TITLE: Questions And Answers For The Next Proceedings Chair AUTHOR: Jamie Blustein (Proceedings chair, Hypertext 2002) AUTHOR's ADDRESS: / NOTE: written during the run up to HT2002 Contents: Abbreviations List of Questions List of Answers Attached: schedule from HT 2002 See Also: poster/demo instructions (webpage), panel instructions (webpage), full paper instructions (webpage), original short paper instructions (webpage) ---------------------------------------- Abbreviations ---------------------------------------- ACM = Association for Computing Machinery DL = The ACM's Digital Library (now know as the ACM Portal) e.g. = For example FYI = for your information HQ = headquarters HT = Hypertext Conference JoDI = Journal of Digital Information Proc. = Proceedings sigWeb = ACM's special interest group on Hypertext and Hypermedia ---------------------------------------- List of Questions ---------------------------------------- Q-01: What is involved in being Proc. Chair? Q-02: What is the hardest part? Q-03: Who do I interact with? Q-04: When I have to order copies, how many do I get? Do I need to order enough for `members extras' who pay for proceedings to be mailed to them? Q-05: Why are there two types of forms for authors to sign? It seems wrong that the shorter papers require more signatures. What's up with that? Q-06: What things do you wish you'd done differently when you were proceedings chair the first time? Q-07: What goes into the proceedings and what doesn't? Q-08: What do I do about panels? Q-09: What do I do about posters and demos? Q-10: Do you do anything special with the stuff that is definitely out? Q-11: What is the biggest hassle you had? Q-12: Would you do it again? ---------------------------------------- List of Answers ---------------------------------------- Q-01 Q: What is involved in being Proc. Chair? A: Here are the major tasks: (1) Check with the sigWeb webmaster to make sure that they will host external files (videos, Storyspace files, etc.) that were reviewed with papers. Ask about demos and posters too. If the sigWeb webmaster will host them then you will need to set up an FTP site to collect the files and put that information in the instructions for authors. (2) The program chair(s) will write the call for papers but you must make sure that it is correct. The first time I did it the call said not to include ACM categories and keywords. Those absolutely must be in the articles or they cannot be printed. (3) Develop formatting recommendations for submissions (ACM has a conference proceedings template that you should use). Make these the same for initial submissions and the final one! (4) Make your own webpages for instructions (short,full,poster/demo). See the ones I used in 2002 as a basis. (5) Write to all accepted authors telling them the instructions. (The printer will do this if you ask them to.) (6) Develop the `front material' (prefaces, title page, keynotes, committee lists, referee lists, table of contents). You can get the lists from the website or programme chair(s). The printer will prepare the table of contents but it is up to you to decide how they should be structured (I like them to be in the order of paper presentations at the conference). (7) Get cover image from conference chair. (See note (5) in Q-06 (about mistakes) below about two-colour vs. four-colour covers.) (8) Develop a keyword index or get the printer to make it. (9) Proofread the entire proceedings for typos, hard-to-read screenshots, making sure that names match, etc. It took me about 8 hours over a couple of days. Set aside a day or two for this. The exact date depends on the printers schedule and you will have plenty of notice to schedule the downtime. (10) Optional: with the poster/demos chair, develop poster/demos booklet. (*) See the attached schedule that was used for HT 2002 ---------------------------------------- Q-02 Q: What is the hardest part? A: There is no way that I would do it without help from a publisher like Sheridan. No way at all. I highly recommend Lisa Tolles-Efinger at Sheridan. She made a huge difference in the success of the first proceedings I did. The printing charges do not include proofreading -- they'll check ACM requirements (e.g. font, categories) but not citation format, spelling, etc. If you want them to make indices for author and keywords then you must tell them at the start. They will use author-supplied keywords only. The proofreading takes hours and hours and requires you to print each article. Once changes have been made you have to check it all again. ---------------------------------------- Q-03 Q: Who do I interact with? A: (1) The programme chair(s) gives you the initial call for papers gives you the list of accepted papers and authors you must get preface from him/her/them -- set a deadline (2) The conference chair tells you anything about money (e.g. which printer, how many copies) tells you the list of sponsors and may supply logos sends you the image for the cover they might want to write a preface, you must set a deadline for that (3) the panels chair you must contact them! see question below (4) the posters and demos chair you must contact them! see question below (5) the sigWeb webmaster you must contact them! see below about FTP area (6) The printer see the schedule for HT 2002 to see what for (7) Someone at ACM HQ you will be told who your contact is you might need to talk with them about arranging a printing