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

HELP system description

This web-page is directed to those who want to understand the Authors' Guide HELP system, in the (unlikely?) case that they will implement it for future conferences. The HELP system was put together ~4 days full-time work, over the period of 07-11Jan2020, including these very brief instructions. As the system was thrown together in a panic for the last of 8 mass emails for IEEE WCCI 2020 Glasgow, it is [immature, incomplete, of unknown benefit].

You can view the actual "IEEE WCCI 2020 HELP" web-page, as well as the rest of the Authors' Guide, via the Menu at the top of this page.

Definitions

FAQ	"Frequently Asked Questions" - For now, only a small number of FAQs from IJCNN2019 have been listed on the "IEEE WCCI 2020 HELP" web-page. Many more are in the Authors' Guide [page, blog]s. Typically, FAQs are related to the Menu at the top of this page
OrgCom	conference Organising Committee members
FAQ Team	The [To, CC] recipients of a mailto. This can vary for every FAQ, and will often involve individuals from more than one OrgCom Committee, plus HELPERs

Motivation

The HELP Guide tests an idea for improved handling of author inquiries, as well as helping direct authors to information related to their queries. HELP acts as a "quick guide" for authors having troubles with the entire [paper, conference] process.

Authors - Have often in the past asked who to contact for issues that they face. Most of the time that is apparent from the conference web-pages even if it requires some web-search for email addresses. Many of the requests go to the wrong person - I know, because I received a lot of these question as [Publications, Publicity] Co-Chair for past conferences. There have been no requests to me for a tool like this.
OrgCom members - There was no demand to do so from any of them for a better way for authors to direct their inquiries, and I doubt that many are interested in the tool. It's much easier to work in workgroups who are used to passing emails around to one another. But that doesn't address the author inquiries in a semi-automated author-driven manner.
Howell (Publicity mass emails) - Because of my involvement in conference OrgComs, I can expect to receive email inquiries from any authors independent of whether or not any system exists. I just don't have the time to do that anymore. This was a key way for me to try to divert at least some of the emals expected for WCCI2020, and for other future conferences.

Components of the HELP system

HELP web-page construction - "It is what it is". Because of its simplicity, the HELP web-page explains itself by simply looking at the html coding.
Authors' Guide tie-in - This was critical, as the overwhelming bulk of information is in the Guide [web, blog]-pages, with the exception of WCCI2020 "contact teams" specific to that conference-year.

Requirements and Constraints

time & effort - I had very little time to do this, and I was busy putting out two mass emails during that period.
simplicity and functionality - for me, this is the biggest constraint as even though the [time, effort, complexity] of the task is moronically simple compared to many (most) web-sites, volunteers need to minimise their resources.
flexibility - As can be seen from the sections above, a wide range of formats is used.
visibility - information is not hidden away in databased or other formats, so everyone can [criticise, contribute]
portability - Other conference-years only have to copy the entire Guides, or the [Authors', Publications, Publicity, Reviewers, Sponsors] and either plug in their own conference-specific processes, or use it as a map of some things to incorporate in a completely different system using different tools. Already the copy-over to different conference-years is obvious and relatively simple.
maintainability by constantly changing administrators - The HELP web-page is already too complex for [easy, reliable] use by other adminstrators.
Sponsor logos for each conference-year - By [IEEE-CIS, INNS] policy, sponsor logos must appear on all marketing channels. I took this to mean that they should appear on each page of the Authors' Guide. But if there are 15 conferences using the Authors' Guide at the same time, a fast, simple way to show different logo sets for each conference is needed. (I haven't done this.) At present, the un-changed Authors' Guide (except for this HELP web-page) still have the IJCNN2019 logos. It's not much work to change that, but there are a huge number of little things like that, and I don't have any time left.
generalised contacts - One cannot define all possible [FAQs, these, issues, etc]. In the case of WCCI2020, only a few of the FAQs that I remembered were included. Even so, it is possible for authors to guess at the appropriate group of contacts, even with novel combinations of members. Realistically, they are not going to do that - they will simply pick a General Co-Chair, or any OrgCom member for whom they have an email address. They'll just leave it up to OrgCom members to sort it out, which usually isn't a big deal (but not always!).

Contact list alternatives

For IJCNN2019, a spreadsheet file was set up that contained most Publications-related contacts on the Organising Committee. But cherry picking varying combinations of contacts for activities within a theme is a pain and too slow.
Directly modify the Authors' Guide for each conference - That was the case for IJCNN2019 which was the starting point, but it would be problematic to [adapt, maintain] different websites if there are 10 conferences each year! It's even a pain to do modifications on one website for one new conference-year.
Normal contact links on the confernce website, with some discouragment of spammers.
Standard contact feedback form, integrated into a database system. This frequently appears on commercial websites.
HELP page - Having only one new web-page that is specific to a confernce-year is much more attractive.

