ACM Student Research CompetitionSIGCSE TS 2024

Each accepted submission to the undergraduate category of the ACM Student Research Competition is eligible to apply for a need-based travel grant to attend the SIGCSE TS 2024 conference in-person.

The ACM Student Research Competition held at the SIGCSE Technical Symposium will consist of graduate and undergraduate categories of competition, each with prizes awarded based on judging during the conference. A submission to the Student Research Competition should describe recently completed or ongoing student research in any area of Computer Science / Computing. The SIGCSE TS is especially interested in CS Education research.

• All graduate submissions must represent a student’s individual research contribution — neither supervisors nor other students are allowed as coauthors.
• Undergraduate submissions may represent individual or team research contributions. Research completed while the student was an undergraduate may be submitted to the undergraduate category even if the student is now a first-year graduate student. In case of a team submission, one person should be designated by the team to attend the conference and make the oral presentation.

The author making the SRC submission must still be a student at the time of the deadline. Entrants must be active ACM Student Members, and membership numbers will be requested as part of the submission process along with details about the project’s faculty supervisor. Verification of current enrollment will also be requested as part of the submission form. Authors submitting to SRC are not allowed to submit the same submission to the Posters track; they can only submit it to a single track. Any submissions made to more than one track will be desk rejected from both tracks.

Authors submitting work to SIGCSE TS 2024 are responsible for complying with all applicable conference authorship policies and those articulated by ACM. If you have questions about any of these policies, please contact program@sigcse2024.sigcse.org for clarification prior to submission.

New for 2024: ACM has made a commitment to collect ORCiD IDs from all published authors (https://authors.acm.org/author-resources/orcid-faqs). All authors on each submission must have an ORCiD ID (https://orcid.org/register) in order to complete the submission process. Please make sure to get your ORCID ID in advance of submitting your work.

Presentation Modality

Authors of accepted submissions in this track will present their work in-person at the conference.

Accepted Submissions

Deadlines and Submission

ACM SRC submissions to the SIGCSE TS 2024 must be made through EasyChair no later than Friday, 13 October 2023. The track chairs reserve the right to desk reject submissions that are incomplete after the deadline has passed.

Important Dates

Authors may find it useful to read the Instruction for Reviewers and the Review Form to understand how their submissions will be reviewed.

Abstracts

All SRC submissions must have a plain-text abstract of up to 250 words. Abstracts should not contain subheadings or citations. The abstract should be submitted in EasyChair along with paper metadata, and it should be included in the PDF version of the submission at the appropriate location.

Submission Templates

All SRC submissions must be in English and formatted using the 2-column ACM SIG Conference Proceedings format and US letter size pages (8.5x11 inch or 215.9 x 279.4mm).

Page Limits: SRC submissions are limited to a maximum of 2 pages of body content (including all titles, author information, abstract, main text, tables and illustrations, acknowledgements, and supplemental material). One additional page may be included which contains only references. If included, appendix materials MUST NOT be present on the optional references page.

MS Word Authors: Please use the interim Word template provided by ACM.

LaTeX Authors:

• Overleaf provides a suitable two-column sig conference proceedings template.
• Other LaTeX users may alternatively use the ACM Primary template, adding the “sigconf” format option in the documentclass to obtain the 2-column format.
• NOTE: The default LaTeX template text shows appendix materials following the references. SIGCSE TS 2023 does not permit appendices on the optional page allotted for references. Authors must include all relevant content within the 2 body pages of the submission.

Other requirements: At the time of submission all entries should include space for all author information, an abstract, body content, and references. Each author should be defined separately for accurate metadata identification. Include space for authors’ e-mail addresses whenever possible on separate lines. Even if multiple authors have the same affiliation, grouping authors’ names or e-mail addresses, or providing an ‘e-mail alias’ is not acceptable, e.g., {brian,lina,leenkiat}@university.edu or firstname.lastname@college.org. NOTE: ACM SRC submissions may omit the following sections from the standard ACM template: keywords, CCS Concepts, and placeholders for the ACM Reference Format and copyright blocks.

Desk Rejects: Submissions that do not adhere to page limits or formatting requirements will be desk rejected without review.

Accessibility: SIGCSE TS 2024 authors are strongly encouraged to prepare submissions using these templates in such a manner that the content is widely accessible to potential reviewers, track chairs, and readers. Please see these resources for preparing an accessible submission.

Additional Format Instructions

Students entering the ACM SRC are strongly encouraged to use the following standardized section names within their submissions (using the templates above) to facilitate judging.

• Abstract: Max 250 words
• Problem and Motivation: This section should clearly state the problem being addressed and explain the reasons for seeking a solution to this problem.
• Background and Related Work: This section should describe the specialized (but pertinent) background necessary to appreciate the work. Include references to the literature where appropriate, and briefly explain where your work departs from that done by others. Reference lists do not count towards the limit on the length of the abstract.
• Approach and Uniqueness: This section should describe your approach in investigating the problem and should clearly state how your approach is novel.
• Results and Contributions: This section should clearly show how the results of your work contribute to computer science and should explain the significance of those results.

