Policies & Procedures

Policies & Procedures

Initial version: created and approved in 2008.
Updated: December 2010.
Approved: January 2011.
Updated: February 2015.
Approved: March 2015.

Policies and procedures are means by which TC conducts its business. They are NOT part of the bylaws, and can be updated by a majority vote at TC meetings.

1. Policies and procedures for carrying out IFS-TC’s Scope of Activities
2. Technical Committee Membership
3. Technical Committee Management
4. Technical Committee Organization
5. Technical Committee Election and Discipline Procedures

1. Policies and procedures for carrying out IFS-TC’s Scope of Activities:

1. Assist in the review of papers within its scope submitted to Society conferences and journals.
   

   Procedure: The TC Chair, upon request of the technical program chair, shall assist in managing the review allocation and session assignment processes for ICASSP, ICIP, and other SPS conferences, workshops, or symposia within the technical fields of interest of the IFS TC. If required, the TC Chair shall enroll a number of Area Chairs to assist him or her to perform this duties. All current TC members shall participate in reviewing submitted manuscripts in their areas of expertise. Qualified and experienced associate and affiliate members may be invited to contribute to review papers.
   The TC Chair, upon request of the technical program chair, shall help evaluating the technical merits of proposals for special sessions and/or workshops within the IFS-TC fields of interest submitted to SPS conferences, workshops, or symposia.
   The TC Chair will work with the EICs of the SPS journals to recommend (upon request) qualified reviewers for submitted papers that fall within the IFS-TC fields of interest.

2. Organize and operate independent symposia, seminars, and workshops, or sessions at technical meetings of the Society or of the IEEE, at all levels, and at meetings of other organizations having cooperative relationships with the Society, in accordance with IEEE rules and procedures and the rules for such meetings.
   

   Procedure: The IFS-TC shall operate the IEEE Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS). The TC Chair shall appoint a subcommittee to prepare a call for proposals, which will be reviewed by the TC prior to being publicly broadcasted through various communications channel e.g. the IFS website and social platforms, the SPS eNewsletter, the IFS mailing lists, etc.
   Responses to the call will be refined with the help of the Subcommittee and subsequently evaluated by the TC members. Each TC Member shall vote for a single proposal. The proposal attracting the largest number of favorable votes shall be selected if at least half of the responding Members voted for it. If no proposal secures a majority vote, a runoff vote will be conducted between the proposals with the two highest vote totals. While the active involvement of TC members in the organizing committee of WIFS is strongly encouraged, those members that are listed as part of the organizing committee shall abstain from voting.
   All voting Members of the IFS-TC shall be members of the WIFS technical program committee and assist in the review process. In addition, qualified and experienced researchers may be invited to join the technical program committee and perform reviews.
   The IFS-TC may consider co-sponsoring other technical workshops and conferences, organized by SPS or other societies and of benefit to the IFS community, but with no financial involvement. Technical co-sponsorship of a workshop by the IFS-TC shall conform to the policy set forth by the SPS Board of Governors and the Conference Board. It generally requires active support from the voting members, which implies a willingness to review papers for the conference and participate or assist in the organization of the technical and conference program.

