PVLDB Rights and Responsibilities
NOTE: The contents of this section are derived from the ACM Rights and Responsibilities Document, Oct 11, 2007. We thank ACM (and Bernard Rous, Director of Publication, ACM, in particular) for permission to reuse the ACM Policies.
Preamble
This document summarizes the rights and responsibilities of PVLDB readers, authors, reviewers, associate editors, editors--in--chief/program chairs, the managing editor, and the advisory committee.
PVLDB makes a good-faith effort to implement the rights and responsibilities described in this document; PVLDB will strive to correct any problems that do occur.
Readers
Readers can expect PVLDB to:
Ensure consistent formatting of articles in each publication.
and PVLDB expects readers to:
Respect the copyright or license of the work.
Authors
Authors submit their work to PVLDB because they value its reputation and its cost-effective publication facilities as a place to report their ideas (usually research) to the computing community. Authors rightfully expect PVLDB to facilitate this goal through a smooth and timely process of review and production. In return, PVLDB expects that authors submit works that are ready for publication and that authors be responsive to reasonable requests during the publication process. The author has both rights and responsibilities in their interaction with PVLDB with respect to: authorship, review of the submission, processing of an accepted work, and dissemination.
Authorship
Authors should engage in the best ethical practices regarding the content of their works. In particular, PVLDB expects authors to respect intellectual property rights of others in manuscripts submitted for publication by PVLDB. Authors should not republish any portion of their own work in a way that makes it appear as a completely new work.
Thus, PVLDB expects authors to
Follow submission requirements, e.g., topic areas, page limits, accurate citations, originality, cleared rights, designated contact, acknowledging contributions to work appropriately.
Obtain appropriate permission for the reuse of content copyrighted by others.
When reusing portions of their own previously published work in a new manuscript, explicitly state within the text of the manuscript which portions were published elsewhere, and provide references.
Appropriately acknowledge all persons who have directly contributed to the work.
Certify that all authors have contributed significantly to the work.
Ensure correctness of results in the work, whether theoretical or experimental, to the fullest extent feasible.
Ensure authenticity of data reported in their work.
In case of results that may favourably affect any entity (other than the employers of the author) that provides financial support, provide a prominently displayed note about such sources of funding.
In case errors are found after publication, to provide corrections of mistakes or retraction of the paper.
Reviewing
When an author makes a submission, a confidential review process is initiated. The aim of the review process is to make an appropriate and timely decision on whether a submission should be published. Such decisions are based on proper review by well-qualified and impartial reviewers. Authors have the right to expect prompt, clear, and specific feedback. To facilitate this process, a submission must follow publication requirements and authors must be attentive in responding to questions.
Thus authors can expect PVLDB to:
Use impartial reviewers.
Issue timely review and clear feedback.
Maintain confidentiality.
And PVLDB expects authors to:
Respond to reviews with one voice even if there are multiple authors.
Respond positively to requests to act as referee for other papers.
Processing of Accepted Works
Once a submission has been accepted, authors can expect PVLDB to publish the work in a timely and professional manner. Authors can expect to have approval of all changes to the work. However, authors do have a responsibility to work with PVLDB to complete the publication process.
PVLDB expects authors to:
Respond appropriately to reviews and comments when creating the final version.
Work with the publisher and editor to satisfy design and quality constraints.
Policy on Resubmission
Unlike many journals, PVLDB does not encourage resubmission “as new” of revised papers. Papers rejected from PVLDB are considered “recent rejects” for 12 months from the date of submission. See the PVLDB Publication Policies document for more details of resubmission policies.
Dissemination
Publication is only a part of the broader goal of disseminating ideas and results. Authors can expect PVLDB to contribute to this wider goal, and in particular to encourage dissemination in multiple forums (including being given time to present their paper at the VLDB conference).
Authors can expect PVLDB to allow authors to retain rights on use of material from their papers, as per the Copyright policy section of the PVLDB Publication Policies document.
And PVLDB expects authors to:
Ensure that all versions copyrighted or licensed by PVLDB bear the appropriate notice.
Reviewers and External Reviewers
PVLDB recognizes that the quality of a refereed publication rests primarily on the impartial judgment of their volunteer reviewers. An editorial board or program committee should approach an individual reviewer only with a manuscript that both comes under the reviewer's expertise and meets the publication guidelines.
Thus reviewers can expect PVLDB to:
Provide guidelines on what constitutes a reviewing conflict of interest.
Request them to review only submissions for which the editor feels they have expertise, and request only a limited number of reviews over the course of a year.
Give a reasonable length of time for a review.
Not routinely ask them to make up for delays introduced by other participants in the reviewing cycle.
Not ask them to provide reviews for submissions that do not satisfy either stated publications requirements (e.g., page count restrictions) or which are obviously inappropriate for PVLDB.
Acknowledge their efforts in the publication process, while maintaining confidentiality of which submissions they reviewed.
Inform them of the editorial decisions for the submission, including the author-visible portion of reviews.
Tell them who will see their review.
Recognize that reviewers own the copyright for their reviews.
And PVLDB expects reviewers as well as external reviewers to:
Review the submission by the agreed-upon deadline.
Understand the charter and reviewing standards and procedures of PVLDB.
Read the entire submission carefully, prepare the review with care, apply professional judgment, use appropriate language in a review, and fill out provided review forms in full.
Ensure that relevant prior work is appropriately cited.
Adequately document in their review the reasons behind their recommendations.
Participate in discussions, especially those initiated by the requesting editor.
Review subsequent revisions of a submission that they initially reviewed, should the editor feel that is appropriate.
Maintain the confidentiality of the existence and status of submissions of which the reviewer becomes aware.
Not use results from submitted works in their works, research or grant proposals, unless and until that material appears in other publicly available formats, such as a technical report or as a published work.
Not distribute a submission to anyone (including one’s students or research group) unless approved by the editor handling the submission.
Maintain the anonymity of the other reviewers, should they become known to that reviewer.
Associate Editors, Editors--in--Chief
PVLDB expects Associate Editors and Editors--in--Chief to:
Be an advocate for their publication and to represent the PVLDB well.
Manage the review process in a timely and appropriate manner.
Ensure they have no conflict of interest with respect to articles they reject/accept.
Preserve anonymity of reviewers.
Always be willing to publish corrections, clarifications, retractions and apologies when needed.
PVLDB additionally expects Editors--in--Chief to:
Consult with the managing editor before making any changes in policy, to ensure continuity of policies across years.
Managing Editor and Advisory Committee
PVLDB expects the Managing Editor to:
Provide support to the Editors-in-Chief to ensure they are aware of PVLDB policies.
Carry out any other tasks that are required to maintain and enhance the professional standing of PVLDB.
PVLDB expects the Advisory Committee to provide active support to the Managing Editor to help in evolving PVLDB policies, and in carrying out any other activities required to maintain and enhance the professional standing of PVLDB.
