Authors & Publish chair page, blog	Paper formatting page, blog	Initial paper submission chair, page, blog	Final paper submission chair, page, blog	Problematic papers - corrections page, blog
	Author [PDF,CrossCheck] tests page, blog	IEEE PDF eXpress - paper format chair, page, blog	IEEE electronic Copyright (eCf) chair, page, blog	Attendee downloads of papers page, blog
	Conference registration page, blog	Travel visas to Hungary page, blog	Conference presentations page, blog	HELP contacts WCCI2020, system
Non-Author actions	Paper reviews - authors' perspective page, blog	IEEE CrossCheck text similarity chair, page, blog	IEEE Xplore web-publish chair, page, blog
	IEEE Conference Application chair	IEEE Letter of Acquisition chair	IEEE Publication Form chair	Software systems page

Conference Guides for [IEEE-CIS, INNS] conferences : Although this guide was initially set up for IJCNN2019, and was used for IEEE WCCI 2020, hopefully some of the basic information may still help [organising committee members, authors] up to 2023-2025 (assuming a half-life of links and process information of 3-5 years?). The Authors' and Publications menus have been combined, allowing authors to see the Publications Chair perspective as well. I am no longer keeping this up to date. Bill Howell, 11Dec2020

IEEE WCCI 2020 HELP web-page

Please help REDUCE the flood of emails that often overwhelm committe members! See the Help sections below BEFORE emailing people...

Organising Committee contacts are provided below for various themes and specific problems, in a "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) format. Your email is addressed to the "IEEE WCCI 2020 HELP daemon", which :

sends it "To:" the "best-guess" Organising Committee member who can respond to it
"CC's" it to FAQ team members and others who would like to be aware of your inquiry (including perhaps one or more "Helpers" listed below)
"CC's" it to you as well
sends it to the email wastebasket if the "Subject:" line is not EXACTLY as provided!! So don't change it.
There is a delay with the daemon, as I would only run it a couple times a day during periods of activity (it's not worth putting more time and resources to make it real-time).

In general, only the "To :" contact will respond to your inquiries, while those who are copied on the mailtos will be able to see the issues that people are facing, and how they are handled. Alternates may also step in when contacts are flooded with work and cannot easily respond.

This arrangement provides an "Anonymous Recipient Email Daemon" (ARED), so that authors don't have to search all over for the right contact and their email address, plus it keeps others in the loop to help share the workload, especially if the "To:" is [away, sick, otherwise unavalable]. You can see list of the contacts, but not their email addresses, for each FAQ. Read the [Author, FAQ team, HELPER] instructions below for a few more details.

Young researchers, and experienced researchers who are not familiar with the WCCI processes and IEEE [paper submissions, formatting, copyrights, plagiarism checks], may find the Authors' Guide (via the menu above) to be of some help. Although it was put up for IJCNN2019, and [dates, contacts, process] are different for IEEE WCCI 2020, some of the basic [information, processes, problems] remain the same.

Test for new users
Initial paper submissions
Paper [review, CrossCheck] rejections
Final paper submissions
Conference registration, payment, invitation letters
Local and Special arrangements for WCCI2020
Travel arrangements
IEEE Xplore online publishing
[Paper, CrossCheck] reviews, Session [scheduling, rooms], Oral-Poster allocations
Competitions
HELP web-page [problems, suggestions]?
HELP instructions
HELP system description
HELP system status

Test for new users

New users may want to send a "dummy" email just to have an example of what happens with the "Anonymous Recipient Email Daemon" (ARED) mailtos. Click the mailto link below, and you will see an explanation in the email that pops up.
mailto New user test of system to see how it works.

Initial paper submissions

These issues are usually handled by the Publications Co-Chairs, with a copy to HELPER Mufti Mahmud.
WCCI Author Blog mailto paper formatting
WCCI Author Blog mailto can I submit a paper that has already appeared in [arXiv, TechRxiv.org, other]? (update, some others have been accepted by IEEE)
WCCI Author Blog mailto PDF Xpress problems
WCCI Author Blog mailto Should I [iThenticate, CrossCheck] test my paper before submission? (answer - yes! if you can)
WCCI Author Blog mailto missing conference ID numbers, etc
WCCI Author Blog mailto other glitches in the paper submission process
WCCI Author Blog mailto I have missed the submission deadline. Can I still submit my paper? (short answer : try, but once the sysem is closed, you are probably out of luck!)
WCCI Author Blog mailto changes to papers after initial submission
WCCI Author Blog mailto Are peer reviews one or two-sided? (They are one-sided : reviewers see the authors, but authors don't see the reviewers.)
WCCI Author Blog mailto withdrawal of initial papers that have been [peer review, CrossCheck] accepted