3. Make nominations for Society awards and Distinguished Lecturers.
   

   Procedure: The TC Chair shall appoint an Awards Subcommittee to process nominations for SPS Distinguished Lecturer, SPS Society Award, Technical Achievement award, Meritorious Service Award, Education Award, and SPS paper awards within the IFS-TC fields of interest. Nomination processing includes calling for nominations from inside and outside the TC, collecting nominations, conducting voting among the TC members, and sending endorsed nominations to the SPS Awards Board.
   Neither self-nominations nor nominations of a currently serving IFS-TC member will be accepted for any award processed by the Awards Committee.
   The Awards Subcommittee shall vet all received preliminary nominations. Nominations that do not provide the required statements or justifications shall not be evaluated. To help the Subcommittee in its task, nominations may be evaluated by external reviewers who comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the paper and its potential impact. All nominations shall then be circulated to the whole TC for comment. At its discretion, the Awards Subcommittee may then liaise with the nominators for rebuttal.
   Eventually, the final list of nominations shall then be voted on by the TC. The voting shall be carried out by secret ballots via email or other electronic means, over a period of one week or longer to provide Members an adequate amount of time to review and vote on the nominations. In order for a nomination to be positively endorsed by the IFS TC, it shall meet the following requirements: (1) receive approval votes from at least half of the voting Members of the TC; and (2) be in the top two, if other nominations in the same category satisfy the first requirement.
   Upon co-nomination by the TC, the Awards Subcommittee may work with the nominators to incorporate applicable updates and feedback from TC Members in order to enhance the nomination package. No changes are allowed to substantially deviate from the original nomination voted on by the TC, unless explicit approval given by the Awards Subcommittee on behalf of the TC.
   Eventually, the Subcommittee shall forward all endorsed nominations to the SPS Awards Board by 1 September. Each nomination may be forwarded along with supporting material including any associated anonymous reviews and written comments.

4. Assist Editors-in-Chief in identifying appropriate Associate Editors.
   

   Procedure: The TC Chair will work with the Editors in Chief of SPS sponsored or co-sponsored Transactions, Letters, Journals, as well as the editors of IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, to recommend (upon request from the EIC) qualified candidates for appointment as Associate Editor . Candidates need not be IFS-TC members.

5. Assist in the development of appropriate IEEE standards within scope, according to the rules and procedures of the IEEE.
   

   Procedure: Upon request from IEEE or recommendation from TC Members, the TC Chair shall appoint an ad hoc subcommittee to participate in the standard development activities.

6. Assist SPS to explore cooperative relationship with other societies of shared technical interests, and act as SPS liaison in these collaborations and outreach.
   

   Procedure: Upon request by the relevant societies/associations or by recommendations from the SPS Board of Directors or IFS-TC members, the TC Chair shall appoint a liaison member or an ad hoc subcommittee to explore collaboration and outreach opportunities.

2. Technical Committee Membership [SPS Policies and Procedures section 5.3]

1. Members.
   • All Technical Committee members must be current IEEE and SPS members of good standing. They must be willing to review papers within the area of the TC submitted to the Society’s conferences, review papers for workshops owned or co-owned by the Technical Committee, serve in the subcommittees established by the TC, and perform other duties of membership.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: Other duties of membership include: attending TC meetings at ICASSP and WIFS workshops, and participating in election of new members and Chair, voting on the nominations for Society awards, and selection of WIFS workshop venues.

   • Members will serve a term of three-years, starting 1 January. All terms run on a calendar year.
   • Membership on the Technical Committee may be terminated by the Technical Committee Chair, with the consent of the Vice President-Technical Directions, provided that the Chair and Vice Chair concur that the member has been inactive in the sense of little or no participation in Technical Committee responsibilities.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: A Member of the TC is subject to the rules and procedures for any action that is determined to constitute a material violation of the bylaws, or other conduct that is seriously prejudicial to the TC. Such discipline may take the form of termination of his or her TC membership. Each elected Member is expected to carry out the following duties: assist in reviewing IFS papers submitted at ICASSP, ICIP, and WIFS; vote on TC matters and relevant ballots e.g. awards and elections; attend TC meetings; promote IFS activities.
     If a member anticipates being unable to carry out any of these duties due to other commitments at a given point in time, he or she should contact the TC Chair in writing (email) requesting to be exceptionally excused for that specific duty.
     If a member anticipates no longer being able to carry out most of these duties for a period of one year or more, he or she may submit a request to the TC Chair in writing (email) for early retirement.
     Membership on the TC may be terminated by the TC Chair, with the consent of the Vice President-Technical Directions, provided that the Chair and Vice Chair concur that the member (i) has been inactive in the sense of little or no participation in Technical Committee responsibilities for more than one year, and (ii) has not provided satisfactory reasons for such inactivity after enquiries from the Chair.

