SNUG Authors

1. Authors must qualify to attend SNUG in order to submit a paper for SNUG.
2. Authors are required to complete a paper only or, a paper and presentation.
3. Authors (at least one from each authoring team) are required to present their accepted papers at SNUG. Attendance (and travel expenses, if applicable) to the conference should be approved by the author's management prior to submitting an abstract.
4. The author(s) presenting at the conference must possess strong command of the language in which the conference is being conducted, and must be able to present clearly in that language.
5. Authors are required to review and adhere to guidelines as outlined in the 'SNUG Paper and Presentation Requirements' section below.

SNUG Submission and Acceptance Process

1. The SNUG Technical Committee has implemented a two-step acceptance process:
1. Preliminary paper acceptance is based on the initial proposal via the official SNUG submission form.  At the preliminary acceptance level, authors are invited to submit a draft and final version of their paper, as per deadlines communicated.  Upon receipt of the final paper, further review will continue to award presentation spots.
2. Final paper acceptance is based on the final paper at which time authors are awarded presentation spots for the conference. Presentation spots are awarded to authors after the final paper is complete, reviewed and approved by the Technical Committee.
2. Once authors’ proposals are accepted at the preliminary stage, they may be eligible for the ‘Fast Track’ process. 
3. The Technical Committee reserves the right to rescind acceptance at any submission/review stage if the paper or presentation goes outside the scope of the originally accepted proposal.
4. Submissions received after the Call for Papers deadline has passed may be considered and accepted on a case-by-case basis.
5. The same submission may be submitted to more than one SNUG conference, and will be considered independently for each conference.
6. In some cases, submissions may be accepted for paper publication only with no presentation spot awarded. This decision is based upon the request of the submitter and/or the final paper submission.

SNUG Submission and Review Process

* Submission and acceptance decision exceptions are evaluated case-by-case. The SNUG Technical Committee reserves the right to retract or alter decisions if submissions do not follow or meet SNUG criteria and/or guidelines.

SNUG ‘Fast Track’ Process

The SNUG Technical Committee has implemented a Fast Track process to offer incentive for established SNUG authors/presenters who have demonstrated excellent authorship and presentation skills.  The SNUG Fast Track is a condensed timeline of deliverables meant to instill trust and ease of communication during the technical review process.  The following is the author criteria for Fast Track consideration:

1. Has written and presented 2 papers at a SNUG conference over the past 5 years.
2. Has demonstrated strong communication/collaboration with the Technical Committee and/or has a solid record of meeting schedules and deadlines.
3. SNUG presentations have achieved scores >4.0.
4. Technical papers have received positive Technical Committee feedback.

These criteria are for Fast Track consideration.  Meeting all of these criteria is no guarantee for Fast Track acceptance.  Fast Track acceptance is determined by the Technical Committee.
The Technical Committee reserves the right to re-assign submissions to the standard review process if SNUG criteria/guidelines are not met.

SNUG ‘Publish Only’ Guidelines

SNUG submissions may be accepted for ‘paper only’ as per the following guidelines:

1. Author request
2. Relevance
3. Topic/Presentation space
4. Travel
5. Presentation history

SNUG Papers & Presentations

1. Each paper will be assigned to a SNUG Technical Committee member for review.
2. Each paper will be assigned to a Synopsys engineer for internal review.
3. Papers should be based on either Synopsys tools or on general design methodology.
4. The Technical Committee reserves the right to reject any paper which focuses on third party proprietary tools.
5. Any paper reviewed by the assigned reviewer(s) and found to contain incorrect information shall undergo further technical review.
1. If the content of a paper is found to be incorrect by all reviewers and the author refuses to change the paper, the Technical Chair reserves the right to remove the paper from the conference program.
6. If a paper focuses on unreleased Synopsys tools which will be unavailable to the general public at the time of the conference, the author(s) may have to wait to present their paper at a future conference, after the tool has been released to the general public by Synopsys.
7. The Technical Chair reserves the right to remove any paper or presentation from the conference program that appears to go outside the scope defined in the Paper and Presentations requirements.
8. After the final presentation submission is made, the presentation may not be altered.

