VLDB 2002 28th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases   Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel August 20-23, 2002 Hong Kong, China

PAPER SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

| Research Paper Submission Site | Format and Layout of Research Papers | General Submission Procedure | | Vision Papers | Industrial, Applications and Experience Papers | Broadening Strategy |

All papers will be submitted and processed according to exactly the same schedule as detailed in the Call for Papers. The important dates are summarized below. At least one author of each accepted paper must register for VLDB 2002 by 14 June 2002. Important Dates 12 February 2002 Abstract submission is closed! Abstract Submission Deadline 19 February 2002 Paper submission is closed! Paper Submission Deadline 6 May 2002 Notification of Acceptance 14 June 2002 (9:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time) Camera Ready Papers Due

RESEARCH PAPER SUBMISSION SITE

Research papers should be submitted to either the Core Database Technology area or the Infrastructure for Information Systems area, at the following submission site: Area Research Paper Submission Site Core Database Technology Please note that paper submission is closed! Infrastructure for Information Systems Note that there is only one submission site for both areas. You will need to identify the area (Core Database Technology or Infrastructure for Information Systems) as part of the submission procedure. Other submissions (Industrial/Applications/Experience, Tutorial, Panel, Demonstration) should be e-mailed to the relevant chairs listed on the Call for Papers. These submission procedures are the same for members of any of the VLDB 2002 program committees. Anyone requiring advice on where to submit a paper should contact the technical program chairperson, Phil Bernstein (philbe@microsoft.com).

FORMAT AND LAYOUT OF RESEARCH PAPERS

Both submissions for refereeing and final copy for the proceedings must be laid out according to the Camera Ready Copy (CRC) format. For details see Camera Ready Formatting Instructions. Please be sure to include the special cover page as described below under Submitting Your Paper. Page limit: All submitted papers should be a maximum of twelve US letter pages when presented in the two-column CRC format used in VLDB proceedings. This includes all parts of the paper: title, abstract, body, bibliography and appendices. ANY PAPER NOT IN THIS FORMAT OR EXCEEDING THIS 12-PAGE LIMIT WILL NOT BE REFEREED, BUT WILL BE REJECTED OUTRIGHT. Authors may include up to two pages of appendix in their submission beyond the 12 page limit, with the understanding that reviewers are not obligated to consider these two pages in their evaluation and that proceedings space for these two pages will not be provided.

GENERAL SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

It is the author's responsibility to make the paper readable, relevant and interesting before submission for consideration by referees. This includes legibility of diagrams and quality of English. Duplicate Submissions Duplicate submissions are not allowed for VLDB conferences. A VLDB conference submission is considered to be a duplicate submission if there is another paper with all of the following properties: the paper and VLDB submission have at least one author in common; the paper is more than 4 pages long, when formatted for the VLDB Proceedings; the main technical content of the paper substantially overlaps that of the VLDB submission; the paper is published or under consideration to be published in a refereed journal or proceedings (electronic or printed) that is generally available (e.g., not limited to conference attendees). Authors submitting papers to VLDB conferences are expected to agree to the following terms: "I understand that the paper being submitted must not contain substantial overlap with any other paper currently submitted elsewhere. Furthermore, previously published papers with any overlap are cited prominently in this submission." Duplicate submissions will be rejected. Questions about this policy or how it applies to your work should be directed to the technical program chairperson, Phil Bernstein (philbe@microsoft.com). Registering an Abstract Once a research paper has been prepared, the authors must register their intention to submit it by recording the abstract at the research paper submission site by 12 February 2002 (9:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time). By doing so, authors obtain a reference number that will be used to identify the paper during refereeing. Without a registered abstract, papers may not be processed correctly. When the abstract is registered, the submission site will also solicit information about the contact author. This information will be used for VLDB administration purposes (e.g., to notify authors of the outcome of the submission). If an author has to change the contact information, he or she should e-mail the area program chair. This is a manual procedure, so please choose contact information that will be stable over the period of paper processing. Submitting Your Paper Papers must be electronically submitted. Authors are responsible for ensuring that the submitted material is on time (no extensions will be given) and complies with the size constraints (long papers will not be refereed). Every paper should have a cover page (not counted in the page count) that: Identifies the contact author. Gives his or her address for correspondence (e-mail, conventional mail and telephone). States the reference number (see Registering an Abstract). Indicates the topic area ("core database technology" or "infrastructure for information systems") and the category ("research" or "vision"). Gives the title and full list of authors (marking any author that is on any VLDB 2002 program committee). Indicates the topics relevant to the paper, selected among those present in this topic list. This cover page is redundant information if the abstract has been registered using the database as requested (see Registering an Abstract). However we would like this extra information to simplify the administrative processing of your paper. Papers must be in PDF. It is essential that they print without difficulty on a variety of printers using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Therefore, authors must be sure that any special fonts are included, etc. It is the absolute responsibility of the authors to ensure that their submitted paper is in PDF and will print easily. Authors must upload the PDF of papers to the research paper submission site by 19 February 2002 (9:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time). The file must be named by the reference number allocated when the abstract was submitted (e.g., 789.pdf; see Registering an Abstract). Notifications to Authors Authors will be notified of the outcome of the refereeing process by 6 May 2002. We will use the contact information given when the abstract was registered (see Registering an Abstract). Camera Ready Copy This will be required by 14 June 2002. Formatting details are specified here. Submission details will be posted on the VLDB 2002 web site at a later date.

