Deadlines

Can I submit after the deadline?
No. The deadlines are absolute. All submissions receive equal consideration up to the published deadline. Please respect other contributors and allow time for unforeseen circumstances in your submission, including (but not limited to) network connectivity, equipment failures, job impacts, life or family events, etc. These are outside of SIGGRAPH 2015's direct control and cannot be accommodated fairly.

Why is this so absolute?
Firstly, the answer is fairness and equal opportunity for consideration. This respects the contribution process for all submissions. Secondly, the deadline was set as late as possible while still allowing sufficient time for quality review, production, and delivery at SIGGRAPH 2015. Immediately after the submission deadline, we start processing and reviewing the submissions on a very tight time schedule, and we cannot accommodate exceptions.

How will SIGGRAPH 2015 address server-side network failures?
SIGGRAPH 2015 is only responsible for the availability of the submission server. If necessary, the conference chair will authorize an appropriate adjustment (and will prominently post notices at several locations online). All other network failures between your location and the SIGGRAPH server will not affect the submission deadlines. Please submit early to avoid connectivity-support problems or last-minute submission-server performance issues.

In an effort to conserve server resources and bandwidth, file uploading and downloading may be disabled as the submission deadline nears. If uploading and downloading are disabled, all submitters will be required to use the MD5 Checksum mechanism. We don't know the exact time when this might take effect. It will be determined by server loads to ensure that all submitters are able to access their submission(s). For complete information, see MD5 Checksum of Uploaded Materials.

The SIGGRAPH 2015 English Review Service failed our schedule, so it is SIGGRAPH's fault that our proposal is late. Can I have an extension?
No. The English Review Service makes no guarantee for service turn-around. It is also administered separately from the conference program. Please schedule your work appropriately. For the best chance of having your submission reviewed by the English Review Service, please make sure it is submitted and marked "complete" in the submission system at least 14 days before your program's submission deadline.

Nature of Content

How should I write up work that is based on a recent paper I wrote but extends that work?
Please reference the original paper(s) and clearly explain how the new work differs from, extends, or improves the previous work.

Can I submit work that I did for my thesis?
Yes. See Work Submitted Elsewhere if some or all of your thesis work has been formally published.

My company sells educational software. Can we make a sales presentation?
No. The Exhibition is the best place for that.

I have a great idea for a presentation, but I'm not sure if it's appropriate (too basic, advanced, fuzzy, etc.) for SIGGRAPH 2015.
Please consider reviewing the various programs and their submission requirements to understand how your presentation might fit into SIGGRAPH 2015. Please also consider contacting the program chairs for additional information or answers to questions about your potential submission.

Can my company have a dedicated session in which we present a collection of talks about various aspects of a large project?
Possibly. You are welcome to submit a collection of related submissions. However, the scheduling and grouping of accepted material will ultimately be decided by the SIGGRAPH 2015 committee.

My Technical Paper was rejected. Can I submit an abstract about the same work for possible presentation elsewhere in the conference?
The general submission deadline will be closed by that time.

My company has a great new product that is of general interest to the SIGGRAPH community. Can I submit an abstract about it?
A simple product announcement or sales pitch would not be appropriate for the conference program. However, a methods or systems description that presents the engineering design and algorithms behind the product could be appropriate. If you are an exhibitor, and you are interested in a presentation on all aspects of your new product, please contact Exhibition Management about organizing an Exhibitor Tech Talk.

English is not my first language. Can I submit and present in another language?
No, but ACM SIGGRAPH's International Committee can provide some help with English. Please see the English Review Service.

I'm a sixth-grade teacher, not an expert in computer graphics or interactive techniques, but I have designed something using computer graphics software, interactive techniques, games, etc. that really helps my math, English, dance, etc. students. Should I submit it?
Yes. SIGGRAPH educators are very interested in how new techniques can be used for pedagogical purposes. Submissions in this area that have the best chance for acceptance demonstrate clearly how learning is improved with computer graphics or interactive techniques.

Why is it necessary to specify an intended audience for a course? The intended audience should be the average SIGGRAPH-conference attendee, no?
No. The attendee population is very diverse. Your detailed audience identification helps both proposal evaluation by the review committee (program balancing) and proper marketing to interested conference attendees.

We have a great idea for an educational session on an unusual topic. Should we submit it?
SIGGRAPH 2015 seeks innovation both in topic and presentation! New ideas that relate to some aspect of computer graphics and interactive techniques are most welcome. Your proposal should clearly explain this relevance.

