A: No! We will not extend the deadline no matter who you are and no matter what your excuse is. If the 10 copies of your paper are not physically in Jock Mackinlay's office by 5pm Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, September 15, 1995, then you can forget it. We will probably have 300 or so papers to deal with, so we simply cannot tolerate ANY delays in processing submissions.
A: Yes! There really and truly is a firm deadline. Even if you send it by courier and they promise to deliver it on time, if it's not here by that deadline it will be rejected. The moral of the story is: PLAN AHEAD!!!
A: Please try to borrow one. If this is not possible, just use a typewriter or whatever printer you do have. Reproduce the standard format as well as you can, and make sure you stay within the 8-page limit.
A: Try to match it as much as possible. This is an area where common sense should prevail. We might reject your paper if you use a tiny font to squeeze 12 pages of text into the 8-page limit, but we will certainly not reject you just because your printer doesn't have a Times Roman font! Find a font that matches as closely as possible, and try to make the general characteristics match (e.g., use Helvetica-like font for subtitles, use the specified font sizes and page layouts). The better your paper matches the specifications, the happier you will be when you see it in print!
A: For submissions, you can use any standard letter-sized paper, such as A4 or 8.5x11 inch paper. Please keep the size of the printed text to the proceedings format no matter what size paper you use for printing the text. If your paper is accepted, you will receive detailed instructions about preparing the final camera-ready copy.
A: Certainly! Don't feel you have to add unnecessary verbiage to a paper just to take up the allotted space. The longer a paper is, the more it has to justify that it has enough to say to warrant its pagecount. Reviewers are very sensitive to this -- they hate reading unnecessarily wordy papers!
A: Absolutely not! Again, we have so many papers to handle, and anticipate having such a large proceedings that we cannot make any exceptions. Papers longer than the acceptable page count will be returned unreviewed.
A: No. The 8 pages includes everything that is submitted EXCEPT the cover sheet -- that is, everything that will actually appear in the proceedings if your paper is accepted. Remember that color figures must appear on a separate page (or pages) at the end of the manuscript and ARE INCLUDED in the page count.
A: Color plates are expensive to reproduce. You should include them only if they provide critical support for the paper. If black and white figures can support your points just as easily, consider including them instead.
A: If your technique really needs video, you should consider submitting a video to the CHI 96 video program. However, authors are also encouraged to include supporting video material with their paper submissions. This material will only be used during the paper review process. Accepted papers that include supporting video material will be reviewed by the Video Co-chairs for the inclusion of a video figure in the CHI 96 video program. Please be aware that papers should not depend on any video material because they will be reviewed for inclusion in an archival print publication. Not all reviewrs of a paper submission will see the supporting video material.
A: The video material can be NTSC, PAL, SECAM formats on a VHS cassettes. Unlike the paper part of your submission, only SIX copies of supporting video material are required.
A: You are welcome to do so, if each submission provides new information that is not available in the other submissions. We will do our best to coordinate multiple submissions on the same material, perhaps putting them in the same session. We will examine multiple submissions very carefully, however, to make sure that they are not redundant, and that CHI attendees will learn something of value from each presentation. It is in your best interests to describe -- possibly in an attachment to the cover letter -- any additional submissions you have on the same material, what distinguishes each of them, and how you would like to see them coordinated in the program. (We cannot promise to honor your requests, but we will certainly take them into consideration.)
A: The Type of Submission checklist will be used both to assign reviewers with expertise in your area and to judge the paper. As described on page 6 of the Call for Participation, there are different expectations for different types of papers. For example, the expected extent and rigor of an evaluation will be different for Systems Papers than for Empirical Papers than for Experience Papers. We will attempt to judge your paper by what you say it is, so it's in your best interest to accurately describe the type of submission you have.
A: We have asked each reviewer to select and rate matching phrases describing areas in which they have expertise. We will use the phrases you select and the phrases the reviewers select to identify reviewers for your paper. Reviewers will include those who have a great deal of expertise in your area, as well as those who identify themselves as having only a moderate amount of expertise. We include some of the latter category of reviewers in order to determine whether your paper is understandable to a hypothetical "average CHI reader" -- someone who is knowledgeable about the field in general, but not specifically about the area you are writing.
A: Briefly, your paper will be assigned to from 5-9 reviewers and to one Meta-reviewer. The reviewers will provide evaluations both in the form of scores (e.g., for overall quality) and in comments. Their reviews will be emailed to a central database accessible by the 20 Meta-Reviewers. The Meta-Reviewers will write an integrative review summarizing the reviews for your paper and making a recommendation. The actual accept/reject decisions will be made at a meeting of all the Meta-Reviewers late in October, followed by a meeting to plan the entire technical program (papers, panels, demonstrations, etc.) in early November. You will be notified of your paper's status by the end of November.