Paper [review, CrossCheck] rejections

These problems involve the [Conference, Technical] Chairs, and paper authors, with a copy to HELPER Mufti Mahmud :
Author Blog mailtos : CEC FUZZ IJCNN Paper rejections
Author Blog mailtos : CEC FUZZ IJCNN CrossCheck rejections

Final paper submissions

These issues are usually handled by the Publications Co-Chairs, with a copy to HELPER Mufti Mahmud.
WCCI Author Blog mailto copyright problems
WCCI Author Blog mailto special copyrights
WCCI Author Blog mailto changes to papers after final submission (sometimes allowed, previous blogs have not been posted)
WCCI Author Blog mailto can I add an author in the final submission stage? (sometimes allowed, previous blogs have not been posted)
WCCI Author Blog mailto withdrawal of final papers (NO, previous blogs have not been posted)

Conference registration, payment, invitation letters

These issues are usually handled by the management company Conference Catalysts. A copy of your inquiry goes to HELPER Mufti Mahmud.
WCCI Author Blog mailto conference registration (general issues)
WCCI Author Blog mailto Can a student registration cover a paper?
WCCI Author Blog mailto invitation letters to obtain travel visas

Local and Special arrangements for WCCI2020

For queries such as those below, the contacts are either the WCCI2020 management company Conference Catalyst, or the Local Arrangements Committee :
mailto on-site conference rooms for WCCI2020 [meetings, gatherings, celebrations]
mailto special events involving conference attendees, but that are not part of the conference program.
mailto ?what other issues for the Local Arrangements Committee?

Travel arrangements

Accomodations booking website - via the Glasgow Convention Bureau, which is the official accommodation provider for the conference and has negotiated specially discounted rates with a wide range of hotels. Accommodation will be sold on a first come, first served basis and the published rates will be available until 5 June 2020. Book now to avoid disappointment and secure your discounted rate!

WCCI Author Blog mailto Travel visa invitation letters

What's happening in Glasgow during the conference? While it's best to do your own searches, here are a few example links to get started. For several sites you can select the date range of interest (for example 15-29 July 2020) :

Trip Advisor : Things to do in Glasgow and Tourism in Glasgow

ScotlandWelcomesYou - Events July 2020

Lonely Planet - Top experiences in Glasgow

FindFestival - Glasgow Festivals

Viator - Glasgow and area tours

IEEE Xplore online publishing

These issues are usually handled by the Publications Co-Chairs, with a copy to HELPER Mufti Mahmud.
WCCI Author Blog mailto What indexing services cover IEEE WCCI papers?
WCCI Author Blog mailto What is the ISBN number for the conference? :
CEC 2020 ISBN = ???, FUZZ 2020 ISBN = ???, IJCNN 2020 ISBN = ???
Note : the Authors [Guide, blog] give the IJCNN2019 number, not WCCI2020 numbers!

[Paper, CrossCheck] reviews, Session [scheduling, rooms], [Oral, Poster] allocations

These issues involve the [Conference, Technical] Chairs, and are normally handled within the Organising Committee, including Organisers of [Special Sessions, Workshops, Competitions]. WCCI-pages and Author-[Guide, blog] pages are not available for these issues, as they do not normally involve the authors. The mailtos below are for the use of other Organising Comittee members, rather than for authors :
mailtos : CEC FUZZ IJCNN Paper reviews
mailtos : CEC FUZZ IJCNN Session [scheduling, rooms]
mailtos : CEC FUZZ IJCNN [Oral, Poster] allocations

Competitions

Competitions inquiries are handled by the organisers. Competitions Co-ordinator Chang-Shing Lee, the appropriate [CEC, FUZZ, IJCNN] Competition Co-Chair, and HELPER Mufti Mahmud also receive a copy.

IEEE-FUZZ competition :
web-page mailto Fuzzy Machine Learning (FML)-based Human and Smart Machine Co-Learning of the Game of Go

IJCNN competitions :
web-page mailto Vision-based human fall classification
web-page mailto VISOB 2.0: End-to-end visible spectrum ocular biometric matching
web-page mailto Learning to run a power network (L2RPN)

IEEE-CEC competitions :
web-page mailto Evolutionary Computation in the Energy Domain: Smart Grid and Energy Markets
web-page mailto Smart Grid and Sustainable Energy Systems : photovoltaic and PEV fuel cells
web-page mailto Clinical Brain Computer Interfaces Challenge : stroke patients with hand disability
web-page mailto Robust Optimization Competition : iron ore roasting
web-page mailto EvoMan: General Game-playing Agent Competition : shot 'em up
web-page mailto Strategy Card Game AI Competition : Legends of Code and Magic
web-page mailto Offline Data-Driven Evolutionary Optimization : aerodynamic optimization and software configuration tuning
web-page mailto Evolutionary Multi-task Optimization : complement and augment human intelligence
web-page mailto Electric Vehicle Routing Problem
web-page mailto Multimodal Multiobjective Optimization Competition
web-page mailto Niching Methods for Multimodal Optimization
web-page mailto Real-World Single Objective Constrained Optimization
web-page mailto Single Objective Bound Constrained Optimization
web-page mailto Constrained Multiobjective Optimization

