PLANS Author Resource Center

Important Dates and Deadlines

• February 3 (11:59 PM Hawaii Standard Time):
  • Submission of completed paper (in proper form), an electronic Copyright Release Form, and any updates to your biography (30 words) must be uploaded through the Abstract Management Portal (AMP). Papers not submitted by this date will not be included in the conference proceedings. This is a hard deadline; no exceptions will be made to this policy. 
• March 28:
  • Have hotel reservations made at the official ION hotels. Reservations may be made online.
  • Last day to register for the conference without a late fee. All authors who are attending the meeting are required to pay registration fees.
• April 18
  • Upload your presentation slides through the ION’s Abstract Management Portal (AMP).
  • Upload full conference paper for attendee viewing. If you submitted a paper for peer review you may already have a paper present in the portal. As long as your IEEE Copyright Release Form has been completed, the paper submitted for peer review will be used.
  • Submit your IEEE Copyright Release Form through the ION's Abstract Management Portal (AMP).
  • Presentation files uploaded to AMP by this date will be automatically loaded on the conference laptop the day of your session.
• April 28 - May 1: PLANS Meeting, Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek.
  • Attend the 7:30 a.m. Speakers' Breakfast the morning of your presentation. This is mandatory. Failure to attend will result in the cancellation of your presentation.
  • If you are not in attendance at the 7:30 a.m. Speakers' Breakfast on the morning of your presentation, the Session Chairs will allocate your presentation time to another presenter; your presentation will be canceled, and your will not be included in the conference proceedings.
  • If you did not update your speaker biography as directed above, bring a paper copy of your speaker bio to provide to your session chair during breakfst; or come prepared to print this at the self-service business center prior to the breakfast.
  • If you did not submit your presentation through AMP as requested above, bring your presentation with you on a USB drive, or come prepared to connect your laptop to the conference’s projector.
• May 9: Revised papers for publication in proceedings will not be accepted after this date.

Submission of Completed Paper for Publication

The conference proceedings are intended to represent those papers which were presented at the meeting. Schedule papers which were not presented at the meeting, for any reason, will not appear in the conference proceedings. Alternate papers will be included in the proceedings if the author attends the speaker breakfast and the session and is ready to present if needed.

Papers not representative of the original abstract submitted, or that failed the peer review process, will NOT be included in the conference proceedings, regardless of whether or not they were presented at the conference, and may affect the acceptance of future abstracts.

Paper Cancellations – Substitute Presenter Requirements

Should an unforeseen event make it impossible for you to attend the conference to present your paper, please ask a co-author to present your paper on your behalf. Only co-authors listed on your paper will be permitted to present on your behalf. If a co-author is not available to present your paper, and the paper needs to be withdrawn, please notify Miriam Lewis at the ION National Office via email at meetings@ion.org. Please note that only authors who attend their assigned conference session prepared to present will have their paper published in the conference proceedings. This applies to both primary and alternate authors.

Per publication policy, papers not presented at the conference, for any reason, or that failed the peer review process, will not be published in the conference proceedings. We encourage you to make alternative arrangements for a co-author to present your paper on your behalf if you foresee any reason why you may not be able to attend the conference and present your paper as originally scheduled. Remember that only co-authors listed on the paper will be permitted to present in your place, and alternative presenters are still required to attend the mandatory Speakers' Breakfast the morning of the scheduled presentation.

Reminders

If you require a travel visa in order to attend this meeting, begin the process immediately to ensure you obtain your visa in time to travel to the meeting.  If you will need a formal invitation letter from the ION, please make your request using the ION Visa Letter Request Form. If your paper must go through any kind of clearance process before it can be released to the public begin the process immediately to ensure you will be able to present your paper at the conference and be included in the published proceedings.

Peer Review Requirement

1. Does the manuscript contain new and significant information to justify publication?
2. Does the abstract clearly and accurately describe the content of the article?
3. Are the objectives of the work clearly and concisely stated?
4. Are the experimental and/or theoretical methods described comprehensively?
5. Are the interpretations and conclusions justified by the results?
6. Is adequate reference made to other work in the field?
7. Is the language acceptable?
8. Does the manuscript cite any recent articles from NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation?
9. Do you recommend this paper for presentation at the conference and publication in the conference proceedings?
   • Endorse paper and recommend for the Walter Fried Award
   • Endorse paper as-is
   • Do not endorse paper (paper fails peer review) for:
     • Technical content/revisions required
     • English/grammar (major edits required)
10. Suggestions for improvement - optional (to be passed to the author)

Please be aware that peer review criteria for a conference paper are not as detailed as that of a journal paper. Therefore, the peer reviewers may not leave comments if the paper has passed the peer review. However, each paper has an optional “comment” box for reviewers to use at their own discretion.

You will be able to track the status of your paper and its peer review through the ION’s Abstract Management Portal .