Call for Special Sessions

We are looking for scientists desiring to organize focused special sessions at the 2018 International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) being held in Washington, DC, between April 4 and 7.

Special sessions concentrate on critical and emerging topics in biomedical imaging, preferably of interest to a relatively large audience.

Each of the sessions is expected to last 1.5 hours, counting between 4 and 5 invited speakers (each exploring different facets of the chosen topic). Presentations will be oral, and only by invitation of the organizers.

We expect these sessions to be a focusing opportunity at the Symposium, establishing synergies and eventual links to relevant communities and exploring the new opportunities that these can offer. A travel reimbursement in the amount of $1500 will be allocated for each Special Session to support invited speakers. Invited speakers are required to register to the conference. Session organizers are also encouraged to seek outside funding to provide additional support for speakers.

In advance of the meeting, invited contributors will be required to either submit a 4-page paper for inclusion in the proceedings, or to submit a 1-page abstract that summarizes the content of the talk (which will not be included in the proceedings), following the regular paper submission deadline. According to IEEE standards, the 4-page invited papers will undergo peer review though this review will be intended to lead to improvement of the manuscript and will not lead to rejection of special session papers. The review process will be organized and supervised by the Chairs (proposers) of the individual special sessions. As contributions are expected to be more of an overview than presenting novel contributions, reviews will essentially focus more on quality than on novelty. The review process will use the same system as the main conference and will run parallel to the main review.

If you are interested, please submit a proposal to

with the following information:

  1. Brief description of the proposed topic, including justification of its relevance to ISBI.
  2. Short CV (2 pages) of the session proposer
  3. Expected audience
  4. Tentative list of speakers (indicate whether they have agreed to participate).
  5. For each potential speaker include:
    1. A description of the talk (1 page maximum)
    2. Short CV (2 pages)
    3. Indication whether each speaker will submit a 4 page paper or a 1 page abstract

Submission format and Important Dates

Proposals must be submitted as a single PDF file. The subject heading should clearly state ISBI18 Special Session Proposal.

Proposals should be submitted as soon as possible, but no later than September 25th, 2017, as the proposals are being reviewed on a rolling basis.

Final notification of acceptance/rejection will be sent by October 9th, 2017.

Deadline for 4 pages papers submission is October 16th, 2017 and for 1-page abstract submission, January 8th, 2018.

  • Arrate Muñoz-Barrutia, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
  • Erin Girard, Siemens Medical Solutions, Medical Imaging Technologies