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DISTINGUISHED DISSERTATIONS 2003 - DEADLINE APRIL 1st 2003 Third announcement - including submission instructions Closing date for this years competition is 1 April 2003 The Conference of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC), in conjunction with the British Computer Society (BCS), annually selects for publication the best British PhD/DPhil dissertations in computer science. Over thirty theses have been selected for publication since the scheme began in 1990. The scheme aims to make more visible the significant contribution made by Britain - in particular by post-graduate students - to computer science. Publication also serves to provide a model for future students. The selection panel on behalf of CPHC consists of up to nine experienced computer scientists, not more than one from any institution, each normally serving on the panel for three years. The 2002/2003 panel membership includes Steve Benford (Nottingham, Chairman), Gordon Blair (Lancaster), Muffy Calder (Glasgow), Jon Crowcroft (Cambridge), David De Roure (Southampton), Peter Dew (Leeds), Peter Johnson (Bath), Ursula Martin (St Andrews), and Nigel Shadbolt (Southampton). Any dissertation is eligible which is submitted for a doctorate in the British Isles in what is commonly understood as Computer Science. (Theses which are basically in some other discipline but which make use, even very extensive use, of computing will not be regarded as eligible.) To be considered, a dissertation should: make a noteworthy contribution to the subject, reach a high standard of exposition, place its results clearly in the context of computer science as a whole, and enable a computer scientist with significantly different interests to grasp its essentials. It is reasonable to submit a thesis to the scheme if it has all of the above qualities in good measure, and if it is comparable in standard with the top 10-15% of dissertations in the subject. Long dissertations are not encouraged; if the main text is more than about 80,000 words, there should be good justification. We are introducing a number of changes to the competition for 2003: - electronic submission of theses - electronic publication of theses by the BCS/CPHC - publication of a greater number of theses. Last year's panel felt that many of the short-listed theses were a credit to our research community and deserved wider visibility. As a result, we intend to publish short-listed theses and then, within these, to star the competition winners. The aim of these changes is to increase the availability of the selected theses, to enable a larger number of theses to be made available, and to simplify the submission and subsequent processing of theses. The dissertation should be submitted electronically by the author's examiners, or by the Head of Department with the examiner's advice. It should be accompanied by the author's written agreement and by an assurance that within the previous twelve months the examiners have recommended to the author's institution that it merits a doctorate. An indication should be given if the dissertation is being considered for publication elsewhere. The dissertation should be accompanied by a written justification, of perhaps 300 words, by one of the examiners - preferably the external - explaining the dissertation's claim to distinction. The latest submission date is 1st April 2003. To submit a dissertation please: Email to Steve Benford: [log in to unmask] - a pdf file containing the thesis as an attachment or a link to where the file can be downloaded from the web - a covering note explaining that this is a submission to this year's competition - copies of external examiners reports for the thesis - a letter of recommendation from the candidate's supervisor Please ensure that the subject line of the email contains the phrase: 'Distinguished Dissertations 2003' I will email you a notification of receipt of the thesis. Please contact me if you do not receive this. Please contact me directly in case of any queries and/or difficulties. Steve Benford, March 2003.