HELP web-page [problems, suggestions]?

web-page mailto WCCI web-site
web-page mailto Authors' [Guide, blog]s (Note that this is not being updated from IJCNN2019, but your suggestions may help for the future.)
web-page mailto This HELP web-page. As it is new and untested, problems will occur.
web-page mailto Social media - Facebook and Twitter

HELP instructions

This HELP web-page is a trial, designed to see if ["email ping-pong", email list construction] for OrgCom members can be reduced, as well as providing a consistent treatment of author inquiries. Very brief comments appear below to those who will receive "HELP" emails. As the mass email campaign is over, Bill Howell won't be putting significant time into improvements. If the concept proves useful, it is better to move this to the conference web-page.

Please help REDUCE the flood of emails that often overwhelm committe members!

You can do this by :

FIRST - check the related links to the [conference web-page, Authors' [Guide, blog]]s to find responses to your questions across a wide variety of topics and common problems. Because the Authors' [Guide, blog]s were prepared for IJCNN2019, and are not being updated, your should be aware that many details are different for IEEE WCCI 2020. This "Help" page serves as a kind of "quick update" for WCCI 2020 by providing a few of the details that have changed, but not all.

Remember - if it's not worth your time to look for an easily available response, then how can you expect volunteers to do that for you? But sometimes it can be hard to find the right answer, or the answers provided aren't clear or don't work! In those cases, asking for feedback can help us to improve the information.

SECOND - If you cannot find an answer to your [problem, issue] in the the [conference web-page, Authors' [Guide, blog]]s, use the "mailto" links provided below! The "mailto" links direct your inquiry to (hopefully) the right committee members, and copy the email to others to help their general awareness of issues that authors, committee members, session organisers] are having. Note that only common questions are listed, but you can pick a mailto in a related area, and modify the subject line to adapt it to your problem, but retain the first part of the subject line "IEEE WCCI 2020 HELP : ".

Author instructions

All you have to do is :

refresh this web-page BEFORE using the mailto links! Contacts may have been [changed, added, removed] since the last time that you viewed this web-page!
for information : click the [WCCI, Author, Blog], mailto, other] link for web information related to any "Frequently Asked Question" (FAQ).
to email :
- Again : "Please help REDUCE the flood of emails that often overwhelm committe members! See the first section below, on how to proceed BEFORE emailing people..." (read the section above)
- click the [mailto, CEC, FUZZ, IJCNN, other] mailto link to send an email to contacts within the conference Organising Committee.

WARNINGS : The "Anonymous Recipient Email Daemon" (ARED) :

does NOT put contacts into the "To:" or "CC:" fields of the email that is set up for you (other than your email address as a "CC:"). You CAN see list of the targeted contact [name, conference responsibility, affilitation, home town]s, but not their email addresses, for each FAQ in the "secure" program file email - split HELPER_WCCI2020.ndf. This is a modification of the actual program file, without the mail addresses, and with lines split for each comma so that it is easier to read the [To:, CC:] recipients. Admittedly, it's really UGLY, but it doesn't take up my time before we see if anyone uses the HELP, then until FAQ team preferences are determined.
do NOT change the "Subject:" field of your email! If that field does't match any of the FAQs provided, it simply goes to trash, without any response to you.
is currently run manually, once or twice a day, when email arrives. After they receive the email, Contacts still may require from one to ?four? days to respond, depending on their schedules. Naturally, conference problems usually affect many authors at the same time, and that puts further burden on the FAQ teams.
So, WAIT patiently for a response! The same problem affects emails sent directly to the contacts, but to a lesser degree.
For a prototype system, I am reluctant to go through the [trouble, cost] of setting up real-time responses. Hopefully someone else will do that, and provide the ARED for use by all IEEE-CIS conferences. But that will only happen if this proves useful to [authors, Organising Committee].
will send a confirmation email to you immediately, IF your email is successfully [composed, passed on].
If not, your email went to trash. Check that you haven't corrupted the "Subject:" field, and if not, contact the "HELP Daemon's assistant", and explain the problem. This is important, as it will likely affect other authors as well..

At this prototype stage, once you have established email contact with the FAQ team, remove the daemon mail from the [To:, CC:] fields of subsequent emails.

