Blogs (9) >>
SPLASH 2016
Sun 30 October - Fri 4 November 2016 Amsterdam, Netherlands

OOPSLA seeks outstanding contributions on all aspects of programming languages and software engineering.

Papers may target any stage of software development, including requirements, modeling, prototyping, design, implementation, generation, analysis, verification, testing, evaluation, maintenance, and reuse of software systems. Contributions may include the development of new tools (such as language front-ends, program analyses, and runtime systems), new techniques (such as methodologies, design processes, and code organization approaches), new principles (such as formalisms, proofs, models, and paradigms), and new evaluations (such as experiments, corpora analyses, user studies, and surveys).

Dates
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Wed 2 Nov

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

10:30 - 12:10
Optimization and PerformanceOOPSLA at Matterhorn 1
Chair(s): Jan Vitek Northeastern University
10:30
25m
Talk
A Compiler for Throughput Optimization of Graph Algorithms on GPUsAEC
OOPSLA
Sreepathi Pai University of Texas at Austin, USA, Keshav Pingali University of Texas at Austin, USA
DOI Pre-print
10:55
25m
Talk
Automatic Parallelization of Pure Method Calls via Conditional Future Synthesis
OOPSLA
Rishi Surendran Rice University, USA, Vivek Sarkar Rice University, USA
DOI
11:20
25m
Talk
Portable Inter-workgroup Barrier Synchronisation for GPUsAEC
OOPSLA
Tyler Sorensen Imperial College London, Alastair F. Donaldson Imperial College London, Mark Batty University of Kent, Ganesh Gopalakrishnan University of Utah, Zvonimir Rakamaric University of Utah
DOI Pre-print
11:45
25m
Talk
Parallel Incremental Whole-Program Optimizations for Scala.js
OOPSLA
Sébastien Doeraene EPFL, Switzerland, Tobias Schlatter EPFL, Switzerland
DOI Pre-print
10:30 - 12:10
Semantics and VerificationOOPSLA at Matterhorn 2
Chair(s): Jonathan Aldrich Carnegie Mellon University
10:30
25m
Talk
Semantics-Based Program Verifiers for All LanguagesAECDistinguished Paper Award
OOPSLA
Andrei Stefanescu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Daejun Park University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Shijiao Yuwen University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Yilong Li Runtime Verification, Inc., Grigore Roşu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
DOI Media Attached
10:55
25m
Talk
Hoare-Style Specifications as Correctness Conditions for Non-linearizable Concurrent ObjectsAEC
OOPSLA
Ilya Sergey University College London, Aleksandar Nanevski IMDEA Software Institute, Anindya Banerjee IMDEA Software Institute, Germán Andrés Delbianco IMDEA Software Institute
DOI Pre-print Media Attached File Attached
11:20
25m
Talk
An Operational Semantics for C/C++11 ConcurrencyAEC
OOPSLA
Kyndylan Nienhuis University of Cambridge, Kayvan Memarian University of Cambridge, Peter Sewell University of Cambridge
DOI
11:45
25m
Talk
Modeling and Analysis of Remote Memory Access ProgrammingAECDistinguished Paper Award
OOPSLA
Andrei Marian Dan ETH Zurich, Patrick Lam University of Waterloo, Canada, Torsten Hoefler ETH Zurich, Martin Vechev ETH Zurich
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
13:30 - 15:10
Language Design and Programming Models IOOPSLA at Matterhorn 1
Chair(s): Roberto Ierusalimschy PUC-Rio
13:30
25m
Talk
Extensible Access Control with Authorization Contracts
OOPSLA
Scott Moore Harvard University, Christos Dimoulas Harvard University, Robert Bruce Findler Northwestern University, Matthew Flatt University of Utah, Stephen Chong Harvard University
DOI
13:55
25m
Talk
Gentrification Gone too Far? Affordable 2nd-Class Values for Fun and (Co-)EffectAEC
OOPSLA
