QIP 2019: About QIP

QIP charter

The Conference on Quantum Information Processing (QIP) is an annual conference about quantum computation and information which is usually held around January. Its goal is to represent the preceding year’s best research in the area, in the form of both plenary talks and submitted papers. The conference has no published proceedings, and commonly includes the presentation of work published in proceedings of other conferences or in journals.

Code of Conduct

The open exchange of ideas and the freedom of thought and expression are central to the aims and goals of QIP; these require an environment that recognizes the inherent worth of every person and group, that fosters dignity, understanding, and mutual respect, and that embraces diversity. For these reasons, the QIP Steering Committee and local organizers are committed to providing a harassment-free conference experience.

Conference participants violating these standards may be sanctioned and/or expelled from the conference, at the discretion of the Steering Committee and/or Local Organizing Committee. If you experience or witness harassment or discriminatory behavior at the conference, we encourage you to report this promptly to the Steering Committee chair Graeme Smith, Local Organizing Committee chair Felix Leditzky, Bei Zeng (Steering Committee), or any member of the Steering Committee or Local Organizing Committee.

Based on the SOSP code of conduct.

Steering committee

The role of the Steering Committee (SC) is to determine the longer-term course of the conference, to decide upon venues for the next conferences, and to select and invite the plenary speakers for each meeting of the conference. It should also serve as a watchdog and make sure there are no obvious mistakes, e.g., in the choice of time of the conference by the local organizing committee. The SC consists of 9 people, including the local organizers of the previous, next, and subsequent QIPs, and is chaired by the local organizer of the next/current QIP. Members typically serve for 3 years, with the 3 longest-serving members being replaced once a year, typically soon after QIP. The current SC decides on the replacement of outgoing SC members. The SC chooses the chair of the programme committee (PC) for the next QIP. Starting typically in late summer, the SC invites up to 5 plenary talks (given by “invited speakers”) which consists of perspective, survey, and/or experimental talks that would not normally be submitted to the conference program. If there is a tutorial program preceding QIP, then the SC will also invite “tutorial speakers”, but otherwise leaves the details of the conference programme to the PC.

Program committee

The role of the Program Committee (PC) is to select the best submitted papers and to put together a programme for the next QIP. The PC chair chooses the members of the PC (helped by advice from the SC), typically 15 or more people representing the broad range of subfields, including both computer science and physics. The PC chair determines (in cooperation with the SC) the rules for submission and puts out a call for submissions. The selection of talks among the submitted papers is competitive, with typically between 40 and 60 accepted submissions; it is recommended to keep the number of acceptances minimal but the PC has flexibility to accommodate exceptional breadth and quality of submissions in a given year. The PC can designate a few of the best submissions as “plenary” talks (given by “plenary speakers”), which are assigned more time in the program than regular contributed talks (given by “regular speakers”). All regular contributed talks are given in time slots ranging from 20-40 minutes.

Poster submissions will generally be accepted unless they are off-topic or clearly wrong, to enable people to obtain funds for travel. At the discretion of the PC, best poster prizes can be awarded.

Typical conference outline

On the days immediately preceding the conference, tutorials can take place, typically each a half or a full day of lectures on a specific topic, aimed at students. If no or only limited tutorials can be offered, this must be decided by the local organizer in conjunction with the SC. The actual conference takes place from Monday to Friday, with (usually) Wednesday afternoon off for scientific discussions and social excursions. Each morning and afternoon session starts with a 40- to 45-minute plenary talk, followed by contributed talks. Each talk is followed by 5 minutes for questions and for setting up the next talk. The poster session(s), business meeting, and a rump session (optional; for short impromptu presentations of very recent results) are held in late afternoons. The poster session forms an integral part of the QIP conference, and activities such as poster prizes or advertisements for excellent posters are encouraged. Once the conference is over, the website will be hosted on a permanent web server located at ETH Zurich. Some hosting fees (about 1000 CHF) will be required for this service, and should be paid by the organizers. The organizers are also responsible for providing all required web files to ETH Zürich.

Business meeting

At each QIP there is a business meeting that can be attended by all conference participants, to enable the community to influence the future of QIP democratically. There the organizer for the next QIP gives a presentation, and proposals for the venue of the QIP following the next one are presented and discussed, with an advisory vote taken among the participants. The actual decision about the venue is taken by the SC soon after that. Other organizational matters can also be discussed at the business meeting.

Best student paper

QIP features a prize for the best student submission. A submission is eligible for this prize if and only if the main author(s) is/are a student(s) at the time of the submission and will present the work at QIP. Furthermore, a significant portion of the work (at least 60%) must have been done by said student(s), including the majority of the key ideas. Eligibility can only be indicated at the time of submission. All authors are notified if their paper has been labelled as eligible for the student prize, and have 14 days following submission to voice any disagreements about the paper’s nomination to the PC chair. The PC chair is free to ask for any clarifications regarding the students’ contributions at any time.

Conflict of interest

SC members cannot be plenary speakers, but PC members can be plenary speakers.
Both SC and PC members are allowed to submit papers and act as paper presenters if a paper submission is accepted. If the PC chair submits a paper, the PC must make sure that the submission is treated exactly the same as any other, particularly regarding the privacy of both reviewers and discussions concerning submissions. One possible approach is to nominate a “Vice PC Chair” who can handle the submissions for which the PC chair has a conflict of interest, taking discussions outside the chairing system if required.
PC members must declare a conflict of interest on certain submissions (such as their own) so that they are not involved in the discussion of these papers.