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ISCA Endorsement of Workshops and other

Scientific Events

Guidance for Proposers

This document provides guidance for proposers of ISCA-supported events: 

1.      How to submit your proposal on-line

2.      Services and duties: what ISCA can provide and what you must undertake in return.

3.      Recommendations – detailed advice in organising your event.

4.      Reporting – after the event.

First read the introduction on the ISCA Workshop Portal

1.    Submitting your proposal on line

Proposals should be submitted to the ISCA workshop application portal. Note that you will be asked for:

  • Workshop name and acronym if you have one
  • Submission type (see the Workshop Portal )
  • Description, including
    • the rationale and motivation for the workshop
    • a list of scientific committee members. Note: the scientific committee should be large enough to handle paper reviewing, and its membership  should be international. 
    • the submission process (e.g. deadlines, target acceptance rate, submission site such as easychair, cmt, etc);
    • an outline of the program
    • invited speakers
    • asking for help for finding a place if necessary.
  • Contact details
  • A full list of the organisers
  • Sponsoring/endorsing institutions
  • The estimated number of participants
  • The date and proposed location/venue of the workshop
  • A link to the website , minimally containing
    • draft call for papers
    • preliminary information on scientific committee
    • important dates:  submission deadline, acceptance date etc.
    • workshop  location
    • submission information, such as paper length and review process.

Note: the web site must be in place before you submit the proposal. It should NOT be hosted by a personal page nor promote institutions.

  • ·        ISCA Archive? – are your proceedings to be added to the ISCA archive?
  • ISSN/ISBN (if any)
  • ·        Soft Conf Service? – will you use the  softconf (START) conference management system?
  • ·        Interspeech co-location? Is the event an Interspeec satellite?
  • ·        Interspeech co-registration? Do you want to combine registration for your event with that for Interspeech?
  • ·        Seed Money – do you need a loan to help you set up the event?
  • Registration fees. There should be discounts for ISCA members and students:  the suggested proportion is 10% ·       
  • Amount of travel grant requested. This pays for the travel of invited speakers. Maximum is EUR 800 for a workshop, 5000 for a training school.
  • Comments: this is where you can reply to comments made by the ISCA workshops committee

The ISCA pages contain a wealth of useful information helping you to structure your application. Detailed guidance is given below. 

ISCA also has a generous grant scheme for students who attend a workshop. Application forms can be found here: http://www.isca-speech.org/iscagrants/apply.php

Your application will be considered by the ISCA Workshops Committee, which may approve a proposal, reject it or use the proposal form to ask you to answer queries or make changes in a resubmission.  You will be contacted when a decision has been made. 

Thank you for your interest in ISCA events.

2.    Services & duties

Different events elicit different levels of ISCA support and workshop duties.

2.1          For all events

All events will benefit from free advertisement on the ISCA website and are promoted via ISCApad. The proceedings of ISCA-supported events could be archived by ISCA on request. They are available with free access.

2.2          ISCA-sponsored workshops and ITRW/training schools

These events may benefit from seed money either directly from ISCA or from an ISCA SIG treasure in case of specific SIG endorsement. Students can benefit from travel grants.

ISCA members should benefit from a reduction proportional to the registration fee. The suggested proportion is 10% (i.e. around 30€ for full members vs. 10€ for students). Remember that ISCA membership for 2013 is 60€ for full members down to 20€ for students and 0for individuals with a gross annual income <1,000€.

Surplus - if any - is normally shared equally by the organizer(s) and sponsoring associations. If the event is organized in co-operation with an ISCA SIG, the surplus is normally shared equally among the organizer, the SIG and ISCA.

2.3          ITRW/training schools

The ISCA secretariat provides credit card registration facilities on request for a small charge (usually 2.5%).

Training days of ITRWs are eligible to the newly launched ISCA Training Schools in Speech Communication (TSSC) Program. An ISCA contribution of up to 5000€ is available to support the invitation of lecturers.

3.    Recommendations

3.1          Announcements and mailings

Four mailings (preferably by e-mail) are generally needed:

1.       The "Call for participation", issued about one year prior to the ITRW, is enough for general notification, if carefully planned. A standard layout is our goal, with the ISCA logo (and logos of other sponsoring organizations) in the header.

There are several options available for notification, including traditional mail, E-mail, advertisement in journals or other periodicals, and of course word-of-mouth; utilizing all of these methods in concert, to the extent that they are applicable, is usually the most desirable option. However, massive mailings can be quite expensive and distribution solely by e-mail is often acceptable in those cases where available funding will not support a more multi-modal process.

