Submit Symposium Publication

Symposium Publication Development is addressed in Chapter 12 of the ACI Technical Committee Manual (TCM).

If the committee would like to consider to have a Special Issue in the ACI Journal instead of a Symposium Volume please contact Ryan.Jay@concrete.org

Each sponsoring committee or organization should designate an SP Editor. To obtain preliminary TAC Approval, one of the sponsoring committees' chairs, or their designated SP Editor, submits a Preliminary Request Form. A minimum of 10 papers is recommended for an SP, and a Call For Papers Request may be submitted online. Papers published in SPs are subject to ACI's Publication Policy and are eligible to be considered for ACI paper awards.

Upon notification from ACI staff of TAC's preliminary approval, work can begin on assembling the SP. Submission deadlines are listed in the SP and Technical Session Deadlines table.

Authors submit to the SP Editor manuscripts which follow the SP Style and Format Guidelines.

Editors administer the SP Paper Peer Review Process, which requires that for each paper submitted the editor selects at least two reviewers who are experts in the subject matter. Except in special cases approved by TAC, a reviewer must not review more than 25 percent of the papers for any SP or 10 papers, whichever is fewer.

Editors send the reviewers the SP Paper Peer Review Form, the ACI Paper Awards Criteria, and a copy of each manuscript to be reviewed. Reviewers complete and return to the editor a peer review form for each paper reviewed.

ACI's review procedures require anonymous reviews to avoid making reviewers feel constrained from making critical review comments. When the SP Editor is an author of a paper for the SP, the editor submits the paper to ACI staff to facilitate the anonymous peer review.

Authors address review comments in preparing their final manuscripts, provide item-by-item responses to all review comments, and submit a signed Copyright Transfer Form. Electronic signatures are acceptable and encouraged.

Editors follow the SP Final Submission Package Guidelines, and submit:

An SP Final Request Form;

Peer review forms for all papers (accepted or not);

An MS Word file of each accepted manuscript, with a biography for each author, the address and contact number of the lead author, and a copyright transfer form signed by all authors of the manuscript; and

An SP Final Submission Checklist for each accepted manuscript, confirming that reviews were conducted in accordance with ACI procedures and that comments were adequately addressed by the authors in the final version.

SP Publication

SPs are published in PDF. All pages are used for the PDF exactly as received from the author. Contact Barbara Coleman if you are interested in publishing in a different format. ACI staff does not edit, proofread, or enter revisions to SP papers.  Carefully proofread your manuscripts to avoid errors in grammar and spelling, and to avoid issuing technical errata. Authors and editors will not receive proofs to review before publication.

Click here to search for and view abstracts of published SP publications.