What are the session titles for SIGGRAPH 2015?
We don't know yet. The jury selects submissions without regard to sessions and titles. After the selection process is finished, we will group talks into sessions. This means that unlike other conferences in which the session topics are set in advance, the jury never needs to accept or reject submissions in order to fill slots. This also means that occasionally there are sessions that lack a strongly coherent theme.

Should all submissions be prepared anonymously, like Technical Papers?
No. The review process is single blind, which means the reviewers will know who the authors are, but the authors will not know who the reviewers are. Your submission should be as close to its final form as possible (see Completeness, Work in Progress), including the names of all collaborators on the work and their institutions. Potential conflicts of interest are taken into account when submissions are assigned to reviewers.

Number of Submissions

Can I (or my company) submit more than one work to SIGGRAPH 2015?
Yes, please do. The jury will evaluate and decide on each (unrelated) submission separately. Please bear in mind, though, that the committee will be evaluating all of the accepted submissions as a whole. So it is not appropriate to break up a potentially strong piece of work into smaller components in an effort to increase the number of works you have accepted.

Can I submit a work to be considered for multiple formats?
Yes, please do. SIGGRAPH 2015 encourages synergy between different parts of the conference. The general submission form allows you to check off any number of presentation formats for a single submission. For example, you may be willing to install your hardware and/or give a talk about it and/or present a poster about it. The jury will decide which format(s) to accept.

Completeness, Work in Progress

Are partial or incomplete submissions considered?
Incomplete submissions will not be reviewed. Contributors are required to minimally meet all submission requirements by the published deadline. The jury will evaluate the merit of each completed proposal as it was submitted at the deadline, even if it does not meet the author's personal quality objectives. Please allow enough time to meet your own quality goals.

Can I submit a Technical Paper and also submit the same work to the General Submission process?
Yes. SIGGRAPH 2015 encourages synergy between the Technical Papers and other parts of the conference. For example, you may wish to submit an installation or demo of the project you describe in your paper. The general submission form has a checkbox to indicate work submitted elsewhere; please check this box and explain that the work was submitted as a Technical Paper for SIGGRAPH 2015.

If your work is accepted as a Technical Paper, a general submission of an additional talk or poster will not be accepted, unless the talk or poster describes details or aspects that are not included in the paper. In this case, make sure the general submission clearly states how the proposed talk or poster differs from the paper.

Work Submitted Elsewhere

Can I submit work that I've published or presented, or has been accepted for publication or presentation, elsewhere?
Yes, though with some caveats. First, you must indicate the prior appearance via the checkbox on the general submission form and provide a description of how and where the work appeared. Second, be aware that SIGGRAPH attendees expect to see things they've never seen before. The jury will decide if the novelty and impact of the submission warrant acceptance despite its appearance elsewhere. Generally speaking, it's OK if your work has been presented in a small workshop or colloquium, and it's OK if your work has been published in journals in other fields. However, work that has appeared in a major computer graphics journal or a mainstream computer graphics conference should not be submitted.

Can I submit work to SIGGRAPH 2015 and also submit a more complete description to other conferences (for example EGSR, SGP, or SCA) while the submission is still in review?
The other conference or journal is likely to consider this an unacceptable "dual submission", so you must check with them. If they are OK with it, SIGGRAPH 2015 is OK with it. But if you intend to submit this work elsewhere before the conference, you must indicate this intent via the checkbox on the general submission form and provide a description of where you intend to submit and when it would appear.

Can I submit work that was presented at a previous SIGGRAPH conference?
The general submission form has a checkbox that requires you to indicate this fact. The jury will decide if the novelty of the submission warrants acceptance regardless of prior presentation or publication. Submissions in most formats require novelty and will not be accepted unless the work has progressed since last time. However, Courses and Panels may remain valuable from year to year and will be considered by the jury, but proposals should clearly offer compelling reasons for repetition.

Formats and Categories

What is the purpose of submission keywords and categories?
The jury is comprised of experts from many areas of computer graphics, and choosing appropriate keywords helps ensure that the best-qualified jurors will review your work in the early rounds of the jury selection process. Please do NOT submit the same piece multiple times under different categories using different online submission numbers. You should select whichever keywords most closely match your work. The submission categories help the jury group submissions together for apples-to-apples comparisons.

What is a poster, anyway?
A poster was traditionally formed from a collection of individual letter-size sheets of paper, each containing a slide or image, all attached to a piece of posterboard. With modern graphic-design applications, it is possible to create a single large-format document and print it on a large sheet of paper. Either of these options is fine.

