Selection Criteria for Music Papers

The written component of the music papers will be evaluated using two criteria: content and style. Content will be addressed through three aspects: relevance, validity and innovation. Style will be appraised through four aspects: accuracy, clarity, simplicity and readability.

The musical examples accompanying the paper will be analyzed for their consistency with the written material, using two criteria for evaluation: relevance and technique.

Written Paper

1. Content. The content or core idea of the paper should be powerful, relevant, valid and innovative and it should be supported with significant musical results.

- Relevance. The topic must be relevant and important to the computer music audience. The paper must present or support a finding or conclusion with significant value to that audience. One measure is the degree to which the ideas or results presented can be reused or built upon by others.

Another measure (particularly for music papers) is the paper's value to the music community as an example of innovative application of technologies, methods, and concepts, with significant aesthetic results.

- Validity. Validity refers to the strength and intellectual quality of the idea, how supporting rationale are expressed, and the soundness of the processes in reaching the results. Validity does not refer to the idea itself, but rather to the value of the idea and how that value is developed or demonstrated in the paper. The author(s) should provide a convincing rationale supporting the paper's claims and conclusions. Hence, discussion and development of the idea must be based on accepted principles of logic and technical inquiry. Technical approaches should be grounded in the scientific method and the accepted technical theory in the computer music field. Deviations and proposed extensions to these should be clearly stated, supported and rationalized. Evaluations must be based on solid reasoning and logic and must present consistent artistic results.

- Innovation. Innovation refers to the contribution of significant new information, insight or aesthetic outcome. The paper need not be on a totally new or original subject. However, the paper's results should be unique, non-obvious and significant. The paper could include support for, questioning of, or rejection of an already published method, approach or theory. It could be a novel way of treating at a familiar subject. The degree of innovation in approach, ideas, methods and results are at the core of this criterion.

2. Writing Style. Writing style refers to the manner in which the topic is presented rather than the topic itself. The principal elements of good writing style are accuracy, clarity, simplicity and readability. Papers that, although technically correct, do not also reflect excellence in writing style may not be reviewed favorably. The writing style of the paper should be appropriate to the computer music audience. Papers for the non-technical audience should be labeled Tutorial and reviewed as such.

- Accuracy. Specific, technical, language must be used. Vague or undefined terms should be avoided.

- Clarity. Clarity requires an unambiguous and logical organization of the paper. Strong transitions and concise language enable the reader to easily follow the author's train of thought. Trivia, exhaustive detail and stilted language should be avoided. Proper emphasis should be placed on the paper's primary idea. This idea should be concisely supported and not overshadowed by secondary ideas and detail.

- Simplicity. To hold the reader's attention, the author should convey an idea as quickly and clearly as possible. Words should be common to the subject of computer music and not overblown, weighty or exaggerated. Simplicity means conciseness by eliminating redundant, non-contributing words that merely fill a sentence.

- Readability. Readability refers to a smooth, easy-to-read style using carefully selected words, appropriately formal and informal grammar and sentence variations. Irrelevant and self-serving asides detract from the desired tone of a paper and quickly lose the reader's attention and interest. Pompous, obsolete, careless or incorrect words distract the reader from the author's essential purpose: to get across the ideas and supporting information quickly and effectively.

Musical Examples

All papers should be accompanied by musical examples. If the paper does not deal with or discuss musical material then it will be reviewed by the Technical Committee.

Technique: Technique refers to the compositional, computational or accessory methods employed. It should appraised through internal and external consistency. Internal consistency refers to the thoroughness and solidity of the musical approach. External consistency refers to the relevance and appropriateness of the application of methods extracted from other disciplinary fields.

Relevance: The examples should be analyzed for their musical content and their contribution to the music literature. Works that provide a novel musical outcome and a novel format should be rated higher than works that only provide contributions of technical content.

SBCM 2009 Music Comitee