Special SessionsSIGCSE TS 2025

Special sessions are your opportunity to customize and experiment with the SIGCSE Technical Symposium format. Special sessions should NOT replicate existing session formats (i.e., panels, paper presentations, poster sessions, tutorials, etc.) that are part of the SIGCSE Technical Symposium. Sessions last 75 minutes with only in-person presenters. Some special sessions may be selected for live streaming, with both in-person and online attendees. Within these constraints, the form is yours to design.

For example, a special session might be a seminar, a committee report, a curricular or accreditation forum, or a discussion of strategies proven to improve retention of computing topics. Possible topic areas include management of large classes, projects and assignments, teaching computer science using culturally relevant pedagogy, experiments on collaborative learning, report of an ACM committee addressing issues at two-year colleges, or special issues arising when teaching computing outside of North America.

Author Restriction A single author may appear on no more than four total panel and special session submissions combined. Should more than four submissions be received with a given author, only the first four will be reviewed and all others will be desk rejected. This interim policy is intended to promote greater diversity in authorship on these tracks.

Authors submitting work to SIGCSE TS 2025 are responsible for complying with all applicable conference authorship policies and those articulated by ACM. If you have questions about any of these policies, please contact program@sigcse2025.org for clarification prior to submission.

ACM has made a commitment to collect ORCiD IDs from all published authors (https://authors.acm.org/author-resources/orcid-faqs). All authors on each submission must have an ORCiD ID (https://orcid.org/register) in order to complete the submission process. Please make sure to get your ORCID ID in advance of submitting your work.

Presentation Modality

All authors of accepted panel submissions in this track must register and be present in-person at the conference. A limited number of Special Sessions will be selected by the chairs for live streaming, but all of the presenters need to be there in the room to facilitate this because what is streamed is from a camera in the conference room.

Deadlines and Submission

Special session submissions consist of a 2-page extended abstract about the work including a 250-word short abstract, additional content about the work, and references. Special session submissions to the SIGCSE TS 2025 must be made through EasyChair no later than Sunday, 21 July 2024. The track chairs reserve the right to desk reject submissions that are incomplete after the deadline has passed.

Important Dates

Authors may find it useful to read the Instruction for Reviewers and the Review Form to understand how their submissions will be reviewed. Also note that when submitting, you will need to provide between 3-7 related topics from the Topics list under Info.

Abstracts

All special session submissions must have a plain-text abstract of up to 250 words. Abstracts should not contain subheadings or citations. The abstract should be submitted in EasyChair along with the submission metadata, and it should be included in the PDF version of the submission at the appropriate location.

Submission Templates

SIGCSE TS 2025 is not participating in the new ACM workflow, template, and production system. All special session submissions must be in English and formatted using the 2-column ACM SIG Conference Proceedings format and US letter size pages (8.5x11 inch or 215.9 x 279.4mm).

Page Limits: Special session submissions are limited to a maximum of 2 pages of body content (including all titles, author information, abstract, main text, tables and illustrations, acknowledgements, and references).

MS Word Authors: Please use the interim Word template provided by ACM.

LaTeX Authors:

• Overleaf provides a suitable two-column sig conference proceedings template.
• Other LaTeX users may alternatively use the ACM Primary template, adding the “sigconf” format option in the documentclassto obtain the 2-column format.

Requirement for Single Anonymous Review Process: At the time of submission all entries should include author information, an abstract, body content, references, and placeholders for the ACM Reference Format and copyright blocks. Each author should be defined separately for accurate metadata identification.

Other requirements: Include space for authors’ e-mail addresses whenever possible on separate lines. Even if multiple authors have the same affiliation, grouping authors’ names or e-mail addresses, or providing an ‘e-mail alias’ is not acceptable, e.g., {brian,lina,leenkiat}@university.edu or firstname.lastname@college.org. Special session should include from the standard ACM template: keywords, CCS Concepts and the ACM Reference Format.

Desk Rejects: Submissions that do not adhere to page limits or formatting requirements will be desk rejected without review.

Accessibility: SIGCSE TS 2025 authors are strongly encouraged to prepare submissions using these templates in such a manner that the content is widely accessible to potential reviewers, track chairs, and readers. Please see these resources for preparing an accessible submission.

