(''PaperSubmissionPatterns'')

Authors badly want to be recognized as contributing
members of their community, and publication in a
prestigious refereed conference is the epitome of
approval.  ECOOP and OOPSLA are two of the most prestigious
conferences of the object paradigm:  ECOOP with more of
a theoretical focus, and OOPSLA with an applications focus.
Some papers are fair game for either conference.

To avoid overlap, OOPSLA and ECOOP happen at different times;
ECOOP usually mid-year, and OOPSLA usually in autumn.  The
deadlines for papers are corresponding staggered: ECOOP early
in December, and OOPSLA in mid-February.

People are willing to let a paper set around a couple of
months before re-submitting it, but not for a full year
(in other words, if an author has their paper rejected one
year, they are unlikely to improve it and re-submit it
a year later).

Both conferences have stringent admission requirements, and
admit a small fraction of the papers that are submitted.  The
chances of having your paper accepted at either conference is
low.

'''Therefore:'''  Authors submit their papers to ECOOP in
time for the conference deadline.  There is usually enough
time to establish whether the paper has been accepted before
the OOPSLA deadline, in which case the paper can be re-submitted
to OOPSLA.  As long as the paper isn't in the "submitted"
status at both conferences at the same time, this practice
violates no ACM or SIGPLAN rules.

One result is that ECOOP gets first shot at some of the best
papers, particularly the theoretical ones.  It also means
that papers received at OOPSLA may have benefited from the
feedback generated by the ECOOP committee.

In 1996, out of 165 papers submitted, about 37 (22%) had
been submitted to (and rejected by) ECOOP. At this writing,
we believe one had been accepted by ECOOP.

See also TwoWeeksBetweenDeadlines.

-- Related by DougLea/written up by JimCoplien