Information for Authors

The ACM Symposium on Applied Perception (ACM SAP) welcomes original unpublished research related to all topics relevant to both perception and computer science. This research can be submitted as a long paper (up to 8 pages) or as a short paper (up to 4 pages). In all cases the page limit is EXCLUSIVE of the pages devoted to bibliographic references and appendices. Submission should be sent using the Easychair link

Research that is not accepted as a paper will automatically be considered for the poster session. Authors will have the option to decline to have their work be considered as a poster.

Preparing your submission

Formatting. All paper submissions should follow the general double-column SIGGRAPH formatting guidelines. Submissions must be written in English.

Double blind review process. SAP follows a double-blind review process: authors and reviewers remain anonymous to each other. Therefore, submissions (including the manuscript and supplementary material) must not contain information that identifies the authors, their institutions, funding sources, or their places of work. Relevant previous work by the authors may be cited in the third person.

Videos. We encourage authors to accompany their papers with a video as supplementary material. Videos should not exceed 5 minutes in length. While papers should stand on their own, video can provide supplementary information, visual illustration of experimental procedure and stimuli as well as visual confirmation of results.

Ethical treatment of human subjects. Research involving human beings should follow the appropriate guidelines for ethical treatment of human subjects, for example, as laid out in the Belmont Report. Though not mandatory for a submission to SAP, authors are encouraged to report protocol approval by the relevant ethics board of their institution.

Additional Submission Guidelines

By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects.

Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID, so you can complete the publishing process for your accepted paper. ACM has been involved in ORCID from the start and we have recently made a commitment to collect ORCID IDs from all of our published authors ORCID FAQs. The collection process has started and will roll out as a requirement throughout 2022. We are committed to improve author discoverability, ensure proper attribution and contribute to ongoing community efforts around name normalization; your ORCID ID will help in these efforts.

After Submission

Review process. All papers will be reviewed by at least three International Program Committee members, one of whom is assigned the role of Primary reviewer. All IPC members will do full reviews, including the Primary reviewer. When all reviews have been submitted, the Primary will start a discussion on the online system. The goal of this discussion is to converge on one of the following recommendations:

1. Conditionally accepted as a paper to SAP and invited journal publication to TAP (see below),
2. Conditionally accepted as a paper to SAP,
3. Rejected but authors have the option of presenting a poster.

The Primary reviewer will write a meta-review to justify the recommendation. The final decision will be made by the SAP program committee and will be informed by the recommendation and the meta-review.

Camera ready. Authors should upload their camera-ready version to the EasyChair website. Authors must ensure that they also submit their copyright form. Without the copyright form, ACM does not include the manuscript in the archival proceedings.

Invited TAP Journal Publication. Under an agreement with the ACM Transactions on Applied Perception (TAP) and the ACM Publications Board, the strongest accepted papers will be offered publication as full papers in the ACM journal TAP (instead of appearing in the proceedings). Authors of such special issue papers must agree to present the paper at ACM SAP. Authors of regular ACM SAP papers can still submit to TAP regular issues with appropriate additions. Papers that have been recommended for acceptance in the ACM TAP journal will undergo a second review cycle, during which the authors will revise the paper to address reviewer concerns (similar to conditional acceptances at ACM SIGGRAPH). Please note that TAP referrals are conditional. The TAP reviewers may recommend bringing the paper back to the SAP proceedings if the quality of the revision is inadequate. Therefore, authors are strongly encouraged to incorporate as many reviewer comments as possible into the revision. The revised paper has to be submitted in TAP format to Manuscript Central and must include a cover letter stating that the submission is for the SAP special issue. The cover letter should also document the list of changes made to the paper to address the reviewers’ concerns. Please note that TAP has a 20-page limit INCLUDING references. Reformatting, a paper from the SAP format to the TAP format typically adds a few pages. Complete TAP author guidelines and templates are available at TAP ACM.

Attend to and present at SAP. At least one author of an accepted paper must register as “Presenter”. All accepted papers will be presented at SAP as an oral presentation. More details regarding attendance and schedule will be posted closer to the conference date.

Important update!

ACMs new open access publishing model for 2026 ACM Conferences

Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 2,700+ institutions already part of ACM Open and with more institutions joining from around the world every week, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 75% on average across all ACM-sponsored conferences).

Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open will need to pay an APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a geographic or discretionary financial hardship waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions, in ACM Open and review the Policy on Geographic APC Waivers and Discounts Policy and the Policy on Discretionary APC Waivers. Keep in mind that discretionary waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria set by ACM. Simply sending a message to ACM indicating an inability to pay an APC is typically an insufficient justification for such a waiver. Waivers are based on the specific circumstances of the author(s) requesting the waiver. ACM does take seriously into consideration the institutional affiliation of the authors and whether it is a reasonable expectation that their institution should be joining the ACM Open program. This is necessary for the long-term financial sustainability of the ACM Open model.

To support a smooth transition and encourage broader ACM Open participation, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy on APC pricing for 2026. The subsidy will offer:

Authors	No ACM or SIG members	At least 1 ACM or SIG member
ACM and SIG Sponsored Conf. Article	$350	$250
From a lower-middle-income country	$175	$125