Use this before a line is written. Two decisions hide in "let's send it to VLDB": whether the work is a data-management contribution at all, and which PVLDB category gives it the friendliest reviewer expectations.
VLDB rewards work whose core object is a data-management primitive: storage layout, index, query optimization or execution, transaction and consistency machinery, data integration and cleaning, streaming state, or the data infrastructure under ML. Two probes:
| Your situation | Category | Watch out |
|---|---|---|
| New mechanism + built system + systems evidence | Regular Research (12 pp) | The default; full evaluation burden |
| Rigorous measurement of existing systems, no new system | EA&B (12 pp) | Reproducibility evaluation is mandatory; conclusions must generalize |
| Scale-forward data-science pipeline, practice first | Scalable Data Science (8 pp) | Must still show the data-management lesson, not just an application win |
| Argued agenda without a full system yet | Vision (6 pp) | Small budget; needs a genuinely new direction, not a survey |
Category budgets and continuation for the live volume: verify on the guidelines page before committing (see the source map's 待核实 ledger).
| Signal in the project | Better home |
|---|---|
| Quarterly-round rhythm preferred; identical scope | SIGMOD (PACMMOD rounds) — the closest sibling; pick by calendar fit and portfolio, not prestige folklore |
| Formal results: complexity, expressiveness, bounds | PODS or ICDT |
| Provocative architecture argument, prototype-grade evidence | CIDR |
| Solid engineering contribution, broader engineering scope | ICDE or EDBT |
| Mining/learning contribution where data infra is incidental | KDD or an ML venue |
| OS/network mechanism that happens to touch storage | SOSP/OSDI, NSDI, EuroSys |
| Outgrown 12 pages; wants archival depth | The VLDB Journal or TODS |
| Deployed production system, lessons-forward | VLDB industrial track (separate call) |
The practical VLDB-vs-SIGMOD tiebreaker in this collection's experience: PVLDB's monthly gate and three-month revision suit projects whose evidence matures unpredictably; SIGMOD's fixed rounds suit groups that plan in quarters. Scope overlap is nearly total.
[ ] Primitive named in one sentence, no application words needed
[ ] Category chosen; its page budget fits the evidence plan
[ ] The one plot that would convince a builder is specified
[ ] Nearest three prior systems identified (see vldb-related-work)
[ ] If EA&B: willing and able to hand everything to the repro committee
[ ] Live volume's topics-of-interest list scanned for explicit fit
[Primitive] <one sentence> / absent (re-route)
[Category] regular / EA&B / SDS / vision — with page-budget check
[Venue ranking] <top choice + two alternates, one reason each>
[Convincer plot] <the decisive figure, described>
[Risk] <novelty / evidence scale / fit — the one that kills it>
[Next action] <build, measure, reframe, or switch venue>