Publication & Talk Venues — the forensic-VFS paper¶
Recommendation: submit the universal-reader / forensic-VFS work to DFRWS as a full research paper with SoK framing (EU 2027 in Edinburgh once its CFP opens, or the next USA/APAC deadline), and give a FOSDEM Open Source Digital Forensics devroom talk for community reach. Avoid vendor summits (Magnet), where issen is a competitor. The rest of this page ranks the venues and records the DFRWS format and deadlines.
The paper's angle (SoK framing)¶
Forensic evidence acquisition is a fragmented zoo of one-off readers — E01, VMDK,
QCOW2, VHDX, GPT/MBR/APM, BitLocker/LUKS/FileVault, NTFS/ext4/APFS/XFS/…, zip/tar/7z.
The contribution: systematize the whole domain onto five layer-opener traits —
ArchiveOpen · ContainerOpen · VolumeSystemOpen · EncryptionOpen ·
FileSystemOpen — that peel onto four positioned-read object contracts —
ImageSource · VolumeSystem · EncryptionLayer · FileSystem — and show the
whole domain collapses to that taxonomy, backed by a reproducible open-source reference implementation
(the published crates + Tier-1 validation). That's taxonomy + new viewpoint +
evidence: a Systematization-of-Knowledge contribution.
Ranked venues¶
| Rank | Venue | Type | Fit | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DFRWS (EU / USA / APAC) | Peer-reviewed paper (FSI:DI, Elsevier) | Best — neutral, artifact-friendly, taxonomy welcome | see below |
| 2 | FOSDEM — Open Source Digital Forensics devroom | Community talk | Huge neutral OSS audience; "open alternative to commercial suites" story | CFP active (Brussels, early Feb) |
| 3 | SANS DFIR Summit | Practitioner talk | Neutral, reputable, examiner reach | 2026 CFP closed (~Jul 13); target 2027 |
| 4 | OSDFCon (Sleuth Kit/Autopsy lineage) | Community-voted talk | Reputable OSS-DFIR, but cadence irregular | no confirmed 2026 edition |
| — | Magnet Summit | Vendor conference | ❌ Not viable — issen competes with Magnet; a vendor won't platform a rival | avoid |
DFRWS specifics¶
- No dedicated “SoK” track. DFRWS's five standing categories are research papers · presentations/demos · posters · workshops · panels. The explicit “Systematization of Knowledge” solicitation was DFRWS USA 2026-specific (26th anniversary). Elsewhere, submit the systematization as a Full Research Paper — SoK is a framing, not a checkbox.
- Full paper format: ≤10 single-spaced two-column pages (10pt, 1in margins) + ≤1 page refs/appendix (=11 total), PDF, blinded, Harvard/IEEE refs, in-person presentation required. Proceedings = Elsevier special issue of FSI: Digital Investigation.
- DFRWS EU 2027 — 30 March – 2 April 2027, Edinburgh (Craiglockhart campus, Edinburgh Napier University). CFP deadline not published yet (EasyChair link "to come"); by historical cadence expect the paper deadline ~Oct–Nov 2026.
- DFRWS USA 2026 — 25–30 July 2026, George Mason U, Arlington VA; named the SoK category, but its paper deadline has passed for 2026.
Recommendation¶
Target DFRWS as a full research paper with SoK framing (EU 2027 in Edinburgh once its CFP opens, or the next USA/APAC deadline), and give a FOSDEM OSDF devroom talk for open-source community reach. Avoid vendor summits (Magnet).
Verify all dates on the official DFRWS events page — CFPs were being finalized as of July 2026.