Use this to audit novelty and eligibility. FAST reviewers are close to the storage literature and expect to see where your paper sits relative to the nearest prior work — stated as a delta, not a list. Because many landmark storage systems appeared at OSDI, ATC, SOSP, or EuroSys rather than FAST, covering the right lanes matters. Reopen the current call for concurrent-submission, anonymity, and prior-publication rules before advising.
| Lane | Typical venues | What FAST reviewers check |
|---|---|---|
| Storage flagship | FAST | Whether the nearest storage design/study is compared or distinguished |
| Storage-relevant systems | OSDI, ATC, SOSP, EuroSys | Whether a landmark storage system from a systems venue is credited |
| Storage workshops | HotStorage, MSST | Whether the early or engineering-track predecessor is acknowledged |
| Storage / systems journals | ACM TOS, ACM TOCS | Whether deeper journal-length treatments are engaged |
| Adjacent fields (when relevant) | Architecture (MICRO/ISCA), DB (VLDB/SIGMOD) | Whether borrowed device or workload models are cited to their origin |
A bibliography that cites only your own subarea tells a reviewer the delta may be smaller than claimed; one that reaches the systems flagships and the storage journals signals command of the field.
Suppose the paper proposes an endurance-aware LSM compaction scheduler. Its nearest neighbors: the key/value-separation FAST design (cut amplification via layout, not scheduling), an OSDI LSM system (tuned for reads, write cost unaddressed), and a HotStorage note proposing endurance-aware ideas without an implementation. The novelty sentence should name all three contrasts — scheduling where one changed layout, endurance-optimization where another optimized reads, and a real-device evaluation where the workshop note had none.
[Concurrent arXiv work] cite neutrally, state the technical/storage-metric difference, avoid
unverifiable priority claims; keep the citation double-blind
[Your HotStorage version] workshop notes are usually non-archival and citable, but confirm against
the current CFP wording and phrase so anonymity survives
[Prior short/poster] declare the overlap and state what the full paper adds beyond it
[Archival status unclear] declare the overlap in the submission form rather than guessing
[Eligibility] clear / needs declaration / risky
[Lanes covered] <storage flagship / systems venues / workshops / journals / adjacent>
[Nearest 3 works] <work -> one-line storage-metric delta>
[Archival-overlap risk] <none / declare: what>
[Novelty sentence] <FAST-ready contribution contrast against the nearest prior storage work>