Traditions of the International Society on MCDM related to its conferences

Below, you can find information about the traditions of the International Conferences on Multiple Criteria Decision Making. This information should be taken into account by conference organizers (and those planning proposals to organize conferences in the series).

• Executive Committee of the International Society on MCDM makes the decision of the organizer/location of conferences based on proposals made according to the instructions given by the President of the Society. Typically, the meeting of the executive committee takes place during the previous conference.
• The conference lasts roughly five days including a half-day outing at the middle ot the conference week and a banquet dinner (typically on Thursday evening). (There may be a get-together event before the actual conference.)
• The intention of the outing is to share information about the culture and traditions of the hosting country/region and enable free discussions among the participants.
• The society has three awards (since 1992) and the Awards Committee decides which of them are delivered at each conference.
• The names of the awardees are announced only in the banquet and according to the bylaws of the Society the awardees are expected to give talks the following day.
• Plaques for awardees have so far been prepared by Prof. Gwo-Hshiung Tzeng (with very modest expenses that the conference organizer must cover.) Besides the plaque for the awardees, two more plaques of the Society are presented: the MCDM Conference Chairmanship Award to the conference organizer and the MCDM Presidential Service Award to the President at the end of his/her four-year term.
• The banquet dinner can nicely demonstrate the food culture of the hosting country and some nice program reflecting the local culture is welcome.
• The society has a banner (established before the society, in the times of a special interest group). The organizer of the previous conference is responsible for taking it to the following conference and updating it.
• The conference organizers should use all possible means to keep the registration fee and other costs low and support those in need of financial support.
• Typically, some plenary speakers are invited and covering their travel costs (at least partly) is desirable.
• High scientific quality should be aimed at in all possible meanings in the scientific program. The number of parallel sessions should be limited. Attention should be paid to reaching out to companies/industry to build a bridge between academia and industry/applications.
• Proceedings are published after the conference. Recently, the format of publishing special issues of selected journals has been favoured.
• So far, acceptance of presentations has been based on short abstracts.
• Book of abstracts must be given to all conference participants. In addition, the registration fee should include access to outing, banquet dinner, refreshements and cold or warm lunches. In many conferences, some small souvenir and a conference bag have also been included in the fee.
• For many years, Wiley has sponsored a Wiley Practice Prize for the best paper describing a real-life application of multiple criteria decision making presented at the International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making.
• In 2011, a doctoral dissertation award was established based on the decision of the executive committee. This new tradition will continue as long as the executive committee so decides.
• Conference organizers must pay the society a levy of at least USD 25 per each paying conference participant.
• The conference organizer is responsible for funding the conference and, unfortunately, the society cannot cover possible losses.
• In further matters and questions related organizing conferences of the Internationa Society on MCDM, the President, the Secretary and the Executive Committee are happy to help.