted from the author's own prior work.

Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement requests will not be considered nor ever disclosed.

Paper anonymity

All submitted papers will be judged based on their quality and relevance through double-blind reviewing, where the identities of the authors are withheld from the reviewers. As an author, you are required to make a good-faith effort to preserve the anonymity of your submission, while at the same time allowing the reader to fully grasp the context of related past work, including your own. Common sense and careful writing will go a long way towards preserving anonymity. Minimally, please take the following steps when preparing your submission:

Paper formatting

All submissions must obey the following formatting requirements. Your goal as an author is to produce a clearly readable submission within these constraints.

Before final submission, you are expected to make sure that your paper complies with these requirements. Authors are strongly discouraged from violating the formatting requirements with the aim of including additional material: submissions that violate them may not be reviewed. The submission system can report possible formatting violations in papers that you upload. You can also visually inspect a page-by-page report of your paper format using the same tool as the submission system via a separate online form.

After the submission deadline, we will use the same tool to check the conformance of papers. The format checking tool uses heuristics and can make mistakes. The TPC chairs will manually inspect and possibly reject those papers with evident format violations. However, no paper will be rejected due to format violations without first being checked by hand.

Paper acceptance

The SIGCOMM 2011 TPC will notify authors of review decisions by May 6, 2011.

After acceptance, substantive changes to paper titles require approval by the TPC chairs. Only in exceptional circumstances should authors change their author list, and only with approval of the TPC chairs.

Authors of accepted papers will also need to sign an ACM copyright release form. Electronic copies of the camera-ready papers will be published on the conference Web site before the conference, unless authors specifically request otherwise. All rejected papers will be permanently treated as confidential.