Statement on Deliberate Scope Adjustment from the NSDI Steering Committee

The mission statement of the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI), expressed in the Call for Papers, is that "NSDI focuses on the design principles, implementation, and practical evaluation of networked and distributed systems." The NSDI Steering Committee is dedicated to ensuring that the symposium aligns with this goal on an annual basis and to providing strategic support for each set of NSDI program co-chairs in creating symposia that represent the breadth of the community as described in and united by that focus. In doing so, the Steering Committee has observed that the scope of papers submitted to and presented at NSDI has grown beyond the intended scope of the conference, leading to disconnected topic areas and sessions with consistently poor attendance.

While the Steering Committee has intentionally narrowed the Call for Papers topic list, ultimately the community understands the scope of the conference by the set of accepted papers. The Steering Committee has instructed the NSDI '25 program co-chairs to be deliberate in correcting the scope trajectory by preemptively rejecting papers outside of the stated scope. While this change will no doubt be frustrating to some submitters, we hope to reduce the frustration by providing such feedback early, giving authors an opportunity to identify a more suitable venue.

The Steering Committee will evaluate the impact of this change and adjust its recommendations to future program co-chairs as necessary, while maintaining its dedication to this goal for the good of the NSDI community.