The SIGCSE Symposium: A Brief History

conflicting demands arise in the mix of papers, panels, special sessions, etc. For example, the addition of one panel session might mean reduction in the number of sessions for papers.

 

5. 1 SUBMISSIONS, ACCEPTANCES, AND ACCEPTANCE RATES

Papers consistently comprise a substantial component of each SIGCSE Technical Symposium. The first symposium, held on November 16, 1970 in Houston, Texas, included the presentation of 18 papers, selected from over 40 submitted. Over the years, the length of the symposium has expanded several times, with regular programming progressing from one day to two days, to two and a half days. Pre-symposium and post-symposium activities have supplemented the main program substantially and attracted increased attendance and paper submissions.

In what follows, the first graph (Figure 3) presents both the number of papers submitted and the number accepted. Numbers of submissions for some years are not available, and different sources (e.g., [ 7, 8]) sometimes report slightly different numbers, perhaps due to duplicate submissions or papers withdrawn. As indicated, the number of submissions has varied somewhat over the years, and with a reasonably consistent level of about 300 submissions between 2004 and 2015. Submissions grew to 348 for SIGCSE 2017 and to over 500 for SIGCSE 2018, and it will be interesting to observe if these increases will continue in the future.

Turning to papers accepted, the graph in Figure 3 shows a modest increase over the years, largely reflecting longer conferences and increased number of parallel tracks. For any year, a program committee must balance the number of papers, panels, and other sessions, so the number of paper sessions may vary modestly. However, even with adjustments from year to year, the number of accepted papers has remained quite steady, between 100 and 111, for about 18 years (2005-2017).

 

With both the number of papers submitted and the number accepted being reasonably steady for several years, the acceptance rate for papers has remained reasonably steady (mostly between 30% and 35% since 1995 or so, as shown in Figure 4.

 

5. 2 THE PAPER REVIEWING PROCESS

For at least several decades, papers submitted to a SIGCSE sym-
• Many groups are using Wednesday as a time for pre-
Symposium meetings. These include a gathering of
department chairs, meeting of ACM-W, activities involving
SIGCAS and the ACM Committee on Professional Ethics,
and the BlueJ community, among others.

• In the 1990s, many airlines set fares so that travelers could obtain dramatically cheaper tickets with a stay over a Saturday night. Thus, beyond attendee interest in workshops, attendees also had strong incentives to enroll in one or more workshops to take advantage of cheap, restricted fares. However, in 1996, Southwest Airlines removed this restriction for relatively inexpensive seats, and other airlines followed over the next few years. Pragmatically, this change in airfare structure removed the economic incentive to register for workshops, although interest in taking advantage of professional opportunities still provides strong incentives for workshop attendance.

 

As the map in Figure 2 shows, the location for the Sympo-
sium has been spread throughout the lower 48 states. Future
sites are selected under a variety of constraints:
• a large enough city with a convention facility to
accommodate 1600 attendees;

• enough hotel rooms close by the meeting site available at a reasonable price;

• ease of access by air, with consideration for international attendees;

• a number of restaurant choices near the meeting site; and • reasonable weather during the first week of March.

5. SYMPOSIA SCOPE AND STATISTICS

We now turn to reflecting on the technical content of the Symposia. Over the 48+ years of its existence, the SIGCSE Technical Symposium has continued to evolve and expand, and symposium leadership has had to balance various types of sessions to yield an attractive and varied program. For example, plenary sessions generally have expanded from just one or two keynote speakers to one address each day plus assorted community events (e.g., a reception, a first-timers luncheon, a closing luncheon). Also, with a limited number of time slots available over a conference,

Figure 3: Papers Submitted and Accepted

Figure 2: Locations of the SIGCSE Technical Symposia