Middleware 2025: Call for Research Papers

The 26th ACM/IFIP International Middleware Conference (Middleware 2025) will be a physical conference held from December 15– 19, 2025, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, USA. All presentations are expected to be in person.

Middleware 2025 is a major forum for discussing innovations and recent scientific advances in middleware systems, focusing on the design, implementation, deployment, and evaluation of distributed systems, platforms, and architectures.

Topics of Interest

The conference seeks original submissions of research papers on a diverse range of topics, particularly those identifying new research directions, including but not limited to:

• Middleware Applications:
  • Middleware for cyber-physical and real-time systems
  • Middleware support for security and privacy
  • Middleware for AI and machine learning systems
  • Middleware for data science pipelines
  • Middleware techniques for internet-of-things and smart cities
  • Middleware for multimedia systems
• Middleware Systems:
  • Fault tolerance and consistency
  • Distributed and parallel systems
  • Distributed ledgers and blockchains
  • Event-based, publish/subscribe, streaming, and peer-to-peer systems
  • Serverless and Function-as-a-Service computing
  • Data-intensive systems (big data)
  • Cloud, fog, edge computing, and data centers
  • Networking, network function virtualization, and software-defined networking
  • Mobile and pervasive systems and services
  • Emerging hardware technologies
• Middleware Design Principles and Programming Models:
  • Programming abstractions and paradigms for middleware
  • Reconfigurable, adaptable, and reflective middleware
  • Critical reviews of middleware paradigms (e.g., object models, aspect orientation)
  • Methodologies and tools for middleware systems design, implementation, verification, and evaluation
  • Monitoring, resource management, and analysis
  • Virtualization, auto-scaling, provisioning, and scheduling
  • Energy and power-aware techniques

Types of Papers

The conference seeks original papers of five types:

1. Research Papers: Report original research on the above topics, evaluated on problem significance, solution novelty, advancement beyond prior work, supporting evidence, and clarity.
2. Experimentation and Deployment Papers: Describe complete systems, platforms, or comprehensive experimental evaluations. Emphasis is on demonstrated usefulness, impact, extensive experimentation, and quality of lessons learned.
3. Big Ideas Papers: Papers with the potential to open up new research directions. Motivation for new research is more important than full experimental evaluation, though some preliminary evidence is required. Senior researchers are expected to present these papers.
4. Short Papers: Adhere to the same standards as full research papers but presented in a more compact format.

Important Dates and Deadlines

All times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE).

First Research Track Cycle (Fall/Winter)

• Full Paper Submission: December 13, 2024
• Early rejection notification: January 20, 2025
• Rebuttal: February 26-28, 2025
• Author Notification: March 7, 2025
• Shepherded Submissions Due: March 28, 2025
• Notifications of Decisions of Shepherded Papers: April 11, 2025
• Camera Ready Due: April 25, 2025

Second Research Track Cycle (Spring/Summer)

• Full Paper Submission: June 06, 2025 -- 23:59
• Rebuttal: August 18-22, 2025
• Author Notification: September 5, 2025
• Shepherded Submissions Due: September 26, 2025
• Notifications of Decisions of Shepherded Papers: October 10, 2025
• Camera Ready Due: October 24, 2025

Resubmission/Revision Guidelines

Papers may receive decisions such as accept, conditional accept (shepherding), minor revision (one-shot revision), major revision (resubmission to next cycle), or reject.

• Research (including short) and experimentation/deployment tracks are eligible for minor revision.
• Research and experimentation/deployment tracks are eligible for major revision.
• Big ideas papers are not eligible for revision but may be shepherded.

Rejected papers cannot be resubmitted until a full year has passed.

Submission Guidelines

• Submissions must be made by the specified due dates.
• Regular papers: at most 12 pages of technical content (excluding bibliography).
• Short and WIP papers: at most 6 pages of technical content (excluding bibliography).
• Submissions must be doubly anonymous (authors' names and affiliations must not appear on the title page or elsewhere; avoid self-references that reveal identity).
• Papers must adhere to the ACM SIGCONF style, with a font size set to 9pt.
• Submit papers to:
  • Round 1: https://middleware2025r1.hotcrp.com/
  • Round 2: https://middleware2025r2.hotcrp.com/
• Submitted papers must not be under review for any other conference or journal and must be substantially different from any previously published work.
• All accepted papers will appear in the proceedings. ACM reserves the right to exclude papers from distribution if no author attends to present them.

Anonymity Requirements for Double-Blind Reviewing

• Authors' names and affiliations must not appear on the title page or elsewhere.
• Funding sources must not be acknowledged.
• Non-anonymized links to authors' online content must be removed.
• Research group members or other colleagues must not be acknowledged.
• The paper's file name must not identify the authors.
• Reference past work in the third person.
• Limit self-references to the essential, and do not reference extended versions of the submitted paper.

Papers that do not follow these guidelines may be subject to immediate rejection.

Software and Data Artifact Availability

Authors of accepted papers are invited to submit supporting materials for evaluation to be made publicly available in the ACM Digital Library. This is voluntary but encouraged and will not influence paper decisions. Successfully evaluated artifacts will receive a badge.

Presentation Requirements

Presentations should be engaging and speakers should connect with the audience. Reading off scripts is discouraged.

• All student authors are required to attend a session on effective presentation techniques.
• Senior researchers must present Big Ideas papers.
• ACM reserves the right to exclude a paper from proceedings if none of the authors attend to present it.