Developing the Final Program

The sessions may be comprised of panel discussions or papers.  The panel sessions generally should include a chair and three or four panelists.  The format for these sessions is very flexible and is generally determined by the session chair. The paper sessions should ideally include the presentation of a number of papers and a question-and-answer period for each speaker.

Many conferences use poster sessions in addition to formal paper presentations. A poster is a visual representation of an author’s scientific research.  The purpose of the poster is to outline a piece of work in a form that can be quickly and efficiently communicated with the intention of stimulating interest and discussion.    

Authors should be informed of all pertinent details which will be required for either their presentation or poster session; i.e., location, time, duration of presentation, special author arrangements, etc. In order to work toward a quality meeting, it is suggested that a practice room for authors be set up at the conference.

Organizers of IEEE conferences are expected to provide an appropriate forum for the oral presentation and discussion of all accepted papers. Organizers should work to minimize author no-shows by ensuring an author has every opportunity to attend and present. This includes making visa information accessible to authors and offering presentation alternatives as the organizer deems appropriate. Organizers should also be aware that an author, in offering a paper for presentation at an IEEE conference, or accepting an invitation to present a paper, is expected to be present at the meeting to deliver the paper. In the event that circumstances unknown at the time of submission of a paper preclude its presentation by an author, the program chair should be informed on time, and appropriate substitute arrangements should be made.

As part of IEEE operating policy, organizers and/or the conference sponsors have the right to exclude a paper from distribution (or limit its distribution) if the paper was not presented at the conference. Therefore, organizers must clearly communicate the following to all authors prior to or at the time of submission (with special attention on the Call-For-Papers): “IEEE reserves the right to exclude a paper from distribution after the conference (e.g., removal from IEEE Xplore) if the paper is not presented at the conference.” Papers excluded from further distribution will be archived at IEEE but will not be indexed or appear in IEEE Xplore.

It should be noted that this operating policy is not mandatory, i.e., each conference can decide whether or not to exclude such papers. In addition, this only applies to conference proceedings in which IEEE is the copyright holder (which includes proceedings from all conferences in which IEEE is the sole financial sponsor).

If a non-presented paper is included in the proceedings distributed onsite to attendees and the organizers subsequently elect to exclude that paper from further distribution, organizers are still required to provide that paper to IEEE. As the publisher of the conference proceedings, IEEE must have in its possession the complete set of proceedings of every conference.

This process will be accomplished by a revision to the Packing List Generator, which provides a field where “Suppress” papers can be flagged. The Packing List Generator User Guide Version 1.4, will give Conference Organizers the information necessary to mark the papers properly.

See Packing List Generator Tool (ZIP, 1.25 MB)

The conference proceedings is the publication of papers distributed at the conference. These may be in various formats, i.e. print, CD or DVD, USB, etc.  A conference may require that papers missing the publication deadline for the proceedings cannot be presented at the conference.

The program committee collectively has a major responsibility of ensuring that all selected papers meet the printer's deadline with camera-ready copies and IEEE copyright release forms.

When a conference proceeding is planned, a clear and realistic schedule should be developed which allows ample time for writing, review, correction, and printing of the proceeding. Coordination with the organizers responsible for publications is imperative.