If notification by traditional mail is opted for, an example of a previous hard copy announcement can be provided by ISCA.  It is A4 format, folded in thirds. One third is the reply/registration slip; make sure that no indispensable information is printed on the back.

If distributed via e-mail, the e-mail should contain a printer friendly reply/registration slip. Alternatively, the registration processes for the workshop may be handled online; in this case a valid URL to the pertinent website should be included in lieu of a printable slip.

Different workshops require specialized advertising, personal contacts, etc. Use email lists. Journals such as Speech Communication have sections for upcoming conferences and workshops. Related projects or concerned organizations are often helpful.

A possible template for the 'Call for Participation' notification can be found at the end of this document.

2.        Acknowledgments of Submitted Papers

3.        Notification of acceptance/rejection to those who submitted papers. Information on lodging, etc., to pre-registered persons, if the initial registration information does not include this.

4.        Preliminary program and practical information, to registered participants

3.2          Web page

An initial web site should be set up with appropriate information before the proposal is submitted . The address should be provided to ISCA for inclusion in its upcoming event list.

The web page should be maintained for at least one year after the workshop.

è IMPORTANT Copyrights: the submission page should have a checkbox authors should tick to agree to transfer their copyright to ISCA. The mention should be:

The authors hereby transfer any and all rights in and to the paper including without limitation all copyrights to the International Speech Communication Association, known as ISCA. This copyright transfer is necessary as a prerequisite for publication & further dissemination of the work in the workshop proceedings. The first author warrants that the paper is original and that he/she is the author of the paper, except for material that is clearly identified as to its original source, with permission notices from the copyright owners where required. The current agreement represents that he/she has the power and authority to make and execute this assignment.

In return, ISCA agrees to the following:

1.                Employers/authors retain all proprietary rights in any process, procedure, or article of manufacture described in the paper.

2.                Employers/authors may copy, or authorize the copy of, the paper, or derivative portions of the paper for company/personal use, provided the copies are not offered for sale, that the source of the material is indicated, and that ISCA's endorsement is not implied by the use.

3.                Third party as well as employers/authors must request permission from ISCA for copy privileges not covered by items 1,2 above (such as reprinting, republishing of parts, etc.).

4.                ISCA recognizes that the financing institutions - if any - have royalty free permission to copy, or authorize the copy of, all/portions of the paper for official purposes only, when the contained work was done under a grant/contract and the grant/contract so requires.

If the paper is not accepted and published by the organizers of the ISCA-endorsed workshop, or is withdrawn by the author(s) before acceptance, this agreement becomes null and void.

3.3          Handling of full papers

Papers can be delivered electronically or, if the organizers so wish, by ordinary mail. In order to have a smooth interaction with the authors it is recommended that submitted papers be acknowledged promptly.

All papers should be reviewed by at least two reviewers selected from a scientific committee. It is important to select a scientific committee that has the knowledge and the time to perform such a task.

3.4          Publication & Sales

Accepted papers are assembled in proceedings. It is important for the quality of the publication that clear guidelines are issued to authors, with an explicit example. These instructions should be checked with your own printer to assure correctness. If the guidelines are issued as files, be sure that they have been virus-checked.

è In order for a paper to be included in the proceedings, at least one of the authors is required to attend the conference.

In order to ease referencing, all papers should have keywords and page numbers.

è Pagination, table of contents, and an index to authors should be included.

It is recommended that contributions from the proceedings be distributed on USB keys. In addition to saving trees this approach simplifies the publishing and distribution processes, and saves a considerable amount of money. Typically 10 pages are allowed for invited contributions and 4 pages for other contributions (oral and posters). A digital approach also provides the added advantages of effectively eliminating maximum page constraints, and potentially including multimedia tools, software demonstrations, and power-point presentations.

è Don't forget the label. An ISCA logo should be included, in addition to the workshop title, and a reference to the general subject area.

The ISSN number should appear on the USB label, and perhaps as a part of the digital contents as well. The ISO Standard recommends that, “...on a non-print serial, the ISSN should be displayed, if possible, on an internal source, such as on a title screen or home page. Other suggested locations on non-print serials are on external sources such as microfiche headers, cassette or disc labels, or other containers...”

è Don't forget to claim for an ISSN (serial publications)/ISBN (one shot event) ahead of the workshop!!! Please refer to the document “Indexing ISCA-supported workshop proceedings” available through the SIG and workshop pages. The ISCA secretariat may help you getting these numbers.

It is ISCA policy that publication in the proceedings does not exclude subsequent publication. For example, a selection of papers from previous workshops could be published as a special issue in the Journal of Speech Communication, and individual papers could be published as regular papers in journals. The proceedings of some ITRWs have also been published as books.

