If you are involved in the organization of an IFAC sponsored Congress, Symposium, Conference or Workshop, there are numerous details which may, at the outset, seem overwhelming. This document has been written for two primary reasons:
(1) to enable you to share in and benefit from the experience of many others who have gone through this process and
(2) to ensure that the events sponsored by IFAC deliver maximum value to the international scientific community.
Certain procedures must be followed simply to obtain the formal backing of IFAC. This backing, in the form of official IFAC sponsorship, ensures that the subject fits into the technical areas covered by IFAC and that the full professional resources of IFAC will be at your disposal to help you make your event a success. It also helps to avoid conflicts with other planned IFAC activities. Although IFAC does not assume financial responsibility for the event, its technical committees, publicity channels, subject-oriented mailing lists, publication system and world-wide reputation are resources which would be otherwise unavailable to an organizing group; all this is put at the disposal of the organizers.
IFAC Symposia
Are organized regularly, typically once per triennium. Participation ranges between 100 and 500. All Symposia are part of the MASTERPLAN (see Appendix 1). Publication of Proceedings is mandatory. Lead time for applications is at least 15 months.
Conferences
Have about the same size and requirements as Symposia. They are not part of the masterplan, however.
Workshops
Smaller in size, often focused on new topics, less formal. Lead time for applications is 12 months. Publication of Proceedings is not mandatory.
IFAC World Congress
Is held every three years. Usually, no other IFAC events are held in the Congress year, with the exception of a limited number of Workshops. All events planned for a Congress year must be approved by the IFAC President.
Co-sponsored Events
Distinction is here made between events where IFAC is the main sponsor and events, where IFAC is invited as a co-sponsor.
Special rules apply to co-sponsorships. All invitations for co-sponsorship must be made via the IFAC Secretariat.
Application for an IFAC event must be made by the National Member Organization in whose country the event is to be held, together with the Technical Committee, having the scientific responsibility for the event.
The application form can be obtained from the IFAC Secretariat or directly from the web. As electronic submission only cannot be accepted, a signed hard copy version must be sent to the IFAC Secretariat.
The information given on the application form is binding and can only be changed with the consent of the organizing NMO and IFAC. The IFAC Secretariat must be informed of any change, and approval for the change must be granted from IFAC.
The IFAC Secretariat can be reached in the following ways
Mailing address:
IFAC Secretariat
Schlossplatz 12
A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Phone: +43/2236/71447
Fax: +43/2236/72859
E-mail: secr@ifac.co.at
Homepage: http://www.ifac-control.org
The financial responsibility for IFAC events lies with the National Member Organization of IFAC. Therefore the NMO must sign the Application Form for every IFAC event.
The scientific responsibility lies with the Technical Committee(s) organizing this event.
For this reason also, every event has to have two governing bodies, i.e. the
In addition, the nomination of a
The Chairs for each of these bodies and for the editorship must be stated on the application form.
For every event, the following bodies should be nominated and established. All nominations are to be made in agreement between the NMO and the main sponsoring TC.
National Organizing Committee (NOC)
Composition:
Tasks:
Tasks:
Some Conferences or Workshops may not use the IFAC Publications Office (see PUBLICATIONS below). Therefore reference to the IFAC Publications Office in the following tasks apply to whoever is responsible for publications, whether the IFAC Publications Office or some other publisher.
