Art Papers Frequently Asked Questions

Can I submit after the deadline?
No. Deadlines are absolute. All submissions received up to the published deadline will be equally considered. 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 2023’s direct control and cannot be accommodated fairly. 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 2023 address server-side network failures?
SIGGRAPH 2023 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 missing the deadline due to technology-related issues.

The SIGGRAPH 2023 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 turnaround. Also, it is 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 ensure it is submitted and marked “complete” in the submission system at least 14 days before your program’s submission deadline.

How do I ensure that my submission will be completed on time?
Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute
The online submission system uses a robust server with high-bandwidth access to the internet, but everything has a limit. In previous years, last-minute submitters tried to upload 5GB of data in the final half hour before the deadline. This didn’t work well. Don’t get yourself in that situation.
The deadlines are absolute. We’re on a tight schedule, and we won’t be able to extend the deadline to accommodate late uploads.

Upload Early and Often
Once your submission is complete, you are still allowed to edit it and add to or modify the supplementary materials right up to the deadline. This means you can upload some materials early as soon as they are ready and upload the remainder later, avoiding the need to upload everything at once. This also means you can upload a rough draft of your materials early and replace it with more polished versions later. Upload drafts that are roughly the same size as your final material. This allows you to get a feel for the upload process and the time it takes to upload files of those sizes, and it gives you time to diagnose problems. Then, as your draft gets refined, upload revisions. This way, if the last polish or final render encounters problems, you only lose the polish, not the entire submission.

Are partial or incomplete submissions considered?
Incomplete submissions will not be reviewed. Contributors are required to 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.

Who can apply?
Submissions are open to artists, designers, researchers, makers, hackers, engineers, and all kinds of organizations — universities, research groups, businesses, associations, and more. Interdisciplinary collaborations and approaches are highly encouraged.

Should I submit a long paper or a short paper?
Beyond the difference in length, long papers will favor full academic practices to generate original knowledge, for instance through an extensive literature review, argumentation, and observations or evaluations of the human impact through validated protocols. Short papers document an impactful interactive, computational, or interdisciplinary project.

Should my paper be anonymized?
Yes. The review process for Art Papers is double-blind, which means the reviewers will not know who the authors are, and the authors will not know who the reviewers are. For that reason, papers should be anonymized, i.e., the paper must not include any names or identifying information of its authors. Aside from that, the paper should be as close to its final form as possible. In addition, potential conflicts of interest are considered when submissions are assigned to reviewers.

How do I anonymize my paper?
Remove any information from the paper, video, and supplemental materials that identifies you. That includes removing author and institution information from the author list on the title page, removing author information from all paper headers, and removing from the text any clues that would directly identify any of the authors, such as for example the name of an institution or lab.

You must not include an “acknowledgements” section in the submission. If your Art Paper is accepted, you will submit a revised version that identifies you and your co-authors, your affiliations, and any appropriate acknowledgements.

See the Anonymity Guidelines section of the SIGGRAPH 2023 Art Papers Call for Submissions for additional guidance about how to anonymize your paper.

What is the purpose of keywords and categories?
As an interdisciplinary program, the Art Papers Jury comprises experts from across different areas of computational art and design. Choosing an appropriate submission category and list of keywords helps us ensure that the best-qualified jurors will review your work. In addition, if your paper is accepted for publication, keywords are essential for readers to be able to search your work.

In the ACM template, there is an option for two different reference styles, which style should I use?
Submitted papers are required to cite related work using numbered citations and references.

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

English is not my first language. Can I submit and present in another language?
Unfortunately, no. However, the ACM SIGGRAPH International Resources Committee can offer assistance with English translations.

Should all submissions be prepared anonymously?
Yes. The review processes for programs like Art Papers and Technical Papers are double-blind, which means the reviewers will not know who the authors are, and the authors will not know who the reviewers are. See the Anonymity Guidelines section above for a detailed explanation of how to anonymize your paper. Your submission should be as close to its final form as possible (see Completeness, Work in Progress). Potential conflicts of interest are taken into account when submissions are assigned to reviewers.

What should I do to make my submission anonymous?
Remove any information from the paper, video, and supplemental materials that identifies you. That includes removing author and institution information from the author list on the title page, removing author information from all paper headers, and removing from the text any clues that would directly identify any of the authors, such as for example the name of an institution or lab.

You must not include an “acknowledgments” section in the submission. If your Art Paper is accepted, you will submit a revised version that identifies you and your co-authors, your affiliations, and any appropriate acknowledgments.

Can I submit work that I’ve published or has been accepted for publication elsewhere?
The SIGGRAPH Art Papers program will only consider papers that have not been published elsewhere. If you have already published your paper, or if your paper has already been accepted for publication elsewhere, SIGGRAPH Art Papers is not the place for it. As long as the paper is unpublished, having previously presented the work in a different panel, workshop, or colloquium is not an issue.

Can I submit a paper that extends work presented at a previous SIGGRAPH?
Submitting work that extends a previously published SIGGRAPH paper is possible. The submission form asks authors to indicate if this is the case, and the paper authors should clearly reference the previous work and clarify the novelty of the current submission.