contact, and some other matters that arise during preparation (8) The keynote speakers To get blurbs from them. I couldn't reach one of them before the conference in 2002 so I had to use the description from the website. Note that unless they complete a copyright release form their keynote does not go into the ACM DL. ---------------------------------------- Q-04 Q: When I have to order copies, how many do I get? Do I need to order enough for `members extras' who pay for proceedings to be mailed to them? A: You order only the number that are needed at the conference. ACM takes care of the rest. ---------------------------------------- Q-05 Q: Why are there two types of forms for authors to sign? It seems wrong that the shorter papers require more signatures. What's up with that? A: According to ACM's copyright administrator: `Simply put, the ACM Copyright Form transfers copyright (publication and distribution rights) to ACM and leaves the author with some rights, while the Permission & Release Form leaves copyright with the authors and grants a license to ACM for publication.' The ACM Copyright Form requires only one signature because the joint authors are deemed to be acting in-common and to have assigned a single agent to act for them all. `With the Permission & Release Form, all authors retain copyright so each must grant the permission separately, unless there is evidence of a similar agreement to appoint one agent.' The decision as to which form should be used is made on the basis of the substance and archival value of the submissions. As a rule-of-thumb, anything shorter than three pages has been considered an extended abstract or summary and thus not of the same value as summaries of work that will be presented in more depth at the conference. [This answer comes from conversations and e-mail with officials at ACM HQ in early April and June 2002.] ---------------------------------------- Q-06 Q: What things do you wish you'd done differently when you were proceedings chair the first time? A: (1) I forgot about poster and demo proceedings. I set up a website for them but I did not contact the posters and demos chair and as a consequence the submissions came in late. (2) Authors deadlines should be on Fridays so they can have the weekend to get things in late without seriously mucking up the schedule. (3) Posters and demos need to be handled differently from papers (see question Q-09, below) (4) We had many short papers in 2002 and I had to decide what type of copyright form to use. Because the programme committee considered the short papers to be more similar to full papers than briefings, etc. I interpreted the ACM regulations to require full copyright forms for short papers. The ACM publications chair (who was also the chair of the conference, Bob Allen) supported my decision for this one year only. ACM will make a decision later about future conferences. One of the programme co-chairs (Ken Anderson) said that if he'd thought it would be any problem then he'd have suggested making short papers 3 pages long. (5) We chose a four-colour cover and that made the proceedings more expensive. A two-colour (plus white) cover can look great and be much cheaper. SIGIR'95 had a red background with a striking native image in black and text in black and white. CSCW'98 had a two (plus white) colour photograph (and a black stripe with subtitle down the left, extending the spine). They are both great covers and cheaper than ours was. Two colours can also be blended to make the cover appear better too (ask the printer about duo-tone printing). ---------------------------------------- Q-07 Q: What goes into the proceedings and what doesn't? A: There are three categories: (1) In Full papers, Short papers, panel descriptions (2) In Front-matter but not on DL lists of committee members and referees, sponsors, prefaces, keynotes or keynote blurbs Note: the keynotes can go into the DL only if copyright is cleared. (See Pat Wright's paper from 1991 in the DL for example). (3) Out posters, demos, doctoral consortium (DocCon) papers, tutorials ---------------------------------------- Q-08 Q: What do I do about panels? A: (1) Contact the panels chair at the start of your job (2) Tell them that you need the list of panels, with: (a) names and affiliations for moderator and participants (b) title and description (in plain text or word processing format) by the deadline for short papers (3) The panel information goes into the proceedings. Each description should be less than 3 pages long and have no copyright notice. ---------------------------------------- Q-09 Q: What do I do about posters and demos? A: If you want to include a posters and demos booklet, then (1) Contact the posters & demos chair at the start of your job (2) Tell them that you need the posters and demos by the deadline for short papers (3) If it is okay with you and the sigWeb webmaster, poster and demo authors may put files in the FTP area to be hosted permanently at the sigWeb website. (4) The posters and demos go into a separate booklet but not the ACM digital library. Each description should be less than 3 pages long and have no copyright notice. ---------------------------------------- Q-10 Q: Do you do anything special with the stuff that is definitely out? A: (1) Some years the DocCon papers are hosted at the website (2) I like to have a stapled mini-proceedings for posters and demos with the same cover as the paper proceedings