International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE) Steering Committee Charter

1. Purpose of the ICDE

The objective of the International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE) is to promote research and development of data and information engineering by: (a) providing a forum for the introduction and discussion of new research results, concepts, and technologies; (b) providing practicing engineers exposure to and an evaluation of evolving research, tools, and practices; (c) providing the research community exposure to the problems of practical applications of data engineering; and (d) encouraging the exchange of data engineering technologies and experience.

This conference attempts to meet the needs of a large and diverse constituency, which includes practitioners, researchers, educators, and users. The focus of the conference is on various aspects of data and information engineering that include, but are not limited to, the following areas: (a) data and information engineering tools and techniques; (b) parallel and distributed processing; (c) real-time distributed processing; (d) system architectures, integration, and modeling; (e) database design, modeling, and management; (f) query design and implementation languages; (g) data, information, and knowledge discovery; (h) management of distributed databases; (i) multimedia databases; (j) high performance and very large volume databases; (k) algorithms for data and knowledge management; (l) performance evaluation of algorithms and systems; (m) data communications aspects; (n) system applications and experience; (o) knowledge-based systems; and (p) integrity, security, and fault tolerance.

The conference is managed by a Steering Committee, a Conference Organizing Committee, and a Program Committee. The functions of each committee are described in the following sections.

2. The Steering Committee

Purpose.

To oversee the long-term planning and success of this conference, a Steering Committee plans for future conferences, evaluates how well each conference has achieved the objectives stated above, and implements improvements to better meet these objectives.

More specifically the Steering Committee should

1. provide a continuing committee to represent data engineering interests in the research community,
2. plan future ICDE meetings,
3. obtain feedback about ICDE for the purpose of improving the conference,
4. select the General and Program Chairs of future ICDE meetings in response to the submitted proposals (section 3),
5. select the sites and dates for future ICDE meetings, in response to the submitted proposals (section 3),
6. assist in the appointment of other positions in the Organizing and Program Committees.

Composition of the Steering Committee.

1. a chairperson,
2. a secretary.

The Executive Committee.

Steering Committee Members.

New members of the Steering Committee are elected by simple majority vote by the current Steering Committee members in a Steering Committee meeting. The committee membership is open to all participants of any ICDE who have significant experience in the operation of international conferences (such as serving as General and/or Program Chairs of past ICDEs). Any participant interested to serve should indicate his/her interest to a member of the Steering Committee. The term of office of each member is 4 years, renewable once for another term of 4 years. After serving two consecutive terms, a Steering Committee member must be off the Steering Committee for a minimum period of two years before becoming eligible to serve again.

The newly elected members of the Steering Committee take office on January 1 of the year following the election.

Steering Committee Meetings.

A Steering Committee meeting must be held at each ICDE. If necessary, interim meetings can be called by the Steering Committee Chair or by a simple majority of the members and can also be held by electronic mail or by other means.

Steering Committee members are expected to attend the Steering Committee meeting at each ICDE. Members who miss two consecutive meetings at ICDE without giving sufficient cause are considered withdrawn from the Committee, subject to review by the Steering Committee.

Proxies.

During meetings of the Steering Committee, each member shall have one vote. General proxy voting shall not be permitted, but on specific issues mail (e-mail) voting shall be permitted if the Steering Committee Chair receives the mailed vote before the meeting. Steering Committee members are to be informed sufficiently in advance of any known motions to be voted on during a forthcoming meeting.

The chair has the deciding vote in cases of tied votes.

3. Constituting a Conference

1. Written proposals for the conference should be sent to the Chair of the Steering Committee significantly before the proposed conference date. The decision on the conference will generally be made at least 18 months before the proposed date.
2. Proposals shall list facilities, venue, proposed management, budgets and financial arrangements, a brief summary of the conference structure, a draft of a preliminary call for papers, and any other information required by the Steering Committee. In particular, the scheduling of any other potentially conflicting data engineering-related meetings in that region within several months before or after the proposed meeting date must be evaluated as part of the proposal. Further, written commitments of financial support from sponsoring institutions, if any, should be submitted in the proposal. In general, the IEEE Computer Society will fully sponsor the conference, and only in exceptional situations will it accept a partial sponsorship of no less than 50%.
3. Those wishing to host a future ICDE should make their intentions known sufficiently in advance of the proposal date so that any information required by the Steering Committee can be obtained in a timely manner, and other activities can be integrated into a program of interest to all.
4. The Steering Committee seeks proposals for programs with broad appeal. Proposals can include industrial tracks, tutorials, prototype demonstrations, vendor displays, invited speakers, reports on workshops, and panel discussions. Workshops and other (usually smaller) conferences may be co-located and attached to ICDE subject to approval by the Steering Committee.
5. The Steering Committee reviews proposals and may seek advise from anonymous reviewers. Inputs from the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Data Engineering will also be considered. If the evaluation is positive, the Steering Committee will tentatively accept the proposal, and the proposer(s) will be asked to prepare a detailed budget using the IEEE Computer Society Technical Meeting Request Form (TMRF) and submit the form to the Steering Committee Chair at least 15 months before the proposed conference date. After approval by the Steering Committee it will be passed to the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Data Engineering. Final approval of the TMRF will be made by the IEEE Computer Society.