Leo Osvald , Gregory Essertel , Xilun Wu Purdue University, Lilliam I Gonzalez Alayon Purdue University, Tiark Rompf Purdue University, USA
DOI
14:20
25m
Talk
Incremental Forest: A DSL for Efficiently Managing FilestoresAEC
OOPSLA
Jonathan DiLorenzo Cornell University, Richard Zhang University of Pennsylvania, Erin Menzies , Kathleen Fisher Tufts University, Nate Foster Cornell University
DOI
14:45
25m
Talk
LaCasa: Lightweight Affinity and Object Capabilities in Scala
OOPSLA
Philipp Haller KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Alex Loiko Google Stockholm, Sweden
DOI Pre-print
13:30 - 15:10
Program SynthesisOOPSLA at Matterhorn 2
Chair(s): Martin Odersky EPFL, Switzerland
13:30
25m
Talk
Deriving Divide-and-Conquer Dynamic Programming Algorithms using Solver-Aided TransformationsAEC
OOPSLA
Shachar Itzhaky MIT CSAIL, Rohit Singh MIT, Rezaul Chowdhury Stony Brook University, Kuat Yessenov MIT, Yongquan Lu MIT, Charles E. Leiserson MIT, Armando Solar-Lezama MIT CSAIL
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
13:55
25m
Talk
Speeding Up Machine-Code Synthesis
OOPSLA
Venkatesh Srinivasan University of Wisconsin - Madison, Tushar Sharma University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA, Thomas Reps University of Wisconsin - Madison and Grammatech Inc.
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
14:20
25m
Talk
Automated Reasoning for Web Page LayoutAEC
OOPSLA
Pavel Panchekha University of Washington, Emina Torlak University of Washington
DOI Media Attached
14:45
25m
Talk
FIDEX: Filtering Spreadsheet Data using Examples
OOPSLA
Xinyu Wang UT Austin, Sumit Gulwani Microsoft Research, Rishabh Singh Microsoft Research
DOI Media Attached
15:40 - 17:20
Static AnalysisOOPSLA at Matterhorn 1
Chair(s): Sam Guyer Tufts University
15:40
25m
Talk
Accelerating Program Analyses by Cross-Program Training
OOPSLA
Sulekha Kulkarni Georgia Tech, Ravi Mangal Georgia Institute of Technology, Xin Zhang Georgia Tech, Mayur Naik Georgia Tech
DOI
16:05
25m
Talk
An Improved Algorithm for Slicing Machine CodeAEC
OOPSLA
Venkatesh Srinivasan University of Wisconsin - Madison, Thomas Reps University of Wisconsin - Madison and Grammatech Inc.
DOI Pre-print
16:30
25m
Talk
Call Graphs for Languages with Parametric Polymorphism
OOPSLA
Dmytro Petrashko EPFL, Vlad Ureche EPFL, Switzerland, Ondřej Lhoták University of Waterloo, Martin Odersky EPFL, Switzerland
DOI
16:55
25m
Talk
Type Inference for Static Compilation of JavaScript
OOPSLA
Satish Chandra Samsung Research America, Colin Gordon Drexel University, Jean-Baptiste Jeannin Carnegie Mellon University , Cole Schlesinger Samsung Research America, Manu Sridharan Samsung Research America, Frank Tip Samsung Research America, Young-il Choi Samsung Electronics
DOI Pre-print
15:40 - 17:20
Programming Frameworks, Tools, and MethodologiesOOPSLA at Matterhorn 2
Chair(s): Emerson Murphy-Hill Google
15:40
25m
Talk
Purposes, Concepts, Misfits, and a Redesign of GitAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
16:05
25m
Talk
Apex: Automatic Programming Assignment Error Explanation
OOPSLA
Dohyeong Kim Purdue University, Yonghwi Kwon Purdue University, Peng Liu Purdue University, I Luk Kim Purdue University, David Mitchel Perry Purdue University, Xiangyu Zhang Purdue University, Gustavo Rodriguez-Rivera Purdue University
DOI Media Attached
16:30
25m
Talk
Asserting Reliable Convergence for Configuration Management ScriptsDistinguished Paper Award
OOPSLA
Oliver Hanappi Vienna University of Technology, Waldemar Hummer Vienna University of Technology, Schahram Dustdar TU Wien
DOI
16:55
25m
Talk
Dependent Partitioning
OOPSLA
Sean Treichler Stanford University, Michael Bauer NVIDIA Research, Rahul Sharma Microsoft Research, Elliott Slaughter , Alex Aiken Stanford University
DOI Media Attached