Single Anonymized Review

Submissions to the ACM Student Research Competition track are reviewed with the single-anonymous review process. Submissions should include author names and affiliations. Thus, the author identities are known to reviewers, but reviewers are anonymous to each other and to the authors.

The reviewing process includes a discussion phase after initial reviews have been posted. During this time, the reviewers can examine all reviews and privately discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the work in an anonymous manner through EasyChair. This discussion information can be used by the track chairs in addition to the content of the review in making final acceptance decisions.

The SIGCSE TS 2024 review process does not have a rebuttal period for authors to respond to comments, and all acceptance decisions are final.

ACM Policies

By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects (https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/research-involving-human-participants-and-subjects). Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

ORCID ID

ACM has made a commitment to collect ORCiD IDs from all published authors (https://authors.acm.org/author-resources/orcid-faqs). All authors on each submission must have an ORCiD ID (https://orcid.org/register) in order to complete the submission process. Please make sure to get your ORCID ID in advance of submitting your work.

Additional details are in the instructions for authors.

Getting ready

• Make sure that all authors have obtained an ORCiD identifier. These identifiers are required for paper submission.
• Download an appropriate template. (see Instructions for Authors)
• Review Additional Format Instructions in Instructions for Authors Tab- be sure you have included all required items.
• Review the additional resources.
• Review the instructions for reviewers and the Review Form to see what reviewers will be looking for in your paper.
• Look at the EasyChair submission page to make sure you’ll be prepared to fill everything out. Note that you are permitted to update your submission until the deadline, so it is fine to put draft information there as you get ready.

The submission on EasyChair

Note: EasyChair does not let you save incomplete submission forms. Please fill out all of the fields in one sitting and save them. After that, you can continue to update the information in the fields and your submission until the deadline.

• Use an appropriate template.
• Ensure that your submission is accessible. See accessibility tips for authors for further details.
• Ensure that your submission does not exceed the page limit.
• Ensure that your submission contains all author names and affiliations, as per the instructions for authors.
• Submit the final version by 11:59 p.m. AOE, Friday, 13 October 2023.

SRC Student Instructions:

Here are the competition instructions for the SRC participants.

What Gets Published?

The full text of accepted ACM SRC submissions will not appear in the ACM digital library. Only the title, author metadata, and a 250-word abstract will be included in the official conference proceedings.

Presentation Details

Judges will include professional computing educators attending the Symposium. Students’ research will be evaluated on the quality and significance of the work, and the quality and clarity of both an oral and visual presentation.

At the SIGCSE Technical Symposium, the first round of the competition evaluates the research during a poster presentation.

Those students who are selected by the judges to advance to the second round continue in the competition by giving a short formal presentation of their research (10-minute presentation with 5 minutes for Q&A). The first, second, and third place winners as determined by the judges’ evaluation of the conference presentations in each of the undergraduate and graduate categories receive prizes of $500, $300, and $200, respectively.

Further details about post-acceptance processes and presentation logistics will be provided by the time acceptance decisions are sent out.

Travel Grant and Costs

Each accepted submission to the undergraduate category of the ACM Student Research Competition is eligible to apply for a need-based travel grant to attend the SIGCSE TS 2024 conference in-person. SRC students can also volunteer at the conference to defray costs. Details will be provided here in the future.

After the Conference

The first-place winners from each category (graduate and undergraduate) will advance to the ACM Grand Finals of the Student Research Competition where the winners of several ACM conferences compete for more prizes and recognition.

Additional competition details, including information about past winners, can be found on the ACM Student Research Competition website.

Sample submission (PDF)

Poster PDF Format for presenting at the symposium

While neither ACM nor SIGCSE has any recommended or suggested poster templates, here are some resources that may be helpful.

Language Editing Assistance

ACM has partnered with International Science Editing (ISE) to provide language editing services to ACM authors. ISE offers a comprehensive range of services for authors including standard and premium English language editing, as well as illustration and translation services. Editing services are at author expense and do not guarantee publication of a manuscript.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Submission and Review System
• Single-Anonymous Review Process
• Getting Started Reviewing
• SRC Review Guidlelines
• Discussion
• Recalcitrant Reviewers

Overview

The ACM Student Research Competition offers a unique opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to present their original research in any area of computer science at SIGCSE. There are two categories of competition, graduate and undergraduate, with prizes awarded based on judging during the conference. A submission to the Student Research Competition should describe recently completed or ongoing student research in any area of Computer Science. All graduate submissions must represent a student’s individual research contribution — neither supervisors nor other students are allowed as coauthors. Undergraduate submissions may represent either individual or team research contributions. Research completed while the student was an undergraduate may be submitted to the undergraduate category even if the student is now a first-year graduate student.

Students whose ACM SRC abstracts are accepted as a result of the review will be invited to make poster presentations at the conference. The top three poster presenters in each of the undergraduate and graduate levels, as determined by SRC judges, will then be invited to present their work orally. The top three in each category will be recognized at the Saturday plenary.

