Prior to printing the Call-for-Papers, certain policy decisions should be made. Deadlines for submissions should be determined. Deadlines published in the Call-for-Papers should be somewhat soft (2 weeks or so), to permit consideration of papers delayed by the mails or other failings of the modern world. It is also recommended that a policy on over-length papers be established.
The Call-for-Papers should be coordinated with the Publicity Committee. Generally the topical areas should match those of the EDICs categories. It should specifically request papers in those subject areas the Technical Program Committee wishes to encourage. This is a major tool for the Technical Program Committee to use to set the tone of the ICASSP. The ICASSP Call-for-Papers should be widely announced in IEEE publications, and in direct mailings to the membership of the SP Society, attendees of recent ICASSPs, and other groups to whom it seems appropriate. The final draft of the Call-for-Papers should be completed in time to be included in the previous ICASSP's Proceedings and Final Program. The Call-For-Papers should publicize any rules regarding submissions. In particular, limitations on multiple submissions from an author should be clear.
The Call-for-Papers has in the past requested an extended abstract or summary, and a completed questionnaire. For ICASSP-92 the questionnaire was replaced with instructions requesting that authors address the five questions listed, and the abstract was extended to three pages including figures and references. After completing their reviews, the Technical Committees recommended that the three page abstract limit be retained, and begged us to return to the questionnaire. Apparently, the desire to have one's work included at ICASSP does not imply the willingness to follow instructions or the ability to include in the abstract the answer to the seemingly obvious question, ``what is the problem?'' If the Technical Program Committee wishes to alter the format of the submissions, it must first consult and receive the approval of the Conference Board and the SP Technical Committees.
The Technical Program Committee must work closely with the Publicity Chairperson to design the Call-for-Papers. The call must be carefully laid out in order to provide all the necessary information to authors, and to obtain all the necessary information from the authors.