Submission Instructions

Important Information

The RSS submission site is available at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/RSS2014/

  • Reviewing for RSS 2014 will be double blind, so authors should not be listed on the title page and reasonable anonymity should be maintained in the paper. Authors are asked to take particular care when referencing their own work - careless use of self citations can easily violate the requirements for double blind reviewing and this will result in papers being rejected. Guidance on double blind submission is given below as is a policy statement on multiple submissions and plagiarism.
  • Full papers must be submitted by January 30, 2014, 16:59 CST
  • Final paper notification will be made on April 30, 2014
  • Papers can be up to 8 pages + references. This means that if more than 8 pages are used, the 9th page and any subsequent pages should contain ONLY references. The length requirement will be strictly enforced.
  • RSS will have a rebuttal phase. The authors will be given 4 days to respond to reviewers' comments. This will happen in the period between March 9 and March 21. Check the main web page of the conference for updates as we get closer to the above dates.
  • Conditional accepts will be introduced this year. Authors will be give 10-14 days to improve their paper. This will happen in the period between April 7 and April 23. Detailed information will be posted as we approach those dates.
  • The conference accepts only electronic submissions in PDF format.
  • Authors may suggest which Area Chair should handle their submission. Names of Area Chairs are listed here.

    • Paper Submission

  • Browse to https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/RSS2014/ .
  • When logging in for the first time, if you have never used CMT, you will be guided through a registration process in which you enter contact details and conflict domains. When this is complete you will be able to log in. This process will take you to the "Author Console" form where you can choose to add a paper.
  • Enter title, abstract, and authors. Select one primary subject area and multiple secondary subject areas as they fit.
  • Your paper may now be uploaded. Papers must be in the accepted conference style format and must be submitted as a PDF of no more than 10MB. Papers may be edited, updated and replaced up to the full paper final submission deadline. You may also upload supplementary material (10MB max) such as videos (accepted formats: avi, mov, mp4, mpg, pdf, tar.gz, tar, tgz, zip).
  • Answer if your first author is a student.
  • Use the text box to suggest which Area Chair should handle your submission. Names of Area Chairs are listed at here. You may answer "any" to this question.
  • Identify conflicts for this paper. You will be able to mark conflicts (and type) with known potential reviewers for RSS. This helps us execute the double blind policy and ensure unbiased reviewing. If you have the mouse over the title of a column, you can read the entire text.
  • Click on Submit.
  • After clicking the Submit link, your paper will be assigned an ID.

    • Supplementary Material

    Authors may submit supplementary material such as a video or an expanded version of a proof. However, note that reviewers are not required to view this material and include it in their assessment of the paper. Lastly, if authors feel they must link to additional supplementary material, they are cautioned to ensure that their identities are not revealed. Please note that the link to upload supplementary material becomes active only after the paper submission is complete.

    Paper Format

    Submissions may be up to 8 pages in length, including figures but possibly excluding references. Additional pages can be used for references. However, the 9th page, and any subsequent pages, can contain ONLY references. This will be strictly enforced. Submissions can use a font no smaller than 10 point. Submissions violating these guidelines will not be considered. A paper template is available in Latex and Word. Authors should take care not to reveal their identity in their papers since the reviewing is double-blind.

  • Do not modify the formatting provided in the templates. Any change to font sizes, page dimensions, line spacing, etc. may delay the publication of your paper. Please do not include any additional markings such as Draft or To appear in... on the pages. Make sure your paper does not contain page numbers.
  • Authors are reminded that reviews are double blind and so submitted papers should not include authors names or affiliations on the title page. For further advice, see the section below 'Guidelines for Double Blind Submission'.
  • Submissions must be limited to eight pages of text + references. Robotics: Science and Systems offers no provision for accommodating papers that do not meet these requirements.
  • Submit a PDF-format paper. We do not accept papers submitted after the deadline no matter what the reason is, so please check on your ability to convert to PDF early. Delays in the production of proceedings are usually caused by PDF file submissions that do not embed all fonts. Please follow the below instructions to ensure that your PDF document will not suffer from this problem.
  • When preparing your document in LateX, make sure to create the PDF file from your LateX source by use of these commands: 
    •   latex paper.tex
      dvips paper.dvi -o paper.ps -t letter -Ppdf -G0
      ps2pdf paper.ps

    The arguments provided to dvips will ensure that all fonts are embedded in the PDF file produced by ps2pdf.

  • Before submitting your PDF file, please open it in Acrobat Reader. In the File menu under Document Properties, you will find information on the fonts used by your document. The PDF file should only contain Type-1 fonts (and Embedded True Type fonts if prepared under Word). If you correctly followed the instructions above but your document contains other types of fonts, then these may have been included as part of your figures. Again, please ensure that your submission contains only Type-1 or Embedded True Type fonts and not Type-3 fonts.