Submission and Review System

The review process for SIGCSE TS 2024 will be done using the EasyChair submission system (https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=sigcsets2024). Reviewers will be invited to join/login into EasyChair, update their profile, and select 3-5 topics that they are most qualified to review. To do so, reviewers select SIGCSE TS 2024 > Conference > My topics from the menu and select at most 5 topics. More topics make it harder for the EasyChair system to make a good set of matches. Reviewers also identify their Conflicts of Interest by selecting SIGCSE TS 2024 > Conference > My Conflicts.

Single-Anonymous Review Process

Submissions to the SRC track are reviewed with the single-anonymous review process. Submissions should include author names and affiliations. Thus, the author identities are known to reviewers, but reviewers are anonymous to each other and to the authors.

The reviewing process includes a discussion phase after initial reviews have been posted. During this time, the reviewers can examine all reviews and privately discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the work in an anonymous manner through EasyChair. Reviewers can refer to each other by their reviewer number on that submission’s review. This discussion information can be used by the track chairs in addition to the content of the review in making final acceptance decisions.

The SIGCSE TS 2024 review process does not have a rebuttal period for authors to respond to comments, and all acceptance decisions are final.

Getting Started Reviewing

Before starting your review, you may be asked by the Track Chairs to declare conflicts with any submitting authors. Please do so in a timely manner so we can avoid conflicts during assignment.

As a Reviewer, we ask that you carefully read each submission assigned to you and write a constructive review that concisely summarizes what you believe the submission to be about. When reviewing a submission, consider:

• the strengths and weaknesses,
• the contribution to an outstanding SIGCSE TS 2024 program and experience for attendees, and
• how it brings new ideas or extends current ideas through replication to the field and to practitioners and researchers of computing education.

SRC Review Guidelines

Keep in mind that ACM SRC submissions represent student work and they are meant to be a place to present and receive feedback on work by early researchers. Please provide constructive feedback and clearly justify your choice of rating to help the authors. A review that gives a low score with no written comments is not helpful to the authors since it simply tells the authors that they have been unsuccessful, with no indication of how or why.

Reviewers should evaluate student abstracts on the following criteria by providing a numeric score and summary of the contribution in each area:

• Problem and motivation
• Background and related work
• Approach and uniqueness
• Results and contribution

Additionally, reviewers will be asked to summarize the work, provide their familiarity with the submission topic, identify whether the research topic is an appropriate computer science subdiscipline, identify strengths and weaknesses of the submission, and provide an overall evaluation. Reviewers may provide confidential comments to the SRC Track Co-Chairs to address concerns about the submission. These comments will not be shared with submitting authors.

We strongly recommend that you prepare your review in a separate document; EasyChair has been known to time out.

While your review text should clearly support your scores and recommendation, please do not include your preference for acceptance or rejection of a submission in the feedback to the authors. Instead, use the provided radio buttons to make a recommendation (the authors will not see this) based on your summary review and provide any details that refer to your recommendation directly in the confidential comments to the APC or track chairs. Remember that as a reviewer, you will only see a small portion of the submissions, so one that you recommend for acceptSRance may be rejected when considering the other reviewer recommendations and the full set of submissions.

Discussion

The discussion and recommendation period provides the opportunity for the Track Chairs to discuss reviews and feedback so they can provide the best recommendation for acceptance or rejection to the Program Chairs and that the submission is given full consideration in the review process. We ask that Reviewers engage in discussion when prompted by other reviewers and the Track Chairs by using the Comments feature of EasyChair. During this period you will be able to revise your review based on the discussion, but you are not required to do so.

The Track Chairs will make a final recommendation to the Program Chairs from your feedback.

Recalcitrant Reviewers

Reviewers who don’t submit reviews, have reviews with limited constructive feedback, do not engage effectively in the discussion phase or submit inappropriate reviews will be removed from the reviewer list (as per SIGCSE policy). Recalcitrant reviewers will be informed of their removal from the reviewer list. Reviewers with repeated offenses (two within a three year period) will be removed from SIGCSE reviewing for three years.

The following text represents the review form as of 1 July 2023. There may be minor updates, which we expect to have in place at least a month before submissions are due.

Note that ACM SRC submissions represent student work and they are meant to be a place to present and receive feedback on work by early researchers.

Summary: Please provide a brief summary of the submission, its audience, and its main point(s).

Familiarity: Rate your personal familiarity with the topic area of this submission in relation to your research or practical experience.

Research Topic: Is the research topic relevant to a sub-discipline in Computer Science? (Note that we may restrict SRC submissions to CSEd; stay tuned.)

Problems and Motivations: Please provide a brief summary of the problems and motivations of this student research paper.

Background and Related Work: Please describe and rate the background and related work of this student research paper.

Approach and Uniqueness: Please describe and rate the approach and uniqueness of this student research paper.

Results and Contribution: Please describe and rate the results and contribution of this student research paper.

Overall evaluation: Please provide a detailed justification that includes constructive feedback that summarizes the strengths & weaknesses of the submission and clarifies your scores. Both the score and the review text are required, but remember that the authors will not see the overall recommendation score (only your review text). You should NOT directly include your preference for acceptance or rejection in your review.