Can I submit more than one work to SIGGRAPH 2023?
Yes. 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. 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 an Art Paper and submit the same work to Talks, Panels, Courses, installations, or Posters?
Yes. SIGGRAPH 2023 encourages synergy between Art Papers and other conference programs. For example, you may wish to submit an installation of the project you describe in your paper. The submission form has a checkbox to indicate work submitted elsewhere. Please check this box and explain that the work was submitted as an Art Paper for SIGGRAPH 2023.

If your work is accepted, 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.

Can I submit a paper based on work that I did for my thesis?
Yes. Papers based on thesis work are welcome as long as they have not been published.

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. Although in many cases music rights can be obtained inexpensively, well-known popular music often is difficult to license. For that reason, many submitters 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 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 websites:

ASCAP
BMI

You may consider using public domain music — various websites provide listings and even some downloads. Be aware that although a song itself may be in the public domain, a particular recording of that song could be copyrighted.

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 SIGGRAPH 2023 published materials and, if not, what alternate form you will provide.

The reviews we received from the jury were very positive, but we still didn’t get accepted. Why is this?
In some cases a paper that is well reviewed is not selected for presentation and publication. Here are some possible reasons:

• The paper did not show enough improvement over previous SIGGRAPH submissions.
• The paper overlapped thematically or methodologically with other papers in the program.
• The work was not sufficiently strong or relevant.

My Art Paper was rejected. Can I submit an abstract about the same work for possible presentation elsewhere in the conference?
Most SIGGRAPH submission deadlines will be passed by the time authors receive rejections. In some cases, we encourage authors to address the feedback from the reviewers and consider resubmitting to a future SIGGRAPH or SIGGRAPH Asia.

When will my accepted submission become publicly available?
Public disclosure of a submission’s title, abstract, and contents can have important commercial and legal ramifications. Acceptances will be finalized in March, at which time the submission’s title, abstract, and description (written by the contributors) will be disclosed publicly in SIGGRAPH communications. Excerpts of the submission’s companion video also may be disclosed. Please be advised, in order to receive maximum international patent protection on your submission’s idea, you will need to file your application prior to early March.

Non-Disclosure Agreements
SIGGRAPH reviewers cannot sign non-disclosure agreements for submissions.

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. While authors may include a URL as part of a submission’s supporting materials, members of the jury are not required to examine these. This helps us ensure fairness and meet our deadlines.

Do I have to include a video of my work as part of my submission’s supporting materials?
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 sometimes difficult to evaluate your work without this during the review process. Note that if your paper is conditionally accepted, you will be asked to produce a presentation and a short video about your work.

What file formats are acceptable for video submissions?
We strongly encourage MP4 video files and the file size should not exceed 100 MB. The file must be uploaded using the online submission system.

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.

Can you provide guidance about the format and quality of the images?

• Every submission must include at least one representative image.
• The image must be digital, of the highest quality possible, with a pixel resolution of at least 1500 x 1000, at least 300 dpi at 5 inches (12.7 cm) wide, with proportional height, or the highest possible resolution screen grab.
• Images must be 24-bit (RGB, 8-bits per channel) uncompressed, in the highest possible JPEG resolution.
• A standard ICC color profile of sRGB also is recommended and will be assumed if not specified.
• Horizontal (landscape) images are required. Vertical (portrait) images are not acceptable.
• Your image will appear in 3 x 2 ratio on the SIGGRAPH 2023 website. Images that do not conform to this proportion will be cropped from the center.
• Avoid embedded rules, layers, tags, masks, color models (for example, CMYK), etc. If in doubt, use an image editor to paste into a new file.
• Please also specify copyright and image credits for each image. The file upload manager offers an input field for this optional information.
• If your work is accepted, your representative image will be used both as an identifying image during the jurying and selection process and in publications or for media purposes.
• Higher resolution images often are favored by media for publication use, so the minimum-resolution requirement is only a guideline.
• It is important that you have permissions to use this image.

What is the ORCID Mandate?
ORCID identifiers are Open Researcher and Contributor Identifiers. They are provided to researchers as unique identifiers to distinguish their research from that of others who may have similar names.

ACM now requires that all accepted journal authors register and provide ACM with valid ORCID identifiers prior to paper publication. Corresponding authors are responsible for collecting these ORCID identifiers from co-authors and providing them to ACM as part of the ACM eRights selection process.

How do I register for an ORCID identifier?
You and your co-authors can create and register your ORCID identifier at https://orcid.org/register. ACM only requires you to complete the initial ORCID registration process. However, ACM encourages you to take the additional step to claim ownership of all of your published works via the ORCID site.

Do I need to attend the conference to present my paper?
Yes, at least one author of each paper must be present at the conference in Los Angeles in order for the paper to be part of the SIGGRAPH 2023 Art Papers program. Authors of accepted Art Papers will present live at SIGGRAPH 2023 in Los Angeles during one of the Art Papers sessions. Presenting authors must be registered at the appropriate registration level. Once the contributor recognition policy becomes available, it will be linked here. Check back in early January 2023.