Thu 3 Nov

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

10:30 - 12:10
Concurrency Analysis and Model CheckingOOPSLA at Matterhorn 1
Chair(s): Thomas Gross ETH Zurich
10:30
25m
Talk
Directed Synthesis of Failing Concurrent Executions
OOPSLA
Malavika Samak Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Omer Tripp IBM Research, USA, Murali Krishna Ramanathan Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
DOI Media Attached
10:55
25m
Talk
Maximal Causality Reduction for TSO and PSO
OOPSLA
Shiyou Huang Texas A&M University, Jeff Huang Texas A&M University
DOI
11:20
25m
Talk
Stateless Model Checking with Data-Race Preemption Points
OOPSLA
Ben Blum Carnegie Mellon University, Garth Gibson Carnegie Mellon University
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
11:45
25m
Talk
Precise and Maximal Race Detection from Incomplete Traces
OOPSLA
Jeff Huang Texas A&M University, Arun Krishnakumar Rajagopalan Texas A&M University
DOI Media Attached
10:30 - 12:10
Language Design and Programming Models IIOOPSLA at Matterhorn 2
Chair(s): Olivier Tardieu IBM Research
10:30
25m
Talk
Automatic Enforcement of Expressive Security Policies using Enclaves
OOPSLA
Anitha Gollamudi , Stephen Chong Harvard University
DOI
10:55
25m
Talk
Chain: Tasks and Channels for Reliable Intermittent Programs
OOPSLA
Alexei Colin Carnegie Mellon University, Brandon Lucia Carnegie Mellon University
DOI Pre-print
11:20
25m
Talk
GEMs: Shared-Memory Parallel Programming for Node.js
OOPSLA
Daniele Bonetta Oracle Labs, Luca Salucci Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Stefan Marr Johannes Kepler University Linz, Walter Binder University of Lugano
DOI
11:45
25m
Talk
OrcO: A Concurrency-First Approach to Objects
OOPSLA
Arthur Michener Peters The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA, David Kitchin Google, Inc., John A. Thywissen The University of Texas at Austin, William Cook UT Austin
DOI Pre-print
13:30 - 15:10
Runtime SupportOOPSLA at Matterhorn 1
Chair(s): Laurence Tratt King's College London
13:30
25m
Talk
Efficient and Thread-Safe Objects for Dynamically-Typed LanguagesAEC
OOPSLA
Benoit Daloze JKU Linz, Austria, Stefan Marr Johannes Kepler University Linz, Daniele Bonetta Oracle Labs, Hanspeter Mössenböck JKU Linz, Austria
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
13:55
25m
Talk
Hybrid STM/HTM for Nested Transactions on OpenJDKAECDistinguished Paper Award
OOPSLA
Keith Chapman Purdue University, Tony Hosking Australian National University, Data61, and Purdue University, Eliot Moss University of Massachusetts Amherst
Link to publication DOI Pre-print Media Attached
14:20
25m
Talk
Makalu: Fast Recoverable Allocation of Non-volatile Memory
OOPSLA
Kumud Bhandari Rice University, USA, Dhruva Chakrabarti , Hans-J. Boehm Google
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
14:45
25m
Talk
Prioritized Garbage Collection: Explicit GC Support for Software Caches
OOPSLA
Diogenes Nunez Tufts University, Sam Guyer Tufts University, Emery D. Berger University of Massachusetts, Amherst
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
13:30 - 15:10
Principles, Across the Compilation StackOOPSLA at Matterhorn 2
Chair(s): Adam Chlipala MIT CSAIL
13:30
25m
Talk
Semantic Subtyping for Imperative Object-Oriented LanguagesAEC
OOPSLA
Davide Ancona University of Genova, Andrea Corradi
DOI
13:55
25m
Talk
Parsing with First-Class DerivativesAEC
OOPSLA
Jonathan Immanuel Brachthäuser University of Tübingen, Germany, Tillmann Rendel University of Tübingen, Germany, Klaus Ostermann University of Tübingen, Germany
DOI
14:20
25m
Talk
The Missing Link: Explaining ELF Static Linking, SemanticallyAEC
OOPSLA
Stephen Kell University of Cambridge, Dominic P. Mulligan University of Cambridge, Peter Sewell University of Cambridge
DOI
14:45
25m
Talk
Type Soundness for Dependent Object Types (DOT)AEC
OOPSLA
Tiark Rompf Purdue University, USA, Nada Amin EPFL
DOI Pre-print
15:40 - 17:20
Program Modeling and LearningOOPSLA at Matterhorn 1
Chair(s): Ondřej Lhoták University of Waterloo
15:40
25m
Talk
Computing Repair Alternatives for Malformed Programs using Constraint Attribute GrammarsAEC
OOPSLA
Friedrich Steimann Fernuniversität, Jörg Hagemann Fernuniversität in Hagen, Bastian Ulke Fernuniversität in Hagen
DOI Media Attached
16:05
25m
Talk
Probabilistic Model for Code with Decision Trees
OOPSLA
Veselin Raychev ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Pavol Bielik , Martin Vechev ETH Zurich
DOI
16:30
25m
Talk
Ringer: Web Automation by DemonstrationAEC
OOPSLA
Shaon Barman UC Berkeley, Sarah E. Chasins University of California, Berkeley, Rastislav Bodík University of Washington, USA, Sumit Gulwani Microsoft Research
DOI Media Attached
16:55
25m
Talk
Scalable Verification of Border Gateway Protocol Configurations with an SMT SolverAEC
OOPSLA
Konstantin Weitz University of Washington, Doug Woos University of Washington, Emina Torlak University of Washington, Michael D. Ernst University of Washington, Arvind Krishnamurthy University of Washington, Zachary Tatlock University of Washington, Seattle
DOI Media Attached

