Policy for evaluating papers submitted by
TACAS 2003 Program Committee members


Dear TACAS 2003 Program Committee Members:

Since the time for submitting to TACAS is drawing closer, we wanted
to let you know what the policy will be regarding PC-member submissions
for TACAS 2003. 

First of all, we *do* want to encourage *quality* submissions from 
PC members.  Since we are trying to ensure that TACAS 2003 has a strong
program, we realize that it is probably unreasonable to ask such a
large PC committee (who would otherwise contribute quality submissions)
not to make submissions to TACAS.  However, to help avoid appearances
of partiality, we would ask that you take it upon yourselves
to submit papers in which you are confident and not to submit papers
that you consider to be "toss-ups".

To ensure the PC-member submissions are treated consistently and fairly,
here is a summary of the policy that we are adopting:

(1) PC *chairs* are not allowed to submit

(2) PC members are welcome to submit quality papers and these papers will
    be "double-blind" reviewed.  Specifically, PC-member papers should 
    be "anonymized" by the following steps:

      (a) the authors list should be replaced by 
          the sole mention "TACAS PC member". 
      (b) The authors' affiliation, address, and \thanks footnote,
	  and acknowledgement section should be left empty. 
      (c) PC-member submissions should be mailed directly to 
          the PC-chairs and we will enter the paper into the 
          electronic-PC system and maintain the mappings 
          from actual authors to anonymized papers.

    These instructions will be repeated on the TACAS submission web-page.

(3) Papers submitted by PC members will be evaluated by one (or even two,
    if resources allow) more reviewers than other papers.  

(4) Except for the measures above, PC-member papers will be treated and
    evaluated the same as regular submissions.  Specifically, PC members
    papers will NOT be required to achieve a predetermined cut-off score
    that is higher than the standard for non-PC papers in order to 
    be accepted.

We realize that the treatment of PC papers is always a sensitive
issue, and unfortunately there seems to be no perfect strategy for
dealing with them.  In particular, we realize the "anonymizing" of
PC-members papers is not entirely effective, since it is sometimes
fairly clear who the authors are even when names are removed.  The
policies for TACAS PC-member papers change almost every year as 
different committees try different strategies for balancing issues 
of impartiality, fairness, and the desire for quality programs. 
We will simply try the policy above to see how it works out this year.

Regards,

  Hubert and John 

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',',',',',',',',',',',' Hubert GARAVEL           | INRIA Rhone-Alpes / VASY
',',',',',',',',',',',' hubert.garavel@inria.fr  | 655, avenue de l'Europe
',',',',',',',',',',',' tel: +(33) 4 76 61 52 24 | 38330 Montbonnot St Martin
',',',',',',',',',',',' fax: +(33) 4 76 61 52 52 | France
',',',',',',',',',',',' http://vasy.inria.fr
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John Hatcliff                     Phone: 785-532-6350
Associate Professor               Fax..: 785-532-7353
Department of Computing and 
  Information Sciences            Email: hatcliff@cis.ksu.edu
234 Nichols Hall                  WWW..: http://www.cis.ksu.edu/~hatcliff
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506
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