This is an FAQ for members of the Computational Systems Group at the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Salzburg.

• How do I use email?
  • Please use email consciously and professionally for better communication and to reduce email traffic! For example, if you would like to get something from a secretary or some other administrative person do not ask Prof. Kirsch for permission if you are sure that you will get the permission anyway. Instead, just email your request but cc Prof. Kirsch.
• What should I do when joining the group?
  • Please get a UNIX account on our CS server with our secretary Petra Kirchweger (petra.kirchweger @ cs . uni-salzburg . at). Your login name must be all lowercase the first letter of your firstname concatenated with your lastname. For example, Joe Foo gets "jfoo" as login. Make sure your login is part of the UNIX groups ckgroup and ckcoauth. PhD students and postdocs will also need to get two email addresses, "jfoo@cs.uni-salzburg.at" and "joe.foo@cs.uni-salzburg.at", which can be forwarded to an email account of your choice such as Gmail.
  • Please set up a home page on our CS server mentioning your name, what you do, what you are interested in, etc. The URL will be "www.cs.uni-salzburg.at/~jfoo".
  • Please get an AIM account and install the necessary software on your laptop (if you use an Apple laptop you can use iChat). Please also install Skype and get an account. If you need to talk to Prof. Kirsch try Skype or AIM before using the phone.
  • Important: Once you have completed the above steps, please email a summary of all information to Prof. Kirsch (vCard preferred). Please include your office and phone number. If you have a cell phone please include the number if you don't mind.
• How do I co-author a paper?
  • If you would like to co-author a paper with Prof. Kirsch you will have to use LaTeX and be able to generate the output in PDF format. Please refrain from using LaTeX macros in text paragraphs unless the macros have very short names and do not have any arguments. All LaTeX sources as well as all figures must be kept in a CVS repository that is accessible to all co-authors, e.g., my CVS repository on the group server. Before checking-in a new version verify that the new version compiles without errors. Please spend every possible effort to improve the quality of your part. Papers are our single most important asset!
• How do I review a paper?
  • If you were asked to review a paper submitted to a conference or workshop please read the call-for-papers first! Familiarize yourself with the goals and requirements of the conference or workshop and then start reading the paper. Structure your review into three parts: short summary, high-level discussion, low-level remarks. Keep the short summary neutral, i.e., free of any personal opinion. The purpose of the short summary is for you to verify that you understood the paper and for the program committee (PC) member who asked you for the review to be able to recall quickly the content of the paper. The high-level discussion, on the other hand, should make your opinion clear by using high-level observations. Ask yourself: What is the key idea of the paper? Is the idea new and is it any good? Has the idea been described, substantiated, and related properly? Papers should not be accepted just because of nice figures, or rejected just because of bad English. The purpose of the high-level discussion is to help the PC member to either defend or disapprove the paper in the PC meeting. Finally, the high-level discussion as well as the low-level remarks help the authors to improve the paper. Do not forget that not only your review but also the reviewed paper itself are confidential. Do not send the reviewed paper to anybody. Please finish your review on time. There are no extensions!
  • If you were asked to review a paper submitted to a journal look first at some papers that have previously been published in that journal! Familiarize yourself with the goals and requirements of the journal. Papers submitted to journals are often longer and more verbose than papers submitted to conferences or workshops. A journal review may therefore involve more work than a conference or workshop review but you will also have more time. Structure your review similar to a conference or workshop review and please do not forget the deadline!