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I submitted a conference paper some time ago to a trusted highly ranked conference. Strangely enough there's almost no communication from their part, no replies most of the time to my inquiries.

The paper got peer-reviewed and accepted, I paid the fee (around 500usd), I asked just a week before the conference if it's necessary to attend it because it was difficult to book a ticket given that I had only one month left in my old passport and I didn't have the new one, I provided a proof of that (scan of my old passport), but I got no reply and considered this as "ok" since this is what I wanted.

Now I am running out of time to graduate my PhD and I need to know whether it's considered published or I can submit it somewhere else. Should I bring something stronger in my email to catch their attention like "legal fight, submit somewhere else,etc" or just wait longer (presentation was exactly 10 days ago)? what I am missing in all of this?

conference link if that helps

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    Is your paper listed on e.g. DBLP ? dblp.org/db/conf/icmlc2/icmlc2018
    – Thomas Steinke
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 5:13
  • @Thomas thanks for the link, I didn't know about this database, this one is one year old, I guess it should be something like /icmlc2019, how long should I wait to check again here?
    – idriss
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 5:18
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    From the submissions page on the website: "Accepted and presented papers will be published in the International Conference Proceedings Series by ACM." This implies that non-presented papers will not be published. In my experience with other conferences, it can take several months for the proceedings to be published, so "wait and see" might not be the best approach if the answer is urgent for you.
    – ekl
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 15:41
  • Further to @ekl's comment, I have checked the ACM Digital Library. The latest ICMLC proceedings there are 2018.
    – Patricia Shanahan
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 11:55

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If the proceedings have been published and your paper is included (and usually at this time it is included), your paper is published.

Check the proceedings.

Is this kind of link of the conference that you need: index of proceedings

I think it will be published later. At this point if nobody presented your paper at the conference, it has to be considered public after inclusion in the proceedings only, so you need to have evidence of such proceedings publication.

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  • Thanks for the answer, I don't have access to the proceedings, they didn't provide any mean of communication except email, I have already reached to ask for an electronic version of the proceeding but still no reply.
    – idriss
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 15:10
  • In those 500USD wasn’t comprised a copy of the proceedings? Don’t you know someone who attended the conference? Or who revised manuscripts? Anybody can solve your problem if owns a copy of the proceedings. If you explain your situation I think that anyone in the conference can kindly help.
    – Rick Park
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 15:14
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    If ACM published the proceedings, then they’re online; even if you don’t have access to the papers, you can read the table of contents.
    – JeffE
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 5:47
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    Check the link I added
    – Rick Park
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 11:27
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    The link in the question is to the 2018 conference. Its proceedings are in the ACM Digital Library. The OP is asking about the 2019 conference.
    – Patricia Shanahan
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 14:37
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As Rick said, the best way will be to check the proceedings. Since the conference took place only a couple weeks ago, it's not too surprising that the proceedings are not online yet.

In general it is required that an author attends and presents their paper, but organizers usually accept your reasons if you explain why you can't attend (as long as the fees have been paid). Since you did exactly that there's probably no reason to worry.

It's a bit strange that nobody replied to your emails. I'd take this as a clue that the organization of the conference is a bit weak, and this might play in your favor since it makes it less likely that the organizers would bother removing papers from authors who didn't attend.

Should I bring something stronger in my email to catch their attention like "legal fight, submit somewhere else,etc" or just wait longer (presentation was exactly 10 days ago)? what I am missing in all of this?

In my opinion you shouldn't mention any legal threat, this could easily backfire. I assume that you have been using the official email [email protected] right? I'd suggest that you email directly the conference chairs as well, you might have more luck this way.

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  • Thanks for the answer, I was using the official email [email protected] I double checked every time I send something since I expected replies to reasonable requests (emails), even for the conference chairs only names are provided.
    – idriss
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 13:26
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    I meant that you could google the conference chairs and find their professional email addresses.
    – Erwan
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 18:22
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There is no such thing as "considered published". It's either published or it isn't. Look in the proceedings.

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  • Thanks for the answer, not having access to the proceeding made me ask the question especially because of my tight schedule, since 3 to 6 months from now will be really late to consider submitting my work somewhere else, apparently I will keep an eye on the links provided by Thomas as a comment and Rick Park answer.
    – idriss
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 13:19
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    @idriss Ok. It looks like they'll appear on the ACM site when published (scroll down to the ICMLC section; so far, it only has 2017 and 2018).
    – David Richerby
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 13:28
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Most conferences have a strict rule that at least one author should register and present the paper.

If you have an unexpected situation, contact the conference chair or organizer and explain to them.

Alternatively, sometimes you can give a talk through video conferencing. Contact the session chair and ask if he/she can help you out.

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    The question was about a paper in a conference that has already taken place. He also tried asking the organizers and they did not respond.
    – J-Kun
    Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 5:32
  • I see. The situation is odd. I would suggest checking the publication service's website and perhaps send a direct email to them.
    – NeoN
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 1:17
  • Thanks for the answer, following up J-Kun, I didn't see any other way of communication except one main email, even the number of the accepted papers was less than 80 (excluding applications for presentation only).
    – idriss
    Commented Mar 6, 2019 at 13:37

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