| name | atc-workflow |
| description | Use when planning an ATC (ACM SIGOPS Annual Technical Conference, formerly USENIX ATC) campaign end to end — running the year backward from the early-June deadline through the two review rounds, the rebuttal, conditional-acceptance shepherding, the post-acceptance artifact evaluation, and the ACM Open Access camera-ready for the November Hong Kong conference. |
ATC Workflow
Plan the campaign backward from the deadline. ATC 2026 — the first ACM SIGOPS edition of the
former USENIX ATC — runs on a calendar and a review structure that both changed in the
transition: an early-June 2026 submission deadline (AoE; 1 vs. 10 June unresolved across
renderings — 待核实), a two-round, extended-abstract review, conditional acceptance with
shepherding, a separate artifact-evaluation track, and the conference in Hong Kong, 15-18
November 2026. Reopen the SIGOPS call for the exact dates before committing to any of the offsets
below.
The arc (backward from the deadline)
[T-0 Submission] paired upload: 2-page extended abstract + full paper on atc26.hotcrp.com
[Round one] two reviewers judge each extended abstract; below-bar papers cut early
[Round two] 3-4 reviewers read the full paper of survivors
[Rebuttal] ~1 page: correct factual misreadings; note prior-submission changes if any
[Decision] conditional accept / reject
[Shepherding] a PC shepherd signs off required revisions before final acceptance
[Artifact evaluation] separate post-acceptance AEC track -> Available / Functional / Reproduced
[Camera-ready] de-anonymize, satisfy shepherd, ACM Open Access metadata + production checks
[Nov 15-18] present at the Hong Kong conference; talk video/slides per the venue norm
Backward plan from the June deadline
- T-10 to T-8 weeks: lock the system and freeze the experiments. On a systems paper the testbed
and measurements are the long pole; leave prose churn for later. Pin environments now
(
atc-reproducibility) — provenance cannot be reconstructed at the deadline.
- T-6 weeks: full-paper draft complete against
atc-writing-style; baselines and honest costs
in place per atc-experiments.
- T-3 weeks: write and stress-test the two-page extended abstract — the round-one decision
surface. Have someone read only the abstract and tell you the problem, contribution, testbed,
and result. If they cannot, fix it.
- T-2 weeks: build the anonymized, runnable artifact and the claim-to-experiment map.
- T-1 week: double-blind sweep on the final PDF, abstract, and artifact; fill HotCRP fields and
conflicts; confirm the exact AoE deadline day.
- T-0: upload both the extended abstract and the paper; re-download and read cold.
Between submission and decision
- Round one is silent from your side — there is no action between upload and the round-one cut;
the abstract is your entire round-one argument. Do not start major new experiments hoping to swap
in a stronger paper mid-cycle.
- If you advance to round two, prepare for the rebuttal: keep a running list of the measurements
and clarifications a skeptical reviewer would ask for, so the ~1-page window is spent well
(
atc-author-response).
After a conditional accept
- Treat the shepherd's required revisions as binding. Make each change or explicitly justify
declining it; the shepherd holds final acceptance until satisfied.
- Start the artifact-evaluation package immediately: the AEC track has its own post-acceptance
deadline, independent of the camera-ready (
atc-artifact-evaluation). De-anonymize and archive
the artifact in a DOI-issuing repository for the Available badge.
- Prepare the camera-ready: de-anonymize the paper, fold in the shepherd's changes, and complete
ACM Open Access metadata (
atc-camera-ready). Budget for the transition APC
(subsidized for 2026; exact figure per the ACM/SIGOPS terms).
Calendar reconnaissance
[Deadline] confirm the exact early-June AoE day on the SIGOPS call (1 vs 10 June — 待核实)
[Conference] Hong Kong (Hyatt, Shatin), Nov 15-18, 2026 — plan travel/visa early for HK
[Rotation] under SIGOPS, ATC rotates Asia/Europe/North America; next-year location differs
[Artifact] find the AEC submission date on the call for artifacts (separate from camera-ready)
[Backup] if rejected, line up OSDI/NSDI/EuroSys/FAST dates via atc-topic-selection
Reverify each cycle
- The exact deadline day, notification/rebuttal dates, and camera-ready date.
- Whether the two-round extended-abstract model and the reviewer counts persist.
- Artifact-evaluation timing and the badge set; the Deployed Systems lane (待核实).
- ACM Open Access / APC terms; template file (USENIX vs. ACM) (待核实).
Output format
[ATC workflow stage] planning / drafting / abstract-hardening / submitted / round two / rebuttal / shepherding / artifact / camera-ready
[Critical path] the long-pole task (usually testbed + measurements, then the extended abstract)
[Deadline set] submission (early June AoE), rebuttal, shepherd sign-off, artifact, camera-ready
[Next action] the single most schedule-critical step, with a date
[Risk] the item most likely to slip (provenance pinning / abstract self-containment / shepherd changes)