Additional Format Instructions

Authors submitting to the special session track should use the standardized section names and additional formatting information below when preparing the main content of their proposals.

• Overall objective of the session: Describe the topic of the special session and explain how the session will be organized (e.g., as a committee report, hands-on exercise, …). Indicate why the proposed session is important and relevant to the SIGCSE community.
• Outline of the session: Organize this section by subtopics, activities, or a similar scheme. If more than one participant is involved, label each section of the outline with the name of the participant(s) who will be presenting that section. Note that in the case of a committee report, the presenters might be a subset of the authors. We suggest that you allow at least 40 - 50% of the time for questions and answers or other interaction with the attendees.
• Expectations: State the intended audience. Indicate how much the session will cover and what the audience should learn. If feedback from the audience is desired, indicate how it will be elicited.
• Suitability for a special session: Include a brief description that justifies the inclusion of this presentation as a special session. Explain why the proposed presentation is better suited for a special session than a paper or panel or other standard track format.
• References: Citing relevant work where appropriate is encouraged, but not required. If references are included, they should be placed in a separate section titled References and should follow the formatting guidelines.

Single Anonymized Review

Submissions to the special session track are reviewed with the single-anonymous review process. Submissions should include author names and affiliations. Thus, the author identities are known to reviewers, but reviewers are anonymous to each other and to the authors.

The reviewing process includes a discussion phase after initial reviews have been submitted. During this time, the reviewers can examine all reviews and privately discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the work in an anonymous manner through EasyChair. This discussion information can be used by the track chairs in addition to the content of the review in making final acceptance decisions.

The SIGCSE TS 2025 review process does not have a rebuttal period for authors to respond to comments, and all acceptance decisions are final.

ACM Policies

By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects (https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/research-involving-human-participants-and-subjects). Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

ACM has made a commitment to collect ORCiD IDs from all published authors (https://authors.acm.org/author-resources/orcid-faqs). All authors on each submission must have an ORCiD ID (https://orcid.org/register) in order to complete the submission process. Please make sure to get your ORCID ID in advance of submitting your work.

Additional details are in the instructions for authors.

Getting ready

• Make sure that all authors have obtained an ORCiD identifier. These identifiers are required for paper submission.
• Check the author list carefully now and review with your co-authors. The authors on the submission must be the same as the authors on the final version of the work (assuming the work is accepted). Authors may not be added or removed after submission and must also appear in the same order as in the submission.
• Identify at least one author who is willing to review for the symposium. Have that author or those authors sign up to review at https://tinyurl.com/review-sigcse25. (If they’ve done so already, there is no need to fill out the form a second time.) Researchers listed as co-authors on three or more submissions must volunteer to review. (Undergraduate co-authors are exempt from this requirement.)
• Download an appropriate template (see Instructions for Authors).
• Review Additional Format Instructions in the Instructions for Authors Tab—be sure you have included all required items.
• Review the additional resources.
• Review the instructions for reviewers and the Review Form to see what reviewers will be looking for in your paper.
• Look at the list of topics in the Info menu on this site or on EasyChair and pick 3-7 appropriate topics for your submission.
• Look at the EasyChair submission page to make sure you’ll be prepared to fill everything out. Note that you are permitted to update your submission until the deadline, so it is fine to put draft information there as you get ready.

The submission on EasyChair

Note: EasyChair does not let you save incomplete submission forms. Please fill out all of the fields in one sitting and save them. After that, you can continue to update the information in the fields and your submission until the deadline.

• Use an appropriate template.
• Ensure that your submission is accessible. See accessibility tips for authors for further details.
• Ensure that your submission does not exceed the page limit.
• Ensure that your submission contains author names and affiliations for the single anonymous review process.
• Submit the final version by 11:59 p.m. AOE, Sunday July 21st 2024.
• IMPORTANT: as you enter the author names in EasyChair consider the order. Author lists can NOT be modified (this includes add/remove/reorder)

What Gets Published?

The 2-page special session proposal for each accepted submission will be published in the SIGCSE TS 2025 proceedings.

Presentation Details

All named authors for accepted special sessions must register for and attend the SIGCSE TS 2025 in person. Some special sessions will be selected for live streaming.

Further details about post-acceptance processes and presentation logistics will be provided by the time acceptance decisions are sent out.

