• Agenda
• Submission deadline: April 25th, 2014 May 2nd, 2014 using the conference submission system
• Notification: May 30th, 2014 June 6th
• Camera-ready deadline: June 20th, 2014
• Conference date: September 1st, 2014
• Submission format: A sisngle unanonymized PDF document containing max. 6 pages (including references) and should be formatted according to the VLDB 2014 formating guildelines. Submissions must be single-author, and the name of the supervisor must be clearly marked ("supervised by ...") on the paper, under the author's name.
• Selection process: Content is highly selectively and rigorously reviewed by members of the program committee and peer experts from submissions.
• Archives: The Proceedings of VLDB; ACM Digital Library

The VLDB 2014 PhD Workshop provides an opportunity for doctoral students to explore and develop their research interests in the broad areas addressed by the VLDB conference itself, under the guidance of a panel of senior researchers. We invite students who feel they would benefit from this kind of feedback on their dissertation work to apply for this unique opportunity to share their work with students in a similar situation as well as senior researchers in the field. We welcome submissions from PhD students at any stage of their PhD work.  We have two tracks for submission. The General Track is for students who are in early stages of their studies. The submission should clearly describe the problem they focus on, explain why it is important, detail why the existing solutions are not sufficient, and give an outline of the new solutions that are pursued. The Towards Graduation Track is for students who are in the middle or close to completion. The submission should be more concrete in describing their contribution, still in the context of their doctoral work.   The strongest candidates will be those who have a clear topic and research approach, and have made some progress, but who are not so far along that they can no longer make changes. Please include a short cover letter stating which track you are submitting to, the expected graduation date, and a short paragraph on what you hope to gain out of the workshop.

Erich Neuhold, the University of Vienna, Austria
Yunyao Li, IBM Research - Almaden, USA

The PhD Workshop has the following objectives:

• Provide a supportive setting for feedback on students’ current research and guidance on future research directions
• Offer each student comments and fresh perspectives on their work from researchers and students outside their own institution
• Promote the development of a supportive community of scholars and a spirit of collaborative research
• Contribute to the conference goals through interaction with other researchers and conference events

The review and decision of acceptance will balance many factors, including the quality of your proposal, and where you are within your doctoral education program. It also includes external factors, where as a group the accepted candidates exhibit a diversity of backgrounds and topics. 

Candidates who have a clearly developed idea, who are formally considered by their institution to be working on their dissertation, and who still have time to be influenced by participation in the PhD Workshop will receive the strongest consideration. Participants in the Workshop will be selected by the PhD Workshop Committee. Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. All rejected submissions will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted submissions will be kept confidential until the start of the conference.

Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection on May 26, 2014, or shortly after.

Authors of accepted submissions will receive instructions on how to submit publication-ready copy, and will receive information about attending the PhD Workshop, about preparing your presentation and poster, about how to register for the conference, and about financial support for traveling and conference registration. All such benefits are contingent on attending the PhD Workshop.

All participants are expected to attend the entire day of the Workshop, including a group dinner on the evening of the Workshop (September 1st, 2014). Each student will present his or her work to the group with substantial time allowed for discussion and questions by participating researchers and other students. Although many fine pieces of work have to be rejected due to lack of space, being accepted into the Workshop is an honor, and involves a commitment to giving and receiving thoughtful commentary with an eye towards shaping the field and upcoming participants in the field. Faculty advisors of the students are strongly encouraged to attend the Workshop as well.

Students will also present a poster of their work at the main conference.  In addition to the conference poster, each student should bring a small version of the poster (e.g., using letter or A4 paper) for sharing with participating researchers and other students during the Workshop sessions.