available at the conference. These mini-proceedings are not included in the ACM DL. Posters are refereed very differently from full and short articles. The printer still needs copies of the original poster & demo files (in case something is wrong with the format). It is up to you whether you want ACM categories and keywords in them. The cost of printing might not include the poster & demo booklet so be sure to ask. ---------------------------------------- Q-11 Q: What is the biggest hassle you had? A: First, I would not do this without the help of a printing company -- period. I guess the biggest hassle was getting people to turn in the right stuff on time. Second, we had a short run-up to the conference in 2002 and didn't get sponsors. It is not the proc. chair's job to do that. It is up to the conference chair or an industrial liaison appointed by the chair, but it makes it difficult for the proc. chair to have a page of sponsors when there are none. FYI: the usual sponsors seem to be: * Nelson and Englebart award payers (JoDI, and Rob Acksyn) * Multicosm, Eastgate, Microsoft, local site, * You might expect that BrowseUp would sponsor too. * Conferences outside the USA sometimes get sponsorship from an airline too sponsoring and co-operating agencies might include * computer club at local site * SIGIR, SIGOIS, SIGCHI ---------------------------------------- Q-12 Q: Would you do it again? A: Am I doing it this year? How may years did I do it for? I would not do it without the help of a printer. If Lisa Tolles-Efinger moved to a different printer I would seriously consider using that company. ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - Schedule used during HT 2002 (see question Q-01) > HYPERTEXT 2002 PROCEEDINGS SCHEDULE > >*** still to be scheduled items: > ** preface by conference chair to be received > ** preface by programme chairs to be received > ** lists of corporate and SIG sponsors to Jamie from conference chair > ** format of panel descriptions to Lisa (via Jamie) from panels chair (Cathy) > ** copyright clearance for panel descriptions due to Lisa from proposers > ** lists of mentors to Jamie from who? [There were no mentors] > ** posters and demo authors to be notified, p&d write-ups to be received > ** posters and demos supplement to be produced (copies for the conference > only -- need to know how many will attend) > ** keynote abstracts and titles > ** keyword index > ** author index > >week of 04 March > Ken Anderson notifies Jamie of list of accepted full papers > Jamie sets up directories at FTP site for external media > >15 March > Prog. Chairs notify full paper authors of acceptance > Prog. Chairs send list of full paper authors to Jamie > Jamie sends list of authors and paper #s to Lisa > >17 March > Lisa sends instructions to accepted full paper authors > >08 April > Prog. Chairs notify short paper & poster authors of acceptance > Prog. Chairs send list of short & poster authors to Jamie > Panel Chair sends list of accepted panels and proposers to Jamie > Jamie sends list of short & poster authors to Lisa > Jamie sends list of panels to Lisa > Jamie sets up directories at FTP site for (short) external media > >09 April > Lisa sends instructions to accepted authors of short papers > Lisa sends instructions to accepted panel proposers > >19 April > All Authors camera ready copy & electronic submission due at Sheridan > All Authors electronic video files due at FTP site > All Authors copyright forms due at Sheridan > >25 April > Lisa assembles papers, index, ToC > >29 April > Lisa copyright forms, first page, front&back matter due at ACM > Conf. Chair tells Jamie how many proceedings are needed and > where to ship them to > >09 May get the sponsors or know when the icons will be available >09 May need number of procs +/- 25 and address > >01 May > Jamie tells Lisa number of procs and where to ship them > >07 May > Lisa sends Jamie the page proofs > >09 May > Jamie sends Lisa `okay' or fixes for page proofs > >13 May > Lisa prints and binds > >21 May > Lisa sends CD with PDF and metadata files to ACM for DL/portal > >03 June > Lisa ships proceedings to conference site (see 29 Apr & 01 May) > >07 June > ---- proceedings arrive at conference site > >11-15 June > ---- conference > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > > Contacts > Proceedings Chair: James (Jamie) Blustein > (902)494-6104 fac:(902)492-1517 > > Sheridan Printing: Lisa Tolles-Efinger > (908)213-8988 fac:908-454-2554 > > ACM: Adrienne Griscti > (212)626-0615 fac:(212)302-5826 > > Program Co-chairs: Ken Anderson > (303)492-6003 fac:(303)492-2844 > > Stuart Moulthrop > > Posters & Demos : Weigang Wang > +49(6151)869-917 fac:+49(6151)869-963 > > Conference Chair: Robert (Bob) B. Allen > (301)405-2052 > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I mailed a copy of the schedule to everyone involved (so they would have the telephone numbers and have no excuse not to know the dates). I put a copy at my website and told them where it was. I did it all in text format so everyone could see it and I kept a printout near my calendar. If I were doing it again I would make all deadlines on Fridays (so that late submissions, etc., do not seriously muck up the schedule). - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - - * - - ---------------------------------------- End of Questions and Answers ---------------------------------------- See also: four webpages of instructions.