At the conference, the posters will be mounted on display panels, typically 8 feet by 4 feet with two posters per panel. SIGGRAPH 2015 will supply the display panels and push-pins (though poster presenters might want to bring a few push-pins of their own if they want to, for example, pin take-home flyers under their board). For posters composed of separate sheets rather than a single printout, presenters should mount the sheets onto a single board (using tape or adhesive) before sending it to the conference so it can be mounted to the display panel using the push-pins.

For more information, see Posters.

There are so many SIGGRAPH programs. I don't know which one to submit my work to.
SIGGRAPH 2015 includes a variety of publication programs: research papers (Technical Papers, Art Papers), educational programs (Talks, Courses, Posters, and Panels), and exhibition programs (Computer Animation Festival, Real-Time Live!, Dailies, Art Gallery, Emerging Technologies, and Studio). It is useful to compare your submission to publications from previous SIGGRAPH conferences.

The research paper programs (Technical Papers, Art Papers) are for theoretical or critical work that thoroughly cites relevant previous work and rigorously demonstrates the validity of its conclusions. Although all SIGGRAPH submissions are peer-reviewed, research papers undergo a more formal, journal-quality review process and are published in citable archives.

The research paper programs are differentiated from each other by their subject matter. Technical Papers focus on the science and engineering aspects of computer graphics and interactive techniques. Art Papers focus on the social and cultural aspects of art and art-making.

The educational programs (Talks, Courses, Posters, and Panels) let you educate the graphics community about your work and related topics without writing a formal publication. In these programs, SIGGRAPH 2015 attendees learn about interesting, useful, and novel techniques and principles in all areas of computer graphics and interactive techniques, including art, design, animation, visual effects, video games, interactive music, research, interactivity, and engineering. The educational programs are differentiated by format and emphasis:

• Talks are 20 or (rarely) 40-minute presentations. Talks can present anything novel that would interest and inspire SIGGRAPH 2015 attendees: late-breaking research developments, ideas still in progress, the creative and technical thinking behind recent games and films, and more.
• Courses are longer (1, 1.5, or 3.25 hours) instructional sessions. A SIGGRAPH Course teaches a topic of interest to the computer graphics community and is typically presented by international experts in the field.
• Posters offer a light-weight, low-tech method for presenting student, in-progress, and late-breaking work. They are displayed throughout the conference; poster authors meet and discuss their work with attendees during Poster Sessions. The Posters program also hosts the ACM Student Research Competition.
• Panels are forums for discussion, disagreement, controversy, and audience interaction. They are 1.5 hours long, and include a moderator and three or four panelists.

Finally, you can exhibit your creations in the various exhibition programs. Clips from any type of computer-generated video sequence (computer animation, visual effects, video games, scientific visualizations, etc.) can be submitted to the Computer Animation Festival. Real-time applications can be shown in the Real-Time Live! program. Very short clips showcasing specific work (such as a model, a shader, or an animation) can be presented at Dailies. Interactive demos or installations can be submitted to Emerging Technologies (if the innovation is primarily technical). If you have developed a new and interesting method for other people to create things, the Studio would be the appropriate program.

Copyright and Permissions

My time-based media presentation makes use of commercially recorded music. Is this OK? What if I use my own rendition of someone else's song?
Using commercially recorded music in an animation is only acceptable if you acquire synchronization rights for the recording you are using, or performance rights if you use your own rendition of someone else's song. Such rights are your responsibility, and SIGGRAPH will not purchase these rights for you. While in many cases music rights can be obtained inexpensively, well-known popular music is often difficult to license. For that reason, many submitters choose to work with composers and have scores designed specifically for their work.

Synchronization licenses must be secured for inclusion of copyrighted musical compositions in film or video presentations. Securing synchronization rights involves approvals from both the music publisher and the record label that owns the original master recording. This process is sometimes straightforward, sometimes painful, and sometimes, often for well-known popular recording artists, impossible. In the past, submitters of accepted pieces have had to cancel their participation in the SIGGRAPH conference due to music-licensing issues. Other submitters have had to replace their music tracks in a way that compromised their work. For these reasons, all submitters are encouraged to secure music rights for their work as early as possible in the production process. For more information on music licensing, and to find the necessary contacts for the recording you would like to use, see the ASCAP and BMI web sites:

ASCAP

BMI

You can also consider using public-domain music; various web sites provide listings and even some downloads. But be aware that although a song itself may be in the public domain, a particular recording of that song could be copyrighted.

