2018 IEEE AP-S Student Paper Competition Rules and Guidelines

1. General Information
   1. Only one student paper competition (SPC) submission per student is allowed.
   2. For consideration in the student paper competition, the student must be the only student author and must be first author on the paper. Each other co-author must submit a signed letter indicating that his/her contribution to the paper is primarily advisory. (For example, a paper with a student author and three co-advisors would have three unique letters submitted from the co-advisors at the time of submission.) The letters must be in PDF format and must be uploaded via this Web site at the time of paper submission.
   3. All SPC papers will be judged using a double-blind review process. In double-blind reviews, the identities of the authors are withheld from the reviewers in addition to the usual practice of having the identities of the reviewers withheld from the authors. Therefore, a student must submit two copies of the SPC paper to the Web site — one without any identifying information, including authors' names, affiliations, funding sources, etc., and one intended for publication in the Symposium proceedings that includes authors' names and affiliations, etc. Other than the identifying information, the two versions of the paper should be identical. For more information and guidelines regarding the preparation of an SPC paper, please see the following instructions.
2. Preparation and Submission of Papers for Double Blind Review

   Please read the following instructions carefully before preparing a paper for submission. Failure to follow all instructions below will result in the removal of the paper from the competition and its placement in the regular submission paper pool.

   1. The double-blind review process requires that each student competitor upload two copies of their paper:
      1. A PDF version of the paper for double-blind review - no authors, institutions, funding sources, etc., in the text and no identifying attributes in the PDF file information (available by selecting "Properties..." in the File menu in Acrobat Reader).
      2. A PDF version of the paper for inclusion for publication in the Symposium proceedings (exactly the same paper as in (a), but with authors, affiliations, funding sources, etc., included).
   2. Authors should not use more than two (2) self-citations. Authors must cite work only available in the open literature with an official publication date of January 1, 2018 or earlier. Work in review or on schedule to be published does not qualify as being in the open literature.
   3. Authors should avoid referring to their own work in the first person context in the submission text. For example, authors should not describe their prior work with phrases like:

      "Previously [3], we presented an antenna that..."

      Instead, authors should refer to their work in the third person, for example:

      "Previously, Chen [3] presented an antenna that..."

      In this way, the full citation to Chen [3] can still be given, for example:

      [3] Chen, J., "Analysis of antenna with ...

   4. Authors should not leave out any references or use reference listings such as:

      "[3] Reference deleted for double-blind review"

   5. Authors should prepare their submissions (both blinded and regular versions of the paper) as required by the Paper Submission Guidelines.
   6. Upon submission authors are required to go through a checklist verifying that the rules and guidelines specified in this section have been followed. Completion of the checklist will be required in order to successfully submit the student paper into the competition. The checklist is as follows:
      • I verify that none of the co-authors on this paper are students, and that the uploaded letters for all co-authors indicate their job titles or positions.
      • I verify that I have removed the author listing, author affiliations, and funding acknowledgments and any other author- or institution-identifying information from the blind version of the paper.
      • I verify that all references to all prior work (including my own and that of others associated with my institution) are made in the third person.
      • I verify that all references cited have been published officially in the public domain/open literature on or before January 1, 2018.
   7. Failure to follow all instructions will result in the removal of the paper from the competition and its placement in the regular submission paper pool.

A sample paper has been provided in its two versions. The first paper shows the paper submitted for the regular program, while the second paper shows the paper submitted for the double blind review evaluation.

• Regular Paper
• Double Blind Paper

Questions regarding the preparation and submission of papers for the competition should be directed to the 2018 AP-S Student Paper Competition Committee at spc@2018apsursi.org.

3. Evaluation of Written Submissions
   1. A panel of reviewers from the Society’s membership including researchers from industry, laboratories, and universities is assembled to evaluate all qualifying SPC submissions.
   2. Three independent double-blind reviews for each submission from a selected panel of reviewers who are experts in the student's field of study and who are not associated with the student in any way are obtained. A double-blind review process is used as described above. At least two of the reviewers must indicate the submission is acceptable for a paper to be accepted into the competition. Note that faculty advisors and other collaborators with students in the competition are not permitted to serve as reviewers in the competition.
   3. The written submission evaluation criteria are:
      1. Quality of written paper (e.g., clarity, organization, figure size, style, etc.)
      2. Sufficient depth and breadth of research work
      3. Innovation and impact of research work
      4. Verification and/or validation of results reported in paper
   4. Upon completion of all of the reviews, the SPC Committee assembles a list of the top papers based solely on the numerical scores obtained in the reviews. Student authors of the top-scoring papers will be invited as Finalists to the poster presentation phase of the contest. Also designated by this process is a list of student authors recognized as Honorable Mentions. Students designated as Finalists and Honorable Mentions will be provided with a monetary award to help defray travel expenses associated with Symposium attendance, which is collected at the Symposium upon successful completion of their presentation. Finalist and Honorable Mention student competitors who are unable to attend the Symposium for any reason are not eligible to receive this monetary award. The awards are also not awardable to any substitute presenters of the student papers. Finalists also receive additional funds to defray the costs associated with the fabrication of the posters for the SPC Finalist Poster Session. All applicable taxes are the responsibility of the award recipient. All recipients will be required to complete a United States Internal Revenue Service Form W-8 or W-9 before award funds will be disbursed.
   5. Each selected finalist must be registered for the Symposium and must attend and present their paper to the judges for award consideration. Finalists are also required to prepare a poster for their paper, which will be presented in the Finalist Poster session as described below.
4. Evaluation of Finalist Poster Presentations
   1. All student finalists will present their papers during a poster session held during the Symposium. Finalists are required to be present at their posters during this entire duration of the poster session, with exceptions made in cases where the poster session conflicts with the scheduled presentation of the paper in the regular Symposium program. In these cases, the student will leave the poster session to present their paper and the return to the poster session upon the completion of their presentation.
   2. The SPC Committee assembles a panel of several individuals from the Society's membership who will judge the oral poster presentations during SPC poster session. The SPC Committee will determine the exact composition of the judging panel before the presentation session, and will ensure that the expertise of the judging panel reflects the wide range of technical topics across the field of interest of the Society.
   3. Each judge is provided with a score sheet that lists the names of all presenters with paper titles. After reviewing all poster presentations, the judges score the presentations based on the following criteria:
      1. Quality of presentation (e.g., clarity, organization, figure size/arrangements, style, etc.)
      2. Sufficient depth and breadth of research work
      3. Innovation and impact of research work
      4. Verification and/or validation of results reported
   4. The SPC Committee tallies the scores submitted by the judges and determines the total score for each competitor. The competitor having the highest total score will be designated the first place winner, the second highest total score will be designated the second place winner, and the third highest score will be designated the third place winner.
   5. In the event of a tie for first, second, or third place, the SPC Committee, in consultation with the final judging panel, will meet and make the tie-breaking decisions.
5. Awards
   1. The SPC Committee Chair or their designate will announce the first, second and third place winners at the Symposium's Annual Awards Ceremony.
   2. A monetary award and a certificate/plaque will be given to each student paper competition winner. The monetary awards are $700 for first place, $500 for second place, and $300 for third place.
   3. All applicable taxes are the responsibility of the award recipient. All recipients will be required to complete a United States Internal Revenue Service Form W-8 or W-9 before award funds will be disbursed.