VISION PAPERS

VLDB occasionally publishes vision papers, which provide a medium for discussion of expected technological, economic and social developments and their impact on databases. Successful vision papers are highly novel and are usually controversial. They are inevitably speculative. However they are expected to present clearly a technically convincing argument of relevance to the database community. For example, they may argue for a very different technical approach to a well known problem or for database research on a problem that currently gets no attention at all. They are normally written by authors who are very experienced in the database industry or in database research, or have some other deep experience which they bring to bear on database issues. Papers in this category help to formulate directions in which the database industry or database research should develop. Insight and perspective are particularly highly valued. Vision papers should be submitted as research papers to the research paper submission site. They should conform to all research paper guidelines and be clearly labeled as a Vision Paper on the cover page.

INDUSTRIAL, APPLICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE PAPERS

As explained in the Call for Papers, VLDB also encourages submissions covering innovative commercial database implementations, novel applications of database technology, and experience in applying recent research advances to practical situations. Such submissions should be of interest both to researchers and to people doing advanced work in industry. Both full papers and extended abstracts may be submitted in this category, e-mailed to David Wai-lok Cheung, dcheung.vldb@cs.hku.hk. Full papers must conform to the format and layout guidelines for research papers. Extended abstract submissions may be any length up to that of a full paper. Full papers and extended abstracts must conform to the duplicate submission policy. Full papers are expected to have the same technical density and interest value as research papers, but covering such topics as innovative commercial database systems, novel database applications, and experience in applying recent research advances. (See the Call for Papers for further details.) If accepted, a full paper will be offered the same space in the proceedings as a research paper. An extended abstract, if accepted, will be offered four pages in the proceedings and, ordinarily, the same presentation time as a full paper in a session. The program committee reserves the right to accept a full paper submission as an extended abstract, for example, if the topic is of great interest, but the paper is insufficiently deep or dense.

BROADENING STRATEGY

VLDB 2002 encourages Broadening by soliciting papers that are on a broader range of topics than those considered by previous database conferences; on riskier and more novel challenges, as opposed to incremental improvements on existing results; from a broader range of contributors (e.g., people developing and deploying database technology and those outside the field who pose new requirements and challenges); and in novel formats such as reports on case studies, systems development and testing, and product evaluations relative to new application requirements. A paper's contribution to Broadening is not a substitute for technical depth or density. However, among papers that the program committee considers equal in merit based on technical quality, it will favor papers that contribute to Broadening over those that do not. The inverse of Broadening is Specificity. VLDB 2002 discourages incremental research on topics of interest to a small audience ("delta-X papers"). That is, the standards for novelty and technical depth increase for papers that address a problem that has been much studied, is of minor importance, and is of interest only to a few people who have dug very deeply into the problem.