There's an illustration in my paper of Elvis in "Clambake," which I got on the internet. Is that okay?
No, either get written permission to use the image or take it out. A reference in the text is OK.

Some of the supplementary material we intend to use in our submission is available or will be available as a publication. Do we need to discuss this in our submission?
Yes. Please discuss whether you have permission from the publisher to include this material in your SlGGRAPH 2015 published materials, and if not, what alternate form you will provide.

I work for a large company, and I can’t get the Submission and Authorization Agreement reviewed by our attorneys before the submission deadline.
We will not be able to accept submissions without a properly executed Submission and Authorization Agreement. This is to ensure that the process is fair to all submitters as well as to protect the work of our submitters. No extensions will be allowed for this. We recommend you download the PDF of the Submission and Authorization Agreement and review it with your legal department well in advance of the submission deadline.

My company’s attorney has questions about the agreement. Who should they contact?
They should send a message to Conference Administration, and an actual human being will respond as quickly as possible.

My company policy prohibits me from signing the Submission and Authorization Agreement. What should I do?
On the submission form, you can delegate a representative to execute your agreement. Please remember it is your responsibility to ensure that the acceptance agreement is executed before the submission deadline or your submission will be deemed incomplete and NOT reviewed by the jury.

Review and Upon Acceptance

Do you have any advice on how to write my abstract so that my submission will be accepted?
First of all, make sure your submission conforms to the submission guidelines. The jury has a small amount of time to review a large number of submissions. To maintain fairness, we have to be very efficient. Submissions that do not abide by the submission guidelines will be rejected without review. Authors should prepare their abstracts according to the ACM SIGGRAPH formatting instructions. For more information about ACM publication requirements, please review Instructions for Authors.

Non-native English speakers may wish to make use of the English Review Service to check for grammar and readability before submitting their abstracts. Please don't wait until the last moment to use this service.

It should be immediately obvious at the beginning of your abstract what the new contribution is. Just one or two sentences such as: "We present a new method that's N times faster." Or: "We have conducted a new study comparing A and B." Or: "Effect X in feature film Y presented a new challenge." Or something similar.

Try to focus on one or two key ideas. Remember that the jury members have very limited time to "get it," so keep it simple. If you propose to present work that extends previous work of your own, cite the previous work and explain what is different. For example: "We build on our previous work [1] by ..." If there has been previous work by several others, choose one major work to cite and state why your work is different. For example: "Unlike previous work, such as [1] , we ..."

How does the jury select pieces?
All submissions are juried together, and there are no strict rules for acceptance. The jury primarily looks for a combination of innovation and excellence. A longer list of traits the jury typically looks for includes originality, artistic achievement, technical accomplishment, technical innovation, production value, creativity, design, educational value, aesthetic appeal, community building, and social responsibility.

What makes a good proposal great?
Topics and proposals come in all shapes and sizes. Well-written proposals effectively communicate their ideas so that reviewers can assess the submission's benefits to SIGGRAPH 2015 attendees. Strong proposals clearly answer questions regarding relevance, content, and background.

The reviews we received from the jury were highly positive and outstanding, and we still didn't get accepted. Why is this?
Ideally, everyone would have a chance to present their best work at the conference. It would certainly make the selection process easier! Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Many great proposals do not make the cut because we lack rooms, resources, and schedule time. Here are some possible reasons for rejection:

• The work is not sufficiently outstanding to justify its presentation length.
• The submission did not show enough improvement over previous presentations.
• The submission overlapped with better proposals in a similar area.
• The submission overlapped with topics that have bigger anticipated attendance in a similar area.
• The work was not strong or relevant.

Does SIGGRAPH 2015 tend to favor or avoid specific levels of material (beginning, intermediate, advanced)?
SIGGRAPH 2015 will serve a wide international audience of many capabilities. The richest, most engaging submissions are desired, no matter what their level.

Submission Materials

Can I submit earlier papers or technical reports as materials?
Yes, earlier papers or technical reports may be submitted as supplementary materials. However, the jury is under no obligation to read these materials.

Can I submit a URL pointing to my work rather than the work itself?
No. It's OK to include a URL in your submission so that we can get additional information about your work if needed. But in order to ensure fairness and adherence to our deadline restrictions, the jury will not examine the information at that URL when evaluating the submission.

