USENIX ATC '20 Instructions for Presenters

These instructions are for presenters at the 2020 USENIX Annual Technical Conference (USENIX ATC '20). If you wish to submit a paper or deliver a talk at another upcoming USENIX event, please review the open Calls for Papers and Calls for Participation for our upcoming USENIX conferences.

Contact

If you have questions, please contact the USENIX ATC  '20 Program Co-Chairs, Ada Gavrilovska and Erez Zadok, or Ann Heron, USENIX Production Manager.

Instructions for Authors of Refereed Papers

  1. All papers have an assigned shepherd who will review your paper before the final submission. Please coordinate with your shepherd so they have time for the review, and so you have time to respond to their requests. The shepherd is listed in the submissions system. If you are unsure who your shepherd is, please contact atc20chairs@usenix.org.
  2. Final Papers: A printable PDF of your paper is due on or before Thursday, June 4, 2020. Final papers should be no longer than 12 pages for full papers and 6 pages for short papers, excluding references.
  3. Papers should be typeset in two-column format using 10-point type on 12-point (single-spaced) leading, in a text block 7" wide x 9" deep, formatted for 8.5" x 11" paper.
  4. Templates and sample first pages (two-column format) for Microsoft Word and LaTeX are available on the USENIX templates page.
  5. Upload your final paper to the submissions system by Thursday, June 4, 2020. If you have questions, please contact the Production Department.
  6. Production Requirements:
    • Title, author, and abstract certification: The final PDF's title and author information, including author order and affiliation, and the abstract, must exactly match the information entered into the HotCRP submission system. Please update the information in HotCRP as necessary, then check the certification checkbox. Please note: if you make any changes after you check the certification checkbox, you will need to check the box again.
    • Please embed all fonts and make sure that your final paper PDF is searchable.
    • Page numbers must be suppressed on the final PDF.
  7. Consent Form: Each author must sign a consent to publish form, which allows USENIX to publish the paper as well as any slides, audio, and/or video of your presentation. USENIX makes these freely available as part of our commitment to open access. Please review and e-sign the form. If you are the lead author, please be sure all of your co-authors sign a form.
  8. Use of Images, Audio, and Video in your Materials: It is very important that you secure permission to use copyright-protected materials in your slide deck, paper, or other materials used at a conference or submitted for publication. Even when an item has a Creative Commons license, you must read and comply with the terms of the license.

    USENIX receives copyright infringement notices from time to time, resulting from authors or speakers using copyright-protected materials without proper licensing or attribution. When this happens, we have to depublish the work in question until/unless the issue is resolved. Licensing fees may be incurred, even when the work is depublished, and USENIX will bill the author or speaker for any costs incurred. When possible, USENIX will refer the complainant directly to the author or speaker, who will be solely responsible for resolving the complaint.
  9. Presentations: Authors are required to record two videos of their presentations and prepare their slide decks prior to the conference. Videos and slide decks are due Monday, June 29, 2020 via the submissions system.

    Video Specifications:

    • Authors must prepare two videos:
      • A longer video of 20-25 minutes in length: this video will be posted on the USENIX web site a week in advance of the conference to allow participants to view the material and start discussing the paper on a Slack channel (channel information will be provided after registration and before the event occurs).
      • A shorter video of just 4–6 minutes in length: this video will be played live for you by the USENIX staff during the event at your designated talk time slot of the program (and will be followed by a Q&A session that authors will answer live).
      • MP4 file format
      • 1080p preferred
      • 16:9 aspect ratio preferred
      • 500MB max file size
      • Clear audio (headphones and headsets are permitted)
      • The following file naming convention, wherein [lastname] is the last name of the primary author of the paper:
        • Long video: [conference-name]_video_long_[lastname].mp4 (i.e. atc20_video_long_zadok.mp4
        • Short video: [conference-name]_video_short_[lastname].mp4 (i.e. atc20_video_short_zadok.mp4
      • Fullscreen slides with a speaker inset, as shown here:

        • Please ensure that your speaker inset does not cover any pertinent information on your slides.


      Slides Specifications:

      • Please upload the talk slides from the long video presentation, rather than the short presentation
      • 16:9 aspect ratio preferred
      • Introduction slide at the beginning of your presentation that clearly lists the name of your paper and the authors
      • Closing slide to thank your audience and/or collaborators and list your contact information should you wish to receive follow-up questions from attendees
      • PDF Format
    • Embargo Requests: All papers will be available online to registered attendees before the conference. If your accepted paper should not be published prior to the event, please notify the Production Department. The papers will be available online to everyone beginning on the first day of the conference.

Need help preparing your video? See the USENIX Virtual Conferencing Video Instructions for Presenters for step-by-step instructions.