   • Technical Committees shall have at least 20 elected members so that they have critical mass, and may have up to 40 elected members. A TC Chair can request a larger number of elected members to the VP Technical Directions who, in consultation with the TC Review committee, may approve an increase in the number of members for Technical Committees with a large paper reviewing load.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The IFS-TC shall have 30-35 voting members.

   • The Vice President-Technical Directions shall be an ex-officio member, without vote, of all Technical Committees.
2. Associate Members.
   • The TC Chair can also appoint a small number of Associate Members, who are non-voting members of the Technical Committee. These can include past chairs.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: Associate Members shall be appointed for a duration of two years.
     Relevant representatives from emerging IFS areas shall be invited to join as Associate Members to (i) engage them in IFS-related activities, (ii) raise awareness about these new topics in the community, and (iii) improve their visibility to join the TC as elected Members at a later stage.

   • Relevant Transactions Editors-in-Chief should be invited as Associate Members. Special effort should be made to coordinate with them for nomination of new members, nomination of best paper awards, EDICS alignment between the periodicals and the Society’s conferences.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The Editor in Chief of the Transactions on Information Forensics and Security shall be appointed as an Associate Member if he or she is not already an elected Member of the TC.

   • The TC Chair may appoint Associate Members as reviewers for one of the Society’s conferences, and may also appoint them to subcommittees.
   • Associate Members shall receive calls for member and Vice Chair nominations, as well as any Newsletters the TC may have.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The General Chairs of WIFS in the previous year and all subsequent years shall be associate members, if they are not already elected Members of the TC.

3. Affiliate Members
   • IEEE student members and all grades of IEEE SPS members interested in the scope of a given TC may freely join that TC as Affiliate Members by signing up in the Society’s website.
   • Members of some professional organizations in interdisciplinary fields within the Society’s TCs scope, are not IEEE members. TCs may allow individuals from such professional organizations to join their TC as Affiliate Members.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The IFS-TC encourages members in other IEEE societies and professional organizations that are relevant to the TC’s scope (including but not limited to the IEEE Computer Society and Communication Society, ACM, and associations on applied cryptology) to join the TC as Affiliate Members.

   • Affiliate Members are non-elected, unlimited in number, and non-voting members of the Technical Committee.
   • The TC Chair may appoint Affiliate Members as reviewers for one of the Society’s conferences, and may also appoint them to subcommittees.
   • Relevant Transactions Associate Editors should be invited as Affiliate Members.
   • Affiliate Members shall receive calls for member and Vice Chair nominations, as well as any Newsletters the TC may have.

3. Technical Committee Management [SPS Policies and Procedures section 5.4]

1. Vice Chair.
   • The Vice Chair position automatically succeeds to the position of Chair then Past Chair. The term for the Vice Chair shall be one calendar year. The Vice President-Technical Directions has the authority to grant exceptions to the one year term policy to allow a two year term based on the technical committee’s needs.
   • The Vice Chair is a voting member of the Technical Committee.
   • The Vice Chair is responsible for recording of minutes of all committee meetings, and assisting the Chair in paper review and session assignment process for ICASSP, maintenance of a roster of the membership, EDICS and a list of reviewers for the Society’s conferences.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The Vice Chair also assists the Chair to manage the paper review and session assignment process of ICIP.

   • The Vice Chair will assist the Chair in preparing the TC Review Report and attending the TC Review meeting, if requested.
2. Chair.
   • The term of office of the Chair shall be two calendar years. A second term as Chair is permitted but may not be consecutive. The Chair automatically succeeds to the position of Past Chair.
   • The Chair is a voting member of the Technical Committee.
   • The Chair is a voting member of the Technical Directions Board and must attend meetings and participate in the board’s processes.
   • The Chair is responsible for organizing the activities of the Technical Committee and maintaining communications with the Vice President-Technical Directions, the Officers of the Society and other similar organizations.
   • The Chair is responsible for appointing members to the TC’s subcommittees.
   • The Chair is responsible for maintaining a roster of the membership.
   • The Chair shall maintain the EDICS and a list of reviewers for the Society’s conferences. The Chair also oversees the paper review and session assignment process for ICASSP.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The Chair also oversees the paper review and session management process of ICIP.

