imc-topic-selection
Use when deciding whether an empirical networking project belongs at ACM IMC or should be routed to SIGCOMM, NSDI, CoNEXT, PAM, USENIX Security, WWW, or a journal, using the measurement-first test, the dataset/vantage-point lens, the ethics-gate check, and the two-deadline calendar.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill imc-topic-selection --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# IMC Topic Selection Decide the venue before measuring. IMC — the ACM Internet Measurement Conference, sponsored by ACM SIGCOMM — is the home for work whose contribution is **what it measured about the real Internet and how**. A technically strong system whose measurement is a supporting evaluation is respected here and then routed to SIGCOMM or NSDI; a modest technique that reveals something real and new about the deployed network is IMC-shaped. ## The measurement-first test Ask: **is the measurement the contribution, or the support?** - If the paper's lasting value is a **finding about the Internet**, a **dataset/platform**, or a **measurement methodology**, it is IMC-shaped. - If the lasting value is a **new system, protocol, or algorithm** and the measurement merely evaluates it, it belongs at a systems venue. IMC will read a systems paper wearing a measurement title as out of scope. The quick check: if you swapped the specific system for another and re-ran the study, would the *measurement lesson about the network* survive? If yes, it is a measurement paper. ## Sibling-venue routing table | Signal in your project | Better home | Why | |---|---|---| | The contribution is a fin
- The measurement-first test
- Sibling-venue routing table
- Contribution shapes IMC rewards
- The ethics-gate check (before you commit)
- The two-deadline calendar as a routing input
- Cheap reconnaissance before committing
- Decision procedure
What does the imc-topic-selection skill do?
Use when deciding whether an empirical networking project belongs at ACM IMC or should be routed to SIGCOMM, NSDI, CoNEXT, PAM, USENIX Security, WWW, or a journal, using the measurement-first test, the dataset/vantage-point lens, the ethics-gate check, and the two-deadline calendar.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill imc-topic-selection --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.