The submission phase for OR2014 proposals is now over. As is probably usual, most of the papers were submitted within the last 48 hours before the deadline. Since this is a global conference, there were proposals coming in from many different time zones, all around the clock.

With some late-minute arrivals, we finally ended up with a total of 254 proposals. We are of course very thankful for all of this interest, all of this activity, and most of all for all of the great proposals!

While this may not be the all-time record for Open Repositories conferences, it’s still a lot of papers, and 48% more than last year. The biggest individual category was the conference papers – we got 108 proposals in that category alone. With 24 proposals, we will have no shortage of potential workshops and tutorials, either. On the downside, the number of proposals for some of the Interest Groups was somewhat down from last year.

Obviously, since we only have five days and a limited number of tracks and sessions available, not all of the proposals, no matter how great they are, will be able to make it. Some of the conference paper proposals may also end up as posters, 24×7 presentations or Interest Group presentations. Our reviewers, Program Chairs and Program Committee will have a lot of work and many sleepless nights ahead in the coming weeks trying to figure out which of the proposals will be the most deserving to be featured in the final program.