Conferences Organization Manual – Section 6

6.0 THE PROGRAM COMMITTEE

6.1 DUTIES
The primary objective of the Program Committee (PC) is to ensure that a well-balanced, high-quality program is organized and presented at the conference. This objective should influence every facet of its activities, ranging from the completeness of the Call for Papers to the selection and review of every paper, and even to assisting in the scheduling of session rooms and helping with local arrangements for the program. The primary duties are as follows:

• Prepare the Call for Papers
  
• Receive and track submitted papers
  
• Review papers for presentation
  
• Select papers to be presented
  
• Organize sessions and selects session chairs
  
• Completes Conference Program
  
• Corresponds with authors on acceptance rejection
  
• Determines content of authors kits, including page limits
  
• Make room assignments with Local Arrangements Committee
  
• Work with Publications Committee on Advance Program
  
• Work with Publications Committee on Conference Proceedings
  
• Provides instructions to speakers and session chairs
  
• Work with Publicity Committee on key content of program for publicity
  
• Work with Exhibits Committee to coordinate exhibits with program content
  
• Provides last minute instructions to speakers and session chairs at Speakers' Breakfast

The PC Chair may select as members of the PC persons to represent different areas within the domain of the Conference. The Chair may also appoint Vice-Chairs with responsibility to various aspects of the Program such as contributed papers, invited papers, tutorials, workshops, liaison to other committees, and representative of co-sponsoring or participating entities.

6.1.1
In general the types of papers for a Conference may be defined as "open call," "invited" and "solicited" or "stimulated". These terms may be defined by the following:

• Open Call papers are received by the PC in response to the Call for Papers and are reviewed by the PC for acceptance, if appropriate.
  
• Invited papers are those specifically requested from well-known authorities by the PC. These may or may not be reviewed by the PC.
  
• Solicited, or stimulated papers are those that result from requests by PC members to groups or individuals working in particular areas of interest.

All of the above are important to a high-quality conference and each serves a special need. Open call papers are very important to the overall quality of the conference. The proper professional review of the papers (or extended summaries) as to quality of contents and level of preparedness is critical to the quality of a conference. In soliciting all types of papers, as much information should be elicited that will make such a thorough review feasible.

The invited papers and solicited papers are very important, especially to the presentation of new, unusual, or highly specialized topics. In most instances, however, invited papers should be held to a minimum, while a significant number of solicited or stimulated papers may be used as "seed papers" in several of the sessions that can then be filled out with open call papers.

The PC will decide, subject to the approval of the Conference Committee, whether or not papers will be invited or secured through a Call for Papers, or both.

If a Call for Papers is issued, the Committee should work with the Publication and Publicity and Public Relations Committees in printing and mailing the Call for Papers and furnishing appropriate publicity information to IEEE publications.

If invited or solicited papers are to be used, the Committee should:

• Make a list of specific topics, in program format, with possible titles of invited papers or sessions.
  
• Write to those who may be qualified to present the suggested papers requesting their participation. The letter should also furnish information concerning the expected length of the paper, type of illustrative material or special audio/visual equipment that might be available. A copy of the proposed program, if available, should be enclosed.
  
• Write those who may be qualified to organize sessions on a specific topic or who may be stimulated into submitting solicited papers on such topics. The letter should specify the nature of the session and the desired number of papers in the topic.

6.1.2
The Committee will schedule sessions and select subjects, speakers, session chair, moderators and contributors to discussions.

In this regard, the PC may schedule a Mini theme which is a set of sessions on a particular topic that cover all the time slots available for sessions during the Conference. This gives the Conference registrants the opportunity of attending only the identified Mini theme sessions. Special consideration should therefore be given to the Mini theme topics and to the advertising of the Mini themes. The Mini themes are more of a grouping of sessions for publicity purposes than the basis for program organization and are to be identified after the sessions are planned.

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 Organizer or Chair.

The paper sessions should ideally include the presentation of a number of papers and a question-and-answer period for each speaker.

6.1.3
The Committee will arrange the program in final detail and prepare a draft of the printed program for the Publications Committee.

6.2 PAPER SELECTION

6.2.1
The deadline for abstracts or summaries of papers should be set sufficiently far in advance of the date of the conference to allow enough time for proper review. A schedule showing dates for the different tasks, deadlines, and dependencies should be established to help all PC members as well as authors.

All deadline dates relating to the paper process should use the IEEE Standard Format, ( IEEE Policy  9.23)

If the committee decides to include a specific time along with the deadline date, this should be the local time and identified as such.

6.2.2
Authors who have submitted abstracts should be notified whether they have been accepted or rejected. Authors whose papers have been accepted should be given the specific deadline for the final copy and limitations to paper length, if any.

