IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)
Technology for the Benefit of Humanity // Colorado Schools of Mines, USA / October 22-25, 2025

Submission Types and Instructions

Submissions Instructions

Quick Index: Terms&Conditions / Submission Process / Formatting / Copyright / PDF Express / Contact Us

Papers must be submitted via the EDAS Paper Processing System. See EDAS Instructions for Authors.

Authors may submit content in the form of a full technical paper, short technical paper, or an oral-only presentation.

  • Full Technical paper (text abstract, 4 to 8 pages (max) paper, and oral talk) – Technical papers communicate the thought process behind a development project from concept to construction. The papers discuss the motivation, background, methodology, outcomes, and conclusions of work completed. Guidelines for delivering a technical paper can be found here.
  • Oral-Only Project Talks (1 – 2 page summary/abstract, no publication) – Discussion of fieldwork in progress (with insufficient results for a full paper) that addresses intention, unexpected challenges, unintended outcomes, successes, and failures. (Properly formatted 1 or 2-page extended abstract in IEEE template format can be included in IEEE Xplore upon request, but are not considered as a publication.)

Conference Themes

Papers should focus on a specific thematic area listed in the conference topics (or tracks). Authors will be asked to indicate the main theme of their submission. GHTC welcomes papers and posters (oral-only) on humanitarian technologies and their deployment. Papers should include a discussion of factors such as economics, policy, culture, and environment that impact successful humanitarian technology implementation. Proposals for case studies, panel discussions, and workshops on humanitarian technologies are welcome.

All Full paper submissions must adequately address but is not limited to the following sub-sections:

  • Abstract (c. 150 words) – Summarise the problem domain, paper objectives, research methodology, main findings and recommendations.
  • Introduction – Context and motivation for research or intervention, target need and community/communities addressed, paper objectives and statement of the contribution to the body of knowledge in this domain
  • Methodology and Proposed Methods – Please summarise the methodologies used for data collection, sampling, data analysis in sufficient detail to support replicability. Outline the limitations of the study
  • Results and Discussion – presentation of preliminary, early results or final results (depending on submission type selected), analysis and discussion of implications of results, comparison of findings with published literature. Summarise how societal and ethical implications of technology have been appropriately addressed.
  • Conclusion and Recommendations – Summarise key findings, outline concrete recommendations and next steps
  • References

Stage of Development

For submissions introducing an end-product or service, it is helpful to clearly indicate the stage of work completed, and emphasize the outcomes and impacts of that stage in the product development process. This information will help reviewers and readers to understand the goals and expected outcomes of submissions.

The below stages of development provide a concise guide to help authors understand the scope of their work. Authors should emphasize the strengths and outcomes of their completed work without speculating into other stages of the development process.

  1. Concept—needs identification, market evaluation, concept development
  2. Prototype—prototyping, technology, early implementation, testing, evaluation, results
  3. Deployment—scaling, management, supply chain, monitoring
  4. Other—all development phases, education, sustainability planning, financing, etc.

Submission Schedule

Submissions must be completed and submitted by the deadlines listed here.