Do I have to submit a supporting video of my work?
You're not required to, but it is often a good idea. The power of a video during the jury process cannot be stressed enough. The jury has a small amount of time to review a large number of submissions. Seeing the video can answer many questions that the jury might ask after just reading the abstract. It is a shame if the phrase "I wish they had provided a video" is uttered during the jury meeting. If your submission has an interactive, animation, or simulation component, we strongly encourage you to submit a video demonstrating your work in action, as it is very difficult to evaluate your work without this.

My submission is about production visual effects, but the studio won't give permission to submit supporting images or video because the movie hasn't been released yet. What should I do?
First, be certain that you will have permission to show the actual material at the conference.

Upload whatever demo, test, or stand-in images or video that you can in order to illustrate the techniques in question. The submission with the uploaded materials should stand alone as much as possible so that reviewers can properly evaluate it. Include a note explaining that the final images or footage will be shown at the conference.

In some cases some studios that don't allow uploads will allow a special delivery of a DVD to show the jurors at the jury meeting. If so, contact the SIGGRAPH 2015 Production and VFX team to discuss possible arrangements. However, as much as possible, the content on the DVD should serve only to provide confirmation to the jurors of the final quality of the work, rather than primary technical material to review.

Why do you require bios for course presenters?
Course-presenter bios are important factors in the review process. We need to understand the experience and qualifications of all proposed course presenters. The bios are not published in any promotional materials. 

Technical Questions About Submission

I know your "real" email address. Is it okay to write you there?
No. Please use this email form. This ensures that all members of our committee are properly copied on your messages. Our response quality will invariably be higher if you respect this convention.

Should I use a specific filename convention for my submission material (for example, abstract, image, video)?
No. You do not have to worry about this. The SIGGRAPH Information System (SIS) will take care of that for you when you upload your material.

I'm having trouble uploading the high-resolution digital image required for online submission. What should I do?
If, due to bandwidth restrictions, you cannot upload a high-resolution image or supplemental movies, please instead upload a lower-resolution version. If we need to include a higher-resolution version for jury review or publication stills, we will contact you to make arrangements. For more details, see Uploading Files.

My email address will be changing soon. How can I notify you of the update?
You will be able to change your email address in the online submission system. Please take advantage of this feature to ensure you are notified of your submission status in a timely manner. This will also give you the best chance of meeting our publication deadlines.

I've completed the online submission form, but the system still allows me to edit my account. Am I done?
Yes. However, you are allowed to edit your online submission account until the submission deadline.

What file formats are acceptable for video submissions?
We only accept uploaded videos in QuickTime MPEG-4 or DivX Version 6 formats, and the file size should not exceed 100 MB. The file must be uploaded using the online submission system. The Computer Animation Festival and Live Real-Time Demos have different requirements for video submissions. If you are a Computer Animation Festival submitter, please review the Computer Animation Festival Submission Guidelines for details. See Real-Time Live! if you are submitting to that program.

I'm trying to upload my video file through the online submission system, and I can't tell if it's working. It's been over an hour since I clicked the Submit button.
Uploading a large video file requires a significant amount of time even on a fast network connection. Even if it does not look like anything is happening, your movie file very likely is still uploading. Please test the system (and ideally, upload your final video) many days in advance of the submission deadline to gauge the upload time required for your material. Note that network performance may decrease close to the deadline due to the large number of submissions. Once your material is uploaded, a web page will indicate the successful upload, and you can return to the electronic submission page to re-download your material and verify that it uploaded properly. For more details, see Uploading Files.

Do you accept anything other than PDF for text-based submissions? It is easier for me to provide files in [your file type here]. Everyone can read those, right?
No. Please submit in PDF format. We expect our reviewers to support at least one review type that is self-contained and available on many operating systems (Windows, Mac OS, Unix, Linux, etc.). PDF provides easy standardization (universal viewer support, graphics, embedded fonts, etc.) for both the reviewer and the proposer. For example, it preserves intentional formatting by the submitter. Even ASCII clear text is not "universal" due to carriage-return differences, column widths, lack of graphics, etc.

My video files are larger than 100 MB. What should I do?
Do everything possible to make them smaller. The total size of your uploads should be below 100 MB. Jurors in various locations around the world will need to download the submitted videos, and we need to keep the total size of all submissions reasonable.

First, try decreasing the image resolution and/or using a better compression technique and/or settling for higher compression at the cost of somewhat reduced image quality. If you have tried very hard to do all this but still can't get the size down, contact us and explain the specifics of your situation in detail, and we'll see what we can work out.