We however expect organizers of workshops to be aware of the aspects of self-plagiarism that can arise from publication of similar papers in satellite workshops as well as in related conference proceedings and to help ISCA to reduce the occurrence of near-duplicate submissions while encouraging the development of progressive publication.

è ISCA policy concerning self-plagiarism is that papers should not duplicate more than 400 words & 3 figures

3.5          Copyright issues, editing and archiving

Three levels of copyright transfer are possible: (1) Copyright transfer to ISCA; (2) Publishing license to ISCA; (3) No copyright request (in case of unpublished proceedings/papers). Whenever possible, we encourage organizers to propose a copyright transfer to ISCA, that both preserves the authors’ freedom to use content and protects them from plagiarism.

è The submission site should comprise a checkbox that should be ticked by authors after having consulted the chosen terms of copyright transfer. We suggest to offer a unique choice so that to ease further processing.

 

Copyright option

Term of uses (to be included in the submission site and acknowledgment send to the authors, saved by organizers and sent with the papers to the ISCA secretariat & ARCHIVE officer)

Copyright transfer to ISCA

The authors hereby transfer all rights without limitation all copyrights to the International Speech Communication Association, known as ISCA. This copyright transfer is necessary as a prerequisite for publication & further dissemination of the work in the workshop proceedings. The first author warrants that the paper is original and that he/she is the author of the paper, except for material that is clearly identified as to its original source, with permission notices from the copyright owners where required. The current agreement represents that he/she has the power and authority to make and execute this assignment.

In return, ISCA agrees to the following:

  (a) Employers/authors retain all proprietary rights in any process, procedure, or article of manufacture described in the paper.

  (b) Employers/authors may copy, or authorize the copy of, the paper, or derivative portions of the paper for company/personal use, provided the copies are not offered for sale, that the source of the material is indicated, and that ISCA's endorsement is not implied by the use.

  (c) Third party as well as employers/authors must request permission from ISCA for copy privileges not covered by items 1,2 above (such as reprinting, republishing of parts, etc.).

  (d) ISCA recognizes that the financing institutions - if any - have royalty free permission to copy, or authorize the copy of, all/portions of the paper for official purposes only, when the contained work was done under a grant/contract and the grant/contract so requires.

If the paper is not accepted and published by the organizers of the ISCA-endorsed workshop, or is withdrawn by the author(s) before acceptance, this agreement becomes null and void.

Copyright license to ISCA

The authors hereby grant the International Speech Communication Association, known as ISCA, a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to publish the Article. This license encompasses the right for ISCA:

  (a) to reproduce the Article in whole or in part, and to communicate the Article to the public in print and/or digital form, whether or not in combination with the works of others, for example the making available to the public via internet or any other network, as part of a database, on-line or off-line, for use by third parties;

  (b) to translate the Article into other languages and to communicate the translation of the Article to the public;

  (c) to create adaptations, summaries or extracts of the Article or other derivative works based on the Article and exercise all of the rights in such adaptations, summaries, extracts and derivative works;

  (d) to include the Article, whether in translation or as adaptation or summary, in whole or in part in a computerised database and to make this database available to third parties;

  (e) to include the Article, in whole or in part, whether in translation or as adaptation or summary, in a reader or compilation;

  (f) to rent or lend the Article to third parties;

  (g) to reproduce the Article by means of reprography, notwithstanding the limitations in the law.

The authors retain all copyrights with respect to the published material, as long as further publications give an appropriate citation of the original work.

If the paper is not accepted and published by the organizers of the ISCA-endorsed workshop, or is withdrawn by the author(s) before acceptance, this agreement becomes null and void.

Events and papers are archived by ISCA. Individual papers of Interspeech, ITRW and ISCA-supported events are available through the ISCA-archive portal.

è Proceedings in the form of one pdf file should be mailed to the ISCA secretariat for reference.

3.6          Financing & Budget

Workshops endorsed by ISCA are intended to be non-profit, as is ISCA. ISCA does not have a budget for ITRWs, but can provide seed money, which is regarded as a loan. The seed money must be paid back in full. This means that exchange rate loss and bank transfers are to be considered expenses with regard to the workshop budget. To keep the registration fees as low as possible, the work inside the organizing group is normally not charged to the workshop, but regarded as internal sponsorship. Engagement of external sponsors is encouraged. These could either be local (e.g., university, industry, or other grant-giving agencies) or co-organizers such as the research organizations or funding agencies.

