* Important dates not fitting the template:

First-Phase Notification: May 26, 2014
Revisions Due: July 21, 2014
Second notification: 3 August 2014
Camera-Ready Due: 10 August 2014

* Colocated with OOPSLA/SPLASH

== Full call for papers ==

# Onward!Essays Call for Submissions
Onward!Essays is looking for clear and compelling pieces of writing about topics important to the software community.

An essay can be an exploration of a topic, its impact, or the circumstances of its creation; it can present a personal view of what is, explore a terrain, or lead the reader in an act of discovery; it can be a philosophical digression or a deep analysis. It can describe a personal journey, perhaps that by which the author reached an understanding of such a topic. The subject area should be interpreted broadly and can include the relationship of software to human endeavors, or its philosophical, sociological, psychological, historical, or anthropological underpinnings.

Onward!Essays is reaching out not only to experienced academics but also to graduate students for constructive criticism of current software development technology and practices, and for the presentation of ideas that could change the realm of software development. Practitioners who are dissatisfied with the state of our art are also encouraged to share insights about how to reform software development, perhaps by presenting detailed examples of a new approach, demonstrating concrete benefits and potential risks.

Onward!Essays is not looking for research-as-usual papers with rigorous validation (such as theorems or experiments). Onward!Essays accepts less rigorous methods of validation; however, regardless of its form or topic, the essay must have “meat”. It must must offer some insight or convincing argument; the reader should be left — perhaps after some reflection — in no doubt what the claimed insight or argument is. The use of worked-out examples to support new ideas is strongly encouraged.

## SUBMISSION SUMMARY
Abstracts due: 29 March 2014
Submission due: 25 April 2014
First notification: 26 May 2014
Revisions due: 21 July 2014
Second notification: 3 August 2014
Camera-Ready Due: 10 August 2014
Format: ACM SIGPLAN Proceedings format
Contact: essays@splashcon.org

# Selection Process

Onward!Essays submissions are peer-reviewed. Accepted essays will appear in the Onward! Proceedings in the ACM Digital Library. Onward!Essays will follow a two-phase review process. The first reviewing phase assesses the essay and results in the selection of a subset of submissions that are either accepted as-is or deemed potentially acceptable. All other submissions will be rejected in this phase.

Authors of potentially accepted essays will be requested to improve specific aspects of their work. 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 submission. The second and final reviewing phase assesses how the concrete revision requests have been acted upon by the authors, and improve the original submission. Revisions that do not address the reviewers’ requests or significantly lessen the contributions of the work may lead to a rejection.

# Submission

Because Onward!Essays encourages submissions that describe early-stage ideas with limited validation, it is expected that subsequent versions will be published reporting on the fleshed-out ideas with full validations. Onward! essays must therefore conform to both ACM Policy on Prior Publication and Simultaneous Submissions and the SIGPLAN Re-publication Policy.

Submissions should use the SIGPLAN Proceedings Format with 10 point fonts. The main part of the essay should not be longer than 14 pages. There is no page limit for appendices, and, therefore, for the overall submission. If the essay is accepted, the final submission will be limited to 20 pages, including appendices. The essay can be enhanced by other pieces of art such as photos or film. Films should be submitted in AVI or MOV format.

# Program Committee

Jonathan Aldrich, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Elisa Baniassad, University of British Columbia, Canada
Dorothea Blostein, Queen’s University, Canada
Bernd Bruegge, Technische Universität München, Germany (Chair)
Dan Chiorean, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania
Yvonne Coady, University of Victoria, Canada
Bruce Horn, Intel Corporation, USA
Robert Hirschfeld, HPI Potsdam, Germany
Gail Kaiser, Columbia University, USA
Martin Purvis, University of Otago, New Zealand
Dirk Riehle, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Germany
Kurt Schneider, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany