Web Submission and Review, Submitter Documentation

Version 0.63 - June 2009

Table of Contents

  1. Registering or Uploading a new submission
  2. Revising an existing submission
  3. Withdrawing (and un-withdrawing) a submission
  4. Rebuttal to comments
  5. Camera-ready submission of accepted papers

1. Registering or Uploading a new submission

Depending on whether or not the conference requires pre-registration, the first form that you access would either let you register a new submission, or let you directly upload the new submission to the server. The only differences between the two cases is that (a) the registration deadline could be earlier than the submission deadline, and (b) the registration form does not require that you upload a file with the new submission.

In the registration/submission form you find fields for the title, authors, and abstract of the new submission, email address(es) of contact author(s) for this submission, and possibly also other information that the chair(s) asked for (e.g., keywords, author affiliations, etc.). If used for direct submission (i.e., not for pre-registration) then the form includes also a field for uploading the submission file itself. The chair(s) specified the supported formats for the submissions, and you are expected to upload a file in one of these formats. (Note that the site accepts also submissions in other formats, but flags them as "unsupported format" and leave the decision about what to do with them to the chair(s).)

If the chair enables it, the form can also include a field for uploading "auxiliary supporting material" for your submission. You can use this separate file to include things such as source code, raw data, extra proofs that do not fit in the submission file itself, etc. Also the chair may let authors declare conflict-of-interests between their submission and some of the PC members, via a separate page that appears after you hit "Submit" and before you are presented with the receipt.

Once you fill all the required information and hit the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page, your submission details are sent to the server and you are presented with a receipt page, which includes the submission-ID and a password. You should keep these submission-ID and password for your records, since you will need them to either revise or withdraw the submission, and also to upload the camera-ready version of the submission in the event that it is accepted to the conference.

One way to record the submission-ID and password is to bookmark the receipt page. This page includes links to the revision and withdrawal forms that will load these forms with the submission details already filled in. Also, an email message containing all the submission information (including the submission-ID and password) is sent to the email address(es) of the contact author(s) that were specified in the submission form.

2. Revising an existing submission

Once you registered/submitted your paper and you have a submission-ID and a password, you can revise your submission (before the submission deadline) using the revision form. This form is very similar to the submission form, except that it also includes fields for the submission-ID and password of the original submission.

The submission form can appear in two different ways, depending on whether or not the submission details are already filled in. When accessing this form from the receipt page, the form appears with all the details of the submission already filled in (including the submission-ID and password). Other times, this form may appear in its "empty" version with no details filled-in. In the latter case, there is a button at the top of the page to "Reload Form with Submission Details" that reloads the same form with the all the details filled-in. You can submit the revision form in either its "filled-in" or "empty" version. In either case, a non-empty field overwrites the existing content of the submission, while an empty field means that the old content remains intact.

Once you submit the revision, you are presented with the same receipt page that you got after the initial registration/submission, this time showing the updated details of the submission. Also, a confirmation letter is sent to the contact author(s). If the contact email address(es) were modified, both the old addresses and the new ones receive this email.

3. Withdrawing (and un-withdrawing) a submission

To withdraw a submission before the deadline you use the withdrawal form. (To withdraw a submission after the deadline you should contact the chair(s).) The withdrawal form is very simple, consisting only of fields for the submission-ID and password and a "Withdraw" button. Once you submit this form, you are presented with a receipt page that confirms that the submission was withdrawn, and the contact author(s) receive an email confirming the same.

Note that withdrawing a submission does not remove it from the server, but only flags it as "withdrawn". You can therefore un-withdraw the submission at any time before the deadline. This is done either by using the big "Oops" button on the withdrawal-receipt page, or by going to the revision form and revising anything in the submission.

4. Rebuttal to comments

If the chair decides to enable rebuttal, you will be send the reviewer comments sometime in the middle of the review process, and have an opportunity to respond to these comments. You will be provided a link to a page where you can read the reviewers' comments on your submission, and have some limited space to respond. (Typically the response if limited to 3000 characters.) To access the rebuttal page you will need to provide the submission-ID and password.

5. Camera-ready submission of accepted papers

The camera-ready submission form is very similar to the revision form, except that some fields like keywords are not needed anymore, and there is an extra field to specify the number of pages in the camera-ready version. Just like in the revision form, the camera-ready form can also appear either with the submission details already filled-in or in its "empty" form, and in the latter case the form features a button at the top of the page to "Reload Form with Submission Details" that reloads the same form with the all the details filled-in.