CALL FOR RESEARCH PAPERS

The annual ACM/IFIP Middleware conference is a major forum for the discussion of innovations and recent scientific advances of middleware systems with a focus on the design, implementation, deployment, and evaluation of distributed systems, platforms and architectures for computing, storage, and communication. The conference will include a high quality single-track technical program, invited speakers, an industrial track, panel discussions involving academic and industry leaders, poster and demonstration presentations, a doctoral symposium, tutorials and workshops.

Topics of Interest

Original submissions of research papers on a diverse range of topics are sought, particularly those identifying new research directions. The topics of the interest for the conference include, but are not limited to:

Cloud and data centers

Virtualization, auto-scaling, provisioning, and scheduling

Data-intensive computing (big data) and data analytics

Stream Processing

Middleware Systems for Machine learning

Mobile and pervasive systems and services

Middleware techniques for Internet-of-Things, smart cities

Fog, Edge computing

Middleware for cyber-physical and real-time systems

Energy and power-aware techniques

Event-based, publish/subscribe, and peer-to-peer solutions

Networking, network function virtualization, software-defined networking

Middleware for multimedia systems

Fault tolerance and Consistency

Blockchains

Middleware support for Security and privacy

Monitoring, resource management and analysis

Middleware Design principles

Programming abstractions and paradigms for middleware

Reconfigurable, adaptable, and reflective middleware

Reviews of middleware paradigms, e.g., object models, aspect orientation, etc.

Methodologies and tools for middleware systems design, implementation, verification, and evaluation

Original papers of three types are sought:

Research Papers: These papers report original research on the above topics, and will be evaluated on significance of the problem, novelty of the solution, advancement beyond prior work, sufficient supporting evidence and clarity of the presentation.

Experimentation and Deployment Papers: These papers describe complete systems, platforms, and/or comprehensive experimental evaluations of alternative designs and solutions to well-known problems. The emphasis during the evaluation of these papers will be less on the novelty and more on the demonstrated usefulness and potential impact of the contributions, the extensive experimentation involved, and the quality and weight of the lessons learned.

Big Ideas Papers: These are papers that have the potential for opening up new research directions. For such papers, the potential to motivate new research is more important than full experimental evaluation, though some preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of the approach or idea is important.

Important Dates, Deadlines, Conditions

Starting in 2021, we are offering two submission deadlines, and we are providing the possibility of getting one-shot-revision decisions in lieu of rejection. A more detailed explanation of the changes are provided below.

Key Changes and Conditions

Once-per-year submission: A research article may be submitted to ACM Middleware only once in a single year. Submissions that are rejected in the 1st Round (Fall Submission) of ACM Middleware 2021 research track are NOT ELIGIBLE for submission to the 2nd Round (Spring Submission) of ACM Middleware 2021. Papers submitted to any deadline (Round 1 or Round 2) ARE ELIGIBLE for submission to Middleware 2022 (Fall/Spring deadlines).

One-shot revision: A limited set of papers in each round will be given the option of a one-shot revision. Such a revision decision will include a summary of the paper’s merits and a list of necessary changes that are required for the paper to be accepted at Middleware. Authors may then submit a revised version of their work by addressing those needs by the revision deadline for that specific round. At that point, the paper will be re-reviewed to judge whether it addresses the requirements requested; this review will be conducted, to the extent possible, by the same reviewers as earlier.

Only papers in the research and experimentation/deployment track will be eligible for one-shot revision. Big ideas papers are not eligible to receive a revise/resubmit decision; they may be shepherded prior to acceptance.

Submission Guidelines

Your submission must be made within the due date specified above for the specific rounds. Submitted papers must have at most 12 pages of technical content, including text, figures, and appendices, but excluding any number of additional pages for bibliographic references. Note that submissions must be double-blind: authors’ names must not appear, and authors must make a good faith attempt to anonymize their submissions. Submitted papers must adhere to the formatting instructions of the ACM SIGPLAN style, which can be found on the ACM template page. The font size has to be set to 10pt.
Please submit papers to https://middleware21r2.hotcrp.com/.

A paper submitted to ACM Middleware 2021 cannot be under review for any other conference or journal during the entire time it is considered for Middleware 2021, and it must be substantially different from any previously published work. All accepted papers will appear in the proceedings. ACM reserves the right to exclude a paper from distribution after the conference (e.g., removal from ACM Digital Library) if none of the authors attends the conference to present their paper. Note: Submissions that were rejected in the 1st Round of ACM Middleware 2021 research track are not eligible for re-submission to the 2nd Round of ACM Middleware 2021.

The Middleware 2021 conference proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library. The official publication date will be the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. Note that the official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work. A list of papers accepted from the ROUND 1 (Fall) submissions will be posted on the ACM Middleware 2021 website in May. In October, when the full program is available, paper titles and abstracts will be posted for all accepted papers from both the spring and fall deadlines.

Note to Authors: By submitting your article for distribution in this Special Interest Group publication, you hereby grant to ACM the following non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide rights:

to publish in print on condition of acceptance by the editor

to digitize and post your article in the electronic version of this publication

to include the article in the ACM Digital Library and any Digital Library related services

to allow users to make a personal copy of the article for non-commercial, educational or research purposes

However, as a contributing author, you retain copyright to your article and ACM will refer requests for republication directly to you.

Anonymity Requirements for Double-Blind Reviewing

Every research paper submitted to ACM Middleware 2021 will undergo a ''double-blind'' reviewing process: the PC members and referees who review the paper will not know the identity of the authors. To ensure anonymity of authorship, authors must at least do the following:

Authors' names and affiliations must not appear on the title page or elsewhere in the paper.

Funding sources must not be acknowledged anywhere in the paper.

Do not provide links to your own online content.

Research group members, or other colleagues or collaborators, must not be acknowledged anywhere in the paper.

The paper’s file name must not identify the authors of the paper.

Source file naming must also be done with care, to avoid identifying the authors’ names in the paper’s associated metadata. For example, if your name is Jane Smith and you submit a PDF file generated from a .dvi file called Jane-Smith.dvi, your authorship could be inferred by looking into the PDF file.

Software and Data Artifact Availability for Accepted Papers

The authors of accepted papers will be invited to submit supporting materials to be made publicly available as “source materials” in the ACM Digital Library. The materials will be vetted by the Artifact Availability Evaluation process run by a separate committee. This submission is voluntary but encouraged and will not influence the final decision regarding the papers. Papers that go through the Artifact Availability Evaluation process successfully and are made available in the ACM Digital Library will receive a badge printed on the papers themselves.

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The Middleware conference adheres strictly to the ACM policies against discrimination and harassment.