Potential advantages of the HELP system

Authors - Don't have to dig around on the internet for email addresses, and don't need to [know, understand] the conference committee [organisation, function, processes] to send their queries to the right people.
Authors - FAQ Team recipients of author emails are clear in the mailtos.
The [General Co-Chair, Organising Committees, FAQ Teams, IEEE-CIS & INNS] can :
- see who contacts are for each FAQ
- add recipients such that should be "in the loop" regarding specific author issues. That doesn't mean that the added recipients have to look at the emails, much less take actions. But the recipients will be able to directly follow what is happening.
The HELP web-page is quite general, and can be easily copied and adapted to other aplication (not just conferences).
General Co-Chairs vary in the level of detail that they want to follow. HELP allows them to do that.

Potential disadvantages of the HELP system

Disadvantages

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 to the HELP system if that becomes a problem (see the "Missing pieces" section, for example).
FAQ Teams have to review the current list of contacts (just click the mailto for a FAQ), and submit a revised list. I don't think anyone will be enthusiastic about spending time on that.
[Authors, OrgCom, FAQ, HELPERs] cannot [directly, independently] change the [To, CC] lists. That currently has to bee done by the administrator. This problem has killed the effectiveness of many systems!
The HELP web-page would ideally have a link on the conference website. AFTER it has been used for a couple of years, and there is high activity on the page, the PERHAPS it could move to the conference web-site(s). As with the point above, doing so has killed the effectiveness of many systems! Already the conference webmaster responsibily is one of the busiest for conference preparations.

Missing pieces

At present, email addresses appear on this web-page, which is NOT ideal. Assuming [a need to reduce spam emails, time on my part] the intent would be to implement a "recipient anonymous email address" capability, where [users, robots, scammers] could see the list of [name, WCCI responsibility, affiliation]s in the mailtos, but could not see the actual [To, CC] email addresses. But as this web-page was available only for the last email that was sent out 10Jan2020, and usage of the Authors' Guide was minimal for IJCNN2019, there may not be a real need to do send any more time on this web-page?
Generalisation of the IJCNN2019 Authors' Guide - This would be vastly preferable, as the Guide is currently [confusing, misleading] given the IJCNN-specific [contacts, data, processes]. But I have not attempted to clean it up, as that is a [big, detailed] job, and I do not want to put much further time into any of this.
The website software to build the HELP web-page as part of the Authors' Guide is a combination of [bash, QNial] programming which will be appropriate to very few (close to zero). It is available on Bill Howell's website (free), from which the details and web-pages can be adapted to other web-software IDE systems.

Assessment

As of 11Jan2020 after one day on-line, it's far too early to make an assessment. Realistically, the tool would have to be used seriously over several different conferences for a couple of years, through several stages of [feedback, evolution]. Furthermore, some teams are much quicker to take advantage of [new, differnt] tools than others, so even if it is a total failure for WCCI2020, another conference-year might be able to use it to their advantage.

Approximately 200 authors used the IJCNN2019 Authors' Guide, which was a big reason that I recommended to the WCCI2020 Publications Chairs that it NOT be carried forward. The returns are far too scant for the maintanance effort required! I assume that will be the case for the WCCI2020 HELP web-page.

Authors - First, we have to see whether the HELP system will be used at all! Maybe then we will get feedback.
[OrgCom, FAQ team] members - again, it's far too early to assess, as they haven't even seen it yet!
HELPERs - no feedback at all to 11Jan2020.
[IEEE-CIS, INNS] societies - they were not invited to look at the system. Rather than waste their time, in my opinion, they should only be approached IF authors find it to be useful.
Administrator, mass email [composer, sender] - 11Jan2020 Howell - This did the basics of what I wanted at the very end of my responsibilities. It's [ugly, primitive, incomplete, disjointed], but it should be enough, not to provide a long-term solution, but to provoke questions leading to better home-built systems. A good question is worth more than a thousand good answers.

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) :

Initial submission of your paper to the IEEE paper review system.
Receipt of an email paper acceptance notification from the Program Co-Chairs via the IEEE paper review system.
Payment of the conference registration fee. At least one of the co-authors must be registered for the conference to present the paper.
IEEE approval of a signed IEEE electronic Copyright form (eCf) (online submission)
Submission and approval of a properly revised final paper.
Travel visa approval, for citizens of countries required to do that by Hungary.
?What else have I forgotten? ...

Directory of available files for this webpage

Many thanks to our Sponsors & Exhibitors

Ongoing support : [IEEE, IEEE-CIS] for [CEC, FUZZ, IJCNN]; INNS for IJCNN; [IET, EPS] for CEC

2020 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence, Glasgow, Scotland.....19-24 July 2020

2019 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, Budapest, HUNGARY.....14-19 July 2019

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