tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post9223093388861379708..comments2024-03-28T00:36:13.790-07:00Comments on Volatile and Decentralized: The Paper Formatting GestapoMatt Welshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04255792550910131960noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-60270847256681329372010-11-24T09:07:04.348-08:002010-11-24T09:07:04.348-08:00I've a great affinity for this matter, and als...I've a great affinity for this matter, and also I've been buy a lot of books about it, history about it and this kind of issues as you posting here. Thanks for share all this with us.Viagra Onlinehttp://www.iservepharmacy.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-61658878326577868202010-04-14T20:08:50.612-07:002010-04-14T20:08:50.612-07:00It took five years, but we finally got SIGPLAN to ...It took five years, but we finally got SIGPLAN to agree on a single LaTeX style file. Although the result has been an enormous boon to SIGPLAN authors, the process of developing the style was unbelievably bureaucratic and consumed a lot of volunteers' time. Having put in all this work, we would fight to the death against anything mandated by ACM. It was exactly because ACM mandated something idiotic that my SIG finally got off its butt and did something.<br /><br />If you really want to make something happen I think you need to go out and fight this battle one SIG at a time. And who knows what you do about IEEE, USENIX, ETAPS, and other meetings. The good news is that most people I talk to are willing to agree that there is a problem. But resolving the problem is *very* time-consuming.<br /><br />You have my sympathies about your papers.Norman Ramseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09978607749924956287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-31819830419224556692010-03-02T04:10:09.657-08:002010-03-02T04:10:09.657-08:00And I thought the research world was as nice as th...And I thought the research world was as nice as the smurfs ;-)<br /><br />Hopefully my poster abstracts at EuroSys won't be both rejected due to this... I searched for the correct template to use as I couldn't recall where I saw the link to the good one, until I noticed where it was on the homepage, and had to axe the text out to use 10pt...Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14325490173682780834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-74745479947031206392010-02-01T17:12:49.329-08:002010-02-01T17:12:49.329-08:00Jonathan - with automated tools there is little di...Jonathan - with automated tools there is little difference between eyeballing it and using a ruler. In one case our margins were off by about half an inch. In the other the line spacing was too tight. I guess both of these infractions allowed us somewhere in the ballpark of an extra page worth of text. Anyway, I'm not griping about having those papers rejected -- we were clearly violating the formatting requirements -- just the inconsistency across conferences.Matt Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04255792550910131960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-37644397655183417652010-02-01T13:57:38.421-08:002010-02-01T13:57:38.421-08:00How far from the formatting requirements was your ...How far from the formatting requirements was your paper? Was it an issue like going 5% over the margins, or was the formatting grossly off? I'd be pretty upset if I had a paper rejected for exceeding the margins by an amount that could only be detected using a ruler.Jonathan Katzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07362776979218585818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-65693427237689747612010-01-20T06:50:37.291-08:002010-01-20T06:50:37.291-08:00Anonymous - getting diametrically opposed reviews ...Anonymous - getting diametrically opposed reviews is not that unusual! And it is absolutely true that some reviewers are just plain wrong - the system is not perfect. But feel free to email me about it and we can discuss in more detail. I have an idea of which conference you may be talking about ;-)Matt Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04255792550910131960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-24620884253552164192010-01-20T06:48:12.987-08:002010-01-20T06:48:12.987-08:00Hi Matt,
It was an interesting post and very helpf...Hi Matt,<br />It was an interesting post and very helpful for a grad student like me. I would also love to see a post from you regarding the review process for conference submissions. Recently I got reviews from a top sensor network conference where I had reviews from two expert reviewers with totally opposite verdict (strong accept versus strong reject). I am not trying to say that I have done everything right and hence I disagree with the second reviewer. I think the current review process for conferences is fundamentally flawed (especially when a reviewer does a lousy job). Your analysis/comments may help us a lot.<br />Thanks....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-69685405777008896432010-01-17T18:07:46.632-08:002010-01-17T18:07:46.632-08:00Why don't we just say that the paper is techni...Why don't we just say that the paper is technically lousy?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-20182031734149098092010-01-17T16:49:29.771-08:002010-01-17T16:49:29.771-08:00Ben - I'd rather not say, but let me say that ...Ben - I'd rather not say, but let me say that some TPC chairs seem to enjoy being extremely pedantic. Of course it is well within their right.<br /><br />Dan - Tom's approach sounds very reasonable to me. SOSP was not one of the conferences I was referring to.<br /><br />Peter - I am all for length requirements. As a reviewer there is only so much of one paper I can take!Matt Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04255792550910131960noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-82611533761112842022010-01-17T00:34:24.876-08:002010-01-17T00:34:24.876-08:00@peter: getting rid of the length requirement (whi...@peter: getting rid of the length requirement (which is both a max and a min in practice) is a great idea, but it seems like the community is stuck in this mode. We should take the SIGGRAPH model and weight papers by normalized (contribution/length). So many systems/networking papers, especially SIGCOMM papers, are 4-6 pages bloated into 14. And several each year are 16 pages crammed into 12, with a linked Tech Report and multiple appendices.Dan Halperinhttp://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/dhalperinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-64705423620758643652010-01-16T21:40:55.401-08:002010-01-16T21:40:55.401-08:00formatting requirements enforce length requirement...formatting requirements enforce length requirements, a heinous obsolete vestige.<br /><br />think how much better your papers would be if you didn't have to make all the compromises imposed by length requirements!peter honeymanhttp://peter.honeyman.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-81911299395725684172010-01-16T12:42:07.133-08:002010-01-16T12:42:07.133-08:00I don't know which conferences you're talk...I don't know which conferences you're talking about, but I know at least one reasonable counterexample. During the SOSP '09 process, Tom asked his grad students to measure the text area of all the suspicious papers. I think this was principally the set of papers that failed the format checker. Tom only rejected on formatting if the authors managed to submit papers that violated the total text area requirements by more than a few percent, and that ended up being only a few of the total set of submissions and around half of those that failed the format check. I can't imagine you could ask for more lenience.<br /><br />The templates out there exist, but of course people change the documentclass and assume everything else is fine, forgetting about their baselinestretch-ing or the margin formatting commands that have to go in the main .tex file anyway. (Why does the default SIGCOMM template *not* force letter paper??) I don't think that problem would go away with any 'canonical' template.<br /><br />Given how many hours people spend trying to adjust whitespace to make that last bib item fit on the fourteenth page, I figure they can spend the 20 minutes it takes to carefully read the CFP.Dan Halperinhttp://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/dhalperinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-50338587156635943502010-01-16T11:02:41.683-08:002010-01-16T11:02:41.683-08:00In my experience, I have often found that the temp...In my experience, I have often found that the templates provided by conferences often do not meet their own formatting requirements!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-28454176018088128012010-01-16T10:49:14.832-08:002010-01-16T10:49:14.832-08:00Wait -- what makes you think SIGCOMM is a systems ...Wait -- what makes you think SIGCOMM is a systems conference?Philip Levishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06424404460700834783noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186457242428335144.post-12593358240755679892010-01-16T09:10:50.065-08:002010-01-16T09:10:50.065-08:00Very interesting Matt. I've very rarely seen p...Very interesting Matt. I've very rarely seen papers rejected because of format. If possible, can you share a bit about the conference and just how strict the PC chairs were?Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14936659851695940856noreply@blogger.com