Call for shadow PC participation

Notice: The EuroSys'26 Shadow PC will run through both the EuroSys'26 Spring and Fall deadlines. EuroSys is organizing a shadow program committee for the EuroSys 2026 conference under the sponsorship of EuroSys. If you are interested in participating, please apply online here until 09 June 2025 AoE. You will be requested to complete the application form and attach your CV. Please also get in touch if you have any questions at shadow-2026@eurosys.org.

Why join a shadow PC?

The EuroSys Shadow PC offers a great opportunity for junior researchers to gain experience of the review and program committee process and for authors to obtain additional feedback on their work. Shadow PC reviews will have no effect on the decisions of the EuroSys PC, but Shadow PC members will be able to see the submitted papers and obtain real-life experience on what submissions to a top conference look like. Author identities and the regular PC reviews/comments from the EuroSys PC will remain, of course, invisible to the Shadow PC. The reviews written by the Shadow PC members will only be visible to the Shadow PC members and eventually to the authors.

Serving as a member of a Shadow PC involves non-trivial work to do. But it is worthwhile for a number of reasons, including:

Getting to know how an academic PC is run and how it operates;
Seeing how more experienced reviewers judge the same papers that you review;
Getting to see both strong and weak papers at the submission stage;
Discovering what it takes to publish a paper in a highly selective conference, such as EuroSys;
Having a chance to read top-notch papers in your area of expertise before they are published;
Getting to know other young researchers who are also selected to the shadow PC.

How does the shadow PC work?

The process of shadow PC matches the main PC except that it doesn't have a rebuttal. Shadow PC members must commit themselves to writing their own detailed and rigorous reviews for papers assigned to them by the allotted deadlines. This timely review commitment is essential to the good functioning of the Shadow PC. Candidates who might be unable to fulfill their reviewing duties should refrain from applying. We expect a review load of 5-8 papers altogether per member in two reviewing rounds. Shadow PC members are also expected to attend a short meeting before starting the review process (pre-review meeting), during which the exact PC instructions will be discussed with the shadow PC chairs, plus a one-day discussion meeting, during which the final acceptance/rejection of papers will be discussed. Both meetings will be organized online. Shadow PC members will be required to comply with the ethical code of conduct.

How to become a Shadow PC member?

You will need to submit your application via the EuroSys Shadow PC submission form.

You will need to complete the submission form and attach the following information:

Short motivation letter (no more than 300 words);
Your CV (as a 1-2 page PDF document)
- In case you are a PhD student: Please provide the contact information of your advisor via email in the CV, such that we can contact the advisor to confirm the support of the application. Besides, we recommend PhD students with at least one publication to apply for the shadow PC.
- In case you are a Post-Doc or Junior Faculty: please highlight in your CV what (if any) reviewing experience you already have.

With your submission you will commit to the principles and standards of ethical conduct of research integrity as defined by ACM.

Contact

For any further information, please contact the Shadow PC chairs: shadow-2026@eurosys.org:

Xingda Wei (Shanghai Jiaotong University)
Jing Liu (Microsoft Research)

Important dates (Shadow PC for the Spring)

Deadline to apply for Shadow PC: 9 June 2025
Notifications of acceptance into the Shadow PC: 23 June 2025
Reviews will be organized in two rounds, roughly 4 weeks per round starting from 24 June 2025
Online discussions: TBD
Online Shadow PC meeting: TBD
Shadow notifications sent to authors: TBD