SNUG Paper and Presentation Requirements

1. SNUG Papers must adhere to the  SNUG Paper Template and include these required elements as outlined in the template:
• Title page with 150 word abstract
• Introduction
• Table of Contents
• Table of Figures
• Sections and sub-sections clearly labeled to structure a detailed account of the topic with appropriate back-up data, references, etc.
• Conclusion
2. Papers and the resulting presentations should have a learning element to the topic; the reader should be able to benefit from your experience.
3. The topic should be based on a real-life experience through either: a generally available Synopsys tool(s); a recommended methodology for Synopsys tools; or a flow/methodology that is applicable to a generally available Synopsys tool(s). (An exception would be topics in support of an upcoming or planned release at SNUG and must be approved by the Technical Committee Chair and Program Committee.)
4. Third party software/scripts/code not freely available to Synopsys users should be included in the appendix of the paper. If not, this must not be the focus of the paper.
5. All statements must be substantiated with data.
6. Your presentation must adhere to the required SNUG presentation template referenced in the Author’s Kit.
7. Paper must be unpublished prior to SNUG date. Papers published at internal conferences are exempt.
8. Recommended # of pages for the paper: 6 - 15 (varies: depending on # of figures; appendix can be additional).
9. Recommended # of pages for the presentation: 12 - 20 (varies: depending on how much time spent on each slide and any back up or Q&A slides).
10. SNUG is not a forum for marketing presentations, sales pitches or research papers.

SNUG Awards

There are up to five awards and two honorable mentions presented at SNUG. Awards vary by conference and consideration is based on the number of paper submissions per conference or group of conferences as determined by the Governing Board.

• First Place, Best Paper
• Second Place, Best Paper
• Third Place, Best Paper
• Best New Presenter
• Technical Committee Award
• Technical Committee Honorable Mention (2)

1. Only new paper submissions will be considered for any awards at SNUG. In the case of papers re-submitted with significant changes, the Technical Committee Chair of that SNUG will determine whether the paper is considered new or not.
2. In order to be considered for any award, the SNUG paper must be authored by at least one end-user.  Synopsys employees are ineligible for SNUG awards.
3. If a paper qualifies for more than one award, the most lucrative award will take precedence and that paper will be removed from the running for any other award. If there is a tie based on the amount of remuneration, the Best User Paper Award takes precedence, followed by the Technical Committee Award.
4. Final papers submitted after the published deadline may not be eligible for the Technical Committee Award.

We will make every effort at the conference to recognize and praise award winning papers that are being re-presented and high scoring papers presented by Synopsys employees at SNUG.

Technical Committee Award Voting Process

1. The Technical Committee chairs will create guidelines on how to read for the TC award and publish them to the technical committee members. These are guidelines, not requirements, which may help as papers are read. They will reflect the 'Paper and Presentation Requirements'.
2. The Technical Committee Chair, along with the SNUG Program Manager, will assign the first and second round paper assignments to the Technical Committee members. As much as possible this will be based on the Technical Committee members’ areas of expertise.
3. Synopsys employees are exempt from voting on any user awards.

Round One Voting
Each Technical Committee member will read the papers in their session, and possibly an additional paper, such that each paper gets at least 3 votes. The papers will be scored on a scale of 0-5 and the top 6 will advance to round two. In addition, if a Technical Committee member feels strongly that a specific paper should advance regardless of its score, they can nominate it directly. The Technical Committee Chair will have the final decision on whether to advance the paper or not. At least 6 and no more than 10 papers will advance to round two.

