DFRWS Online

DFRWS USA 2016 Call for Papers

DFRWS USA 2016 Call for Papers
August 7-10, 2016 in Seattle, Washington, USA

The DFRWS digital forensics conference brings together leading researchers, developers, practitioners, and educators from around the world to advance the state of the art in digital forensics. Established in 2001, DFRWS has become the premier digital forensics conference.

Topics of Interest

We invite original contributions in the form of research papers, non-research presentations, demos, and posters in the following topic areas:

• Memory analysis and snapshot acquisition
• Storage forensics, including file system and Flash
• "Big data" approaches to forensic, including collection, data mining, and large scale visualization
• Incident response and live analysis
• Forensics of cloud and virtualized environments
• Malware and targeted attacks (analysis and attribution)
• Network and distributed system forensics
• Event reconstruction methods and tools
• Mobile and embedded device forensics
• Digital evidence storage and preservation
• Data recovery and reconstruction
• Multimedia analysis
• Database forensics
• Tool testing and development
• Digital evidence and the law
• Case studies and trend reports
• Data hiding and discovery
• Anti-forensics and anti-anti-forensics
• Interpersonal communications and social network analysis
• Non-traditional forensic scenarios and approaches (e.g. vehicles, Internet of Things, industrial control systems, and SCADA)
• Archival preservation & reconstruction

The above list is only suggestive. We welcome new, original ideas from people in academia, industry, government, and law enforcement who are interested in sharing their results, knowledge, and experience. Authors are encouraged to demonstrate the applicability of their work to practical issues. Questions about submission topics can be sent via email to: usa-papers (at) dfrws (dot) org

Research papers undergo double-blinded, peer review, and are published by Elsevier in a special issue of Digital Investigation. Presentations, posters, and demos undergo a light review process to select presentations of maximal interest to DFRWS attendees and filter out sales pitches. Presentation proposals must specify their target length from the following options: 20 minutes, 120 minutes (2 hours), or 240 minutes (4 hours). Note, 2-4 hour presentations are referred to as 'workshops' and often include hands-on participation by attendees. Additional information regarding each type of submission can be found on the dfrws.org" website.

Important Deadlines

• Submission deadline for research papers: February 7, 2016 (Midnight GMT) February 9 (Midnight GMT)
• Submission deadline for presentations: April 8, 2016 (Midnight GMT)
• Submission deadline for posters and demos:
• Poster authors who wish to have an abstract included in the printed proceedings must submit a PDF of the poster and the proposed abstract by April 8, 2016 (Midnight GMT).
• Demo providers and poster authors who do not wish to have an abstract included in the printed proceedings may submit their poster or demo request through the first day of the conference.
• Author notifications for research paper submission acceptance decisions: April 1, 2016
• Presenter notifications for presentation and poster submission acceptance decisions: April 15, 2016
• Conference registration deadline for all papers, presentations, and posters with abstracts in the proceedings is April 22, 2016 (Midnight GMT). Those without a registered author/presenter may be dropped from the program -- see the dfrws.org website for policy.

Author/Presenter Instructions

RESEARCH PAPERS: Research papers must be original contributions, not duplicate previous work (including the authors' own work), and must not be under simultaneous publication review elsewhere. The review process will be "double-blind" (reviewers will not know who the authors are, and authors will not know who the reviewers are). Therefore, the version submitted for review must not contain the names or affiliations of the authors, and should anonymize content that readily identifies the authors, such as references to tools developed by the authors. When referring to their own previous work, authors should use the third person instead of the first person (i.e. "Smith and Jones [2] previously determined..." instead of "We [2] previously determined...").

Papers must be written in English and must not exceed 10 single-spaced, two-column pages with 1 inch margins and 10pt font. This page limit does NOT include references, although references should be limited to one page to the extent possible. Papers must be submitted as PDF files. The preferred reference style is Harvard. Authors may use the IEEE style, and it will be converted by the publisher. Accepted papers will be required to utilize the provided Microsoft Word template or Elsevier's LaTeX template (elsarticle class with the "5p" option, which does not include numbers in section headers). After using the templates, do not forget to remove authors' names and other revealing information for double-blind submission. Authors are encouraged to use these templates for the submission version as well. Last, please minimize submission file size, while maintaining reasonable graphics quality. Most submissions tend to be 3MB or less. Higher resolution graphics can be added/included during the final proofing process.

