Conference Quality Overview

Lance Fung, Chair, Conference Quality Management Committee 2018

Helen Ma, Event Manager IEEE

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Importance of Conference Quality

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Quality is key! Preserve IEEE’s Reputation Maintain IEEE Conference publications’

ability to be Indexed by partners Avoid legal risks

2017 IEEE Global Conference Business

With Universities and other not-for-profit organizationsPartner with over 1400 non-IEEE entities

Sponsored 1805 conferences

866 financially sponsored

technically co-sponsored939

in 98 countries

Over 484,000 attendees

254K Financially sponsored conferences

Technically co-sponsored conferences230K

Acquired 1,722 conference proceedings

Conference Activity thru 31 December 2017 ** 2017 observed a decline of 44 Financially Co-Sponsored (FCS) conferences primarily due to a reduction of approximately 32

workshops that were held in conjunction with Society/Council events during 2016 that were not repeated this year. The reduction in

FCS events is being partially offset by an uptick in Technically Co-Sponsored (TCS) conferences for 2017.

Total Number of IEEE Conferences

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016*Financially Sponsored Technically Co-Sponsored

CAGR 2007-16TCS: 11.1%

Financial: 5.7%

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Conference Proceedings AcquiredBy Conference Year

484 562 529 585 597 553

140120 169

146220 232

318323 356 369

351311

247277

361399

461 540

9480

95119

89 86

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Financial - TAB Financial - Geo TCS - TAB TCS - Geo Non-Sponsored (CPS)

1283 1362

15101618

1718

Technical 565

Technical 600

Technical 717

Technical 768

Technical 812

Financial

624

Financial 682

Financial 698

Financial 731

Financial 817

1722

Technical 851

Financial 785

Publications Acquired as of 31 Dec 2017

Conference Articles

6

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

-

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

# of articles # of conf

Why have a Conference Quality Committee?

2010 Technical Program Integrity Committee Formed

Mission: To fix problems related to conference content

Known Issues: Widespread and rapidly growing misconduct, mostly with a ‘pay to publish’ type of model (authors would submit a paper to a conference, pay the conference registration fee, the paper was automatically accepted, and it subsequently appeared in Xplore).

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Conference Quality Committee (CQC)

Takes overall responsibility for the quality of conferences,

including reviewing conferences, developing policies, and

understanding conference dynamics as they relate to

quality.

Improving conference quality and the ways we ensure

conference quality are the primary objective.

We anticipate that this committee will collaborate with

others, including Conference Tools and Future of

Conference IP Committees.8

2018 CQC Structure

Conference Quality Committee (CQC) CQC members: Lance Fung (chair), Serge Demidenko,

Gianluca Setti, Fred Schindler and Bin Zhao

CQC Subcommittees:Chair, Conference Metrics Ad Hoc Committee (CMC) –

Gianluca SettiChair, Conference Application Review Ad-Hoc

Committee – Fred SchindlerChair, Technical Program Integrity Committee (TPIC) –

Lance Fung9

Technical Program Integrity Committee (TPIC) Evaluate submitted materials to IEEE for publication in

Xplore: Scope and Quality Attributes of a conference and its process for good

practices and compliance with applicable policy. Decision on conference’s material for Xplore:

provide organizers general guidelines resubmission recommend other corrective actions

TPIC may also be consulted and TPIC Chair acts as a point of contact

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Quality Issues Noted

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Machine-generated papers Plagiarized papers Content outside of conference scope or IEEE technical

scope Poor English / grammar “Pay-to-Publish” behavior (e.g., most authors are no-shows) “Paper Stuffing”

(1000 papers from conference w/ 100 attendees) “Proceedings Hijacking”

(unauthorized people substituting content) Self Citation and Reference Stacking

Quality Issues Noted

No references to any IEEE papers This is an indication of a possible out of scope paper

Minimal research or technical contribution Content similar to undergraduate technical or lab reports

Short papers (1 or 2 pages) Conference cannot be considered as “International” with

only local participation (from organization, reviewer, authors and participants)

Sponsoring OU is incapable to provide support or resources to organize the conference (such as insufficient reviewers)

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Continued

Breakdown of Rejected Conference in past 7 years

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RegionChapters/SB/

AffinityGroups

IEEE Misc. Regions Sections SocietiesRegional Council

Total

R10 174 10 89 16 2 291

R8 14 4 3 19 5 45

R4 1 1

R6 4 4

Total 188 19 3 108 21 2 341

Significant Improvement But Number Rises Again

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140 Conferences Rejected in 2011

32 Conferences Rejected in 2012

~25 Conferences Rejected in 2013

27 Conferences Rejected in 2014

11 Conferences Rejected in 2015

17 Conferences Rejected in 2016

40 Conferences Rejected in 2017

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

2011 20122013

20142015

20162017

Number of Rejected conferences

To Address Issues:

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Problems mostly associated with “Hotspots”

Confluence of needy authors, predatory organizers, and naïve IEEE OU

Mostly occurs in areas of the world experiencing rapid growth and in TCS conferences

No OU or area of the world has been immune

Best proactive solution is to eliminate Hotspots

Neutralize predatory organizers

Train and monitor IEEE sponsoring OU’s and CO’s

Reactive Process in Place

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New Conference Approval Policies

Joint Volunteer / Staff Quality Evaluation Team(TPIC—Technical Program Integrity Committee)

Dedicated Support Staff Hired

Tracking, Analyzing and Following Up on Complaints

Screening 10% of Incoming Xplore® Content

Coaching to Change Behavior

Proactive Communication Process

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China Leadership Summit (May 2012)

Southeast Asia (October 2012)

Thailand (March 2013)

R3 and R7 Annual Meetings (April 2013)

POCO (July 2011, 2012, & 2013)

Xi’an China (October 2013)

Proactive Communication Process

Mumbai, India (December 2013)

Sections Congress (August 2014)

Sections Congress ( August 2017)

Quality Awareness / Training in R10 (March 2018)

Quality Workshops in R10 Events and India (2018)

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Continued

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TPIC is the gatekeeper that reviews

Conferences

We are here to maintain the high standards of IEEE, not to punish

organizers.

Further information on Conference Quality Matters

Breakout Session Venue: Rebak Singa Room (Upper Floor) Time: 14:30 – 15:00 Presenters: Helen Ma and Lance Fung

Poster: R10 Conference Quality Management Committee

Venue: Corridor area outside meeting room Time: 15:30 – 16:30

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Thank you

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