Fri 4 Nov

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

10:30 - 12:10
Typing, in PracticeOOPSLA at Matterhorn 1
Chair(s): Sebastian Erdweg Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
10:30
25m
Talk
A Practical Framework for Type Inference Error Explanation
OOPSLA
Calvin Loncaric University of Washington, Satish Chandra Samsung Research America, Manu Sridharan Samsung Research America, Cole Schlesinger Samsung Research America
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
10:55
25m
Talk
Dynamically Diagnosing Type Errors in Unsafe CodeAEC
OOPSLA
Stephen Kell University of Cambridge
DOI Media Attached
11:20
25m
Talk
First-Class Effect Reflection for Effect-Guided Programming
OOPSLA
Yuheng Long Iowa State University, Yu David Liu , Hridesh Rajan Iowa State University, USA
DOI
11:45
25m
Talk
Java and Scala's Type Systems are Unsound: The Existential Crisis of Null PointersAEC
OOPSLA
Nada Amin EPFL, Ross Tate Cornell University
Link to publication DOI Pre-print
13:30 - 15:10
Bug Detection Analysis and Model CheckingOOPSLA at Matterhorn 1
Chair(s): Ben Livshits Microsoft Research
13:30
25m
Talk
Finding Compiler Bugs via Live Code Mutation
OOPSLA
Chengnian Sun University of California, Davis, Vu Le Microsoft, Zhendong Su University of California, Davis
DOI Media Attached
13:55
25m
Talk
Finding Resume and Restart Errors in Android Applications
OOPSLA
Zhiyong Shan University of Central Missouri, USA, Tanzirul Azim University of California at Riverside, USA, Iulian Neamtiu New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
DOI Pre-print
14:20
25m
Talk
Low-Overhead and Fully Automated Statistical Debugging with Abstraction RefinementAEC
OOPSLA
Zhiqiang Zuo University of California, Irvine, Lu Fang University of California, Irvine, Siau-Cheng Khoo , Harry Xu University of California, Irvine, Shan Lu University of Chicago
DOI Media Attached
14:45
25m
Talk
To Be Precise: Regression Aware Debugging
OOPSLA
Rohan Bavishi IIT Kanpur, India, Awanish Pandey IIT Kanpur, India, Subhajit Roy IIT Kanpur, India
DOI

