ACM IMC 2016 Call for Papers

CFP in PDF and plain text

The Internet Measurement Conference (IMC) is a highly selective venue for the presentation of measurement-based research in data communications. The focus of IMC 2016 will be on research that either improves the practice of network measurement, or illuminates some facet of an operational network, or both. IMC takes a broad view of contributions that are considered in scope for improving the practice of network measurement, including, but not limited to:

• collection and analysis of data that yield new insights about network structure and network performance (e.g., traffic, topology, routing, energy utilization)
• collection and analysis of data that yield new insights about application and end-user behavior (e.g., economics, privacy, security, application interaction with protocols)
• modeling of network internals and application behavior (e.g., workloads, scaling behavior, assessment of performance bottlenecks)
• methods and tools to monitor and visualize network-based phenomena
• novel systems and algorithmic techniques that leverage measurement-based findings
• advances in data collection, analysis, and storage (e.g., anonymization, querying, sharing)
• reappraisal of previous empirical findings

Operational networks of interest include:

• the Internet backbone
• edge networks (e.g., home networks, cellular networks, WLANs)
• data centers and cloud computing infrastructure
• software-defined networks
• peer-to-peer, overlay, and content distribution networks
• infrastructure for online social networks
• experimental networks, prototype networks, and future Internets

Review process and criteria

IMC 2016 invites two forms of submissions:

• Full papers (up to 13 pages for text and figures + up to 2 pages for references) that describe original research, with succinctness appropriate to the topics and themes they discuss.
• Short papers (up to 6 pages for text and figures + up to 1 page for references) that convey work that is less mature but shows promise, articulate a high-level vision, describe challenging future directions, critique current measurement wisdom, or offer results that do not merit a full submission.

Any submission exceeding short paper page-length limit will be evaluated as a full paper. Authors should only submit original work that has not been published before and is not under submission to any other venue. We will consider full paper submissions that extend previously published short, preliminary papers (including IMC short papers) following the model of the ACM SIGCOMM policy.

IMC 2016 will bestow two awards. One award will recognize the outstanding paper at the conference, and all accepted papers are eligible for it. The other award will recognize a paper that contributes a novel dataset to the community. To be eligible for this award, the authors must make their dataset publicly available (e.g., through DatCat for Internet measurement data or CRAWDAD for wireless data) by the time of the camera-ready submission.

A few accepted papers may be forwarded for fast-track submission to IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

Ethical Considerations

Papers describing experiments with users or sensitive user data (e.g., network traffic, passwords, social network information), must follow basic precepts of ethical research and subscribe to community norms. These include: respect for privacy, secure storage of sensitive data, voluntary and informed consent if users are placed at risk, avoiding deceptive practices when not essential, beneficence (maximizing the benefits to an individual or to society while minimizing harm to the individual), and risk mitigation. When appropriate, authors are encouraged to include a subsection describing these issues. Authors may want to consult the Menlo Report for further information on ethical principles, or the Allman/Paxson IMC 07 paper for guidance on ethical data sharing.

Note that submitting research for approval by each author’s institutional ethics review body is necessary, but not sufficient – in cases where the PC has concerns about the ethics of the work in a submission, the PC will consider the ethical soundness and justification of any paper, just as it does its technical soundness. The PC takes a broad view of what constitutes an ethical concern, and authors agree to be available at any time during the review process to rapidly respond to queries from the PC chairs regarding ethical considerations.

Authors unsure about topical fit or ethical issues are welcome to contact the program committee co-chairs at imc2016pcchairs@sigcomm.org.

Submission guidelines

All submissions must satisfy the following requirements:

• Full papers: up to 13 pages (+2 pages for references)
• Short papers: up to 6 pages (+1 page for references)
• 10-point font for main text; font used in other places (e.g., figures) should be no smaller than 9 point
• two-column format, with the size of each column being at most 3.33 x 9.25 inches and the space between columns being at least 0.33 inches
• letter page size (8.5 x 11 inches)
• include names and affiliations of all authors on the title page (no anonymization)

Submissions that do not comply with these requirements will be rejected without review. The sig-alternate-10pt.cls style file satisfies the formatting requirements. Compile your source with options that produce letter page size.

Submission Site

Please submit your paper at imc2016.hotcrp.com.

Important Dates

(Note that original announced conference dates were Oct. 31 to Nov. 2; we changed these dates out of necessity.)