Requirements for OSDI '14 Authors

This document provides supplementary information for authors writing submissions to OSDI '14 beyond that provided in the Call for Papers. Please read and follow both the instructions in the Call for Papers and these requirements carefully.

How Should I Prepare and Deliver My Manuscript?

Submission of all papers must be made electronically in PDF format.

Authors should make sure that their submission prints properly on US-style 8.5 x 11 inch paper. Submitted papers will be checked by the PC against these requirements:

  • No longer than 12 single-spaced 8.5" x 11" pages, including figures and tables, plus as many pages as needed for references.
  • Use 10 point type on 12 point (single-spaced) leading, two-column format, with a 0.25 inch separation between columns, and Times Roman or a similar font for the body of the paper.
  • All text and figures must fit a text block 6.5" wide x 9" deep. All graphs and figures should be readable when printed in black and white.
  • 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 in black and white, without requiring magnification.
  • The paper review process will be double blind this year. Authors must make a good faith effort to anonymize their submissions, and they should not identify themselves either explicitly or by implication (e.g., through the references or acknowledgments). Submissions violating the detailed formatting and anonymization rules will not be considered for publication.

Do not send files meant for word-processing packages (Word, WordPerfect, LaTeX, Framemaker, etc.).

If you are using Microsoft Word or LaTeX, please make use of these templates and sample first pages (two-column format), if possible:

More Information is Available

Lots of papers and books have been written about how to write a good paper. We strongly suggest that you read a paper called

An Evaluation of the Ninth SOSP Submissions; or, How (and How Not) to Write a Good Systems Paper.

This was written by Roy Levin and David D. Redell, the program committee co-chairs for SOSP-9, and first appeared in ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review, Vol. 17, No. 3 (July, 1983), pages 35–40.

Another helpful paper is:

The Science of Scientific Writing, George D. Gopen and Judith A. Swan, In American Scientist, Vol. 78, No. 6 (Nov–Dec, 1990), pp. 550–558.

This article describes not how to write an entire paper, but how to write sentences and paragraphs that readers can understand.

For matters of English usage, style, and taste we strongly recommend that you purchase and consult this little gem of a book:

The Elements of Style. William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, 1979.

If you have any other questions, feel free to send mail to the Program Co-Chairs at osdi14chairs@usenix.org.

Good Luck!
The Program Committee