| the IFAC Publications Office (if the IFAC Publications Office is the publisher): Mrs Lorna Canderton |
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| Elsevier Science Ltd. The Boulevard, Langford Lane Kidlington Oxford OX5 1GB, UK |
Tel: Fax: E-mail: |
+44 1865 843875 +44 1865 843920 ifacpubs@elsevier.co.uk |
| the Editor-in-Chief of Automatica: Prof. Tamer Basar |
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| Coordinated Science Lab. University of Illinois Urbana, IL 61801-2307 USA |
Tel: Fax: E-mail: |
+1 217 333 3607 +1 217 244 1653 automatica@autsubmit.com |
| the Editor-in-Chief of Control Engineering Practice: Prof. Dr. Adolf H. Glattfelder |
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| Automatic Control Laboratory ETH-Zentrum/ETL K22.3 Physikstrasse 3 CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland |
Tel: Fax: E-mail: |
+41 1 632 5300 +41 1 632 1211 ifacjcep@aut.ee.ethz.ch |
| the Editor-in-Chief of Annual Reviews in Control: Prof. Janos J. Gertler |
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| Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering George Mason University 4400 University Drive Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 , USA |
Tel: Fax: E-mail: |
+1 703 993 1604 +1 703 993 1601 jgertler@osf1.gmu.edu |
| the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Process Control: Prof. Thomas J. McAvoy |
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| Department of Chemical Engineering University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742, USA |
Tel: Fax: E-mail: |
+1 301 405 1939 +1 301 314 0523 mcavoy@eng.umd.edu |
| the Editor-in-Chief of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence: Prof. Rob Vingerhoeds |
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| Av. de Azereix F-65016 Tarbes, France |
E-mail: | eaai@wanadoo.fr |
Preprints
Preprints are the collection of accepted papers produced prior to a meeting for distribution at the meeting. Preprints provide easy access for participants to papers before or during a meeting. Preprints are provided solely for meeting participants, included as part of the registration fee, and are not for sale. They do not carry an ISBN.
Symposia and Conferences are required to provide Preprints to all participants before or at the meeting. Workshops are not obligated to produce Preprints; however, it is recommended that Workshops also produce Preprints.
Alternate documents rather than Preprints may be approved. For example, collections of brief Paper Summaries may be an acceptable alternate document, but collections of paper Abstracts are not suitable alternates for Preprints.
Proceedings
Proceedings are the final collection of papers from an IFAC meeting. Proceedings are typically produced after the meeting such that "no-show" papers are deleted. Proceedings published by the IFAC Publisher always carry an ISBN number.
Proceedings must be published for Symposia and Conferences, but they are not mandatory for Workshops.
Publisher
Proceedings from all IFAC Symposia are published by the IFAC Publisher.
The IFAC Publisher will also normally publish Proceedings from IFAC Conferences, but the Publisher is granted the option to decline publication for Conferences. In the case the IFAC Publisher decides not to produce Proceedings from a Conference, then the Organizer must produce the Proceedings, provide copies to all meeting participants (included as part of registration fee), and a copy to suitable IFAC Journal Editors as well as one copy to the IFAC Secretariat (for archival storage). The IFAC Publications Committee will provide an identification number (similar to ISBN) for the Proceedings as well as establish a storage system so that future retrieval may be made for papers in these Proceedings. Organizers must coordinate with the IFAC Publications Committee to insure satisfactory quality for the Proceedings.
The IFAC Publisher will not publish Proceedings from Workshops. If the Organizer decides to publish Proceedings (which are not mandatory for Workshops), copies must be provided to all meeting participants (included as part of registration fee), to suitable IFAC Journal Editors, and one copy to the IFAC Secretariat (for archival storage).If Organizers wish to examine the feasibility of using Workshop Preprints as the official Proceedings, then they must coordinate with, and obtain approval from the Publications Committee. The Publications Committee will provide an identification number (similar to ISBN) for such Proceedings as well as establish a storage system so that future retrieval may be made to papers. Organizers must coordinate with the Publications Committee to insure satisfactory quality for the Proceedings.
Sale of Proceedings
Meeting Organizers may not sell Proceedings that are published by the IFAC Publisher. However, if the IFAC Publisher decides not to publish the Proceedings from a Conference or Workshop (so that the Organizer publishes the Proceedings), then the Organizer may sell additional copies of the Proceedings during or following the meeting. All revenues from these additional sales may be retained by the Organizer.
Electronic Publications
Proceedings published following an IFAC meeting may be either hard copy or electronic. The IFAC Publisher will determine which media will be used for Proceedings produced by the IFAC Publisher.
