Call for Papers

The International Symposium on Physical Design (ISPD) provides a premier forum to exchange ideas and promote innovative research in all aspects of physical design ranging from traditional topics for ASIC and FPGA designs to emerging technologies that impact physical design of integrated circuits (ICs). In 2026, ISPD will be held in Bonn, Germany. The 35th symposium will highlight key new directions and leading-edge theoretical and experimental contributions to the field.

Sponsored by ACM SIGDA with technical co-sponsorship from IEEE CEDA

Physical design topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Important Dates

Submission of Papers

All papers must be submitted electronically via https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ispd26. Details will be posted on the ISPD website, https://ispd.cc/. Authors must submit full-length, original papers, with a maximum of 8 pages plus 1 extra page for references using the ACM template, https://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template, in PDF format. Failure to comply with the page length limit, format, or the requirements below will result in the paper being rejected.

Previously published papers or papers currently submitted for publication elsewhere will not be considered. If related papers have been published or submitted elsewhere, clearly state the differences in the current submission. All submitted papers will be under blind review. They must not include the names or affiliations of the authors in the paper, abstract, or in the embedded PDF data. References to the authors' works must be in the third person. Papers with open-source software (e.g., on GitHub) are highly encouraged. However, please do not include a direct link to the non-anonymized software in your submission; instead, indicate the open-source contribution in the text.

The symposium proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library. ISPD recognizes excellent contributions with a Best Paper Award, selected from among the submitted papers. There is a US$1,000 award for the best paper, and a US$500 award for best paper nominees.

One speaker per accepted paper must register for ISPD 2026, provide slides and video of their presentation, and attend live discussions in Bonn, Germany. The slides will be published on the ISPD website. The authors will retain the copyright for the slides and video, which will be posted on a YouTube channel for ISPD 2026.

By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM's new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID, so you can complete the publishing process for your accepted paper. ACM has been involved in ORCID from the start and we have recently made a commitment to collect ORCID IDs from all of our published authors. We are committed to improving author discoverability, ensure proper attribution and contribute to ongoing community efforts around name normalization; your ORCID ID will help in these efforts.

Important update on ACMs new open access publishing model for 2026 ACM Conferences!

Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 1,800 institutions already part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 70-75%).

Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open will need to pay an APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a financial or discretionary waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions in ACM Open and review the APC Waivers and Discounts Policy. Keep in mind that waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria set by ACM.

Understanding that this change could present financial challenges, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy for 2026 to ease the transition and allow more time for institutions to join ACM Open. The subsidy will offer:

• $250 APC for ACM/SIG members
• $350 for non-members

This represents a 65% discount, funded directly by ACM. Authors are encouraged to help advocate for their institutions to join ACM Open during this transition period.

This temporary subsidized pricing will apply to all conferences scheduled for 2026.