    • Guidelines for Double Blind Submission

    Double Blind reviewing requires that the paper reviewers should not know the names or affiliation of the paper authors. This is desirable to remove any possible or perceived bias toward a paper on non technical grounds. However, in practice this is difficult to achieve in full as descriptions of background material or experiments, which are essential to the technical content of the paper, often give a clear indication to knowledgeable reviewers of the likely source of the paper. RSS 2014 will try to adopt a pragmatic approach to double blind reviewing in which authors are encouraged to hide identity without unduly affecting the quality or import of their submission.

    The following general principles should be applied in submissions:

  • Authors names and affiliations should not be cited in the title or text of the submission.
  • Acknowledgments to people or funding agencies should not appear in the submission.
  • Citing of web links to the authors or author's institute should be avoided.
  • In self citing authors previous work, avoid expressions such as "In the authors earlier work...", rather use alternative expressions such as "In previous work..." or "In related work...", in a manner that does not distinguish their own work from the work of others. Authors should otherwise cite work, including their own, as required for the completeness of the submission.
  • In presentation of experimental work, avoid logos in pictures, or overt references to an individual laboratory. Use expressions such as "The experimental equipmen..." rather than "The University of XYZ's Robby the Robot...". Otherwise authors should include photographs, graphics and other presentation material as in the normal manner for a paper submission.
  • In general authors should avoid obviously attributable self-references while ensuring that the paper is complete, makes appropriate citations of related work and fully describes the contributions made.

    • Review Criteria

    RSS encourages submissions from areas that have been under-represented in previous years. It is recognized that not every paper will necessarily contain new theoretical results or new algorithms. RSS strongly encourages the submission of work that provides new models and analyses that are rigorously validated via experimentation. RSS will make every effort to fairly review papers that discuss systems.

    An Open Letter to the Community has been posted here by the RSS Foundation.

    Submissions will be refereed on the basis of technical quality, novelty, significance, and clarity. Each submission will be thoroughly reviewed by at least three program committee members. The review form for RSS 2014 can be found here. There will be a short rebuttal period. The rebuttal form for RSS 2014 can be found here. Submissions, reviews, and rebuttals will then be discussed at an in-person area chair committee meeting. Authors of conditionally accepted papers will be asked to revise their papers. Authors of finally accepted manuscripts will be asked to submit final revisions for presentation at the conference.

    Policy on Multiple Submissions

    RSS will not accept any paper which, at the time of submission, is under review for another conference or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. Authors are also expected not to submit their papers elsewhere during the RSS 2014 reviewing period. These restrictions apply only to journals and conferences, not to workshops and similar specialized presentations with a limited audience and without archival proceedings. It is the task of the authors to clearly spell out the differences of their submitted papers with previous publications, and authors are required to indicate if any material has appeared at a previous venue (archival or not).

    RSS is utterly intolerant of plagiarism. Submitted papers are expected to contain original work executed by the authors with adequate, proper and scholarly citations to the work of others. It is the job of the authors to clearly identify both their own contribution(s) and also published results / techniques on which they depend or build. RSS reviewers are charged to ensure these standards are met. In cases of alleged plagiarism, the program chair will be guided by Section 8.2.4 Allegations of Misconduct as laid out by the IEEE in this document.

    Instructions for Accepted Papers

    A revised version of your paper is due to be uploaded to CMT by June 13, under the "Camera Ready" section of the Author pane in CMT. CMT designates your paper as "Camera Ready" and it will be available online as part of the conference proceedings. Please note that there will not be an additional opportunity to revise your paper. In preparing for the proceedings, please follow the author guidelines posted above under "Paper Format." In particular, if more than 8 pages are used for a paper, the 9th page and any subsequent pages can contain ONLY references. There is no provision for supplementary materials in the proceedings. Your proceedings submission should, of course, include your names and affiliations as we are past the double-blind review phase. Hanna Kurniawati (publications chair) will contact you with preparation guidelines for the final conference proceedings.

    All papers will have both an oral presentation and an electronic poster. You will be notified shortly after the final acceptance deadline of the style of presentation for your paper.

    Final submission of accepted papers

    The conference proceedings for Robotics: Science and Systems 2014 will be published online.

    The final version and all other information necessary for its publication will be due on June 13, 2014. Please read the instructions below carefully to avoid delaying the publication of the proceeding:

  • Submit your final manuscript at https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/RSS2014/ .
  • Author Agreement Form: One author must complete and sign the author agreement form. Please send a scanned copy of your completed and signed form to rss2014form@gmail.com with email subject "RSS author agreement form paper no. xxx". Alternatively you may mail the original, signed author agreement form to the following address:

    •   Hanna Kurniawati
      Building 78 (GP-South)
      School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering
      The University of Queensland (St. Lucia Campus)
      Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia