Test of Time Award

ACM SIGMETRICS March 13, 2009

Proposed Award

ACM SIGMETRICS proposes to create a new annual award called the ACM SIGMET- RICS Test of Time Award. This annual award will recognize an influential paper from the ACM SIGMETRICS conference proceedings 10-12 years prior, based on the criterion of identifying the paper that has had the most impact (research, methodology, application, transfer) in the intervening time period. In each year, the author(s) of the winning paper will receive a recognition plaque and a check for $1,000 US, to be presented at the annual ACM SIGMETRICS conference.

Background and Rationale

SIGMETRICS is the ACM Special Interest Group for the computer systems performance evaluation community. It promotes research in performance evaluation and analysis tech- niques, as well as the advanced and innovative use of known methods and tools. Target areas of performance analysis include computer architecture, computer networks, database systems, distributed systems, fault-tolerant systems, file and memory systems, operating systems, and real-time systems. ACM SIGMETRICS has held its own annual conference since 1973. Every three years, this conference occurs jointly with the IFIP Performance conference, the flagship conference of IFIP Working Group 7.3. ACM SIGMETRICS currently sponsors four major awards to recognize important con- tributions in the area of performance evaluation:

• the SIGMETRICS Achievement Award (first awarded in 2003);

• the SIGMETRICS Rising Star Researcher Award (first awarded in 2008);

• the SIGMETRICS Best Paper Award at the ACM SIGMETRICS conference;

• the Kenneth C. Sevcik Outstanding Student Paper Award for the best student paper at the ACM SIGMETRICS conference. These awards are presented annually at the ACM SIGMETRICS conference. We propose adding a fifth award to this distinguished set. Test of Time Awards exist in other SIGs (SIGCOMM, SIGMOD, SIGGRAPH). Beyond the recognition that they bring to the winner(s) in their community, they also bring an important visibility to the community itself as well as to the associated research area.

Selection Process and Timeline

The selection committee for the Test of Time Award will be composed of four members of the SIGMETRICS performance evaluation community. The Chair of the committee will be appointed by the SIGMETRICS Executive Committee, with the additional members selected by the Chair and approved by the Executive Committee. The membership of the committee will be re-established on an annual basis. Former members are eligible for reappointment to the award committee, provided that term limits (at most 3 years of cumulative service on the selection committee) are not exceeded. The committee will be constituted no later than April 1 in a given year. They will complete their deliberation and selection process in time for the annual ACM SIGMETRICS conference (typically June).

Bootstrapping Process

We propose to present the inaugural ACM SIGMETRICS Test of Time Award at the ACM SIGMETRICS/Performance 2009 conference in June 2009. The proposed Chair of the com- mittee for the inaugural award in June 2009 is Philippe Nain (Director of Research at INRIA, SIGMETRICS Officer, and Vice-Chair of IFIP Working Group 7.3 on Computer System Modeling). In the initial bootstrapping year of the award (2009), the ACM SIGMETRICS Test of Time Award will be given to at most three papers published between 1973 and 1998 (in- clusive). With this approach, each paper published in the ACM SIGMETRICS proceedings since the first conference in 1973 is eligible for consideration at least once. If multiple papers are selected, each winning paper will receive the full award amount ($1000). In subsequent years (year N, where N > 2009), the award will be given to one paper published in either year N − 12, N − 11, or N − 10. For example, in the year 2010, papers eligible for consideration are those papers published in the 1998, 1999 and 2000 ACM SIG- METRICS conference proceedings. With this approach, papers published prior to 1998 will be eligible once (in 2009), papers published in 1998 and in 1999 will be eligible twice (in 2009-2010 and in 2010-2011, respectively), while papers published after 1999 will be eligible three times.