Round Two Voting
The Technical Committee Chair will assign papers to each Technical Committee member. Each paper needs to be read by 50% of the members of the Technical Committee, and each Technical Committee member needs to read at least 50% of the round two papers. They will be scored on a scale of 0-5. Exclusions (ie: TC members' papers being in the final round) will be dealt with by the Technical Committee Chair and may change some of these numbers.

SNUG Technical Committee Membership

1. Technical Committee members must qualify to attend SNUG in order to participate on the Technical Committee.
2. Technical Committee members must have at least 2 years design experience with Synopsys tools.
3. Technical Committee members must have previous experience in writing or reviewing technical papers.
4. Synopsys employees may act as members on the Technical Committee, as needed.
5. Final approval to add a member will come from the Technical Committee Chair and the Program Manager.
6. The Technical Committee Chair and the Program Manager have the right to remove existing members if performance consistently falls below expected participation as outlined under ‘Role of the SNUG Technical Committee Member’.

Role of the SNUG Technical Committee Member

1. Technical Committee members should expect to commit ~30 hours over five months.
2. Technical Committee members review and accept/decline abstracts.
3. Technical Committee members may act as a Track Lead upon request by the Technical Committee Chair and/or the Program Manager.
4. Technical Committee members review papers and presentations (duties to include working with the authors to guide the development of their papers/slides, giving suggestions on paper/slides improvements).
5. First time members will be assigned an experienced Technical Committee reviewer who will mentor the new member regarding reviews.
6. Technical Committee members advise presenters on issues such as dry-runs, presentation tips, etc.
7. Technical Committee members participate in scheduled technical committee conference calls.
8. Technical Committee members may act as session moderators at the conference, upon request.
9. Technical Committee members must read and rank all candidate papers (up to 6-10 papers) as per the instructions given from the Technical Committee Chair in round 1 and 2 voting.
10. Technical Committee members make suggestions/recommendations and provide feedback regarding the overall conference.
11. Technical Committee members are encouraged to act as ambassadors of the conference and should, whenever possible to attend, contribute to Q&A during sessions, interact with attendees and gather feedback, observe and raise issues onsite, etc.
12. It is preferred that Technical Committee members attend the conference, though attendance is not mandatory.

Role of the SNUG Technical Committee Track Lead

1. Technical Committee Track Leads may assist the Synopsys SNUG Management team with Call for Papers promotion.
2. Technical Committee Track Leads may participate in program review meetings. Program review meetings are with the Technical Committee Chair and Synopsys SNUG Management team.
3. Technical Committee Track Leads work closely with the Synopsys SNUG Management team to recommend track and schedule structure.
4. Technical Committee Track Leads suggest session titles/summaries for their relevant sessions.
5. Technical Committee Track Leads communicates to the Technical Committee on acceptance/management decisions.
6. Technical Committee Track Leads may work with the Technical Committee reviewers regarding questions, concerns, feedback on papers within their track.
7. Technical Committee Track Leads are the decision makers on relevant submissions
8. Technical Committee Track Leads will assist with moderator assignments.
9. Technical Committee Track Leads will document review comments and share with the Technical Committee.

Role of the SNUG Technical Committee Chair

1. The Technical Committee Chair organizes submissions into session groups with the SNUG Track Leads. As part of this session grouping, the Synopsys SNUG Management team recommends to the Track Leads and Technical Committee Chair which submissions should be accepted or rejected and which ones need more information.
2. The Technical Committee Chair organizes/assigns Track Leads with the Program Manager.
3. The Technical Committee Chair assists with the composition of the Technical Committee to ensure all technical expertise areas are represented. Synopsys users are preferred members, then Synopsys employees if needed.
4. The Technical Committee Chair forwards any issues/concerns raised by the Technical Committee to the Synopsys SNUG Management team.
5. The Technical Committee Chair coordinates the Technical Committee Award voting process.
6. The Technical Committee Chair works closely with SNUG Program Manager to assist with other special events for the conference.
7. The Technical Committee Chair leads Technical Committee conference calls.
8. The Technical Committee Chair acts as Master of Ceremonies at the conference:
• Welcomes attendees during the general session
• Introduces the Keynote speaker/ Guest speakers
• Announces "Best Paper" and "Technical Committee" awards
• Moderates the Technical Committee review meeting at the conference

