Changes to IGARSS Submission Process Seek to Broaden Participation in Flagship GRSS Event

GRSS adopted a major new policy regarding the submission of papers to present at IGARSS 2025 in Brisbane, Australia. For decades, GRSS had an internal debate regarding the optimal submission format for its flagship conference. Should the authors submit a full technical paper that undergoes peer review before acceptance by the IGARSS committee? Should only shorter versions (1 or 2 pages long abstracts) be requested?

Both options have pros and cons. Full papers are complete for understanding and provide sufficient evidence that the work is worthy of being published and archived on Xplore. But they may not reflect the very latest on-going work of the authors, and some authors do not want or need archived publications exposing all of their work. On the other hand, presentations based on abstracts may reflect the most recent developments, do not take much time to prepare and are not archived. But the reviewers have little material to evaluate the actual contribution…

This year, the IGARSS 2025 chairs committee made a critical move and chose… not to choose! They expanded the submission process to give potential presenters several options to have their work prese ted at the conference: prospective presenters could submit either a full technical paper that would then be fully peer reviewed and be archived on IEEE Xplore, or a simple one-page abstract that can be presented during the conference but does not become an archived paper, or they could also propose to present a recently accepted journal paper (hence avoiding to write yet another paper on some work that is already referenced).

The initial results of the new procedure are very positive. A record number of papers were submitted, and the reviewers report no drop in quality. The acceptance rate was about the same as previous years.

“We received 3,997 submissions in total, which is the largest number ever received for an IGARSS,” said Jocelyn Chanussot, IGARSS 2025 Co-Chair and Research Director at INRIA, France. “This new record was completely unexpected because of the remote location of IGARSS this year, and is hence even more impressive.”

Prof. Chanussot explained that IGARSS rotates on a three-year cycle among locations in North America, Europe, and Asia/Oceana. A dip in submissions typically occurs when the event is held in Asia or Oceana, as it is this year in Australia, due to the expense of traveling to that part of the globe and growing awareness of the environmental impact of intercontinental flights. IGARSS received about 3,700 submissions for the 2023 show in California and about 3,800 last year in Greece. This year’s submissions have topped them both.

While some initially expressed concerns the submission changes might diminish the quality of the conference, Prof. Chanussot is confident that just the opposite is true. From his perspective, one of the primary goals of an event like IGARSS is to gather like-minded students, scientists, and professionals from industry and space agency together so they share their research, learn from each other, and make valuable new connections to promote their careers.

By providing more options for participating, GRSS has succeeded in making IGARSS a more inclusive event that attracts a greater number of people from different disciplines.

“It’s not really the paper, it’s more the participation in the conference that matters to me,” he said.

The three submission options for IGARSS 2025, and probably for future IGARSS events, can be summarized as follows:

Full Paper – As has historically been the only option for many other conferences, researchers must submit fully documented and footnoted technical papers explaining the processes and outcomes of their work for peer review. Once accepted, the four-page paper is archived in its entirety on IEEE Xplore platform.

Abstract Only – Following a short template provided by GRSS, researchers submit one-page abstracts briefly describing the project they want to present. GRSS reviewers assess the abstract only to ensure its content is suitable for the conference topic. The abstract is not included in IEEE Xplore.

Published Journal Articles – Authors whose articles have been reviewed and accepted for publication in any of the IEEE journals may submit them for consideration by the IGARSS committee. Like the abstracts, the review for acceptance is primarily aimed at making sure the paper is timely and fits the conference topic.

GRSS members apparently embraced the new procedures with enthusiasm. The committee received roughly 2500 full papers, 1200 abstracts, and 200 journal articles for consideration. Presentations have been assigned to appropriate IGARSS sessions as usual. There will not be separate sessions for papers, abstracts, and articles.

The IGARSS planning committee made another, smaller change to conference procedures regarding the Student Paper Competition. Out of the roughly 300 submissions for this contest, the 10 finalists have traditionally only presented their papers in a session dedicated to the Competition open to all. In essence, this session covers very diverse research topics and often fails to attract all the actual experts for each individual paper (people tend to attend sessions that are focused and clearly deal with their interest).

Also, in the session, the audience is not allowed to ask questions, in order to avoid influencing the judges. This results in a somewhat frustrating experience for the students who lack the feedback of their most qualified piers.

In order to tackle this problem, this year, the 10 finalists will present their papers twice at IGARSS, first in the traditional Student Competition session and then in a regular session fully relevant to their respective topic.

So, how will these changes impact IGARSS 2025? Please plan to attend and decide for yourself. We hope to see you in Brisbane!