FAQ team instructions

It is assumed that FAQ teams are typically composed of WCCI2020 Organising Committee (OrgCom) members. However, Email filter(s) - My first recommendation is to put in a filter on your [Outlook, Thunderbird, other] email system so that HELP email exchanges don't flood out your inbox. The Subject line phrase "IEEE WCCI 2020 HELP : " would be a good filter key to do that. Of course, you can :

put in FAQ-specific filters, for all or some of the FAQ
separately filter HELP emails for which you are the "To" and "CC", thereby focussing better on inquiries for which you are the primary contact.
do combinations of the above and other types of filtering, to cull out the emails that you need to pay attention to.

FAQ team lists - At present, the system "carpet bombs" OrgCom members that might be the best contacts for each FAQ (my first guess). But FAQ teams can refine the lists to include only [all, some, one]*[To, CC] contact.

[To,CC] list modification on replies - Don't forget to edit the lists when you reply, as necessary. Perhaps other people should be included.

Inquiries coming from outside of the HELP system - I don't know if this is useful, but for inquiries that don't go through the HELP system, you might encourage authors to submit future inquiries via the HELP web-page, which will helpfully direct any further inquiries to the right initial email list.

For other questions, if they arise, please refer to the "Authors Guide : WCCI 2020 HELP web-page" :
http://www.billhowell.ca/Neural%20nets/Conference%20guides/Author%20guide%20website/HELP.html
That will help to direct your inquiries to the right Organising Committee contacts.

The biggest fear, of course, is that the HELP web-page might enormously increase [frivolous, flaming, spam] emails for already-busy OrgCom members. Based on the low volume of the IJCNN2019 Authors' Guide, and the late one-shot introduction of the system, that won't happen for WCCI2020, but I could be wrong. Changes can be made if that becomes a problem (see the comment in the "HELP instructions" intro above, for example).

HELPER instructions

The instructions above for FAQ teams apply to HELPERs as well. It is expected that HELPERs won't look at the emails, but can as necessary. Critical FAQs that a HELPER may want to address or be involved in can be filtered out by email programs for actions.

Initial HELPERs are listed in a section above as a first guess.

HELPER CC's - The current assumption is that the General Co-Chair has final say on HELPER CC's included for each FAQ. Often people who are not directly involed in work teams [need, want] to know about issues that arise, and need a track record of that to give them an idea of the magnitude of the problem, turnaround times, etc so they are better placed to put resources on it. (they can "see" the problems when FAQ teams bring up issues).

[IEEE-CIS, INNS] Board members, future conference Chairs are NOT currently CC'd as HELPERs in any of the mailtos. That is possible, of course, just as any person can be added. But this will likely be a very low volume website, and the only likely reason for "extra people" that I can see would be for them to get a feel for author inquiries and responses. A future conference Co-Chair might be one such case.

"HELPERs" track overall problems that arise :

You will often see "Helper" emails "CC'd" in your request for help. For a few of the problems, even General Co-Chair Amir Hussain will be able to see your inquiries and follow the responses, although he can't possibly look at all of them, and would do so only by exception (the emails are easy to filter so that they won't clutter inboxes).

Hopefully, the use of these mailtos will help to spread the workload across the Organising committee, reduce the effort to include the right people in the email distribution (especially for authors!), and help organisers track problems that are occuring so that people can be assigned to help out as needed.


Mufti Mahmud Local Arrangements and Webmaster Co-Chair, Nottingham Trent University, UK	Chris Dyer CEO, Conference Catalysts, Gainesville, Florida, USA	Ileana Canizares Director- Conference Management Unit, Conference Catalysts, Gainesville, Florida, USA	Amir Hussain General Co-Chair, WCCI2020, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland, UK

HELP system status

10Jan2020 This web-page is VERY incomplete, having just been thrown together with limited testing.

~1/2 to 1/3 of the menu items at the top of this web-page are covered
many links are not yet provided (none of the "WCCI" links to the conference website)
the Organising Committee teams haven't even start discussing who the mailto recipients should be for many "FAQs"
only a few of the [FAQ, blog] items are included
simple [description, instruction]s are in preparation
mailtos for the [Conference, Technical] Chairs might wait for the development of "anonymous recipient addressing" (you can see the names, but not the email addresses of the Chairs)

Hopefully it may still be of help to authors at this initial stage (paper submissions). See the "Website [problems, suggestions]?" section below if it isn't working properly.

REMINDERS : This Authors' Guide is specific to the IEEE conference paper system, and for the most part links to, or repeats, information that is COPYRIGHTED by the IEEE. Keep in mind that the IEEE processes something like 1,800 conferences per year, and delays exceeding a week are to be expected, with longer delays during high-activity parts of the year. So don't wait too long before starting each process!
Author preparations for the conference include (roughly in squence) :