Accepted Papers

Title
Accelerating Program Analyses by Cross-Program Training
OOPSLA
DOI
A Compiler for Throughput Optimization of Graph Algorithms on GPUsAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print
An Improved Algorithm for Slicing Machine CodeAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print
An Operational Semantics for C/C++11 ConcurrencyAEC
OOPSLA
DOI
Apex: Automatic Programming Assignment Error Explanation
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
A Practical Framework for Type Inference Error Explanation
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
Asserting Reliable Convergence for Configuration Management ScriptsDistinguished Paper Award
OOPSLA
DOI
Automated Reasoning for Web Page LayoutAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Automatic Enforcement of Expressive Security Policies using Enclaves
OOPSLA
DOI
Automatic Parallelization of Pure Method Calls via Conditional Future Synthesis
OOPSLA
DOI
Call Graphs for Languages with Parametric Polymorphism
OOPSLA
DOI
Chain: Tasks and Channels for Reliable Intermittent Programs
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print
Computing Repair Alternatives for Malformed Programs using Constraint Attribute GrammarsAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Dependent Partitioning
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Deriving Divide-and-Conquer Dynamic Programming Algorithms using Solver-Aided TransformationsAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
Directed Synthesis of Failing Concurrent Executions
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Dynamically Diagnosing Type Errors in Unsafe CodeAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Efficient and Thread-Safe Objects for Dynamically-Typed LanguagesAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
Extensible Access Control with Authorization Contracts
OOPSLA
DOI
FIDEX: Filtering Spreadsheet Data using Examples
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Finding Compiler Bugs via Live Code Mutation
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Finding Resume and Restart Errors in Android Applications
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print
First-Class Effect Reflection for Effect-Guided Programming
OOPSLA
DOI
GEMs: Shared-Memory Parallel Programming for Node.js
OOPSLA
DOI
Gentrification Gone too Far? Affordable 2nd-Class Values for Fun and (Co-)EffectAEC
OOPSLA
DOI
Hoare-Style Specifications as Correctness Conditions for Non-linearizable Concurrent ObjectsAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached File Attached
Hybrid STM/HTM for Nested Transactions on OpenJDKAECDistinguished Paper Award
OOPSLA
Link to publication DOI Pre-print Media Attached
Incremental Forest: A DSL for Efficiently Managing FilestoresAEC
OOPSLA
DOI
Java and Scala's Type Systems are Unsound: The Existential Crisis of Null PointersAEC
OOPSLA
Link to publication DOI Pre-print
LaCasa: Lightweight Affinity and Object Capabilities in Scala
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print
Low-Overhead and Fully Automated Statistical Debugging with Abstraction RefinementAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Makalu: Fast Recoverable Allocation of Non-volatile Memory
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
Maximal Causality Reduction for TSO and PSO
OOPSLA
DOI
Modeling and Analysis of Remote Memory Access ProgrammingAECDistinguished Paper Award
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
OrcO: A Concurrency-First Approach to Objects
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print
Parallel Incremental Whole-Program Optimizations for Scala.js
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print
Parsing with First-Class DerivativesAEC
OOPSLA
DOI
Portable Inter-workgroup Barrier Synchronisation for GPUsAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print
Precise and Maximal Race Detection from Incomplete Traces
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Prioritized Garbage Collection: Explicit GC Support for Software Caches
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
Probabilistic Model for Code with Decision Trees
OOPSLA
DOI
Purposes, Concepts, Misfits, and a Redesign of GitAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
Ringer: Web Automation by DemonstrationAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Scalable Verification of Border Gateway Protocol Configurations with an SMT SolverAEC
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Semantics-Based Program Verifiers for All LanguagesAECDistinguished Paper Award
OOPSLA
DOI Media Attached
Semantic Subtyping for Imperative Object-Oriented LanguagesAEC
OOPSLA
DOI
Speeding Up Machine-Code Synthesis
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
Stateless Model Checking with Data-Race Preemption Points
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
The Missing Link: Explaining ELF Static Linking, SemanticallyAEC
OOPSLA
DOI
To Be Precise: Regression Aware Debugging
OOPSLA
DOI
Type Inference for Static Compilation of JavaScript
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print
Type Soundness for Dependent Object Types (DOT)AEC
OOPSLA
DOI Pre-print

Call for Papers

PAPER SELECTION

Selection Criteria

The program committee will consider the following criteria when evaluating submitted papers:

Novelty: The paper presents new ideas and/or results and places these ideas and results appropriately within the context established by previous research in the field.

Importance: The paper contributes significantly to the advancement of knowledge in the field. In addition to more traditional contributions, OOPSLA welcomes papers that diverge from the dominant trajectory of the field.

Evidence: The paper presents sufficient evidence supporting its claims. Examples of evidence include proofs, implemented systems, experimental results, statistical analyses, case studies, and anecdotes.

Clarity: The paper presents its contributions, methodology and results clearly.

Selection Process

Since 2013, OOPSLA has been following a two-phase review process, with the goal of improving the quality of accepted papers. The first reviewing phase assesses the papers using the criteria stated above. At the PC meeting a set of papers will be conditionally accepted and all other papers will be rejected.

Authors of conditionally accepted papers will be provided with the usual committee reviews along with a set of mandatory revisions. After approximately two months, the authors will provide a second submission. The second and final reviewing phase assesses how well the mandatory revisions have been performed by the authors and thereby determines the final accept/reject status of the paper. The intent and expectation is that the mandatory revisions can be adequately addressed within two months and hence that conditionally accepted papers will be accepted in the second phase.

The second submission should clearly identify how the mandatory revisions were addressed. To that end, the second submission must be accompanied by a cover letter mapping each mandatory revision request to specific parts of the paper. The absence of this cover letter is grounds for the paper’s rejection.

SUBMISSION

Details on formatting and other submission requirements can be found in the Instructions for Authors.

OOPSLA 2016 submissions must conform to both the ACM Policy on Prior Publication and Simultaneous Submissions and the SIGPLAN Re-publication Policy. In addition, OOPSLA 2016 is implementing a (lightweight) double-blind submission process (i.e., authors are anonymous at submission time, though their identity is known during committee deliberations).

Artifact Evaluation

Authors of papers that are conditionally accepted in the first phase will be invited to formally submit supporting materials to the Artifact Evaluation process. This submission is voluntary and will not influence the final decision regarding the papers. Papers that go through the Artifact Evaluation process successfully will receive a seal of approval printed on the papers themselves.