Combination Preprints/Proceedings
IFAC may also approve publication of Proceedings prior to an IFAC meeting (so that Preprints are not needed). The Technical Board, Organizers, and the Publisher must coordinate production to insure compliance with all IFAC and Publisher agreements. In addition, provisions should be made to insure that all papers in the Proceedings are in fact presented at the meeting; for example, in order to minimize no-show papers, organizers may require authors to pay meeting registration fees when submitting the final version of their papers. (If this procedure is used, this requirement must be published in the Call for Papers.) If satisfactory arrangements are made so that participants can have easy access to the papers prior or during the meeting, then IFAC may approve electronic media for Proceedings produced prior to a meeting.
IFAC holds the copyright of the material presented at meetings where IFAC is the main sponsor, in order to protect the interests of IFAC, the authors and their employers. Authors of papers accepted for presentation are required to transfer their copyright to IFAC or to give IFAC a licence to publish. Full information about copyright conditions will be provided by the IFAC Publications office.
The paragraph below must be included in all announcements pertaining to the event (including web pages) as well as in the Preprints and Proceedings.
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The material submitted for presentation at an IFAC meeting (Congress, Symposium, Conference, Workshop) must be original, not published or being considered elsewhere. All papers accepted for presentation will appear in the Preprints of the meeting and will be distributed to the participants. Papers duly presented at the Congress, Symposia and Conferences will be archived and offered for sale, in the form of Proceedings, by Elsevier Ltd, Oxford, UK. In the case of Workshops, papers duly presented will be archived by IFAC and may be offered for sale, in the form of Proceedings, by Workshop organizers. The presented papers will be further screened for possible publication in the IFAC Journals (Automatica, Control Engineering Practice, Annual Reviews in Control, Journal of Process Control, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Mechatronics), or in IFAC affiliated journals. All papers presented will be recorded as an IFAC Publication.
Copyright of material presented at an IFAC meeting is held by IFAC. Authors will be sent a copyright transfer form. The IFAC Journals and, after these, IFAC affiliated journals have priority access to all contributions presented. However, if the author is not contacted by an editor of these journals within three months after the meeting, he/she is free to re-submit the material for publication elsewhere. In this case, the paper must carry a reference to the IFAC meeting where it was originally presented. |
First Announcement/Call for Papers
Once an event has been officially approved by the Technical Board of IFAC, this approval will be communicated to all persons involved by the IFAC Secretariat.
This is then the point in time for the NOC, the IPC and the Editor to take immediate action for preparatory activities, i.e.
The Call for Papers should contain the following information:
Event Homepage/URL of the Event Homepage
A homepage, publishing all the information provided in the Call for Papers (including the copyright conditions) as well as other information details should be established.
The URL of this homepage is to be given to the IFAC Secretariat to be published on the IFAC Homepage and in all other IFAC publications (i.e. IFAC Newsletter)
Distribution of the First Announcement/Call for Papers
Hard copies of the First Announcement/Call for Papers or an e-mail message on the availability of it on the web should go to the following groups of persons:
NOTE 1: The IFAC Secretariat can provide disks, labels and lists of IFAC Affiliates interested in the subject of the event as hard copy or electronically.
NOTE 2: It is usually possible to include a full-page announcement of an IFAC meeting in one or more of the IFAC Journals, subject to suitable deadlines and to the availability of space in the journals. The IFAC Publications Office is willing to enter into trade agreements with meeting organizers, whereby display space at the meeting exhibition is provided in return for advertising in the IFAC Journals. Contact the IFAC Publications Office for full details.
Second Announcement/Advance Program
Six months before the event, a hard copy of the Second Announcement or an e-mail message on the availability of it on the web should be sent to all authors, session Chairs and people who have previously indicated an interest in the event.
This announcement should at least contain:
Distribution of Second Announcement/Advance Program
The mailing list of the Second Announcement and Advance Program should include the following groups:
Members of the IFAC Council and IFAC Secretary, Editors-in-Chief of the IFAC Journals, Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Technical Committees sponsoring or co-sponsoring the event may be exempted from registration fees by the NOC.
