Authors are invited to submit original and innovative papers to the Refereed Papers Track of the 2012 USENIX Annual Technical Conference. We seek high-quality submissions that further the knowledge and understanding of modern computing systems, with an emphasis on implementations and experimental results. We encourage papers that break new ground or present insightful results based on practical experience with computer systems. USENIX ATC has a broad scope, and specific topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Architectural interaction
Cloud computing
Deployment experience
Distributed and parallel systems
Embedded systems
Energy/power management
File and storage systems
Mobile, wireless, and sensor systems
Networking and network services
Operating systems
Reliability, availability, and scalability
Security, privacy, and trust
System and network management and troubleshooting
Usage studies and workload characterization
Virtualization

Best Paper Awards
Cash prizes will be awarded to the best papers at the conference. Please see the USENIX Compendium of Best Papers for Best Paper winners from previous years.

What to Submit
Authors are required to submit the abstracts for their papers by 11:59 p.m. EST on Tuesday, January 10, 2012; full papers must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. EST on Tuesday, January 17, 2012. These are hard deadlines; no extensions will be given.

All submissions for USENIX ATC '12 will be electronic, in PDF format, through the Web submission form, which will be available here soon.

USENIX ATC '12 will accept two types of papers:

Full papers: Submitted papers must be no longer than 12 single-spaced 8.5" by 11" pages, including figures, tables, and references. Ideally, references should be hyperlinked to the papers being cited. Papers should be formatted in 2 columns, using 10-point type on 12-point leading, in a text block of 6.5" by 9". The first page of the paper should include the paper title and author name(s); reviewing is single-blind. Papers longer than 12 pages or violating formatting specifications will not be reviewed. In a good paper, the authors will have:
-Addressed a significant problem
-Devised an interesting and practical solution
-Clearly described what they have and have not implemented
-Demonstrated the benefits of their solution
-Articulated the advances beyond previous work
-Drawn appropriate conclusions

Short papers: Authors with a contribution for which a full paper is not appropriate may submit short papers of at most 6 pages, with the same formatting guidelines as full papers. Examples of short paper contributions include:
-Original or unconventional ideas at a preliminary stage of development
-The presentation of interesting results that do not require a full-length paper, such as negative results or experimental validation
-Advocacy of a controversial position or fresh approach

Accepted short papers will be published in the Proceedings and time will be provided for brief presentations of these papers.

For more details on the submission process, and for templates to use with LaTeX, Word, etc., authors should consult the detailed submission requirements. Specific questions about submissions may be sent to atc12chairs@usenix.org.

By default, all papers will be made available online to registered attendees before the conference. If your accepted paper should not be published prior to the event, please notify production@usenix.org. In any case, the papers will be available online to everyone beginning on the first day of the conference, June 13, 2012.

Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. Accepted submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the USENIX ATC '12 Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.

Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may, on the recommendation of a program chair, take action against authors who have committed them. See the USENIX Conference Submissions Policy for details. Note that the above does not preclude the submission of a regular full paper that overlaps with a previous short paper or workshop paper. However, any submission that derives from an earlier paper must provide a significant new contribution (for example, by providing a more complete evaluation), and must explicitly mention the contributions of the submission over the earlier paper. If you have questions, contact your program co-chairs, atc12chairs@usenix.org, or the USENIX office, submissionspolicy@usenix.org.

Authors will be notified of paper acceptance or rejection by Monday, March 26, 2012. Accepted papers may be subject to shepherding by a program committee member.

Note regarding registration: One author per accepted paper will receive a registration discount. USENIX will offer a complimentary registration upon request.