Author Central

IEEE PVSC Publication Philosophy


To ensure a high technical quality of the conference and its proceedings, the PVSC publication process relies on three main elements:

  • A rigorous peer review process of all submitted abstracts
  • A “no paper, no podium” policy
  • Post-conference proceedings formatting review

The abstract peer review process takes place shortly after the submission deadline in late January. At least 5 reviewers assess the quality of each 3-page extended abstract submission. Based on their combined review scores, the work is accepted for inclusion in the PVSC program as an extended oral, regular oral, or poster contribution (or, if appropriate, rejection). Compared with abstract reviews for some other conferences, the 3-page abstract is expected to be at a quite advanced stage to be selected for oral presentation, so authors should take some care in preparing their submissions. The timing of the abstract submission and review process enables the conference to establish the technical program, while also giving the authors ample time before the conference to prepare their manuscript for the conference proceedings. There is also the possibility to submit contributions to the conference after the official deadline as “late-news submissions.” These submissions, however, will be considered by default as poster presentations and can only be promoted in exceptional cases to an oral presentation.

The disposition of the review process is then typically communicated to the corresponding author by e-mail in March.  Please note that it is important that the corresponding author can be contacted throughout the entire publication process. Authors are requested to confirm or decline their conference contribution at this point in time. The final manuscript is then due at the manuscript deadline in late May or early June, usually » 2 weeks prior to the conference. This deadline is an important aspect of the conference’s “no paper, no podium” policy: if the author has not submitted their manuscript, they will not be allowed to give their presentation.

The submitted manuscripts then undergo a format review to ensure coherency and consistency with the template of the proceedings. Since this work is performed by volunteers, adherence to the manuscript style template is highly appreciated. In case formatting revisions are requested, these need to be completed by early July. A timely publication of the proceedings is a key priority; therefore any manuscripts not received by this deadline will not be included in the archived proceedings publication on IEEE Xplore. Revised manuscripts received after the deadline will be deferred to a second proceedings volume published up to a year later. The conference proceedings, even before the Xplore publication, can also be accessed through the proceedings archive on the conference website, free of charge for all attendees. Finally, please be aware that the "no paper, no podium" rule is enforced both ways: a paper that has not been presented at the conference is also excluded from the proceedings.

In parallel to this standard publication process there is the opportunity for a small number of papers to be published in the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics (J-PV) instead of the PVSC proceedings. During abstract submission, there is the opportunity for authors to indicate their interest in the J-PV publishing route. The program committee together with the J-PV editorial board will then identify a small number of papers with sufficiently high review scores as suitable for J-PV.  Authors who subsequently accept the invitation to submit a manuscript to J-PV thensubmit their final manuscript directly to the J-PV website (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jpv) and NOT to the proceedings site. The papers eventually accepted to J-PV will not be published in the regular PVSC conference proceedings. Thus the authors of the accepted J-PV papers do not submit their final manuscript to the PVSC submission system.  However, their 3 page abstract (edited by the authors, if desired) will be accessible online as background information during the conference for attendees. The papers invited and submitted to J-PV will then undergo an independent peer review identical to any regular J-PV submission.  Since the papers have been pre-screened, the acceptance rates are usually very high.  For any papers submitted to but rejected by J-PV, the paper is then submitted to the PVSC proceedings system, hopefully improved by the reviewers’ comments. The paper, possibly revised, will be published in the aforementioned follow-up volume of the PVSC conference proceedings.