Call for papers

Fifteenth ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC '96)

Participating in the 1996 Federated Computing Research Conference (FCRC'96), Philadelphia, PA, USA, May 23-26, 1996

Click here to get a postscript copy of the call for papers.

Scope and format:

Research contributions to the theory, design, specification or implementation of distributed systems are solicited. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Distributed algorithms and complexity
Network protocols and architectures
Multiprocessor algorithms and architectures
Distributed operating systems
Communication networks
Concurrency control and synchronization
Fault tolerance
Specification, semantics and verification
Cryptography and security
The conference will consist of two tracks of presentations. Long presentations of approximately 25 minutes will be accompanied by papers of up to 10 pages in the proceedings. This track is intended for contributions reporting on original research, submitted exclusively to this conference. Brief Announcements will be given slots of less than 10 minutes and will be accompanied by 1-page abstracts in the proceedings. This track is a forum for reporting research at an early stage and brief communications, which may be published in expanded or more polished form elsewhere.

Submissions:

A submission for the long presentation track should be in the form of an extended abstract that provides sufficient detail to allow the program committee to assess the merits of the paper. It should include appropriate references and comparisons to related work. It is recommended that each submission begin with a succinct statement of the problem, a summary of the main results, and a brief explanation of their significance, all suitable for a non-specialist. Technical development of the work, directed to the specialist, should follow. Submitted abstracts should be no longer than 4,500 words (roughly 10 pages on letter-size paper using at least 11-point font and reasonable margins). If the authors believe that more details are essential to substantiate the main claims of the paper, they may include a clearly marked appendix that will be read at the discretion of the program committee. Extended abstracts deviating significantly from these guidelines risk rejection without consideration of their merits.

A submission for the brief announcement track should be in the form of a one-page abstract, that includes a statement of the problem, the results and their implications.

If requested by the authors in the cover letter, an extended abstract that is not selected for a long presentation will also be considered for the brief announcement track. Such a request will not affect the chances of the paper being accepted in the long presentation track.

Authors are encouraged to submit their extended abstracts and brief announcements electronically. A detailed description of the electronic submission process will appear as of Sept. 1, 1995 here. Authors unable to submit electronically are invited to send 14 copies of an abstract and a cover letter to the program chair:

Individuals with no access to manuscript reproduction facilities may submit a single copy. Extended abstracts should be printed double-sided, if possible. The cover letter should identify the contact author, provide her or his postal and e-mail address, and indicate the track(s) to which the paper is submitted.

Important dates

To be considered by the committee, abstracts must be received by 23:59 EST November 11, 1995, or sent by airmail and postmarked before November 4, 1995. This is a firm deadline. Acceptance or rejection notifications will be sent by January 12, 1995. Camera-ready versions of accepted papers and short abstracts will be due February 16, 1996.

Best student paper award

A prize will be given to the best student paper. A paper is eligible if at least one of its authors is a full-time student at the time of submission. This must be indicated in the cover letter. The program committee may decline to make the award or split it among several papers.

Conference committee

Program chair: Yoram Moses (Weizmann)
Conference chair: James E. Burns (Bellcore)
Treasurer: Brian Coan (Bellcore)

Program committee:

Maintained by tushar@watson.ibm.com