6.2.3
If a conference Proceeding will be printed, detailed preparation instructions, copyright release forms and author kits should be mailed to all authors. Author kits are available from IEEE at a nominal charge and should be requested through IEEE Conference Services. (Details - Section 7)

6.2.4
The IEEE strongly discourages changes and, in particular, withdrawals of papers once submitted and included in the program. To avoid the likelihood of this, the author is strongly encouraged to get all necessary company and/or government approvals prior to submitting his/her paper to the conference. If under any circumstances it becomes necessary for the author to withdraw or change a paper, IEEE policy dictates that the request to do this must come directly from the author and not from any third party. IEEE policy also states that in this case, the author will be held liable for all costs that are incurred. It would then be up to the author to get reimbursed for the expense from any third party if he/she feels it is justified. The IEEE cannot act as a policing entity on behalf of the author in this regard.

6.2.5
When a conference Proceeding is planned, the Program Committee should prepare a clear and realistic schedule, which will allow ample time for writing, review, correction, and printing of the Proceeding. Coordination with the Publications Committee is imperative.

6.2.6
Prior to the presentation of their papers, authors should be contacted to insure that they will be present at the conference and that proper audio/visual facilities will be available.

6.2.7
An effort should be made to review visuals prior to presentation to ensure that they can be seen by the audience. Many conferences require two copies of visuals. With sufficient lead time to allow for all necessary reservations, the Program Committee should inform an author of all pertinent details which will be required; i.e., location, time, duration of presentation, special author arrangements, etc. In order to work toward a quality meeting and especially to help first time and non-English speaking authors, it is suggested that a practice room be set up at the meeting. This will also allow the proper loading of a slide carousel/computer. Special arrangements may be required for foreign speakers to assure quality documentation, presentation, and communications of questions/answers.

6.2.8 Confidentiality
IEEE Policy and professional ethics requires that referees treat the contents of papers under review as privileged information not to be disclosed to others before publication. It is expected that no one with access to a paper under review will make any inappropriate use of the special knowledge which that access provides. Contents of abstracts submitted to conference program committees should be regarded as privileged as well, and handled in the same manner. The Conference Publications Chair shall ensure that referees adhere to this practice.

6.2.9
Organizers of IEEE conferences are expected to provide an appropriate forum for the oral presentation and discussion of all accepted papers.

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. In some cases it may help reduce no-shows for the Conference to require advance registration together with the submission of the final manuscript.

6.2.10 Quality of Visuals
The Program Committee has the responsibility of communicating to the author's guidelines on the quality of visuals used when presenting the papers. These guidelines should include information on the type of background (dark letters on white background), the number of lines on a slide or viewgraph (four or five), the point size of the letters used for best visibility. Of course, the size depends on the size of room used during the presentation; larger type is needed for plenary lectures with a large audience (several hundreds) and the use of 35mm slide projector is recommended for such cases. A sample of a preferred visual is provided at the end of this section.

6.3 TIMETABLE FOR PROGRAM COMMITTEE
The PC has a considerable number of activities for which it is either solely or jointly responsible. These activities need to be spread out over at least one year to ensure the proper coordination among its members and a strong program.

6.4 PAPER REVIEW

6.4.1 Review Process
The paper review process is probably the most important part of developing a strong Program. It varies depending on the specific conference and may include the review of solicited and invited papers as well. One might highlight the review process and indicate that some conferences do blind reviews to allow concentration on content. The process can be summarized by the following steps that may not pertain to all conferences:

• Receipt of all papers by the PC.
  
• Logging of papers in PC Data Base by PC Secretary.
  
• Review of the papers by the PC officers or members.
  
• Assignment of most logical reviewers by the PC officers or members.
  
• Simultaneous mailing to all identified reviewers.
  
• Coordination of actual reviews and receipt of comments by PC officers or members.
  
• Constantly updated reports from the PC Secretary to all reviewers on the status of papers in the review process including statements of acceptance or rejection by the reviewers.
  
• Close work on session plans by the PC officers and PC members to slot as many high-quality papers as possible in the conference.
  
• Notification by the PC Chair to the authors of acceptance or rejection of papers.

The status reports to reviewers should identify the reviewers of each paper, its present status (accepted/rejected), and any comments regarding the paper's quality or referral to another reviewer. (See Paragraph 6.2.8 Confidentiality)

6.5 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
The Conference Proceedings is the publication of papers presented at the Conference. A Conference may require that papers missing the publication deadline for the Proceedings cannot be presented at the Conference. In such a case the PC 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.

The PC should work with the authors to ensure that corporate clearance by their employers can be provided on a timely basis. All papers submitted to the PC for review should already have corporate clearance, but this is often a problem for invited papers that are submitted to the PC late in the review process.

