Special Session proposal

Special Session proposal

If you are interested in organizing a Special Session at MARSS2024, then please send a preliminary proposal (5-6 oral presentations, 20 min each) using Special Session proposal template to info(at)marss-conference.org by March 31, 2024. A preliminary Special session proposal is optional; however, it is very important for MARSS Organization Committee. The conference can accommodate maximum 36 technical sessions We need to know (at least roughly) as early as possible how many Special sessions will be offered, to estimate the maximum number of papers that can be accepted for presenting in regular sessions. For this reason, please submit your preliminary Special session proposal by March 31 even if there are only few committed speakers at this time point. The Special session organizer still has time until April 30, 2024 to complete the Special session and submit the final list of the session speakers.

Please try to attract more speakers from outside MARSS committees, which is important for sustainable development of the conference. Additionally, MARSS aims at increasing the number of female speakers, and at increasing the number of speakers from currently underrepresented regions. Your contribution will be highly appreciated.

Special Session proposals are normally approved by default if the topic fits MARSS scope, so that a formal acceptance of the proposal from the Organization Committee is not required. In uncertain cases the proposer will be immediately contacted by the Organization Committee.

You may offer two options to the speakers in your Special Session:

  1. The first option is to submit a full paper (5-6 pages) to the conference. The full paper submission deadline is March 31, 2024. During peer reviewing, plagiarism check will be made prior to the formal acceptance, to be able to include the final paper into the IEEE Xplore® digital library. Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, will be rejected.
  2. The second option is to make a presentation without submitting a full paper. In this case, the speaker may submit a short paper by April 30, 2024, (1-3 pages, no inclusion into the IEEE Xplore® digital library), or the speaker may present in the Special Session without paper submission.

Each paper is to be submitted through MARSS2024 paper management system. The authors must select the suitable Special Session from drop-down menu on the submission page. The drop-down menu will include all Special session titles/organizers’ names from the preliminary Special session proposals, so that the authors can easily identify the suitable Special session.

Organization of a Special session will be acknowledged by appreciation allowance of 300 Euro for each session (at least 5 registered presentations required). If you can attract more than 6 speakers, then it is sensible to try and organize two Special sessions, each session including 5-6 talks. In this case, the appreciation allowance will be paid for each Special session.

If less than 5 presentations of a proposed Special session are registered for the conference, then the registered speakers (less than five) will be allocated to other (regular) sessions by the Organization Committee. Unfortunately, appreciation allowance cannot be paid in such case.

Please read carefully the following sections as – from our experience – these issues may arise easily and negatively influence the smooth preparation of your Special session:

  1. Be careful about your wording when you approach your colleagues and ask to contribute by a talk to your Special session. MARSS had a couple of cases in the past when a speaker in a Special session tried to dispute paying the registration fee and insisted of being “invited” by the Special session organizer. You need to explain your speakers that MARSS policy does not involve “invited speakers”, “VIP speakers”, or any other kind of “more valuable participants”, each conference participant has to pay the registration fee, including Plenary speakers, Special session speakers, Special session organizers, and all Chairs.
  2. There will be participants who are going to make a presentation in two different sessions at the conference. To avoid possible frictions or unexpected talk withdrawals in your Special session, remind your speakers in advance that 1) MARSS2024 does not accept more than two presentations by the same speaker, and 2) MARSS2024 registration fee covers only one presentation, the second presentation at the conference by the same speaker requires payment of an extra fee, see Registration.
  3. Encouraging community members to organize a Special session is an important part of MARSS strategy to back up the sustainable development of MARSS community. Special sessions have the multiplier effect and provide the opportunity to attract new professionals from the organizer’s network. The vast majority of Special session organizers support and implement this strategy, which has helped our community to keep steady growth. However, we are sometimes confronted by a “smart” approach when the organizer of a Special session simply asks several authors of already submitted regular papers to move them to the Special session. Such “organization” work is of course fast and easy but 1) this contradicts the MARSS strategy and 2) this contradicts the idea behind the payment of appreciation allowance. We do urge everybody to avoid such inappropriate approach.