Sample special session proposals can be found here.

• Special Session Proposal Example (Word)

Language Editing Assistance

ACM has partnered with International Science Editing (ISE) to provide language editing services to ACM authors. ISE offers a comprehensive range of services for authors including standard and premium English language editing, as well as illustration and translation services. Editing services are at author expense and do not guarantee publication of a manuscript.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Submission and Review System
• Single-Anonymous Review Process
• Review Process
• Getting Started Reviewing
• Special Session Review Guidlelines
• Discussion
• Recalcitrant Reviewers

Overview

Special sessions provide an opportunity for SIGCSE community members to customize and experiment with the Technical Symposium formats. Special sessions should NOT replicate existing formats (i.e., panels, paper presentations, lightning talks, and poster sessions). They are scheduled in standard conference spaces. Within these constraints, authors may design a format that meets their session’s goals. For example, a special session might be a tutorial or seminar, a committee report, a curricular or accreditation forum, a rapid-fire sequence of five-minute talks, or a hands-on demo of dance moves proven to improve retention of computing topics.

Possible topic areas include management of large classes, projects and assignments, teaching computer science in K-12, experiments on collaborative learning, report of an ACM committee addressing issues at two-year colleges, or special issues arising when teaching computing outside of North America.

Criteria used in reviewing the proposals will include the likely level of interest in the session and the suitability and feasibility of the proposed format to its topic. If the proposal is accepted, all presenters listed in the special session description will be required to register for the conference and to participate in the session.

Submission and Review System

The review process for SIGCSE TS 2025 will be done using the EasyChair submission system (https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=sigcsets2025). Reviewers will be invited to join/login into EasyChair, update their profile, and select 3-5 topics that they are most qualified to review. To do so, reviewers select SIGCSE TS 2025 > Conference > My topics from the menu and select at most 5 topics. More topics make it harder for the EasyChair system to make a good set of matches. Reviewers also identify their Conflicts of Interest by selecting SIGCSE TS 2025 > Conference > My Conflicts.

Single-Anonymous Review Process

Submissions to the Special Sessions track are reviewed with the single-anonymous review process. Submissions should include author names and affiliations. Thus, the author identities are known to reviewers, but reviewers are anonymous to each other and to the authors. The reviewing process includes a discussion phase after initial reviews have been posted. During this time, the reviewers can examine all reviews and privately discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed slate anonymously through EasyChair. Information from the discussion will be used by the track chairs in making final acceptance decisions.

The SIGCSE TS 2025 review process does not have a rebuttal period for authors to respond to comments, and all acceptance decisions are final.

Review Process

SIGCSE TS 2025 is continuing a review process for Panels, Special Sessions, and Tutorials begun for the 2024 Symposium. Reviewers will be asked to review approximately six proposals. Initial reviews will consist of a single rating (Recommend acceptance, Unsure, Do not recommend acceptance) and a short rationale for that rating. After the initial reviews, the track chairs will propose a slate to accept. In putting together the slate, the chairs will consider ratings, comments (and appropriateness thereof), and the balance of topics. Reviewers will then discuss both the slate of reviews and the complete set of submissions, proposing substitutions as appropriate. Track chairs will then make the determination of the final slate and will write meta-reviews for the authors, based on the initial comments and the discussion.

We expect that the broader discussion of the slate will provide a more equitable and transparent review process and that the replacement of individual reviews with meta-reviews will better address issues of potential bias in individual reviews.

Getting Started Reviewing

Before starting your review, you may be asked by the Track Chairs to declare conflicts with any submitting authors. Please do so in a timely manner so we can avoid conflicts during assignment.

After the submission deadline and before reviewing can begin, Reviewers will bid on submissions they are interested in reviewing. Please bid for submissions where the title and abstract are in your area of expertise. Bidding will help with assigning submissions for review that you’re qualified and interested in reviewing! If you do not bid within the allotted time window, we will use topics to assign submissions for review.

As a Reviewer, we ask that you carefully read each submission assigned to you and write a constructive review that concisely summarizes what you believe the submission to be about. When reviewing a submission, consider:

• the strengths and weaknesses,
• the contribution to an outstanding SIGCSE TS 2025 program and experience for attendees, and
• how it brings new ideas or extends current ideas through replication to the field and to practitioners and researchers of computing education.

