QIP Charter

Goal of the Conference

QIP is an annual conference about quantum computation and information, usually held in January. Its goal is to represent the preceding year's best research in the area, in the form of both invited and contributed talks. To be able to also represent work already published elsewhere, the conference has no published proceedings itself.

The steering committee

The role of the steering committee (SC) is to determine the longer-term course of the conference and to decide upon venues for the next conferences. 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 QIP. Members typically serve for 3 years, with the 3 longest-serving members being replaced once a year, typically soon after QIP. The SC chooses the chair of the programme committee (PC) for the next QIP. Starting typically in late summer, the SC invites roughly 5 presentations (of the best recent research, but possibly also some more perspective/survey talks) and possibly some tutorial speakers, but otherwise leaves the details of the conference programme to the PC. At each QIP there is a business meeting that can be attended by all QIP participants. There the organizer for the next QIP gives a presentation, and proposals for the venue of the QIP after that 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. Also other organizational matters can be discussed at the business meeting.

The programme comittee

The role of the 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, both from computer science and from physics. The PC chair determines (in cooperation with the SC) the rules for submission and puts out a call for submissions. The selection of contributed talks among the submitted papers is competitive, with typically around 32 accepted submissions. The PC can promote up to 4 of the best contributed talks to "invited" status, and can distinguish between longer and shorter time slots for the rest (typically 30 or 20 minutes). Poster submissions will generally be accepted unless they are off-topic or clearly wrong, to enable people to obtain funds for travel.

To help the PC chair, below is a template of what a typical QIP could look like. This is just a suggestion, from which the PC can deviate as needed. On the days preceding the conference, tutorials can take place, typically each a half or a full day of lectures on a specific topic, aimed at students. The actual conference takes place from Monday to Friday, with Wednesday afternoon off for scientific discussions and social excursions. Each morning and afternoon session starts with a 45-minute invited talk (either invited by the SC or a contributed talk promoted to invited status by the PC), 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 (for short impromptu presentations of very recent results) are held in late afternoons.

Conflict of interest

1. SC members cannot be invited speakers, but PC members can be invited speakers.

2. SC members and PC members can submit papers and both SC and PC members can be the paper presenters if their submission is accepted.

3. PC members must declare a conflict of interest on certain submissions (such as their own), so that they are not involved in the discussion concerning these papers.