NSDI '15 Call for Papers

Overview

NSDI focuses on the design principles, implementation, and practical evaluation of networked and distributed systems. Our goal is to bring together researchers from across the networking and systems community to foster a broad approach to addressing overlapping research challenges.

NSDI provides a high-quality, single-track forum for presenting results and discussing ideas that further the knowledge and understanding of the networked systems community as a whole, continue a significant research dialog, or push the architectural boundaries of network services.

Topics

We solicit papers describing original and previously unpublished research. Specific topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Highly available and reliable networked systems
• Security and privacy of networked systems
• Distributed storage, caching, and query processing
• Energy-efficient computing in networked systems
• Cloud systems
• Mobile and embedded applications and systems
• Wireless networked systems
• Network measurements, workload, and topology characterization systems
• Self-organizing, autonomous, and federated networked systems
• Managing, debugging, and diagnosing problems in networked/distributed systems
• Virtualization and resource management for networked systems and clusters
• Systems aspects of networking hardware
• Software-Defined Networks
• Experience with deployed/operational networked systems
• Communication aspects of "big data" systems
• Economics of networked systems
• An innovative solution for a significant problem involving networked systems

NEW! Operational Systems Track

In addition to papers that describe original research, NSDI '15 is also soliciting papers that describe the design, implementation, analysis, and experience with large-scale, operational systems and networks. While such papers may not describe new results or ideas, they are welcome if they disprove or strengthen existing assumptions, deepen the understanding of existing problems, and validate known techniques at scales or environments in which they were never used or tested before.

Authors should indicate on the title page of the paper and in the submission form that they are submitting to this track.

What to Submit   

Submissions must be no longer than 12 pages, including footnotes, appendices, figures, and tables. Submissions may include as many additional pages as needed for references. Submissions must be in two-column format, using 10-point type on 12-point (single-spaced) leading, with a maximum text block of 6.5" wide x 9" deep, with .25" inter-column space, formatted for 8.5" x 11" paper. Papers not meeting these criteria will be rejected without review, and no deadline extensions will be granted for reformatting. Pages should be numbered, and figures and tables should be legible when printed without requiring magnification.

NSDI is single-blind, meaning that authors should include their names on their paper submissions and do not need to obscure references to their existing work. Authors must submit their paper's title and abstract by September 18, 2014, and the corresponding full paper is due by September 25, 2014 (hard deadlines). All papers must be submitted via the Web form.

Submissions will be judged on originality, significance, interest, clarity, relevance, and correctness. Papers so short as to be considered "extended abstracts" will not receive full consideration.

NSDI '15 Policies

Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have committed them. See the USENIX Conference Submissions Policy for details.

Previous publication at a workshop is acceptable as long as the NSDI submission includes substantial new material. For example, submitting a paper that provides a full evaluation of an idea that was previously sketched in a five-page position paper is acceptable. Authors of such papers should cite the prior workshop paper and clearly state the submission's contribution relative to the prior workshop publication.

Authors uncertain whether their submission meets USENIX’s guidelines should contact the Program Co-Chairs, nsdi15chairs@usenix.org.

Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. All submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the USENIX NSDI '15 Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.

Processes for Accepted Papers

Authors will be notified of paper acceptance or rejection by December 15, 2014. If your paper is accepted and you need an invitation letter to apply for a visa to attend the conference, please contact conference@usenix.org as soon as possible. (Visa applications can take at least 30 working days to process.) Please identify yourself as a presenter and include your mailing address in your email.

Accepted papers may be shepherded through an editorial review process by a member of the Program Committee. Based on initial feedback from the Program Committee, authors of shepherded papers will submit an editorial revision of their paper to their Program Committee shepherd. The shepherd will review the paper and give the author additional comments. All authors, shepherded or not, will upload their final file to the submissions system by March 3, 2015, for the conference Proceedings.

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 production@usenix.org. The papers will be available online to everyone beginning on the first day of the conference, May 4, 2015.

Best Paper Awards

Awards will be given for the best paper(s) at the conference.

Shadow Program Committee

In order to train the next generation of program committee (PC) members and to expose students to the review process, the NSDI '15 PC would like to make submitted papers available to shadow PCs. Shadow PCs allow students and others interested in future PC service to read submitted papers and go through the reviewing process, ultimately arriving at a shadow conference program. This is an opportunity for future PC members to learn about the peer-review process and gain experience as a reviewer. Shadow PCs will not have any access to the real reviews, the names of the real reviewers, or any other data such as relative rankings. They will have to abide by the same rules and restrictions applicable to regular PC members. This includes, but is not limited to, rules against discussing the papers outside of the PC context, or using in any way results from reviewed papers before such papers have been published.

Making a submitted paper available to shadow PCs is optional; authors will have the opportunity to opt-in during the paper submission process. Shadow reviews for papers that are reviewed by shadow PCs will be sent out after the actual NSDI '15 review process. Authors that have participated in previous shadow PCs have found the additional reviews helpful.

If you would like to organize a shadow PC at your host institution, please contact Ethan Katz-Bassett. In your email, please include a proposal describing exactly how your shadow PC will function and who will participate. In particular:

• It cannot simply be a reading group and must function as a PC.
• Before receiving submitted papers, all participants must read Ethics of Peer Review: A Guide for Manuscript Reviewers, Sara Rockwell, U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI), Yale University, July 2005. Please attest that this is the case in your proposal.
• Your PC must run a local instance of HotCRP.
• You must send the shadow reviews to the authors between December 18, 2014 and December 31, 2014 (and no sooner). The accompanying text must describe that they are shadow reviews and are not related to the official review process. Your proposal must describe how you will return the reviews.
• You must describe how review assignments will work, how many PC members will review each paper, how many papers you will cover, and how the PC meeting(s) will operate.
• Please name your shadow PC chairs and the shadow PC members.