MAY 20-22, 2019 AT THE HYATT REGENCY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
40th IEEE Symposium on
Security and Privacy
IEEE Security & Privacy will be organizing its fourth Student Program Committee in 2019. Student PCs allow students and post-docs interested in future PC service to read submitted papers and go through the reviewing process, ultimately arriving at a shadow conference program. This opportunity allows future PC members to learn first-hand about the peer-review process and gain experience as a reviewer. The Student PC will consist of students and post-docs and will provide reviews on a subset of submissions to the conference (paper authors may choose to opt-out of student reviews).
The Student PC will function much like an independent version of the "Senior" PC, including holding an in-person PC meeting and choosing its own program of papers. Papers submitted for the December 2018 deadline will be considered for the Student PC. Student PC reviewers will have to abide by the same rules and restrictions applicable to regular PC members. This includes, but is not limited to, rules against discussing the papers outside of the PC context, or using in any way results from reviewed papers before such papers have been published. Delegated reviews (i.e., external reviews) are not allowed for the Student PC. Making a submitted paper available to Student PC is optional; authors will have the opportunity to opt-in during the paper submission process. Student reviews for papers that are reviewed by the Student PC will be sent out after the actual review process for the December deadline has finished (end of January 2019).
The Student PC meeting will be held on Friday January 25, 2019 in New York.
The Student PC will be chaired by Tom Moyer of University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
If you are interested in participating, please apply by filling out the Google Form here by November 5, 2018 (see below for instructions).
Q. Why hold a Student PC?
A. The Student PC is intended primarily to be an educational experience. The Student PC will write reviews of the real submissions to IEEE S&P in real time and will have an in-person Student PC meeting that closely simulates the full PC meeting. The Student PC members will debate papers and select a full program of papers. In addition, there will be two activities to help Student PC members better understand the conference paper selection process. Before reviews are assigned, there will be a teleconference discussing the components of good and bad reviews. Following the Student PC meeting, there will be a meta-discussion about the process. This discussion will focus on how to effectively review papers and the dynamics of choosing a conference program. After the Student PC, the Student PC reviews will be sent to the authors of the papers (marked as Student PC reviews).
Q. Who can participate in the Student PC?
A. The Student PC is open to PhD students and post-docs working in security and privacy who have not yet served on a "major" program committee (e.g. IEEE Security and Privacy, USENIX Security, CCS, NDSS, CRYPTO). If more applications are received than there is room, students will be given priority based on seniority in their programs and chosen to ensure diversity of backgrounds, institutions, and research interests.
Q. What is required of Student PC members?
A. Because the Student PC reviews will be available to the senior PC and paper authors, requirements are similar:
Student PC members will be expected to review 5-15 papers (depending on the number of submissions for the December deadline) on time and participate in online discussion.
Student PC members are required to attend the in-person Student PC meeting. Please note that funding to attend the in-person Student PC meeting is not guaranteed. We are actively working with sponsors (e.g., NSF) to offset travel expenses for a subset of the Student PC members. Priority will be given to students based on financial need as well as a diversity of backgrounds and institutions.
Student PC members must follow the ethical standards of peer review, respect the anonymity of the review process and not share which papers they have reviewed or solicit sub-reviews. Student PC members who do not adhere to the review deadlines will be excluded from the process.
Student PC members will also be particularly expected to assist in reviewing their peer's reviews and providing constructive feedback to improve the quality of the reviews.
Student PC members are not allowed to separately serve as sub-reviewers for the senior PC.
Q. Why should students participate?
A. While being a member of a Student PC is a significant amount of work, we expect it will be rewarding for a number of reasons, including:
Gain experience reviewing papers and understand the challenges faced by reviewers reading multiple papers which may not always be in their area of expertise.
Experience how a review process operates and how a PC meeting is run.
See good quality papers as well as bad ones and see how they are viewed during a PC meeting.
Submitting high quality reviews makes one a more likely candidate for future senior PCs.
Network with fellow junior researchers at the PC meeting and reception.
Q. How can I apply?
A. If you are interested in participating, please apply by filling out the Google Form here by November 5, 2018. The following information is asked for:
Name, position/year of study, expected graduation year, institution and supervisor
A brief (0.25-1 pg) motivation statement explaining why you would like to participate in the student PC
Areas of research experience and expertise and any relevant publications. It is okay if you have no publications yet.
A brief note on your past review experience (such as writing sub-reviews or serving on a workshop PC). It is okay if you have none.
Confirmation that you will be able to attend the Student PC meeting.
Estimate of funding needed to attend the PC meeting.
All deadlines are 23:59:59 PST (UTC-8).
| Deadline to apply for Student PC | November 5, 2018 |
| Student PC membership notification | November 8, 2018 |
| Conference submission deadline | December 1, 2018 |
| Bids for papers to review | December 6, 2018 |
| Review deadline | January 10, 2019 |
| Discussion period | January 11-21, 2019 |
| Student PC meeting | January 25, 2019 |
| Tom Moyer | University of North Carolina at Charlotte |