Call for Participation in PDF

LISA '09 Call for Participation

Refereed Papers

Effective administration of a large site requires a good understanding of modern tools and techniques, together with their underlying principles—but the human factors involved in managing and applying these technologies in a production environment are equally important. Bringing together theory and practice is an important goal of the LISA conference, and practicing system administrators as well as academic researchers all have valuable contributions to make. A selection of possible topics for refereed papers appears in this list, but submissions are welcome on any aspect of system administration, from the underlying theory of a new configuration technique to a case study on the management of a successful site merger.

Whatever the topic, it is most important that papers present results in the context of current practice and previous work: they should provide references to related work and make specific comparisons where appropriate.

Cash prizes will be awarded at the conference for the best refereed paper as well as for the best refereed paper for which a student is the lead author; a special announcement will also be made about these two papers.

Help is available. Anyone who would like help in writing a proposal should contact the Program Chair at lisa09chair@usenix.org. The conference organizers are keen to make sure that good work gets published, and we are happy to help at any stage in the process.

Paper Guidelines

LISA will accept two types of papers for 2009: theory papers and practice papers.

A good theory paper will:

• consider a significant problem
• propose an interesting, compelling solution
• demonstrate the practicality and benefits of the solution
• draw appropriate conclusions
• clearly describe what the authors have done
• clearly articulate the advances beyond previous work
• include appropriate references to related work

A good practice paper will:

• describe a significant system administration experience or implementation of a solution to a system administration problem
• clearly show what was done and why
• discuss things that went well and/or things that went wrong
• describe what was learned from the experience
• explain how other system administrators can benefit from the author's experience
• if appropriate, include references to related work

Both types of papers will be given equal consideration and, once accepted, both types of papers will be treated identically in terms of presentation, publication, etc. All papers will be judged on originality, significance, interest, clarity, relevance, and correctness. Accepted papers will be shepherded through an editorial review process by a member of the program committee.

Submission Details

Authors must submit draft full papers, at most 14 single-spaced pages, including figures, tables, and references. Extended abstracts will not be accepted. The title and author name(s) and affiliation(s) should appear on the first page of the submitted paper. (LISA reviewing is single blind.) Authors should make sure that their submission prints properly on U.S.-style 8.5"x11" paper.

General submission rules:

• All submissions must be electronic, in PDF only, via this Web form. The Web form asks for contact information for the paper and allows for the submission of your full paper file. Please do not email submissions.
  
  
• The first page of each submission must include the name, affiliation, and email address of the author(s).
  
  
• Submissions should include a list of appropriate topic keywords or tags above the body text of the draft paper. For example:
  • Tags: security, research, IPv6
  Suggested tags include security, research, case study, backups, configuration management, database, Web, printing, filesystem, authentication, and VMs. Authors may include additional tags as well.
  
  
• Submissions whose main purpose is to promote a commercial product or service will not be accepted.
  
  
• Submissions may be submitted only by the author of the paper. No third-party submissions will be accepted.
  
  
• All accepted papers must be presented at the LISA conference by at least one author. One author per paper will receive a registration discount of $200. USENIX will offer a complimentary registration for the technical program upon request.
  
  
• Authors of an accepted paper must provide a final paper for publication in the conference proceedings. Final papers are limited to 18 pages, including diagrams, figures, references, and appendices. Complete instructions will be sent to the authors of accepted papers. To aid authors in creating a paper suitable for LISA's audience, authors of accepted proposals will be assigned one or more shepherds to help with the process of completing the paper. The shepherds will read one or more intermediate drafts and provide comments before the authors complete the final draft.
  
  
• All papers will be available online to registered attendees prior to the conference and will be available online to everyone starting on November 4, 2009. If your accepted paper should not be published prior to the event, please notify production@usenix.org.
  
  
• Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may, on the recommendation of a program chair, take action against authors who have committed them. In some cases, program committees may share information about submitted papers with other conference chairs and journal editors to ensure the integrity of papers under consideration. If a violation of these principles is found, sanctions may include, but are not limited to, barring the authors from submitting to or participating in USENIX conferences for a set period, contacting the authors' institutions, and publicizing the details of the case. Authors uncertain whether their submission meets USENIX's guidelines should contact the program chair, lisa09chair@usenix.org, or the USENIX office, submissionspolicy@usenix.org.
  
  
• Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. Accepted submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the LISA '09 Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.

For more information, please consult the detailed author guidelines. Papers are due by 11:59 p.m. EDT on April 30, 2009. Authors will be notified by July 7, 2009, whether their papers have been accepted.

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