The 38th ACM Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA ’26) will be held at Royal Holloway, University of London, in London, UK, from July 6 to 10, 2026, and will be co-located with PODC and ICALP.
Submissions are invited in all areas of parallel and distributed computing, including algorithms, data structures, computational models, complexity theory, architectures, performance engineering, languages, runtime systems, compilers, programming systems, and networking systems, as well as quantum parallelism and parallelism in modern application domains such as machine learning. Papers that are purely theoretical, purely experimental, or that combine theory and experiments are welcome.
Important Dates
All dates are in 2026, and all deadlines are at 11:59 p.m. AoE.
| Abstract registration | February 20 (Friday) |
| Full paper submission | February 27 (Friday) |
| Rebuttal period | April 27 – May 1 (Monday – Friday) |
| Author notification | May 15 (Friday) |
| Camera-ready version due | June 5 (Friday) |
Click here to add these dates to your Google Calendar. You can also use this link’s ICS file to import the dates into other calendar apps (e.g., Outlook, Yahoo, etc.).
Topics of Interest
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Parallel and distributed algorithms
- Parallel, concurrent, and distributed data structures
- Parallel complexity theory
- Scheduling algorithms for parallel machines
- Computational models for parallel and distributed computing
- Interplay between algorithmic parallelism, programming, and architecture
- Parallel programming languages
- Parallel programming frameworks and domain-specific languages
- System software for parallel and concurrent programming, including (but not limited) to runtime systems, compilers, and tools
- Parallel and distributed architectures
- Supercomputer architecture and high-performance computing
- Instruction-level parallelism and VLSI
- Parallelism in emerging hardware platforms, including AI accelerators, processing-in-memory, and quantum computing
- Energy-efficient (“green”) computing and power-aware architectures
- Transactional memory: hardware and software
- Management and processing of massive data sets
- Memory or I/O-efficient algorithms
- Parallelism in machine learning
- Routing and information dissemination
- Peer-to-peer systems
- Mobile, ad hoc, and sensor networks
Submission Overview
Papers must be submitted via HotCRP on the submission site.
Submissions may be either regular papers or brief announcements. Titles of brief announcements should begin with “Brief Announcement:”. Submissions not accepted as regular papers will automatically be considered for brief announcements, unless the title is explicitly suffixed with “(full paper only).”
Submissions must be PDFs in single-spaced, double-column format on 8.5×11-inch paper, with at least a 9-pt font, reasonable margins/spacing, and page numbers. The PDFs should be readable when printed in black and white. Submissions must use the final ACM “sigconf” format: https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template.
To facilitate unbiased expert reviewing, SPAA 2026 may use the Toronto Paper Matching System (TPMS) for reviewer assignment, which means TPMS may be given access to the submissions.
Regular Papers:
A regular paper must present original, unpublished work not under concurrent submission. It may not exceed ten (10) single-spaced, double-column pages (excluding the bibliography). All details supporting the main claims should appear within those ten pages or in clearly marked supplementary material, though reviewers are not obligated to read the supplementary material.
Brief Announcements:
Examples of brief announcements include work in progress, tool/library announcements, challenge problems to the community, corrections to prior results, and smaller results of independent interest. They may not exceed three (3) single-spaced, double-column pages excluding the bibliography.
Theory vs. Experiments:
To assist with reviewer assignment, please select one of the following categories for your paper at submission:
- Theory (primarily theoretical contributions)
- Experiments (primarily experimental contributions)
- Theory and Experiments (a mix of both)
Double-Blind Policy
SPAA 2026 will use a lightweight double-blind review process. Submissions must omit author names, affiliations, and contact information; self-citations should be written in the third person; and supplementary material must be anonymized. Authors may still disseminate their work as usual (e.g., on arXiv or through talks), and reviewers will be asked not to actively seek author identities by any means.
Conflict of Interest Policy
To ensure a fair review process, all authors must register conflicts with PC members at submission. A conflict of interest includes:
- Academic advisor/advisee (no time limit)
- Postdoctoral mentor/mentee (no time limit)
- Collaborators within the past three years (e.g., joint paper, project, or funding)
- Same institutional affiliation within the past 3 years
- Family member or close friend
- Anyone involved in an alleged harassment incident (even if not formally reported)
- Anyone whose relationship with an author could reasonably impair objective judgment
The program chair may request a ToC advocate to confidentially verify a claimed conflict. Falsely declared conflicts (i.e., those not covered by the above) risk rejection without review. Authors who believe they have a valid conflict not listed above, or are unsure, should contact the program chair.
Official Publication Date
The official publication date for SPAA papers is the date the proceedings appear in the ACM Digital Library, which may be up to two weeks before the conference. If they appear after the conference, the official publication date is the first day of the conference. This date governs the deadline for any related patent filings.
ACM Publications Policies
By submitting your article to an ACM publication, you acknowledge that you and your co-authors are subject to ACM Publications Policies (https://www.acm.org/publications/policies). Any alleged violation of these policies will be investigated by ACM and may result in full retraction of the paper and other penalties.
All authors of accepted papers must have ORCID iDs to complete the publishing process; see https://authors.acm.org/author-resources/orcid-faqs. ORCID iDs are now required for all ACM journals and conference proceedings (even though the FAQ does not yet explicitly mention conference publications).
ACM’s New Open Access Publishing Model for 2026 Conferences
Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to 100% Open Access for all publications, including ACM-sponsored conferences. Authors will publish Open Access articles either through the ACM Open institutional model or by paying an Article Processing Charge (APC). Because more than 2,600 institutions currently participate in ACM Open, most papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences.
Authors whose institutions are not in ACM Open will need to pay an APC unless they qualify for a financial waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions in ACM Open and review https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/policy-on-discretionary-open-access-apc-waivers. Keep in mind that waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria set by ACM.
To ease the transition, ACM has approved a temporary 2026 subsidy that applies to all 2026 conferences. APCs will be $250 for ACM/SIG members and $350 for non-members, reflecting a 65% ACM-funded discount. Authors are encouraged to advocate for their institutions to join ACM Open.
Additional Notes
If you have any questions about the above policies, please contact the PC chair Rezaul Chowdhury by email (rezaul AT cs DOT stonybrook DOT edu) and prefix the email subject with “[SPAA 26]”.