The PC Chair then has the responsibility of notifying the authors as soon as possible of paper acceptance. An Author's Kit should be furnished to each author along with additional instructions for preparing the camera-ready/electronic copy and an IEEE copyright release form. The Authors' Kits or instructions are generally are mailed/e-mailed to the authors directly based on the mailing information generated by the PC Chair.

The PC should work with the authors to ensure that the IEEE copyright release forms do not pose a barrier to publishing papers. This can cause significant delay if it is not handled properly.

6.6 PC INVOLVEMENT WITH OTHER COMMITTEES

6.6.1 Work with the Local Arrangements Committee
The PC should be actively involved with the Local Arrangements Committee and the details of local Conference considerations. This involvement, of course, is based upon the session plans of the Conference.

The PC should communicate to the Local Arrangements Committee their needs for the Conference, including Committee meeting rooms and special meetings' requirements. The PC Officers should work with the Local Arrangements Committee to select the proper room sizes and location for the sessions. Some information regarding anticipated session attendance may be gained from registration forms. The PC Chair should review the proposed session topics in view of previous conference attendance in similar sessions to be sure that the more popular sessions will be slotted in the larger session rooms. Also, the scheduling of sessions should be based upon minimizing conflicts of sessions on the same topic.

The PC Chair should work with the Local Arrangements Committee and the Session Chairs to identify the audio/visual equipment requirements for each session. Some presentations may also require easels, audio recorders, and television monitors with video recorders. These requirements should be communicated to the Local Arrangements Committee.

The PC Chair should communicate the detailed information about presentations directly to the Session Chairs.

Also, the details of the Speaker's Breakfast and the training of Audio Visual operators should be reviewed by the PC Chair working with the Local Arrangements Committee. An important point regarding the Speaker's Breakfast is that sufficient tables be set to allow each Session Chair to sit with their Speakers.

Feedback on presentations is always important. The PC Chair should therefore arrange with the Local Arrangements Committee to have session evaluation forms distributed to the attendees in each session.  A sample critique sheet is shown at the end of this session.

6.6.2 Work with the Publicity Committee
The PC's major publicity requirement is the distribution of the Call for Papers. The PC Chair should work with the Publicity Chair to define a plan within budget limitations that will give maximum publicity to this document in a timely fashion.

In addition, the PC Officers should later develop summary information about topics, tutorials, Mini-themes, special speakers, etc. for use by the Publicity Committee to advertise the Conference. Based upon the anticipated program content, the PC Chair may also want to recommend that publicity be provided in specific publications.

6.6.3 Work with the Publications Committee
The PC generally works with the Publications Committee to prepare the printed material for the Call for Papers, the Advance and Final Programs, Conference Proceedings, and other publications. Also, the coordination of the Author's Kit material should involve the Publications Committee. A key consideration in all of these activities is the coordination of schedules to meet the printers' deadlines and obtaining the IEEE Catalog, ISBN, and Library of Congress numbers from IEEE.

6.6.4 Work with the Exhibits Committee
The PC may be helpful to the Exhibits Committee in securing exhibitors for the Conference. The PC Chair should periodically provide lists of the authors' company affiliations to the Exhibits Committee for contact regarding exhibits or participation.

Also, the topics addressed by the programs may be used by the Exhibits Committee to encourage participation by certain companies associated with the particular topics. Lists of tutorial and session subjects therefore should be forwarded to the Exhibits Committee.

6.6.5 Work with the Finance Committee
The PC Chair needs to work closely with the Finance Chair for the budget items assigned to the PC. These items tend to vary from conference to conference but may include any of the following:

• printing and distribution of Call for Papers
  
• printing and mailing of Authors' Kits
  
• expenditures for refreshments at PC meetings
  
• miscellaneous telephone, stationery and postage expense
  
• tutorial honorarium expenses, if appropriate
  
• expenses for Speakers' Breakfasts

If these items are not in the PC budget, the PC Chair needs to work directly with the appropriate Committees to estimate, manage, and monitor the costs associated with them.

6.6.6 Work With the Registration Committee
The PC Chair should work with the Registration Committee on any problems arising from the registration of program participants. In particular, the PC Chair should ensure that all Chairs and Speakers are aware of their need to register for the Conference. A basic ground rule is that all participants must register for the Conference.

The PC Chair should identify Session Chairs and Speakers to the Registration Committee, so that the appropriate badges or ribbons for identification may be included in their registration packets. These people are critical to the quality of the Conference and therefore may be recognized by the use of ribbons or special badges during the Conference.

The database of the program participants should be used by the Registration Committee to simplify the registration process.

SAMPLE - NORMAL and BOLD POINT SIZES FOR VISUALS

SAMPLE - Summary Session Form