The IFAC President or his proxy at IFAC events, however, should be exempted from registration fees.
The number of Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Technical Committees sponsoring or co-sponsoring the event may be very large indeed and their free attendance at the event must inevitably result in higher fees for everyone else. In the interest of economy, the number of people given free attendance should be limited.
For distribution at the event, a final program should be prepared. Its primary function is to provide final, accurate information for the attendees. It should include the following:
When preprints are prepared, one copy should be made available to each of the following:
Preprints must not be offered for sale and are given to participants as part of the registration fee. They must not carry an ISBN.
Organisers are at liberty to make local arrangements for the production of their preprints, subject to the above conditions. However, the IFAC Publications Office is also able to provide a preprint service and may be contacted at any time for a quote.
Within two months after the event, the final report should be written by the Chair of NOC and the IPC Chair, or preferably jointly by the Chair of the NOC and IPC, and the Chair of the responsible Technical Committee, with a copy to the IFAC Secretariat. Standard forms are available for these reports (see Appendix 8 and 9).
These reports should contain details about the event, such as:
In addition to the Final Report, a report should be prepared, suitable for publication in the IFAC Newsletter. It should point out the highlights of the event with respect to technical and scientific contributions, new information or developments, trends and conclusions to be drawn which might be of interest to the automatic control community in general.
Timetable; Scenario for Organization
Scenario for Organization of IFAC Symposia/Conferences (and Workshops if Preprints are prepared*):
| ACTION | MONTHS |
| NMO/TC makes formal application to IFAC Secretariat | - 15 |
| Technical Board approval | - 13 |
| Invite IPC members | - 13 |
| Establish sub-committees (e.g. tutorials, social program, etc) | - 13 |
| First Announcement/Call for papers distribution | - 11 |
| Deadline for receipt of draft papers | - 8 |
| Distribute papers for review | - 8 |
| IPC reviews – meeting of IPC for paper selection and setting program | - 7 |
| Second Announcement/Advance Program distributed | - 6 |
| Notification of authors | - 6 |
| Author’s kit sent out | - 6 |
| Final papers and copyright transfer forms returned in camera-ready form or electronically | - 4 |
| Paper selection complete | - 3 |
| Final Program drawn up | - 3 |
| Preprint production started (either locally or via IFAC Publications Office) | - 3 |
| Papers recommended to the Editor-in-Chief of Automatica | - 3 |
| SYMPOSIA/CONFERENCE opens | 0 |
| Papers recommended to the Editor in Chief of Control Engineering Practice | 0 |
| Original camera-ready copy and/or electronic files of all papers presented at the meeting sent to the IFAC Publications Office | + 1 |
| NOC and IPC Final Reports and report suitable for publication in the IFAC Newsletter to Newsletter Editor, c/o IFAC Secretariat | + 2 |
| Publication date of proceedings volume | + 4 |
The above items of the timetable, especially those related to the publication schedule should be observed.
Note: The time scales are the minimum required!
Scenario for Organization of Workshops without Preprints
| ACTION | MONTHS |
| NMO/TC makes formal application to IFAC Secretariat | - 12 |
| Technical Board approval | - 10 |
| Invite IPC members | - 10 |
| Establish sub-committees (e.g. tutorials, social program, etc) | - 10 |
| First Announcement/Call for papers distribution | - 8 |
| Deadline for receipt of abstracts | - 6 |
| Abstract selection and setting program | - 5 |
| Second Announcement/Advance Program distributed | - 4 |
| Notification of authors | - 4 |
| Final Program drawn up | - 2 |
| WORKSHOP opens | 0 |
| NOC and IPC Final Reports and report suitable for publication in the IFAC Newsletter to Newsletter Editor, c/o IFAC Secretariat | + 1 |
The above items of the timetable should be observed.
Note: The time scales are the minimum required!
Organizing an IFAC event is certainly not a simple task. It implies the responsibility for a good technical program, for good conditions (rooms, projection facilities, hotels, social program), as well as good publications.