The organizers will need to establish the workshop budget, including all costs related to that workshop. Normally the largest budget items are conference venue rental, lodging reservations (if applicable) and social events. Other cost items may include complimentary registration fees for guest speakers and invitees, subsidized fees for student participants (based on an estimate of how many students will attend the workshop), cost for telephone in connection with e-mail services, etc. Workshop proceeds will be generated by participant fees, sponsoring, etc. Fees and other expenses are based on an estimate of the number of participants. The planned income must be larger than the projected expenses in order to cover anticipated costs or a smaller number of attendees.

A carefully constructed, parsimonious budget can also play an important part in attracting sponsors.

è For ITRW, a realistic budget is mandatory and must be approved by ISCA.

3.7          Fees & payments

Employing multiple, convenient means of payment is important. Credit card payments are often preferred, but remember that bank charges must be considered as budget items in this case. A reduced fee for early registration is recommended as this will improve cash flow and allow for an earlier workshop participation estimate.

Students (with proof of their status) should be charged a reduced fee.

è For ITRW and ISCA-sponsored events, ISCA members benefit from a reduction proportional to the registration fee. The suggested proportion is 10% (i.e. around 30€ for full members vs. 10€ for students). Non-ISCA members should find information on the workshop website to quickly become an ISCA member.

3.8          Grants

For ITRW and ISCA-sponsored events, special grants can sometimes be secured for student participation. Inventiveness and initiative on the part of the organizer is encouraged in this respect.  Individual participants can apply for ISCA grants (to a maximum of 3 student travels per event). However, in order not to mislead possible applicants, the availability of grants should be discussed with the ISCA board member responsible for grants before grant availability is advertised. Grant applications should be sent to the ISCA secretariat, and a copy of the application should also be sent to the event organizer. The deadline for grants is the same as that for submitted papers. The ISCA grant policy is described in more detail on "The ISCA grant fund" web page.

ISCA also welcomes proposals from prospective organizers of training schools under the newly launched ISCA Training Schools in Speech Communication (TSSC) Program. An ISCA contribution of up to 10000€ is expected for supporting the invitation of lecturers.

3.9          Surplus

For ITRW and ISCA-sponsored events, surplus – if any – are normally shared equally by the organizer(s) and ISCA. If the event is organized in co-operation with an ISCA SIG, surplus is normally shared equally among the organizer, the SIG and ISCA. One third of the benefits will then supply the SIG-specific credit record handled by the ISCA treasurer. The final financial report should be submitted within two months following the event.

3.10      Typical schedule

 

Local

International

Online

Assumptions

Month

 

 

 

 

n-12

Send proposal to ISCA (page 2 of this document)

Get all prices for budget, AV, Poster, Food, Hotel, Location, Layout of venue

 

 

Prices are set for website, online registration.

Price is set for proceedings publication

n-11

 

Publish call for paper

Update website[1]

Website tool reuse

n-10

 

 

 

 

n-9

 

 

 

 

n-8

 

 

 

 

n-5

 

 

 

 

n-6

 

 

Paper Submission

Website tool reuse

n-5

 

Reviews

 

 

n-4

Final Paper Submission, organize Proceedings Publication, Acquire ISBN and ISSN numbers

Notification of acceptance, instructions to authors

Online Registration

Publisher reuse

n-3

 

 

 

 

n-2

Organize social event if any

 

Deadline early registration

 

n-1

Select Food, AV, Poster final arrangements, organize transportation

 

Mailing of preliminary program and additional information

Send the proceedings to the archive

Conference

n+1

 

 

 

 

n+2

Pay all bills, finalize budget, send  report to ISCA (page 3 of this document)

 

 

Deliver report to ISCA/SIG Chair

Note: In the event that organizers prefer to have applicants submit abstracts prior to the submission of full papers, the above time-line should be revised to include an earlier submission deadline for these abstracts, as well as a corresponding, earlier date for acceptance/rejection notification i.e.,
n-8: Deadline for abstracts
n-6: Notification of acceptance/rejection, instructions for authors for full paper submission

The 2 month deadline for discounted registration should also be revised to include the submission deadline for full papers i.e.,
n-2: Deadline for full paper and early (discounted) registration.

4.    Reporting

After the event you must submit a report to ISCA via the portal. It is written on a form which mirrors the application. It helps us to improve the service, monitor the ISCA activities and report at the yearly general assembly. You will receive an email inviting you to submit the report once your event has taken place. Note that you will be asked for:

·        Balance sheets: incomes (in particular sponsoring) and costs

·        Nb. of papers: submitted and accepted

·        Nb. of participants

·        Follow-up initiatives: book, special issue of journal, etc

·        General feedbacks and comments

 



[1] IMPORTANT Copyrights: the submission page should have a checkbox authors should tick to agree to transfer their copyright to ISCA.