   • The Chair is responsible for preparing the TC Review Report and attending the TC Review meeting.
   • The Chair is responsible for preparing bi-yearly activity reports.
3. Past Chair
   • The term for Past Chair shall normally be one year, unless the TC specifically approves a two year term.
   • The Past Chair is a voting member of the Technical Committee.
   • The Past Chair is responsible for providing guidance and continuity to the Technical Committee Officers and members of the Technical Committee.
   • The Past Chair will assist the Chair in preparing the TC Review Report and attending the TC Review meeting, if requested.

4. Technical Committee Organization [SPS Policies and Procedures section 5.5]

1. Subcommittees.
   • Technical Committees shall normally have subcommittees to accomplish the duties of the TC.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The IFS Subcommittee address the following activities:
     • Nomination and Elections Subcommittee. Membership in the nominations subcommittee is restricted to elected Technical Committee members. The role of this subcommittee is to collect nominations for Technical Committee members and Vice Chair positions, and conduct the election process. The Nominations Subcommittee shall ensure that the candidate pool for new TC members represents the diversity of SPS members in the Technical Committee area, which includes: gender, geographic, academic/industry, junior/senior, etc. This subcommittee will also help nominate Associate Editor candidates to relevant Editors-in-Chief in the Society.
     • Area Chairs. Area Chairs shall normally be elected Technical Committee members and shall drive the review of papers for that area submitted to the Society’s conferences and workshops. Each Area Chair will have a number of reviewers, which shall normally include elected, Associate and Affiliate Technical Committee Members. Other responsibilities may include proposal of special sessions and special issues in that area. The IFS currently has the following list of technical areas: Data Hiding, Biometric Security, Multimedia Forensics, communications and Network Security, Information Theoretic Aspects of Security, Applications and Systems.
     • Industry/Government Subcommittee. This involves supporting the Membership Board in industry and government activities. Responsibilities include forwarding information to relevant members from industry and the government, who are interested in activities of the Technical Committee and keeping them involved, as appropriate. Responsibilities include liaison with the Industry DSP standing Committee.
     • Regional Representatives (Regions 1-6, Regions 7/9, Region 8, and Region 10). The four regional representatives shall support the Society’s Regional Directors-at-Large in the area of expertise of the Technical Committee. The representatives shall promote and foster local activities of that Technical Committee (such as conferences and meetings) and encourage new chapter development; publicize the activities of the Technical Committee in that region and help attract members from that region to the Technical Committee.
     • Technical Directions Subcommittee. This subcommittee identifies future trends and directions in information forensics and security and promotes the vitality and growth of the IFS-TC. In addition, this subcommittee manages and maintains the EDICS for the TC and ensures it is being used consistently in all TC related conferences and workshops. This subcommittee also works with the Editor-in-Chiefs of the IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security and various SP Society sponsored or co-sponsored publications to ensure that IFS areas are accurately and adequately represented in the EDICS of these publications.
     • Workshop and Challenges Subcommittee. This Subcommittee is in charge of soliciting proposals for workshops (including WIFS) and challenges (including the SP Cup), helping volunteers with access to historical data regarding workshops and best practices, as well as putting in place a process to ensure there are enough proposals in time for voting and TC decision making.
     • Awards Subcommittee. Members of this subcommittee include preferably IEEE Fellows or individuals that have received an award as to bring experience to the Awards nominations process. This committee collects nominations from Technical Committee members and the community as a whole (nomination process is open) and narrows down the list, with the final names being voted on by the Technical Committee, which then passes its recommendations to the Awards Board. This procedure applies for all the SPS awards and Distinguished Lecturers. This subcommittee will also identify Senior Members that are considered qualified for elevation to Fellow and help find an individual that can nominate the candidate (neither the subcommittee nor the TC will nominate or endorse Fellow candidates). The Chair of this subcommittee would act as a liaison to the Society’s Awards Board.
     • Education Subcommittee. Responsibilities of the subcommittee include liaison with the Education Committee, and creation of content of interest to SPS members involved in the Technical Committee that is not appropriate for publication in the Society’s conferences and periodicals (such as tutorial style articles on Wikipedia or Connexions, etc).
     • Web and Publicity Subcommittee. This subcommittee maintains the Technical Committee web site together with SPS staff. It is also in charge of providing news onto the different IFS social platforms and to liaise with the editorial team of SPS eNewsletter to report on IFS activities.