Authors of accepted papers are encouraged to make these materials publicly available upon publication of the proceedings, by including them as “source materials” in the ACM Digital Library.

Publication Caveats

Authors of accepted papers will be required to sign an ACM copyright release.

AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

More Information

For additional information, clarification, or answers to questions please contact the OOPSLA Chair (Yannis Smaragdakis) at oopsla@splashcon.org.

The following content is strongly based on Mike Hick’s guidelines for POPL 2012, and has been honed by a number of authors including Frank Tip, Keshav Pingali, Richard Jones, John Boyland, and Yannis Smaragdakis.

General

Q: Why are you using double-blind reviewing?

A: Our goal is to give each a reviewer an unbiased “first look” at each paper. Studies have shown that a reviewer’s attitude toward a submission may be affected, even unconsciously, by the identity of the author (see link below to more details). We want reviewers to be able to approach each submission without such involuntary reactions as “Barnaby; he writes a good paper” or “Who are these people? I have never heard of them.” For this reason, we ask that authors to omit their names from their submissions, and that they avoid revealing their identity through citation. Note that many systems and security conferences use double-blind reviewing and have done so for years (e.g., PLDI, ASPLOS, SIGCOMM, OSDI, IEEE Security and Privacy, SIGMOD, ISMM).

A key principle to keep in mind is that we intend this process to be cooperative, not adversarial. If a reviewer does discover an author’s identity though a subtle clue or oversight the author will not be penalized.

For those wanting more information, see the list of studies about gender bias in other fields and links to CS-related articles that cover this and other forms of bias below.

Q: Do you really think blinding actually works? I suspect reviewers can often guess who the authors are anyway.

A: Studies of blinding with the flavor we are using show that author identities remain unknown 53% to 79% of the time (see Snodgrass, linked below, for details). Moreover, about 5-10% of the time (again, see Snodgrass), a reviewer is certain of the authors, but then turns out to be at least partially mistaken. Mike Hicks’s survey of POPL’12 PC and ERC members showed that they were often mistaken or surprised by the author’s identity. So, while sometimes authorship can be guessed correctly, the question is, is imperfect blinding better than no blinding at all? If author names are not explicitly in front of the reviewer on the front page, does that help at all even for the remaining submissions where it would be possible to guess? Our conjecture is that on balance the answer is “yes”.

Q: Couldn’t blind submission create an injustice where a paper is inappropriately rejected based upon supposedly-prior work which was actually by the same authors and not previously published?

A: In the approach we are taking for OOPSLA, author names are revealed to reviewers after they have submitted their review and before final decisions are made. Therefore, a reviewer can correct their review if they indeed have penalized the authors inappropriately. Unblinding prior to (or at) the PC meeting also avoids abuses in which committee members end up advancing the cause of a paper with which they have a conflict.

For Authors

Q: What exactly do I have to do to anonymize my paper?

A: Your job is not to make your identity undiscoverable but simply to make it possible for our reviewers to evaluate your submission without having to know who you are. The main guidelines are simple: omit authors’ names from your title page (or list them as “omitted for submission”), and when you cite your own work, refer to it in the third person. For example, if your name is Smith and you have worked on amphibious type systems, instead of saying “We extend our earlier work on statically typed toads (Smith 2004),” you might say “We extend Smith’s (2004) earlier work on statically typed toads.” Also, be sure not to include any acknowledgements that would give away your identity.

Q: I would like to provide supplementary material for consideration, e.g., the code of my implementation or proofs of theorems. How do I do this?

A: On the submission site there will be an option to submit supplementary material along with your main paper. This supplementary material need not be anonymized, although this is strongly encouraged. Reviewers are under no obligation to look at this material. The submission itself is the object of review and so it should strive to convince the reader of at least the plausibility of reported results; supplemental material only serves to confirm, in more detail, the idea argued in the paper. Of course, reviewers are free to change their review upon viewing supplemental material (or for any other reason). For those authors who wish to supplement, we encourage them to mention the supplement in the body of the paper and to make clear whether the supplementary material is anonymized or not. E.g., “The proof of Lemma 1 is included in the non-anonymous supplemental material submitted with this paper.”

Q: I am building on my own past work on the WizWoz system. Do I need to rename this system in my paper for purposes of anonymity, or perhaps even avoid citing past work, so as to remove the implied connection between my authorship of past work on this system and my present submission?

