Instructions for authors

1. Kindly note that HAMFEST INDIA 2026 will follow a "double-blind" review process. All submitted papers will be judged based on their quality, presentation and relevance through a "double-blind" review process, where the identities of the authors are withheld from the reviewers. Therefore, the authors are required to preserve the anonymity of submission, while at the same time allowing the reader to fully gain the context of related past work, including their own. Attention -- Papers that do not conform with "double-blind submission" policies will be rejected without review. Please read the guidelines (given below in the subsequent section named "Instructions for authors: Guidelines to preserve anonymity for "double-blind" submissions") to preserve anonymity with double-blind submission.
2. Attention -- While submitting the paper via CMT, please ensure that all authors are added in the CMT system. Note that this does not require including author details in the PDF of the paper; authors and their details must be entered only in CMT. Please note that adding new authors will not be permitted once the paper has been submitted for review. However, the removal of authors may be allowed if supported by proper justification, and NITK Surathkal reserves the right to make the final decision in such cases.
3. As the Accepted and presented papers of HAMFEST INDIA 2026 will be submitted for possible publication through a publisher as part of a proceedings volume, likely with an ISBN, the manuscript must strictly follow the standard two-column format and should not exceed six pages.
4. Standard manuscript templates and typesetting for conference proceedings should be followed. Download templates in Document and Latex formats here.
5. The Camera-Ready Copy (CRC) of every accepted paper will be subjected to a similarity check using plagiarism detection tools and screening against the Prohibited Participants List (PPL). Any CRC that fails these checks will be rejected.

Important policy

1. Remove the names and affiliations of authors from the title page of the PDF file that you submit for review. This information must be included in the final camera ready copy if your paper gets accepted. While submitting your paper for review, you need to include all the author details only at the registration page. The PDF file of the paper should not have the author information.
2. Remove acknowledgments of identifying names and funding sources from the PDF file that you will submit for review. This information must be included in the final camera ready copy if your paper gets accepted.
3. Remove project titles or names that can be used to trace back to the authors via a web search engine.
4. Name your files carefully. The source file names (e.g., "Rajesh.dvi") are often embedded in the final output as accessible comments.
5. Use care in referring to your previous works as related works. Do not omit references to provide anonymity, as this leaves the reviewer unable to grasp the context. Instead, you can reference your past work in the third person format, just like any other piece of related work by another author. For example, instead of "Recently, we have proposed a new protocol [9] ...," sentences in the spirit of “Recently, the authors in [9] have proposed a new protocol ..." may be used.
6. Papers with the same title and abstract should not be posted on a public website, such as arxiv.org, or shared via public mailing lists or communicated to other conferences/journals/publications.

Important Publication Policy

1. The HAMFEST INDIA 2026 organizing committee reserves the right to exclude a paper from the conference proceedings or any associated publications if the paper is not presented during the conference.
2. All submitted manuscripts will be evaluated on the condition that they are original contributions. Papers must not contain any form of plagiarism and should not be under consideration for publication in any other conference or journal at the time of submission (no simultaneous submissions). Any violation of these ethical standards will lead to appropriate action by the organizers.
3. Authors must ensure that the submitted work is unpublished and not currently under review elsewhere. Upon acceptance, at least one author is required to register for the conference, present the paper, and comply with all publication requirements, including submission of the necessary copyright forms as per NITK Surathkal guidelines.

Paper submission link

1. Kindly submit the paper through the following link: cmt3.research.microsoft.com/HFI2026
2. Paper submission via email is not permitted. The papers submitted via email will be rejected without review.

CMT Acknowledgment

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.