SNUG Technical Committee Chair Guidelines

1. The Technical Committee Chair role is a one- to three-year commitment, with a maximum term of three years (per conference). Status of the Technical Committee Chair’s role will be reviewed annually by the technical chair and program manager.
2. Any member who serves on the Technical Committee for three or more years is eligible to be the Technical Committee Chair.
3. When it is time to select a new technical chair, the current technical chair and the SNUG Program Manager identify a qualified candidate. The current Technical Committee Chair contacts that committee member to explain the responsibilities of the role, and to gauge interest. If the committee member is interested in the position, the current Technical Committee Chair nominates the committee member to the entire committee and all are asked to accept or reject the nomination. The current Technical Committee Chair collects the votes and maintains voters' privacy. The majority vote decides. If the majority rejects the nomination, then a new qualified candidate is identified and the process is repeated.

Role of the SNUG Program Manager

1. The SNUG Program Manager drives and tracks milestones, deadlines, and variations of the conference.
2. The SNUG Program Manager manages and executes Call for Papers, conference content, registration, and web content.
3. The SNUG Program Manager maintains the Technical Committee website.
4. The SNUG Program Manager advises and directs core team, SNUG authors, Technical Committee Chair and Technical Committee.
5. The SNUG Program Manager facilitates internal paper reviews.
6. The SNUG Program Manager leads the SNUG core team meetings and assigns action items.
7. The SNUG Program Manager works directly with the Synopsys SNUG Management team to solicit papers and to stimulate conference attendance.
8. The SNUG Program Manager manages the authors and Technical Committee members through the qualifying, reviewing, and publication process of technical papers and presentations.
9. The SNUG Program Manager makes final decisions regarding logistics, artwork, web content, and program agenda.
10. The SNUG Program Manager manages SNUG budget, cross-charges, and collection.

SNUG Governing Board

1. The SNUG Governing Board is comprised of the current and immediate-past Technical Committee Chairs of member SNUGs, as well as the SNUG Program Manager(s).
2. The SNUG Governing Board must be representative of each location/member SNUG.
3. Board substitutions may be made based on the availability of current and immediate-past technical chairs and agreement by remaining Governing Board members.
4. Governing Board members must be participants of a member SNUG.

Synopsys SNUG Management Team

1. The Synopsys SNUG Management Team consists of the SNUG Program Manager, Synopsys Executive Sponsor, Synopsys management.
2. The role of the Synopsys SNUG Management Team is to collaborate with the SNUG Technical Committee on user participation and to ensure that SNUG is representative of users’ current interests.  The Synopsys SNUG Management Team drives all operational, logistical, promotional decisions, as well as all non-user presentation content.

Rules to Modify and/or Update SNUG Bylaws

1. The SNUG Bylaws apply to member SNUG conferences. The current member conferences are SNUG Silicon Valley, SNUG Boston, SNUG Austin and SNUG Canada.  The SNUG Bylaws are governed by the current and immediate-past Technical Committee Chairs of member SNUGs, as well as the SNUG Program Manager(s) who form the Governing Board.
2. All Governing Board members must also be Technical Committee members of a member SNUG. In the event that a member leaves the board for any reason, no substitutions will be made.
3. Any Technical Committee member of a member SNUG can petition for a change to the bylaws. That petition will be reviewed and voted on by the Governing Board within 30 days. A majority is required to change the bylaws.
4. Any deadlocks in the Governing Board are to be resolved by the SNUG Program Manager(s).
5. Proposals submitted to the Governing Board that are not approved are not eligible for re-submission for one year.
6. All member SNUGs must abide by the latest rules in effect at the time of their Call for Papers.