A: No, you must not change the name and you should certainly cite your published past work! The relationship between systems and authors changes over time, so there will be at least some doubt about authorship. Increasing this doubt by changing the system name would help with anonymity, but it would compromise the research process. In particular, changing the name requires explaining a lot about the system again because you can’t just refer to the existing papers, which use the proper name. Not citing these papers runs the risk of the reviewers who know about the existing system thinking you are replicating earlier work. It is also confusing for the reviewers to read about the paper under Name X and then have the name be changed to Name Y. Will all the reviewers go and re-read the final version with the correct name? If not, they have the wrong name in their heads, which could be harmful in the long run.

Q: I am submitting a paper that extends my own work that previously appeared at a workshop. Should I anonymize any reference to that prior work?

A: Generally no, but the ideal course of action depends on the degree of similarity and on publication status. On one extreme, if your workshop paper is a publication (i.e., the workshop has published a proceedings, with your paper in it) and your current submission improves on that work, then you should cite the (non-anonymized) workshop paper as if it were written by someone else. On the other extreme, if your submission is effectively a longer, more complete version of an unpublished workshop paper (e.g., no formal proceedings), then you should include a (preferably anonymous) version of the workshop paper as supplementary material. In general, there is rarely a good reason to anonymize a citation. One possibility is for work that is tightly related to the present submission and is also under review. But such works may often be non-anonymous. When in doubt, contact the PC Chair.

Q: Am I allowed to post my (non-blinded) paper on my web page? Can I advertise the unblinded version of my paper on mailing lists or send it to colleagues? May I give a talk about my work while it is under review?

A: As far as the authors’ publicity actions are concerned, a paper under double-blind review is largely the same as a paper under regular (single-blind) review. Double-blind reviewing should not hinder the usual communication of results.

That said, we do ask that you not attempt to deliberately subvert the double-blind reviewing process by announcing the names of the authors of your paper to the potential reviewers of your paper. It is difficult to define exactly what counts as “subversion” here, but some blatant examples include: sending individual e-mail to members of the PC about your work (unless they are conflicted out anyway), or posting mail to a major mailing list (e.g., TYPES) or other publicity channel announcing your paper. On the other hand, it is perfectly fine, for example, to visit other institutions and give talks about your work, to present your submitted work during job interviews, to present your work at professional meetings (e.g. Dagstuhl), or to post your work on your web page. PC members will not be asked to recuse themselves from reviewing your paper unless they feel you have gone out of your way to advertise your authorship information to them. If you’re not sure about what constitutes “going out of your way”, please consult directly with the Program Chair.

Q: Will the fact that OOPSLA is double-blind have an impact on handling conflicts-of interest? When I am asked by the submission system to identify conflicts of interest, what criteria should I use?

A: Using DBR does not change the principle that reviewers should not review papers with which they have a conflict of interest, even if they do not immediately know who the authors are.

As an author, you should list PC members (and any others, since others may be asked for outside reviewers) who you believe have a conflict with you.

For Reviewers

Q: What should I do if I if I learn the authors’ identity? What should I do if a prospective OOPSLA author contacts me and asks to visit my institution?

A: If at any point you feel that the authors’ actions are largely aimed at ensuring that potential reviewers know their identity, you should contact the Program Chair. Otherwise you should not treat double-blind reviewing differently from regular blind reviewing. In particular, you should refrain from seeking out information on the authors’ identity, but if you discover it accidentally this will not automatically disqualify you as a reviewer. Use your best judgment.

Q: The authors have provided a URL to supplemental material. I would like to see the material but I worry they will snoop my IP address and learn my identity. What should I do?

A: Contact the Program Chair, who will download the material on your behalf and make it available to you.

Q: If I am assigned a paper for which I feel I am not an expert, how do I seek an outside review?

A: PC members should do their own reviews, not delegate them to someone else. If doing so is problematic for some papers, e.g., you don’t feel completely qualified, then consider the following options. First, submit a review for your paper that is as careful as possible, outlining areas where you think your knowledge is lacking. Assuming we have sufficient expert reviews, that could be the end of it: non-expert reviews are valuable too, since conference attendees are by-and-large not experts for any given paper. Second, the review form provides a mechanism for suggesting additional expert reviewers to the PC Chair, who may contact them if additional expertise is needed. Please do NOT contact outside reviewers yourself. As a last resort, if you feel like your review would be extremely uninformed and you’d rather not even submit a first cut, contact the PC Chair, and another reviewer will be assigned.

Q: How do we handle potential conflicts of interest since I cannot see the author names?

A: The conference review system will ask that you identify conflicts of interest when you get an account on the submission system. Please see the related question applied to authors to decide how to identify conflicts. Feel free to also identify additional authors whose papers you feel you could not review fairly for reasons other than those given (e.g., strong personal friendship).

