PODS 2026: Call for Research Papers

The Principles of Database Systems (PODS) symposium series, held in conjunction with the SIGMOD conference series, provides a premier annual forum for the communication of new advances in the theoretical foundations of data management, traditional or nontraditional.

The 2026 conference will be held in Bengaluru, India, on May 31 - June 05, 2026.

Mission

The PODS community aims to provide a solid scientific basis for methods, techniques, and solutions for data management challenges in our data-driven society. It develops new ways of advancing data management to reflect the rich landscape of data requirements in applications nowadays, focusing on efficiency, scalability, usability, expressiveness, robustness, security, clarity, and privacy.

Scope

PODS seeks scientific articles that present principled contributions to modeling, application and system building in the context of data management. This includes theoretical results, new concepts and frameworks, experimental work, and rigorous analysis of industry artifacts. PODS promotes an active exchange of tools and techniques with other data management communities, especially those papers that help integrate data management techniques within broader computer science.

Topics of Interest

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Database processing: Query evaluation, query optimization, schema management, distributed data processing, approximate data processing
• Database design: Data models, query languages, schemas, constraints
• Database access: Data structures, access methods, concurrency, transactions
• Data quality: Data cleaning, data discovery, data exploration
• Data analysis: Data mining, machine learning, information extraction, data streams
• Uncertainty: Incompleteness, inconsistency, ontological query answering, semi-structured data
• Interoperability: Mappings and views, data integration, data exchange, ontology-based data access
• Responsible data management: Access control, privacy, security, verification, ethical aspects of data management
• Human-database interaction: data summarization, data visualization, explanation for database queries
• Connections between database principles and other disciplines

Submission Site

Submissions should be made through the EasyChair portal: https://www.easychair.org/my/conference?conf=pods2026

Submission Format

• LaTeX users must format their submission using the standard ACM "acmsmall" proceedings stylesheet: https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template
• Use the following class declaration:

  \documentclass[acmsmall,review,anonymous]{acmart}
  

• A submission can be up to 15 pages, not including references. Unlimited space is allowed for references.
• Additional details may be included in a clearly marked appendix, of unlimited length, which should be incorporated at submission time. Appendices will be read at the discretion of the program committee.
• Papers that are longer than 15 pages or do not adhere to the required format risk rejection without consideration of their merits.
• Submitted results must be unpublished and not submitted elsewhere.

Double-Anonymous Reviewing

PODS 2026 will use a lightweight double-anonymous reviewing process.

• Author names and institutions must be omitted.
• References to the authors’ own related work should be in the third person.
• Acknowledgements, grant numbers, and links to submitted papers in public repositories will not be allowed.

Important Dates

All deadlines are 11:59 PM AoE.

FIRST SUBMISSION CYCLE:

• Abstract deadline: June 3, 2025
• Full paper submission deadline: June 10, 2025
• Rebuttal: July 29 - August 1, 2025
• Initial notification: August 11, 2025
• Revision submission: August 25, 2025
• Final notification: September 1, 2025

SECOND SUBMISSION CYCLE:

• Abstract deadline: December 3, 2025
• Full paper submission deadline: December 10, 2025
• Rebuttal: January 26 - 29, 2025
• Initial notification: February 8, 2025
• Revision submission: February 22, 2026
• Final notification: March 1, 2026

Open Access Policy

ACM will fully transition to Open Access effective January 1, 2026. All ACM publications will be 100% Open Access.

• ACM Open institutional model: The majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs.
• Article Processing Charges (APCs): Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open may need to pay an APC, unless they qualify for a waiver.
  • List of participating institutions: https://libraries.acm.org/acmopen/open-participants
  • APC Waivers and Discounts Policy: https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/policy-on-open-access-apc-waivers-and-discounts

Temporary Subsidy for 2026:

• ACM/SIG members: $250 APC
• Non-members: $350 APC

This represents a 65% discount, funded directly by ACM.

Anti-Harassment Policy

SIGMOD 2026 adheres to the ACM Policy Against Harassment. Participants experiencing unacceptable behavior may contact any current member of the SIGMOD Executive Committee, the PODS Executive Committee, or DBCares.