Submission Guidelines

• Authors must strictly follow the Springer manuscript preparation guidelines.
• Springer template can be downloaded from the conference website.
• The allowable length of the camera-ready paper is 8–12 pages.
• The manuscript must fall within the scope and allied tracks of the conference.
• Only PDF files will be accepted for the review process.
• The conference follows a double-blind peer-review process.
• The manuscript must be written in English using single-column format.
• At least one author of each accepted paper must complete full registration.
• Final camera-ready paper and copyright transfer must be submitted after acceptance.

Plagiarism Policy

All submitted manuscripts will be checked using licensed plagiarism detection software. Papers with a similarity index of less than 15% will be considered for review, with not more than 3% similarity from a single source. Manuscripts with higher similarity may be rejected at any stage of the review process.

Authors must submit only original and unpublished work that is not under consideration elsewhere. Authors are individually and collectively responsible for the content of their submitted and published manuscripts.

Policy on AI-Generated Text

Any use of artificial intelligence tools for generating text, figures, images, code, or related content must be clearly disclosed in the acknowledgments section of the paper. The AI system used, the sections where it was used, and the level of assistance must be clearly stated. Failure to disclose AI-generated content may result in rejection.

Peer Review Policy

S4SD 2026 follows a rigorous double-blind review process. Each paper will be reviewed by a minimum of three subject experts. The review process will be coordinated by national and international technical committee members.

Papers will be selected based on technical quality, relevance to the conference theme, originality, significance, clarity, methodology, and contribution to the research area.

The Microsoft CMT service was used for managing the peer-reviewing process for this conference. This service was provided for free by Microsoft and they bore all expenses, including costs for Azure cloud services as well as for software development and support.

Acceptance Criteria

• Relevance: The paper must align with the conference themes and scope.
• Originality: The submission must present unpublished and original work.
• Technical Depth: The paper should provide a meaningful technical contribution.
• Methodology: The research method must be robust, clear, and suitable.
• Validation: Results should be verified using proper experiments or analysis.
• Clarity: The paper must be well-structured, clear, and grammatically sound.
• Ethics: Ethical considerations must be followed, especially for sensitive data.
• Literature: The paper should include relevant and properly cited literature.
• Results: Results should be supported by appropriate analysis, tables, or figures.
• Compliance: The paper must follow page limits, formatting, and deadline requirements.

Ethical Review Criteria

• Originality: Paper must be original and properly referenced.
• Ethical Practice: Data collection, usage, and sharing must be transparent.
• Data Integrity: Data and results must be accurate, reliable, and unmanipulated.
• Acknowledgment: Funding sources, institutions, and contributors should be acknowledged.
• Conflict of Interest: Financial and non-financial conflicts must be disclosed.
• Policy Compliance: Authors must comply with conference and publication policies.

Reviewer Suggestions

• Mandatory changes or corrections.
• Possible modifications for improvement.
• Suggestions for extending the work in future publications.

Role of Reviewers

• Ensure a strict and rigorous review process.
• Identify gaps requiring clarification, additional work, or validation.
• Provide constructive suggestions for improving submitted papers.
• Maintain quality without compromise in acceptance decisions.
• Evaluate papers based on novelty, significance, clarity, relevance, and repeatability.