More information about bias in merit reviewing

Kathryn McKinley’s editorial makes the case for double-blind reviewing from a computer science perspective. Her article cites Richard Snodgrass’s SIGMOD record editorial which collects many studies of the effects of potential bias in peer review. Mike Hicks’s Chair’s Report describes how POPL’12 used double-blind reviewing and analyzes its effectiveness.

Here are a few studies on the potential effects of bias manifesting in a merit review process, focusing on bias against women. (These were collected by David Wagner.)

  • There’s the famous story of gender bias in orchestra try-outs, where moving to blind auditions seems to have increased the hiring of female musicians by up to 33% or so. Today some orchestras even go so far as to ask musicians to remove their shoes (or roll out thick carpets) before auditioning, to try to prevent gender-revealing cues from the sound of the auditioner’s shoes.

  • One study found bias in assessment of identical CVs but with names and genders changed. In particular, the researchers mailed out c.v.’s for a faculty position, but randomly swapped the gender of the name on some of them. They found that both men and women reviewers ranked supposedly-male job applicants higher than supposedly-female applicants – even though the contents of the c.v. were identical. Presumably, none of the reviewers thought of themselves as biased, yet their evaluations in fact exhibited gender bias. (However: in contrast to the gender bias at hiring time, if the reviewers were instead asked to evaluate whether a candidate should be granted tenure, the big gender differences disappeared. For whatever that’s worth.)

  • The Implicit Association Test illustrates how factors can bias our decision-making, without us realising it. For instance, a large fraction of the population has a tendency to associate men with career (professional life) and women with family (home life), without realizing it. The claim is that we have certain gender stereotypes and schemas which unconsciously influence the way we think. The interesting thing about the IAT is that you can take it yourself. If you want to give it a try, select the Gender-Career IAT or the Gender-Science IAT from here. There’s evidence that these unconscious biases affect our behavior. For instance, one study of recommendation letters written for 300 applicants (looking only at the ones who were eventually hired) found that, when writing about men, letter-writers were more likely to highlight the applicant’s research and technical skills, while when writing about women, letter-writers were more likely to mention the applicant’s teaching and interpersonal skills.

  • This study reports experience from an ecology journal that switched from non-blind to blind reviewing. After the switch, they found a significant (~8%) increase in the acceptance rate for female-first-authored submissions. To put it another way, they saw a 33% increase in the fraction of published papers whose first author is female (28% -> 37%). Keep in mind that this is not a controlled experiment, so it proves correlation but not causation, and there appears to be controversy in the literature about the work. So it as at most a plausibility result that gender bias could be present in the sciences, but far from definitive.

Snodgrass’ studies includes some of these, and more.

For fairness reasons, all submitted papers should conform to the formatting instructions. Submissions that violate these instructions may be rejected without review, at the discretion of the Program Chair.

Submission Site

Please take a moment to read the instructions below before using the submission site. Note that camera ready versions will be collected by Conference Publishing Consulting.

Double-Blind Submission

OOPSLA 2016 is using a mandatory double-blind submission process.

Concurrent Submissions

Papers must describe unpublished work that is not currently submitted for publication elsewhere as described by SIGPLAN’s Republication Policy. Submitters should also be aware of ACM’s Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism.

Format

Submissions should use the ACM SIGPLAN Conference Format, 10 point font, using the font family Times New Roman and numeric citation style. All submissions should be in PDF format. If you use LaTeX or Word, please use the ACM SIGPLAN Templates provided here, making sure to use 10 point fonts (e.g., for LaTeX, set the 10pt option in the \documentclass command). For other document preparation systems, please follow the declarative description of the SIGPLAN formatting guidelines, also applying the extra OOPSLA requirements (e.g., 10pt, Times New Roman, numeric citations).

Please include page numbers in your submission. Setting the preprint option in the LaTeX \documentclass command generates page numbers. Ensure that your submission is legible when printed on a black and white printer. In particular, please check that colors remain distinct and font sizes are legible.

For LaTeX, you can retrieve modified SIGPLAN conference paper templates that automatically enforce the above requirements, as well as double-blind submission, if you use the right flag (“1stsubmission”) on your paper’s header.

Page Limit

To ensure that papers stay focused on their core contributions, for the initial submission, the main part of the paper (excluding bibliographic references) should be no longer than 13 pages. There is no page limit for bibliographic references and appendices, and, therefore, for the overall submission. However, reviewers are not obligated to read the appendices, so the main part of the paper should be self contained.

If the paper is accepted, the final submission will be limited to 20 pages, including appendices. (The 13-page limit for the main body of the paper no longer applies.)

Publication (Digital Library Early Access Warning)

AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.