VLSI Symposium Policy on Prepublication - Adapted from IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society

The purpose of VLSI Symposium is to make available the latest advances in the field of VLSI Technology and Circuits. As the premier world forum for the debut of such technical innovation, the Symposium will accept only works in which the preponderance of the material being disclosed has not previously been made available to the public.

All publications necessarily include a mix of pre-published material (e.g. motivation, background information, summary of prior work in the field) and new material (not previously disclosed to the public). It is the responsibility of the technical program chair to ensure that each work contains significant new material and that the new material constitutes the majority of the work.

Though the final decision for what constitutes pre-published material lies with the appropriate technical program chair, the following guidelines should make clear how to comply with this policy. A key guideline consists of evaluating whether material is publicly available either through electronic download or orderable in printed form. Such material is considered prepublished and does not qualify as new material.

The technical program committee considers the extent of new material vs. pre-published material when assessing the value of submissions and choosing which submissions to accept. Therefore, important and relevant pre-published material, including and especially material submitted for potential future publication elsewhere (whether or not already accepted), must be disclosed to the technical program committee, even if new material may constitute the majority of the work. Submissions should clearly indicate how new material differs from pre-published material. Failure to do so is a violation of this policy and can result in rejection of the paper.

Disclosures that are not usually considered prepublication include:

1. Preliminary data sheet(s)/product announcement(s) with no technical details.
2. Presentation at a limited-attendance workshop with no proceedings (e.g. IEEE SSCTW or Computer Elements, or presentations to research sponsors). A key element here involves the ability to find any handouts etc. via electronic means or printed catalog. If handouts are available, but not subsequently downloadable or orderable, this is acceptable.
3. Information from an advance program, after its publication, or information from the IEEE sponsored press meetings, after the formal press release.
4. Information provided under NDA to customers, partners, or other parties.
5. Final signed versions of Master’s and PhD thesis at public or private universities available in open access repositories (i.e. libraries), either printed or online. A thesis published for profit is an exception and is considered prepublication.
6. Published patents and patent applications.

Disclosures that would normally be considered prepublication include:

1. Publicly available manuals, data sheets and applications notes that contain substantial technical information such as schematics and principles of operation.
2. Previously copyrighted material.
3. Material submitted and accepted for publication elsewhere.
4. Material submitted for which publication decision is still pending.
5. Material available on a public website. (e.g., presentations done internal to an organization and disclosed on a publicly accessible web site).

Invited papers should be identified as such in either conference proceedings, as they contain, by their nature primarily pre-published material but are of interest to the society as a whole.

The best policy is to disclose all questionable material to the technical program committee as part of the submission process. If your organization is planning publicity for your work, which you believe might possibly be interpreted as a violation of prepublication policy, contact the technical program chairman PRIOR to the publicity event for approval. Providing preprints, granting interviews, discussing data with members of the media, or participating in press conferences in advance of publication without prior approval from the technical program chair may be grounds for rejection.