Submission Process using EDAS

  1. Author Registration: Register a “lead author” with EDAS (if the lead author is not already registered). The lead author will submit the review paper and the final paper. EDAS will send an email with the password. Change the default password to one that is easier to remember (but still secure). The author’s email address and the password will be used to access the system to submit the abstract and later the final paper.
  2. EDAS Review Submission: Prepare the submission content using the IEEE or GHTC paper template (see Formatting below). Use the Paper:Submit  option in EDAS at https://edas.info/N32305 (this is a unique site with EDAS for the current GHTC Conference) and register the paper. Registering the paper records the paper’s title, abstract, topics and authors in EDAS. The paper has to be registered before anything can be submitted. Pick the track in the conference that best fits your paper when you register it. Next you will Upload a PDF of the submission to give a clear indication of the objective, scope, and results for the reviewers. EDAS will refer to this as the “Review Paper” (even if it is an oral proposal).
    1. Provide paper title (should NOT be in all upper or all lower-case) and summary content of the proposed paper (approximately 50-100 words) – EDAS may refer to this as an “abstract”. This is not your paper’s PDF abstract.
    2. Add primary author name (use the checkbox “Add yourself as author” if you are indeed an author of the paper). You can add other
      authors later and you can change the order of authors.
    3. Enter keywords.
    4. Select the topic(s) with which your paper corresponds.
    5. Submit, this will lead to a page that acknowledges your paper’s registration and allows you to add authors. A
      confirmation e-mail will be sent to you.
    6. Upload your PDF. To upload your paper right after registering your submission, simply follow the EDAS instructions on the
      acknowledgement page. Alternatively, you can upload your paper PDF later from your EDAS homepage.
  3. Final Paper Submission: When your submission has been accepted by the Program Committee you will receive an email with the review comments and any recommendations for revisions. When you go to the paper link the EDAS system will now prompt you to submit your final paper (or “manuscript”). Now you file the copyright and upload your final paper/submission in PDF/A format.

Submission Preparation

During the submission process via EDAS, the authors are required to make sure the PDF file and the EDAS registration page for a paper have the same list of authors and the same paper title. Be certain to add all authors in EDAS during the submission process. Fail to comply with this rule and your abstract may be withdrawn from the review process. Once reviewed, the listing of authors connected to the paper cannot be changed in the final manuscript.

Formatting

For information on formatting your submission you can refer to the IEEE Author Digital Toolbox at http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/authors/authors_journals.html and the IEEE Manuscript Templates for Conference Proceedings at https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html which has standard IEEE Transactions templates for Microsoft Word or LaTeX formats. Be sure to check and delete any Copyright Footer on page 1 of the template. Or use this GHTC updated template.

The format for the paper (manuscript) must satisfy the following requirements:

  • Manuscript must be in English
  • Manuscript must be in US letter size format (A4 not accepted).
  • The manuscript must follow IEEE two-column format (see templates) with single-spaced, ten-point font in the text.
    • For Short Papers the minimum manuscript length is three (3) and the maximum length is four (4) pages.
    • For Full Papers the minimum manuscript length is four (4) and the maximum length is eight (8) pages. All figures, tables, references, etc. are included in the page limit.
    • Oral-Only submissions should be described in one or two pages (a 1 or 2-page extended abstract).
  • The IEEE copyright footer on page 1 (if any) must be removed (EDAS will add it).
  • The order of the authors in the paper must match the order of the authors in the paper registration.
  • Authors MUST submit their papers electronically using EDAS as described above.
  • Papers must be submitted in Portable Document Format (PDF) archival format (“PDF/A”).
  • All fonts must be embedded in the PDF file (in Word, create the PDF with “ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A)” option). Or use an online converter such as: https://www.pdfforge.org/online/en/pdf-to-pdfa.
  • No Bookmarks.
  • No hyperlinks. URLs in text only is acceptable. [In Word to remove all hyperlinks in a document, press CTRL+A to select the entire document and then press CTRL+SHIFT+F9.]

Using IEEE PDF eXpress

We encourage authors to check their final papers for IEEE GHTC 2023 using the IEEE PDF eXpress system before they are submitted to the conference in EDAS. Here are the basic instructions for using PDF eXpress for GHTC.

Guidelines for submitting your full final paper

  • Formatting must comply with the stated requirements (see Formatting above).
  • Authors must complete the IEEE Copyright Assignment form. (see Copyright)
  • All papers must be checked for plagiarism.
  • All papers must be PDF verified, either with the EDAS paper processing system, or through the IEEE PDF eXpress system before submission. (see instructions here)

Paper amendments

Authors can amend their submissions online up until the submission deadline. Login to your account and you can upload a new PDF.

If you are unable to submit your paper online, please email the Program Committee by this form.

Questions Contact

If you have any questions, please contact the Program Committee using this form.