pldi-topic-selection

Research

Use when deciding whether a project is PLDI-shaped — implementation insight with benchmark-grade evidence — or better routed inside the PACMPL family to POPL, OOPSLA, or ICFP, or outward to ASPLOS, CGO, CAV, ICSE/FSE, or a systems venue, based on where the claim's evidence actually lives.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills/blob/HEAD/PLDI-Skills/skills/pldi-topic-selection/SKILL.md

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PLDI Topic Selection

PLDI's scope statement is broad — all aspects of programming language research: design, implementation, theory, applications, performance (PLDI 2026 CFP) — but its acceptance bar has a recognizable shape: an idea about languages, compilers, analyses, runtimes, or verification tooling whose truth is demonstrated by a working implementation evaluated on convincing programs. The routing question is never "is this PL?"; it is "is the decisive evidence an implementation-and-benchmarks story?"

The fit test

Answer three questions honestly:

Where does the claim's proof live? In a theorem about a calculus → POPL lens. In measurements of a built system → PLDI lens. In how developers experience the language → OOPSLA lens.
Who must be convinced? People who build compilers and analyzers → PLDI. People who prove type soundness → POPL. People who study software at scale → ICSE/FSE.
Would the paper survive with the implementation deleted? If yes, the implementation is decoration and PLDI reviewers will say so.

Routing table

Signal in your project	Better home	Why
The theorem is the contribution; implementation is a demo	POPL	Semantics-first reviewing
Language design + experience/empirical study of use	OOPSLA	Broader evidence styles welcomed
Functional-programming technique, typed abstractions	ICFP	Paradigm-native audience
Wins depend on hardware features or memory hierarchy	ASPLOS / CGO / PPoPP	Architecture-facing evidence bar
The engine is a solver/model checker advance	CAV / TACAS	Verification-algorithms community
Claim is about developer behavior or SE process	ICSE / FSE	Human/process evidence expected
OS-level mechanism, scheduler, distributed runtime	OSDI / SOSP	Systems reviewing
Early idea, no evaluation yet	SIGPLAN workshops (co-located each June)	Feedback without the archival bar

Note the family plumbing: POPL, OOPSLA, ICFP, and (since 2023) PLDI all publish in PACMPL, so the choice among them changes reviewers and deadlines, not the journal your paper lands in. Retargeting within the family is cheap editorially — the CFP formats are all acmart — but expensive intellectually if the evidence style does not move with it.

PLDI-shaped in practice

The venue-verified exemplars in resources/exemplars/library.md triangulate the bar: an automated testing engine on real C code (DART), instrumentation infrastructure with its design space articulated (Valgrind), a multi-year empirical campaign against production compilers (Csmith), a DSL whose compiler proves a named trade-off space (Halide), and proof-engineering tooling with a badged artifact (Sisyphus). Common denominator: the system is the argument.

Decision procedure

1. Write the one-sentence claim. Underline its verb.
2. If the verb is "we prove"          -> POPL unless benchmarks carry equal weight.
3. If the verb is "we measure/build"  -> PLDI candidate; check benchmark rigor is achievable by November.
4. If the verb is "we observe/design" -> OOPSLA/ICFP comparison first.
5. Confirm the June-audience test: would a PLDI hallway care?
6. Check the calendar: PLDI's single deadline (Nov) vs POPL (~Jul) vs OOPSLA rounds.
7. Commit; retrofit the framing to the chosen venue, never to two at once.

Deadline-driven routing — sending a POPL-shaped theory paper to PLDI because November is closer — produces the characteristic "strong work, wrong evidence" reject and burns a year.

Output format

[Fit] High / Medium / Low, one line
[Claim verb] prove / build / measure / design / observe
[Evidence home] theorem / implementation+benchmarks / study
[Family alternative] POPL / OOPSLA / ICFP, with the switch cost
[Outside routing] ASPLOS / CAV / ICSE / systems venue if applicable
[Calendar] next feasible deadline, from live pages (PLDI 2027: 待核实)