Special Session Review Guidelines

SIGCSE special session proposals are reviewed using EasyChair. Each proposal is assigned to at least three reviewers.

Reviewers provide high-quality reviews for submissions to provide authors with feedback so they may improve their work for presentation or future submissions. While authors will not receive your comments directly, the Track Chairs are likely to use your comments from the rationale in providing advice to the authors. As such, please ensure that all criticism is phrased in a constructive manner.

In the initial phase of the review, you will be asked three questions.

Recommendation. Please enter your preliminary recommendation for this submission. After we gather the preliminary recommendations, we will propose a slate of proposals to accept and then ask reviewers to discuss that slate.

Rationale. Please give your rationale for your recommendation. Authors will NOT see your complete rationale. However, track chairs may use text from your rationale in providing feedback to authors.

Confidential remarks for the program committee. If you wish to add any remarks intended only for PC members please write them below. These remarks will only be seen by the PC members having access to reviews for this submission. They will not be sent to the authors. This field is optional.

We strongly recommend that you prepare your rationale in a separate document; EasyChair has been known to time out.

In reviewing proposals, please consider the following.

1. Relevance and Interest
   • Is the special session topic clearly stated?
   • Are the benefits to the SIGCSE audience clearly indicated?
   • Is the special session topic of interest to the SIGCSE community?
   • Is there a clear audience that would be interested in the session?
2. Structure & Plan for Audience Participation
   • Is there an overview of the special session structure?
   • Does the proposal state why it is better suited for a special session and how it differs from other formats used in the SIGCSE Technical Symposium (paper presentations, panels, lightning talks, and poster sessions)?
   • Does the proposal identify the intended audience?
   • What interaction with the audience is included in the proposed structure? (the suggestion is to allow 40-50% of the time for some interaction with the audience).
   • Is the plan for hybrid engagement clear, and will the proposed hybrid format be productive and engaging for audience members?
3. Presenter/Leader considerations
   • Does the proposal clearly identify the presenters/leaders of the special session (i.e., name and affiliation) and describe their expertise related to the topic?
   • Does the proposal clearly describe the role of each participant in relation to the goal and topic of the special session?

While your review text should clearly support your scores and recommendation, please do not include your preference for acceptance or rejection of a submission in the feedback to the authors. Instead, use the provided radio buttons to make a recommendation (the authors will not see this) based on your summary review and provide any details that refer to your recommendation directly in the confidential comments to the APC or track chairs.

Discussion

The discussion and recommendation period provides the opportunity for the Track Chairs to discuss reviews and feedback so they can provide the best recommendation for acceptance or rejection to the Program Chairs. During this phase, a proposed slate of Special Sessions will be discussed. The Track Chairs will make a final recommendation to the Program Chairs from your feedback. The Track Chairs will also prepare feedback for the authors based on your review and the discussion.

Recalcitrant Reviewers

Reviewers who don’t submit reviews, have reviews with limited constructive feedback, do not engage effectively in the discussion phase, or submit inappropriate reviews will be removed from the reviewer list (as per SIGCSE policy). Recalcitrant reviewers will be informed of their removal from the reviewer list. Reviewers with repeated offenses (two within a three year period) will be removed from SIGCSE reviewing for three years.

The review process for round-one single-anonymous submissions (Panels, Special Sessions, and Tutorials) is described in Instructions for Reviewers. The questions on the pre-discussion form follow. They may change slightly before the review period.

Recommendation: Please enter your preliminary recommendation for this submission. After we gather the preliminary recommendations, we will propose a slate of proposals to accept and then ask reviewers to discuss that slate.

• Recommended for inclusion in the slate of Special Sessions at TS 2025
• May be appropriate for inclusion in the slate of Special Sessions at TS 2025
• Not recommended for inclusion in the slate of Special Sessions at TS 2025

Rationale: Please give your rationale for your recommendation. Authors will NOT see your complete rationale. However, track chairs may use text from your rationale in providing feedback to authors.

Confidential remarks for the program committee: If you wish to add any remarks intended only for PC members please write them below. These remarks will only be seen by the PC members having access to reviews for this submission. They will not be sent to the authors. This field is optional.