Authors must present their work in person at the conference. At least one registration per paper is required by the deadline specified in the Call for Papers in order to be included in the proceedings. Authors shall register for the conference prior to submitting their final draft for publication. At the conference, authors of accepted papers will be given 25 minutes to present their work, followed by 5 minutes of questions.

PRESENTATIONS: 15-20 minute presentations showcase forensics experiences of interest to DFRWS attendees, including (but not limited to) case studies and advances in user interface, real-time analysis, and triage. Presentation proposals are not included in the printed proceedings and should not be anonymized. Presentation proposals undergo a modest reviewing process to make sure they are of interest to the community. Sales pitches will not be accepted. Presentation proposals are in the form of an abstract (150-300 words) in PDF format. At least one author per presentation is expected to register and present their work in person at the conference.

120 minute and 240 minute long presentations are typically presented as tutorials and/or workshops on the Sunday afternoon preceding, or the Wednesday afternoon following the main conference. Additional information can be found on the Call for Workshop Proposals page.

DEMONSTRATIONS/POSTERS: DFRWS welcomes demonstrations of proof of concept and research-based tools. Proposals should describe the tool, its relevance to the forensics field, and space/equipment needs (e.g., table size, power, networking, etc.). DFRWS also welcomes high-quality posters that highlight key points of completed or ongoing research projects. Poster authors who wish to qualify to have an abstract printed in the printed proceedings must submit a PDF of the poster (for review purposes; minor modifications thereafter are permitted) and the proposed abstract, written in English, limited to 300 words, by the appropriate submission deadline listed in the Call for Papers.

ALL SUBMISSIONS must be submitted through the EasyChair site at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dfrws2016. Submissions must be in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Send any questions about research paper / presentation proposal submissions to usa-papers (at) dfrws (dot) org.

CANCELLATIONS/REFUNDS: Registrants who are unable to attend the conference must submit refund requests to the attention of Rick Smith by fax at 607-257-1972 or e-mail at rick atc-nycorp com. Cancellations processed at least 30 days before the start of the conference will be refunded, less a $25 administrative fee. Substitutions are welcome!

DFRWS 2016 Policy for Posting/Hosting Appendices for Published Research Articles

Purpose: DFRWS recognizes the importance of making supplemental material from authors available in a centralized location to better facilitate the reproducibility of research and the overall utility of DFRWS research contributions. However, publication costs and constraints prohibit such information from being published with research articles in published proceedings. Accordingly, this policy outlines the process and expectations associated with DFRWS posting and hosting of supplemental information as article appendices on the DFRWS website.

Policy:

• Appendix material must not include or extend article discussion. Appendix material is supplemental only, and may include things such as source code, data, large tables, etc. Articles must stand on their own, without the supplemental information. While reviewers may have access to such appendices during the submission review process, they are not required to review them and are instructed to evaluate the main article only when reaching acceptance decisions and making suggestions for improvement.
• Appendices are to be submitted as attachments to and located at the end of the main article submission, within the same PDF document.
• Appendices must be finalized and ready to post on-line.
• Appendices will be reviewed by the TPC committee for basic quality assurance purposes and will notify authors of accepted papers of any concerns or issues with the appendices. Authors must be responsive to TPC requests for changes to appendices, as appendices will be posted online before the conference starts.
• Submitted appendices should be reasonably sized, preferably 10-30MB in size. Exceptions can be made where deemed appropriate; authors should pre-coordinate with the TPC chairs.
• Appendix format should be textual in nature—not an experimental data dump.
• Appendices must be prepared in a professional format, and should include relevant metadata to draw a connection for the reader between the published article and the posted appendix. The appendix should include a title, a citation to the article, and a brief description, explaining the purpose of the appendix and the context and manner that it supplements the published article.