Fortunately, however, a lot of experience is available within IFAC that is at your disposal:
Of course, you and your co-workers want to make a success of the event you will be organizing - a success in such a way that your professional colleagues will remember (and tell you) years after the event.
Previous experience has shown that it can be done successfully, particularly if you take note of the recommendations in this booklet.
Many good wishes!
Read carefully the Procedure Manual for IFAC Sponsored Events.
Ask for approval through the IFAC Secretariat for any change in the already approved Application (dates, registration fees, chairs, etc.).
Include representative(s) from TCs and co-sponsoring organizations in the International Program Committee.
Inform the IFAC Secretariat about the homepage address of the event when it is available on the web.
Follow the deadlines
Follow the instructions of the IFAC Publications Office
Observe the work of the editor
Send the mailing list of accepted papers to the IFAC Publications Office and Editors-in-Chief of the IFAC Journals
Distribute the hard copy of the Call for Papers and/or e-mail information about its availability on the web
Distribute the hard copy of the Advance Program and/or e-mail information about its availability on the web
Include the copyright stipulation in all announcements, in the preprints & proceedings and on the website.
Do not hesitate to contact the IFAC Secretariat if you have problems
Appendix 1 - Master Plan of IFAC Symposia
Appendix 2 - Standard Application Form
Appendix 4 - Checklist for Organizers
Appendix 5 - Suggested Letter for Acceptance of Papers
Appendix 6 - Suggested Letter for Rejection of Papers
Appendix 7 - Proposed Draft Call for Papers
Appendix 8 – Final Report by the IPC Chair
Appendix 9 – Final Report by the NOC Chair
Checklist for Organizers
The following list of items will be helpful:
Suggested Letter for Acceptance of Paper
Dear
The International Program Committee is pleased to inform you that your paper identified below has been accepted for presentation at the IFAC Symposium/Conference/Workshop on
at the time and in the session indicated. To appear in the preprints of the Symposium/Conference/Workshop we must have the final version of your full paper specially typed (camera-ready copy) and in our hands
by.......... ...................................
You will be receiving detailed instructions for this shortly from .......................................................... .
Please note the following IFAC policies relating to your paper:
IFAC Publication and Copyright Policy:
(for IFAC symposia and conferences, and workshops with preprints, where IFAC is the main sponsor).
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The material submitted for presentation at an IFAC meeting (Congress, Symposium, Conference, Workshop) must be original, not published or being considered elsewhere. All papers accepted for presentation will appear in the Preprints of the meeting and will be distributed to the participants. Papers duly presented at the Congress, Symposia and Conferences will be archived and offered for sale, in the form of Proceedings, by Elsevier Ltd., Oxford, UK. In the case of Workshops, papers duly presented will be archived by IFAC and may be offered for sale, in the form of Proceedings, by Workshop organizers. The presented papers will be further screened for possible publication in the IFAC Journals (Automatica, Control Engineering Practice, Annual Reviews in Control, Journal of Process Control and Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence), or in IFAC affiliated journals. All papers presented will be recorded as an IFAC Publication.
Copyright of material presented at an IFAC meeting is held by IFAC. Authors will be sent a copyright transfer form. The IFAC Journals and, after these, IFAC affiliated journals have priority access to all contributions presented. However, if the author is not contacted by an editor of these journals within three months after the meeting, he/she is free to re-submit the material for publication elsewhere. In this case, the paper must carry a reference to the IFAC meeting where it was originally presented. |
Yours truly
Paper Title:
Author:
Session Title:
Date and Time of Presentation:
Suggested Letter for Rejection of Paper
Dear
The International Program Committee regrets to inform you that your paper identified below will not be included in the program of the IFAC Symposium/Conference/Workshop on
(Reason for rejection)
Although your paper was considered the editorial property of IFAC following its submission, the copyright is hereby returned to you.
We regret that we have been unable to include your paper in this event, but hope that other contributions from you will appear in other IFAC technical meetings. Of course we hope you will participate in our meeting and share your experiences with other attendees.
Yours truly,
Paper Title:
Author:
Proposal Draft Call for Papers
Following information should be included: