We are glad that you are interested in organizing a systems, human-machine systems, or cybernetics related Conference, and are interested in the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (SMC Society) sponsorship. We encourage you to take advantage of the benefits of IEEE and SMC Society sponsorship.
Provided for you here is the information necessary to request and obtain IEEE SMC Society sponsorship, and useful information for working with the SMC Society of the IEEE in order to ensure a successful and effective interaction between your Conference Organizing Committee and the SMC Society.
The SMC Society of the IEEE wishes you success in your plans and activities.
Why Should SMC Society Sponsor your Conference?
The IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (SMC Society) is the world’s leading society for the advancement of theory and applications in systems engineering, human-machine systems, and cybernetics. Its mission is to serve the interests of its members and the community at large by promoting the theory, practice, and interdisciplinary aspects of systems science and engineering, human-machine systems, and cybernetics. This is accomplished through conferences, publications, and other activities that contribute to the professional needs of its members.
If you intend to organize, or are in the process of organizing, a Conference that is either focused on SMC or is significantly related to SMC, you will find that having the IEEE associated with your event is a significant benefit. The IEEE is the largest Engineering Society in the world, and the SMC Society of the IEEE, by their support of the event, will help ensure its success.
The SMC Society can also provide significant technical contributions to the Conference, such as:
- Assistance in the organization of the Technical Program
- Assistance in the paper review process
- Organization of Workshops and Sessions on specialized SMC topics
- Listing your Conference in the IEEE Conference Search database and the IEEE Call for Papers listing (after you submit an IEEE Information Schedule Form at the IEEE web site after sponsorship approval)
- Publishing announcements of the event in the SMC Society eNewsletter/Transactions list of Conferences
Thus, IEEE can help you to achieve a better, highly recognized event, supported by high quality technical contributions.
Why Would the SMC Society Want to Sponsor your Event?
The SMC Society’s largest benefit in sponsoring/co-sponsoring events is the very fact that through its involvement it helps to enhance the dissemination of the discipline of SMC and thereby perpetuate engineering progress to improve the quality of life for the benefit of all mankind.
The objectives of the SMC Society are scientific, literary, educational and professional in character. The SMC Society strives for advancement of theory and application in systems engineering, human-machine systems, and cybernetics, in part, through conferences and publications.
The Society promotes close collaboration and exchange of technical information among its members and other professional societies and organizations. To facilitate this exchange, the SMC Society organizes and participates in national and international symposia, conferences, and workshops. The SMC Society views these events as forums for engineers, technicians and scientists to discuss personal views, theories and solutions.
Sponsorship/Co-Sponsorship of Conferences also enhances the awareness of the attendees and the engineering communities to the benefits of both IEEE and SMC Society membership.
Types of Conference Involvement
As authorized in the IEEE bylaws, the SMC Society, by itself or jointly with other IEEE entities, and/or jointly with non-IEEE, not-for-profit entities may be involved in the organization of a conference for which registration fees will be charged. Sponsorship relates to the responsibilities and accountabilities of the SMC Society with respect to financial, technical, publicity, and administrative aspects of a conference. The SMC Society can provide sponsorship to conferences that includes financial involvement (Sole Sponsorship or Co-Sponsorship) or no-financial involvement (Technical Co-Sponsorship).
The types of conference sponsorship provided by the IEEE SMCS are further outlined below.
Requirements for SMC Society sponsorship:
- Proposals for any type of SMC Society sponsorship should be submitted for approval at least 1 year in advance of the conference
- The General Chair and Program Chair of conferences sponsored by SMC Society should be IEEE SMC Society members
- All SMC Society sponsored conferences must have endorsement from one or more SMC Technical Committees
Sole Sponsorship
Sole sponsorship indicates full and sole SMC Society involvement including complete responsibility for the technical, financial, publicity and administrative aspects of the conference.
- In the financial area, IEEE SMC Society members will be involved in preparing the conference budget, monitoring the financial affairs and preparing the final financial report.
- At least one IEEE entity (administrative unit) will assist in local arrangements, exhibits, publicity, public relations and publications.
- IEEE sponsored conferences are financially accountable to the sponsoring entities and to IEEE Headquarters.
- The Proceedings of IEEE sponsored conferences qualify for distribution through the IEEE Conference Publications Program (CPP). Full paper review is necessary for conferences to receive IEEE SMC Society support for the CPP and three reviews per full paper are typically expected. Exceptions may be made for conferences with a track record of quality proceedings production.
IEEE sponsored conferences are entitled to IEEE services at the non-profit rate.
IEEE SMC Society sponsored conferences must have the IEEE and SMC Society logos and name included in the conference title and all conference publications and announcements.
Technical Co-Sponsorship
Technical co-sponsorship indicates direct and substantial involvement by SMCS solely in the organization of the technical program. The SMCS has no financial involvement in the conference. It also involves encouraging members to submit papers and attend the conference through announcement in the SMCS eNewsletter and on the SMCS website.
The SMCS may wish to negotiate a variety of issues with the sponsoring organization, including registration fees for IEEE members, possible post-conference sales of proceedings through the IEEE Conference Publications Program, or other issues that benefit the conference and future interaction with the sponsoring organization.
For IEEE Technically Co-Sponsored conferences, it is recommended that the IEEE and SMC Society logos be used in all conference publications and announcements.
The SMCS name may not be used in the conference title, but the SMCS logo may be used in conference publications and promotional materials.
If the conference has no sponsoring or co-sponsoring IEEE entity, then the IEEE name cannot be used in the conference title.
Detailed information regarding the IEEE involvement may be found on the IEEE website, under Types of Conference Involvement.
When Should you Request/Propose SMC Society Sponsorship?
Requests/Proposals for any type of SMC Society sponsorship should be submitted for approval at least 1 year in advance of the conference. It is recommended that a request/proposal be submitted to the SMC Society as early as possible and no later than the time you generate your Call for Papers in order to guarantee that:
- the logo and name of the IEEE is incorporated in your Call for Papers/Announcement, if appropriate, and approved by the SMC Society Board of Governors, in a timely manner,
- the SMC Society may be able to effectively contribute to the Technical Program of the Conference (e.g., by organizing special workshops and tutorials)
Note that the approval process by the SMC Society Board of Governors may take as much as 2 months from the time the request/proposal is received by the SMC Society Vice President for Conferences and Meetings.
Proposal/Request and Approval Process
Proposing Sponsored and Co-Sponsored Meetings
Proposals for financial sponsorship along with additional documents listed below should be submitted to the SMC Society VP for Conferences & Meetings after all conference information have been submitted online via the IEEE Conference Application. Please always refer to the conference ID (Conference Record Number) provided by the system if you have any questions.
The proposal should state the type of financial sponsorship sought from IEEE SMC Society (sponsorship, co-sponsorship). The choice depends on the degree of financial involvement. In the case of financial sponsorship, the IEEE will request part of the conference revenue.
Required documents are:
- a Call for Papers (CFP) and the URL of the website that contains the full conference details (if not already included in the online registration)
- Proposal
- a complete conference budget prepared using the Financial Reporting Workbook
- Conference Approval Profile Form (CAPF)
- A statement of confirmed interest and intent to support the conference (e.g., organization, paper review, etc) from a representative of one or more IEEE SMC Society Technical Committees
An example proposal and an example CFP are available.
Indicate any intent/plan to participate in the IEEE Conference Publications Program (CPP). The IEEE CPP (formerly known as the “Book Broker Program”) handles post-conference distribution of conference papers in all media and coordinates the submission of conference material to IEEE Xplore.
Note that full paper review is necessary for conferences to receive IEEE SMCS support for participation in the CPP, and three (3) technical reviews per full paper are typically expected. Exceptions may be made for conferences with a track record of quality proceedings production.
Note also that inclusion of conference material in IEEE Xplore™ does not guarantee indexing in Ei Compendex. IEEE will submit, but not guarantee, papers for indexing in Ei Compendex. Misrepresentations of guaranteed indexing services on conference materials or websites constitute grounds for disapproval or withdrawal of IEEE SMCS Sponsorship/Co-Sponsorship.
Requesting Technical Co-Sponsorship
Proposals for technical sponsorship along with additional documents listed below should be submitted to the SMC Society VP for Conferences & Meetings after all conference information have been submitted online via the IEEE Conference Application. Please always refer to the conference ID (Conference Record Number) provided by the system if you have any questions
Submitted requests should be accompanied or immediately followed by:
- A Call for Papers (CFP) and a URL to the website that contains the full conference details (if not already included in the online registration).
- A statement of confirmed interest and intent to support the conference (e.g., organization, paper review, etc) from a representative of one or more IEEE SMC Society Technical Committees
- Conference Approval Profile Form (CAPF)
An example CFP is available.
Indicate any intent/plan to participate in the IEEE Conference Publications Program (CPP). The IEEE CPP (formerly known as the “Book Broker Program”) handles post-conference distribution of conference papers in all media and coordinates the submission of conference material to IEEE Xplore™.
Note that full paper review is necessary for conferences to receive IEEE SMC Society support for participation in the CPP, and three (3) technical reviews per full paper are typically expected. Exceptions may be made for conferences with a track record of quality proceedings production.
Note also that inclusion of conference material in IEEE Xplore™ does not guarantee indexing in Ei Compendex. IEEE will submit, but not guarantee, papers for indexing in Ei Compendex. Misrepresentations of guaranteed indexing services on conference materials or websites constitute grounds for disapproval or withdrawal of IEEE SMC Society Technical Co-Sponsorship.
What Happens Next
Upon receipt of a proposal for SMC Society Financial Sponsorship/Co-Sponsorship and all required documents, the VPCM will present the proposal and budget to the SMC Society Conferences and Meetings Committee (CMC) for separate Sponsorship/Co-Sponsorship and budget approval. The SMC Society BoG must approve the conference Sponsorship/Co-Sponsorship and conference budget before the proposal can be granted official and final SMC Society approval.
Upon receipt of a request for Technical Co-Sponsorship and all required documents, the VPCM will consider and evaluate the request and decide on approval. Technical Co-sponsorship requests do not require the approval of the SMC Society CMC and BoG.
Decisions of the CMC/BoG during the approval processes will be taken based on criteria such as:
- Conference organization by not-for-profit organizations (mandatory IEEE criterion)
- Extent of relevance of the conference contents to the disciplines of SMC and benefit of the conference to the IEEE SMC Society membership
- Time of application (at least one year in advance, or sufficiently early to ensure timely and effective SMC Society contribution to the conference)
- Expected technical and administrative quality of the conference program and proceedings
- Potential competition with other SMC Society-sponsored events within 3 months of the proposed conference dates
The SMC Society policy for approving a conference budget after sponsorship approval requires that:
- The budget (sponsorship/co-sponsorship) is provided to the current VPCM in the required format
- The VPCM forwards the budget to the SMC Society CMC for comments and approval (Review is typically completed within several weeks of initial budget submission)
- It is possible that revisions will be required; if so, the budget is revised by the submitting entity and steps 1-2 are repeated until approval is granted by the SMC Society CMC
- SMC Society CMC budget approval, the VPCM forwards the budget to the SMC Society BoG for approval
- Once BoG approval is granted, the VPCM notifies the submitting entity of official SMC Society approval
- The submitting entity then submits an online IEEE Conference Information Schedule form at the IEEE website and the SMC Society-approved budget directly to IEEE Conferences Services at IEEE Headquarters for IEEE approval
- If after initial budget approval significant changes are required, the budget must be resubmitted for approval by both SMC Society and the IEEE
Whether the CMC/BoG approves or disapproves the sponsorship proposal/request, the VPCM or Conference Coordinator will communicate the decision shortly thereafter.
Memorandum of Understanding
If the Financial/Technical Co-Sponsorship request is approved and IEEE MCE has processed the application, an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the non-SMC Society conference co-sponsors and the SMC Society Board of Governors will be signed.
The MOU provides terms and conditions of the SMC Society’s participation in the conference and must be signed by authorizing representatives of the co-sponsors and the SMCS.
More information about MOU requirements, as well as sample MOUs that can be downloaded for direct use or as guides, can be found on IEEE.org.
Having countersigned the MOUs, 1 (one) copy will be returned to you for retention purposes. IEEE MCE will obtain approval from all the involved parties. The result will be announced to the conference organizer via email from IEEE MCE.
Recognized IEEE Logos and Restrictions of Use
IEEE logos are registered with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and therefore must be accompanied by the ™ (“Registered Trademark”) placed at the lower right.
If use of the IEEE logos is approved, visit IEEE Master Brand and Logos to access the official logo.
Use of the IEEE and/or SMC Society name or logo without the written permission from the IEEE and/or the IEEE SMC Society BoG is strictly forbidden.
For detailed instructions regarding the use of the IEEE logo, please refer to the IEEE Intellectual Property Rights, Trademark Registration Information page.
