Modularity properties are key determinants of quality in information systems, software, and system production processes. Modularity influences system diversity, dependability, performance, evolution, the structure and the dynamics of the organizations that produce systems, human understanding and management of systems, and ultimately system value.
Yet the nature of and possibilities for modularity, limits to modularity, the mechanisms needed to achieve it in given forms, and its costs and benefits remain poorly understood. Significant advances in modularity thus are possible and promise to yield breakthroughs in our ability to conceive, design, develop, validate, integrate, deploy, operate, and evolve modern information systems and their underlying software artifacts.
The Modularity Visions track of Modularity'14 is looking for papers presenting compelling insights into modularity in information systems, including its nature, forms, mechanisms, consequences, limits, costs, and benefits. Modularity Vision papers can also present proposals for future work. The scope of Modularity Visions is broad and open to submissions from all areas of computer science.
Modularity Visions papers must supply some degree of validation because mere speculation is not a good basis for progress. However, Modularity Visions accepts less rigorous methods of validation such as compelling arguments, exploratory implementations, and substantial examples. The use of worked-out prototypes to support new ideas is strongly encouraged.
Selection Process
Modularity Visions papers are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will appear in the Modularity'14 Proceedings in the ACM Digital Library. Submissions will be judged on the potential impact of the ideas and the quality of the presentation.
Modularity Visions will follow a two-phase review process. (Note that this process is different from the two-rounds process of the Research Results track.) The first reviewing phase assesses the papers using the criteria stated above and results in the selection of a subset of submissions that are either accepted as-is or deemed potentially acceptable. All other papers will be rejected in this phase.
Authors of potentially accepted papers will be requested to improve specific aspects of the papers in keeping with the assessment criteria and the nature of Modularity Visions. For example, the following represent some core improvement suggestions:
- clarity of presentation and overall writing improvements to make the work more accessible,
- making the presentation of the technical ideas crisper or more concrete,
- making the argument sharper and more compelling, or
- expanding or refining the ideas based on new input from the reviewers.
Authors will be given about two months to perform the revisions, after which a second submission will occur.
The second submission should reflect the revision requests sent to the authors. To that end, the second submission must be accompanied by a cover letter mapping each revision request to specific parts of the paper. The absence of this cover letter might form the basis for the paper's rejection.
The second and final reviewing phase assesses how the revision requests have been acted upon by the authors, and whether the final paper improves the original submission. Revisions that did not address the reviewers' requests or significantly lessen the quality of the paper may lead to the its rejection.
Important Dates
Abstracts due: October 14, 2013
Papers due: October 21, 2013
First phase notification: December 9, 2013
Invited revisions due: February 3, 2014
Final notification: February 10, 2014
Camera ready version due: February 17, 2014
Submission Guidelines
Modularity Visions submissions must conform to both the ACM Policy on Prior Publication and Simultaneous Submissions and the SIGPLAN Republication Policy.
Papers are to be submitted electronically to CyberChair.
Submissions should use the SIGPLAN Proceedings Format using 9 point font. Please include page numbers in your submission as this will be helpful for the reviewers and also for you when reading their reviews. (If your submission is written using LaTeX, please set the preprint option in the LaTeX \documentclass command to generate page numbers.) Please also ensure that your submission is legible when printed on a black and white printer. In particular, please check that colors remain distinct and font sizes are legible.
To ensure that papers stay focused on their core contributions, the main part of the paper should be no longer than 12 pages. There is no page limit for appendices, and, therefore, for the overall submission. If the paper is accepted, the final submission will be limited to 16 pages, including appendices.
It is the responsibility of the authors to keep the reviewers interested and motivated to read their submission. Reviewers are under no obligation to read all or even a substantial portion of a paper if they do not find the initial part of the paper compelling. The committee will not accept a paper if it is unclear that the paper will fit in the Modularity'14 Proceedings.
Program Committee Chair
Robert Hirschfeld, Hasso-Plattner-Institut Potsdam, Germany
Program Committee
Carl Friedrich Bolz, King's College London, UK
Shigeru Chiba, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Richard P. Gabriel, IBM Research Almaden, USA
Matthias Hauswirth, University of Lugano, Switzerland
Christian Kästner, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
David H. Lorenz, The Open University of Israel, Israel
Hidehiko Masuhara, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Sean McDirmid, Microsoft Research Asia, China
Ina Schaefer, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
Kevin Sullivan, University of Virginia, USA
For More Information
For additional information, clarification, or answers to questions please contact the Program Committee Chair, Robert Hirschfeld, at modularity-visions@aosd.net.