   • The TC Chair shall appoint TC members to the subcommittees.
   • The TC Chair may also appoint Associate and Affiliate Members to subcommittees, unless specified otherwise. Such Associate and Affiliate members must confirm in writing (email) their willingness to serve and perform the duties of the subcommittee, and can be removed from the subcommittee if the TC Chair and Vice Chair concur they have been inactive.
   • The Chairs of each subcommittee must be elected members of the Technical Committee, unless specified otherwise.
2. Conduct of Business.
   • The Technical Committee will hold at least one meeting per year, normally at one of the Society’s sponsored conferences.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The Technical Committee will meet twice a year, including once during ICASSP.

   • TCs are encouraged to hold meetings at their workshops too, and consider making them open to Associate and/or Affiliate Members if there is a large enough room available and an appropriate time slot in the workshop schedule.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The Technical Committee will meet twice a year, including once during WIFS.

   • The order of business for TC meetings shall be organized by the Chair and made available to the members prior to the meeting.
   • Quorum. A quorum of the TC shall be a majority of those members having voting rights.
   • Face-to-Face Voting. The vote of a majority of the votes of the members present and entitled to vote, at the time of vote, provided a quorum is present, shall be the act of the Technical Committee.
   • Telecommunication Voting. The TC may meet and act upon the vote of its members by any means of telecommunication. The normal Face-to-Face voting requirements shall apply when action is taken by means of telecommunications equipment allowing all persons participating in the meeting to hear each other at the same time.
   • E-Mail Voting. The Technical Committee may take action without a meeting if applicable (e.g., e-mail voting). An affirmative vote of a majority of ALL the voting members of the Technical Committee shall be required to approve the action. The results of the vote shall be confirmed promptly in writing or by electronic transmission. The writings and/or electronic transmission shall be filed with the minutes of the proceedings of the Technical Committee. “Electronic transmission” means any form of electronic communication, such as e-mail, not directly involving the physical transmission of paper, that creates a record that may be retained, retrieved and reviewed by a recipient thereof, and that may be directly reproduced in paper form by such a recipient.
   • Only elected-Members of the TC, including the Chair, Vice Chair and Past Chair, are allowed to vote in matters that come before the TC. Associate and Affiliate Members of the TC do not have a vote. Individuals holding more than one position on the TC shall be limited to one vote on each matter being considered by the TC. Proxy voting is not allowed.

5. Technical Committee Election and Discipline Procedures [SPS Policies and Procedures section 5.6]

1. Vice Chair [SPS Policies and Procedures section 5.6.1]
   • The Vice Chair election shall be organized by the Nominations Subcommittee. The Nominations Subcommittee shall bring forward one or more candidates for the position of Vice Chair. The Nominations Subcommittee is responsible for making an open call for nominations, and conducting the balloting.
   • Nominations for Vice Chair shall be restricted to individuals who are currently serving or have previously served as elected members of the Technical Committee. Vice Chair candidates that are part of the Nominations Subcommittee shall withdraw from such subcommittee. Vice Chair nominees are not eligible to vote in Vice Chair elections.
   • Vice Chair elections will take place every two years and results shall be finalized by 15 November, so election results will be known before the end of the year and the results can be reported to the Society’s Executive Office. All terms are on a calendar year basis (1 January-31 December).
   • Each nominee must confirm in writing their willingness to serve and perform the duties described in the Society’s Bylaws and Policies and Procedures if elected. Each nominee must also submit a one-page position statement and/or vitae to be distributed before the election.
   • The Vice Chair candidate shall be elected by a majority of the legal votes cast by the Technical Committee elected-members, provided a quorum of the Technical Committee members responded to the ballot. In the event of a tie, the run-off ballot will include only those candidates who are tied for the lead. In the run-off tally, the candidate receiving a majority of the votes shall be declared the winner.
   • The election shall be conducted by an e-mail ballot, unless another means is proposed and approved by the Technical Committee.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The ballot shall be conducted using FluidSurveys, a tool endorsed by the Society.

