Eurovis Call for STARS

State-of-the-Art Reports (STARs) are intended to provide up-to-date and comprehensive surveys on topics of interest to the visualization research community. We encourage the submission of STARs on topics that have not yet been covered in any recent STAR or other survey [1,2].

We welcome submissions that introduce emerging technologies, as well as proposals on more traditional visualization topics. We also welcome contributions from related disciplines and application areas demonstrating contributions to, or benefits from, the area of visualization including, but not limited to, visual computing, computer graphics, human-computer interaction, virtual reality, image processing, computer vision, psychology, geography, chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, data analysis, computational sciences, medicine, biology, economy, social science, etc. Like last year, all accepted Eurovis STAR reports will be published in Computer Graphics Forum.

Important Dates

October 7, 2019 Submission of STAR sketch (two pages, +references, +biography)
October 28, 2019 Invitation for full STAR submission
January 25, 2020
January 26, 2020		 Submission of full STAR
March 9, 2020 Review notification
April 16, 2020 Second round submission
April 30, 2020 Second review notification
May 7, 2020 Camera ready version

* All deadlines are at 23:59 UTC

Instructions

As part of the acceptance process into Computer Graphics Forum, STARs will undergo a multi-stage process. Electronic submission of the STAR sketch and full proposal is mandatory and will be conducted using the Precision Conference System. For detailed paper preparation and submission instructions please refer to the submission guidelines below.

We plan to schedule each STAR as an approximately 45 minute presentation (subject to the schedule management of the Eurovis 2020 program). In any circumstance, a STAR presentation will be given a longer time slot than that of a full paper.

Any accepted STARs are required to have at least one (paid) registered author to attend and present the STAR at the conference.

STAR Sketch Submission

First, authors are asked to submit an initial sketch by October 7, 2019. A STAR sketch briefly describes the planned STAR by outlining the topic, discussing its relevance to the visualization community, providing the planned structure and outline of the STAR together with all key references, and short biographies of the authors. The length of a STAR sketch main text is limited to two pages.

To demonstrate the relevant expertise needed to produce the proposed STAR, authors are required to submit brief biographies of all authors as supplementary material. References and short biographies are considered supplementary pages and are not counted within the two page limit. STAR sketches will be reviewed by the STAR IPC and comments on suitability and relevance will be provided on October 28, 2019.

Full STAR Submission

In the next stage, authors are required to submit a full STAR. Full STAR submissions will then undergo a single blind, two-stage review process, similar to that of regular papers submitted to Computer Graphics Forum, where 3-4 external experts on the respective topic will evaluate the STAR.
There is no strict maximum length for full submissions. However, it is unusual for STARs to exceed 20 pages (excluding references).

Eurovis STAR Chairs

Steffen Oeltze-Jafra, University of Magdeburg, Germany

Noeska Smit, University of Bergen, Norway

Bei Wang, University of Utah, USA

For any question concerning STAR submissions please contact the STAR chairs: stars@eurovis2020.org

Submission Guidelines

Due to the fact that all accepted STARs will be published in Computer Graphics Forum, the submission process uses a multiple-stage reviewing. The submission process is as follows:

  1. Submit a STAR sketch by October 7. The length of a STAR sketch main text is limited to 2 pages.
    References and short biographies are considered extra pages and are not counted within the two-page limit. The format of the sketch should follow the format specified in the formatting instructions for the STAR below. STAR sketches will be reviewed by the STAR IPC and comments on suitability and relevance will be provided by October 28, 2019.
  2. According to the feedback given by the IPC members, the authors can submit a full STAR by January 25, 2020.
    Given recent changes on the EUROGRAPHICS policy on STARs length, we adapt accordingly the requirements for Eurovis 2020. We do not impose strict maximum lengths for submitted STARs. However, it is unusual for STARs to exceed 20 pages including all images but excluding references. STARs should only be as long as their content would justify. Reviewers might rate a submission lower if it is perceived as being unnecessarily long. Authors are encouraged to use supplementary documents to provide extra contents. To submit, please go to “submissions in progress” in PCS.
    Full STAR submissions will then undergo a single-blind, double-cycle review, similar to the one for regular papers, where three external experts on the respective topic will evaluate the STAR.
  3. Once your full STAR submission has been accepted or conditionally accepted, submit your revised version together with a cover letter detailing your changes by April 16. To do so, please go to “submissions in progress” in PCS.

Formatting Instructions

The sketch, as well as the full STAR, should be submitted as a PDF file using the STAR Sketch, adapted from the version for full papers, but that explicitly describes the information required for this part of the submission (the archive includes a document class, a style file, a sample source file, and a corresponding PDF output file). For the full version submission of the STAR, use the LaTeX2e Style template. Use EGauthorGuidelines-eurovis20-star.tex for your submission.

Please make sure that an image embedded in your paper does not contain transparent pixels (i.e., an alpha channel of a transparent color), because this will lead to problems when the resulting PDF is displayed or printed.

Submissions can also include supplementary material such as videos or executable programs. The server will accept uploads of at most 200 MB, so multiple files of over 200 MB must be submitted separately. Please use only the most common video codecs (e.g., MP4 format using the H.264 codec) to maximize the chances that the reviewers can see it.

STAR sketches and full STARs are submitted using the Precision Conference System (PCS).

Authors Guidelines

A state-of-the-art report submitted to Eurovis 2020 must be original, unpublished work. Any work that has previously been published or simultaneously been submitted in a substantially similar form to any other conference or journal will be rejected.

All STAR papers accepted to Eurovis 2020 appear in a special issue of Computer Graphics Forum, containing the conference proceedings, and will appear at the same time in the Eurographics digital library.

At Eurovis 2020, the authors of a STAR will be invited to present the report at a level that also allows non-experts in the particular domain to follow their presentation. We plan to schedule each STAR as a 40-100 minutes presentation as in Eurographics conferences (subject to the schedule management of the Eurovis 2020 program, but ensuring that STAR presentations will be given a longer time slot than those of full papers). At least one author of an accepted paper must register (pay before May 3) and attend the conference to present the work, and authors will also be required to present a brief (less than one-minute) summary of their talk at the opening papers preview session (also called papers fast-forward).

Contributions must be written and presented in English.

References

[1] M. Chen, Computer Graphics Forum: All STARs, Surveys, and Reviews, https://sites.google.com/site/drminchen/cgf-info/cgf-stars, 2018.

[2] L. McNabb and R.S. Laramee, A Survey of Surveys (SoS)-Mapping the Landscape of Survey Papers in Information Visualization, Computer Graphics Forum (CGF), Volume 36, Number 3, (June) 2017, pages 589-617.