Regular Papers with Journal Option

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IFAC Journal Options for World Congress 2026

Authors are invited to take advantage of a special opportunity to have their paper considered for publication in one of the participating IFAC journals in parallel with the Congress presentation. Papers submitted for this “Journal Option” will benefit from an expedited review and, if accepted, will be published promptly in the journal.

To participate, the manuscript should address one of the topics listed below and present journal-quality research contribution. Two submission types are eligible:

  • Regular paper with journal option (up to 8 pages for review, 6 pages for the final Congress version)
  • Regular survey paper with journal option (up to 14 pages for review, 12 pages for the final Congress version)

Invited session papers, Open invited track papers, Tutorial session papers, Demonstration papers, Late-breaking/discussion papers are not eligible for the journal option.

List of Participating Journals and Associated Technical Committees with Submission Codes

For brief overview of the IFAC journals, refer to https://www.ifac-control.org/publications/journals.

Submission period

July 1 - October 26, 2025

Procedures

  • Manuscripts should be prepared using the IFAC Symposia format, which is available at https://www.ifac-control.org/conferences/authors-guide , up to 8 pages for regular papers, or 14 pages for survey papers.
  • Authors should submit their manuscript to the World Congress first at IFAC PaperPlaza Conference Manuscript Management System (https://ifac.papercept.net/ ).
    • Choose either "Regular paper with journal option" or "Regular survey paper with journal option."
    • During submission, use the correct submission code applicable to the manuscript, as indicated in bold above.
    • Caution: When the PaperPlaza system prompts to choose keywords, the first keyword must correspond to the appropriate TC associated with the participating journal as listed above. The keyword list is also available at https://ifac2026.org/fairContents.do?FAIRMENU_IDX=21837&hl=ENG#guide-keywords.
  • After completing the Congress submission, authors should also submit the same manuscript to the journal.
    • After the Congress submission, note down the submission number assigned by the World Congress PaperPlaza system.
    • Go to the corresponding journal website, click "Submit your article", and select "Special issue for World Congress 2026". Please note that the opening dates of the journal submission sites may vary by journal (beginning on July 1, 2025 or later).
    • Submit the same manuscript (up to 8 or 14 pages long in the IFAC Symposia format) to the journal. The page limit may be relaxed starting from the second round of review for the journal, in accordance with the policy of the respective journal. Be sure to include the following information in the cover letter:  World Congress submission number and code.
    • Caution: Manuscripts submitted to more than one journal will be automatically rejected from all journals.
  • The first round of the review is performed by the journal side.
    • If the manuscript is accepted by the journal before mid-February 2026, the manuscript will be automatically accepted for the Congress.
    • The manuscript that is either still undecided or rejected by the journal as of mid-February 2026 will be re-evaluated by the Congress, based on the first round review report from the journal.
    • Please note that for manuscripts that do not receive a decision from the journal until mid-February, the review processes for the Congress and the journal will become independent from that point on. This is intended to meet both the Congress timeline and ensure the quality of accepted papers: the Congress decision will be announced in April 2026, whereas the journal's final decision may take longer due to revisions or additional round of reviews.  As a result, it is possible that a manuscript rejected by the Congress may still be accepted by the journal at a later date as a revised version. The journal's final decision will be made no later than the end of the Congress.
  • All authors will receive acceptance/rejection decision from the Congress and the journal, respectively. Matters such as the total number of papers to be accepted for the journal special issue and how the special issue papers will be organized and published will be at the discretion of each journal's editorial board. For submissions that receive a desk-reject decision (i.e., returned without external review) from the journal, the first batch of notifications will not be issued before the journal option submission deadline, which is set for October 26, 2025. Nevertheless, these submissions will still be reviewed for presentation at the Congress.
  • If a manuscript is accepted for both the Congress and the journal, it will be included in the Congress Preprint (distributed via USB or other media), but excluded from the Congress Proceedings (IFAC PapersOnLine: POL) released a few months after the Congress. The authors whose manuscript is accepted by the journal must also prepare their final version for the Congress, which is up to 6 pages for the regular paper and 12 pages for the survey paper, in line with IFAC PapersOnline policy. It should be noted that journal publication is contingent upon the authors’ presentation at the Congress. The final length of the journal version papers may vary depending on the editorial decision of the respective journal and may be longer than the Congress version. These versions will be published in the journal’s special issue after the Congress. The following table summarizes the publication policy:
For Congress For Journal Preprint POL Journal
accepted accepted O X O
accepted rejected O O X
rejected accepted X X O

Any inquiry regarding the journal option can be directed to the IPC Co-chair, Hyoun Jin Kim (ipc@ifac2026.org).