sigcomm-supplementary

SIGCOMM Supplementary

Use this when splitting a SIGCOMM paper across body, references, and appendices. The controlling

rule: the 12 single-spaced pages before references must carry the argument on their own;

appendices and references sit outside the cap but do not rescue an incomplete body. Reopen the

current CFP to confirm this edition's appendix handling.

What goes where

• Body (≤ 12 single-spaced pages, figures and tables included): the measured problem, the

design principle, the mechanism, and the decision-critical evaluation. A reviewer must

understand and believe the contribution without turning to an appendix.

• References (outside the cap): as many as needed; never trimmed for space or anonymity.
• Appendices (optional, after references, outside the cap): extended measurement sweeps,

additional topologies, proofs or derivations, detailed configuration, and workload

specifics — support, not substitute.

The appendix-necessity rule changes the calculus

Unlike venues where appendices are a free overflow bin, SIGCOMM's **shepherd approves whether

each appendix is necessary** at camera-ready. Write appendices you can defend as load-bearing,

and never park a step the argument depends on where a shepherd might cut it. A safe test: if

removing an appendix would make a body claim unverifiable, that content probably belongs in

the body or the artifact, not in a droppable appendix.

Placement table

| Content | Home | Why |

|---|---|---|

| The core mechanism and its principle | Body | The contribution reviewers evaluate |

| The one or two decision-critical figures | Body | The evidence the accept/reject turns on |

| Extra topology / parameter sweeps | Appendix | Depth without crowding the 12 pages |

| Full configuration and workload spec | Appendix or artifact | Reproducibility detail, referenced from the body |

| Proof or derivation for an analytical claim | Appendix | Body keeps the statement and a sketch |

| Raw logs and per-run tables | Artifact | Never the paper's job to hold these |

Keep the body self-contained

• Every appendix and artifact item must be cross-referenced from the body at least once;

orphaned supplementary material is invisible and, at camera-ready, deletable.

• Order appendix sections to mirror the body's flow so a reader navigates by section, not by

hunting.

• State results in the body and defer only the support — a reader who never opens an

appendix should still be able to reconstruct why the contribution holds.

Vignette: splitting a congestion-control paper

A submission proposes a new congestion signal with a testbed evaluation and a small stability

argument. The body keeps the measured motivation, the signal and its principle, the two

decision-critical tail-latency figures, and a one-paragraph stability sketch. The appendix

holds the full stability derivation, a switch-buffer sweep, and the fairness-across-flows

tables; the artifact carries the driver and logs. Nothing the accept decision depends on lives

only in a droppable place.

Output format

[Body self-contained] yes / no (what breaks without an appendix)
[Body budget] within 12 single-spaced pre-reference pages? yes/no
[Placement map] <content -> body / appendix / artifact>
[Appendix necessity] each appendix defensible to a shepherd? yes/no
[Cross-reference gaps] <orphaned supplementary items>