Guidance for Authors of Position Papers

This year, SIGCOMM is soliciting position paper submissions as well as full paper submissions. Position papers are at most eight (8) pages long. They will not compete with full papers for slots in the program. See other venues such as HotNets-I for examples of position papers, especially those examples that are broad in scope. The rest of this note provides background for authors not familiar with the format.

The main aim of a position paper is to shape research direction by arguing a thoughtful point of view or otherwise stretching our thinking as researchers. This differs from shortened conference papers and work-in-progress reports, neither of which will fare well if submitted as a position paper. Position papers should contribute perspective rather than performance numbers, wisdom rather than knowledge, and guidance rather than results. We expect them to be of broader scope than most full papers, and forward-looking rather than the final word. We also expect that they will be more controversial than full papers and not necessarily present quantitative results, though they must remain well-argued and justified in terms of existing work.

Here are some hypothetical examples:

• An argument that [operations, formal testing of implementations, traffic engineering, economic incentives] are important but undervalued considerations in existing protocols along with a promising approach for addressing them.
• A blue-sky re-design of how [Internet routing, Internet measurement] would be architected today that identifies the key differences with existing protocols and argues how these should alter our research.
• An argument that conventional wisdom in the area of [QoS, Active Networking, IP Multicast] is misguided that uses its insights to lay out an alternative strategy to address the same underlying problems.
• A discussion of how emerging technologies for [quantum networking, untethered sensors, network processors, large-scale packet simulation] will change networking or network research and why these changes matter.

Here are some examples of common kinds of position papers:

• "Case For" papers that examine an old problem in a new light, thereby arriving at a different solution and outlining a corresponding research agenda.
• Case studies that synthesize examples from which one can learn lessons of both how to and how not to design future architectures, systems, or protocols.
• Papers that put forth architectural principles or frameworks that ought to be considered for the design or analysis of different kinds of communication systems, or that re-examine well-known principles or frameworks in light of changes in the world of networking since they were originally put forth.
• Papers that apply techniques or organizing principles from outside of networking to a networking problem, and demonstrate how this is likely to lead to new approaches or solutions.