4. Rules governing the ICDE Chair Positions

1. The General Chair(s) and Program Chair(s) of ICDE shall normally go to new individuals each time. These individuals should be highly respected for their work in data engineering. It is especially important that these persons are active in the field, have extensive practical experience, and/or have published frequently in relevant journals and conferences. In addition, they should have significant experience in organizing international conferences (e.g., as chairs or program chairs or as program committee members of other conferences).
2. The names of the persons recommended as the General Chair(s) and Program Chair(s) shall be part of the proposal (see Section 3). At least one of the General Chairs shall be from the country hosting the conference. If the conference is outside the United States, a General Co-Chair from the United States may be preferably appointed to serve as a liaison with the IEEE Computer Society. The Steering Committee shall be free to accept or reject any recommended names for General Chair or Program Chair in order to best promote the conference.
3. Other conference chairs, e.g. Tutorial Chair(s), are chosen by the General Chair(s) with the advice and consent of the Steering Committee. The Program Chair(s) select the program committee vice-chairs and members with the guidance of the General Chair(s).

5. General Chair(s) and the Organizing Committee

In each conference, the General Chair(s), the Program Chair(s), and explicitly identified other chairs (for example, Tutorial Chair) form the Conference Organizing Committee for that conference and are charged with the planning, running, and oversight of that conference to ensure that it meets the objectives stated in Section 1.

The General Chair(s) are responsible for the overall running of the conference, and serve as the Chair(s) of the Organizing Committee.

The Organizing Committee approves all major decisions concerning the conference. The General Chair(s) are responsible for the finances of the conference and for coordinating local arrangements. To these ends, the General Chair(s) will appoint a Treasurer and a Local Arrangements Chair. The General Chair(s) may also appoint a Publicity Chair, Publications Chair, Registration Chair and other positions as necessary.

The General Chair(s) and the appointed Publicity Chair are responsible for the publicity of the conference. All notices requesting papers, panels, tutorials and tool demonstrations as well as the advance program announcement and registration material shall be widely distributed in a timely manner. This should include announcements in professional and research journals, the trade press, electronic bulletin boards, the World Wide Web, and mailings to individuals on (electronic and postal) mailing lists of interested or participating organizations. The goal is to allow full participation in all facets of the conference by the world-wide data engineering communities.

The General Chair(s) are responsible for obtaining all necessary approvals and financial supports from conference sponsors.

The General Chair(s) are responsible to solicit proposals on local facilities (such as hotels and universities) that host the conference. Hotel contracts must be ratified by the IEEE Computer Society, and the General Chair should not sign a hotel contract without first consulting the Conference Department of the IEEE Computer Society.

Special efforts should be made by the General and Program Committee chairs to get organizers of future ICDEs involved in the organizing and program committees of the present conference.

6. Program Chair(s) and the Program Committee

Program Committee.

Program Committee Meetings.

Call For Papers, etc.

Reviews of Submitted Papers

The conference shall require full papers for review.

The Program Committee shall be responsible for reviewing all submitted papers, for submitting timely, informative reviews that provide authors with feedback about their papers, and for attending program committee meetings. The Program Chair(s) will determine the procedures for reviewing and accepting papers for the program. They shall distribute the papers for review, and arrange information so the papers can be discussed by knowledgeable reviewers during the program committee meeting. Program committee members can seek expert advice from external reviewers, but they shall be responsible for having reviewed the papers themselves. Each paper shall be reviewed by at least three reviewers and each paper shall be discussed at the program committee meeting. Direct discussion provides other committee members familiar with the work an opportunity to contribute useful information that might affect the outcome of the review process. If consensus cannot be formed or there are additional concerns raised about a paper, additional information or reviews should be obtained.

Usually those papers that have received very poor reviews or very strong reviews can be discussed briefly, but an open discussion of all papers is required. It is important that the Program Committee consider all papers fairly.

If a committee member (Program, Organizing, or Steering Committee) of the forthcoming ICDE submits papers, care must be taken that his/her papers be reviewed at least as stringently as other submitted papers. Committee members shall leave the room during the discussion of their submitted papers or for any paper where he/she might have a conflict of interest. PC Chairs should abstain from submitting a paper themselves.

All discussion about a paper shall remain in confidence. The names of reviewers are not to be revealed to authors. Reviewers, however, shall be free to identify themselves to an author if they so wish.

It is recognized that English may not be the native language of many of the authors of contributed papers. It is still expected, however, that all papers will be reasonably presented and written in acceptable English. It is strongly recommended that authors whose native language is not English seek professional help in polishing the writings in their papers.

7. Amendments

8. Start-up Rules

Procedural Addendum to the ICDE Steering Committee Charter of September 1998:

Current Steering Committee Members

Retired Steering Committee Members

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