2. Members [SPS Policies and Procedures section 5.6.2]
   • The new member election shall be organized by the Nominations Subcommittee. New member elections shall be held once each year, so one-third of the TC’s membership turns over each year.
   • The Nominations Subcommittee is responsible for making an open call for nominations in the Society’s e-Newsletters, the TC website, and other appropriate media. The Nominations Subcommittee shall come up with a slate of candidates representative of the diversity of SPS members in the Technical Committee area, which includes: gender, geographic, academic/industry, junior/senior, etc. The slate shall include at least as many candidates that have never served in the TC as open slots. The Nominations Subcommittee will also conduct the balloting.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The open call for nominations shall be broadcasted in the Summer through various communications channels e.g. the TC website and social platforms, the IFS mailing lists, SPS eNewsletter.

   • Candidates can be self-nominated or nominated by Technical Committee members. Each nominee must confirm in writing their willingness to serve and perform the duties described in the Society Bylaws and Policies and Procedures. Each nominee must also submit a one-page position statement and/or vitae, as determined by the TC, to be distributed before the election.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: Nominations will be open to all SPS members in good standing. Prospective candidates must submit an application form and a one-page vitae (or URL of their home page) to the membership subcommittee so that their qualifications can be assessed.

   • Current TC Members who are in their first term may be nominated for a second consecutive term, but are not eligible to vote in that new member election and shall not be part of the Nominations Subcommittee for that election. After the second term on a TC, members may run for additional terms, but there must be an absence of at least 3 years between terms.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The TC enforces a one-year retirement period between two terms.

   • Technical Committee members shall be elected by the members of the Technical Committee itself based on the needs of the Technical Committee. Each year the new member election results shall be finalized by 15 November, so election results will be known before the end of the year and the results can be reported to the Society’s Executive Office. All terms are on a calendar year basis (1 January-31 December).
   • The new Members shall be both approved by a majority of the Technical Committee elected-members, and most preferred by the Technical Committee members responding to the ballot, provided a quorum of the Technical Committee members responded to the ballot. In the event of a tie, the Technical Committee Chair will break the tie.
   • The election will be conducted by e-mail, unless another means is proposed and approved by the TC.
     

     IFS-TC Policy: The ballot shall be conducted using FluidSurveys, a tool endorsed by the Society. Moreover, the Elections Subcommittee shall provide an up to date Excel spreadsheet that will indicate the influence of each vote on various balancing indicators (gender, seniority, EDICS coverage, IEEE region, etc) and thereby help TC members in fine tuning their choices.

3. Elections Process
   • Votes for “Vice Chair” and “Member” Technical Committee elections shall be tallied using a two-tier process. First, nominees are voted as “approved” (Yes) or “not approved” (No). Next, preference is given to “approved” votes using a ranking process. Technical Committee elections shall be finalized by 15 November, so election results will be known before the end of the year and the results can be reported to the Society’s Executive Office. All terms are on a calendar year basis (1 January-31 December).
     

     IFS-TC Policy: Let us assume that number of slots in the TC is equal to N.
     Each voting TC Member votes on approval for each candidate (approval votes) to indicate is he or she approves of that candidate to become a member of the TC. There is no limitation on the number of approval votes. In the same ballot, each voting TC Member then casts exactly N votes for his or her preferred candidates.
     Successful candidates (maximum of N) are those with (a) at least half of the responding TC Members approving their candidatures and (b) the most preference votes, which is not necessarily greater than half responding TC members. The number of approval votes is considered in breaking ties. Any remaining ties is broken by the TC Chair.