Submissions

This page is designed to help you ensure your submission is ready for and fits the scope of the conference.

Before submitting you should read over the guidelines here, then register an account (or login if you have an existing account)

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About

The Stratospheric Ballooning Association, in partnership with Iowa State University, hosts all of our conference papers in this digital repository. The Academic High Altitude Conference (AHAC) is an annual conference that is run in coordination with the Stratospheric Ballooning Association, Iowa State University, and the Iowa Space Grant Consortium. The conference focuses on high-altitude balloons for STEM education, research, and technology development.

This digital repository also stores special event conferences (like the Between Eclipses Remote Conference) and is open to the public.

Focus and Scope

Each year, AHAC will often have a theme to the conference. While we encourage submissions along the theme, it is not a requirement. The following are other considered topics. If your topic is not in line with the theme or the list below, please reach out to the editors to ensure that your topic fits what the conference is about.

Special Events (such as BERC) may also have additional topics. Please see the conference page for additional information for special events and conferences.

  • High Altitude Ballooning and Education
    • University level
    • High School level
    • Elementary/middle school level
    • STEM Outreach
  • High Altitude Ballooning Operation Techniques and Practices
    • FAA Rules and Regulations
    • Launch Procedures
    • Flight Procedures
    • Recovery Procedures
  • High Altitude Ballooning Engineering Design and Implementation
    • Payload Engineering
      • Tracking systems
      • Command and Control
      • Data recording
      • Embedded Processor Systems
  • Launch Equipment and Engineering
  • Flight and Mission Control Equipment and Engineering
    • Antenna Tracking
    • Communication Equipment
    • Tracking Software
    • Prediction Software
    • Command and Control Software
  • Recovery Equipment and Engineering
    • Mobile Equipment
    • Mobile Software
  • High Altitude Ballooning in Scientific and Research Applications
    • Scientific Research
      • Biological
      • Atmospheric
    • Near Space Research

Additional topics may be considered.  Any questions can be referred to the editoral board.

Submission Checklist

 

AHAC

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items. Submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

 

  1. All submissions go through Janeway and thus all authors must have an account created in our Janeway system.
  2. All abstracts should be 250 words or less.
  3. For submissions to be considered for the upcoming issue, they must be submitted by the due date. Any articles after that due date will not be considered.
  4. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (with the exception of AHAC proceedings).
  5. The submission file format is PDF and we recommend all authors use the Microsoft Word or LaTeX templates that we provide.
  6. When available, DOI URLs for the references will be provided.
  7. The manuscript must be formatted in the following style. The easiest way to do this is to use the provided templates
    1. 12 point Time New Roman font, one column
    2. 1 inch margin on all sides
    3. Full justification
    4. Single spacing
    5. Must not exceed 15 pages including tables, and images
    6. References must follow IEEE format for references, references will not count towards the page limit
    7. All Figures must be captioned and referenced. Figures should be in line with the text at the top of the closest page.
    8. Appendices are not permitted or allowed, however, we do allow for supplemental files, images, and other material can be uploaded to Janeway for inclusion

All submissions must be set up for blind review during the review phase of the submission process. Please follow these instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review has been followed. If the manuscript is fully accepted, you will then submit a final copy with the items removed for blind review put back in.

 

 

Copyright Notice

Papers and presentations materials published in the Academic High Altitude Conference Proceedings by the Stratospheric Ballooning Association and the Iowa State University Digital Press are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. This license allows users to copy, distribute, display, adapt, and transform the paper or presentation materials as long as appropriate credit is given to the author and original publication. Copyright in conference papers and presentation materials are retained by the author(s).

Peer Review

All submissions (unless otherwise stated) will be single-blind peer-reviewed by active researchers. All communication will be through the assigned section editor.

All submitted manuscripts are first reviewed by the editorial team. Those papers that seem most likely to meet our editorial criteria are sent for formal review. The editorial board reserves the right to reject manuscripts without sending them for formal review.

Promising submissions are sent for formal review, typically to two reviewers, but sometimes more. The editors make a decision based on the reviewers' advice from among the following options:

  • Accept: Your submission has been accepted as is.

  • Revisions Required: Your submission requires minor changes and will be accepted once those have been completed.

  • Resubmit for Review: Your submission needs significant re-working. A new file must be submitted and another round of review will take place.

  • Reject: Your submission was not accepted for publication with this journal, either because it was not seen to be of high enough quality, or its subject did not match the journal.

While reviews in all cases are blind, we recognize that articles that germinated in conference presentations are exceptionally hard to anonymize. In such cases, we will, therefore, ask reviewers to disclose any conflicts of interest, disclose whether they know the identity of the author, and to justify their comments solely on the basis of the article under submission. These factors will be combined and considered at the discretion of the editors in reaching a decision.

 

In the case of editors submitting, the submission will be handled by other members of the team who must adhere strictly to the recommendations of external reviewers.

Licences

The following licences are allowed:

  • Copyright
    © the author(s). All rights reserved.
  • CC BY 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-ND 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-NC 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
  • CC BY-SA 4.0
    Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Publication Fees

This conference proceeding is published by the Stratospheric Ballooning Association (SBA) in conjunction with Iowa State University. Unlike many open-access publishers, there is no fee to publish accepted papers. However, at least one author must be a member of the SBA and in good standing at the time that the paper is accepted for publication. If at least one author is not a member, this may delay the publication of the manuscript or result in the manuscript being withdrawn. Please note that this requirement may be waived for certain special events or conferences.

Publication Cycle

AHAC 2024 Conference

Abstracts due …………………………………………………………………………….April 19th, 2024 Extended to April 22nd

Abstract acceptance notification………………………………………..........………..April 26th, 2024

Final papers due………………………………………………………………………….May 17th, 2024

Sections

Section or article type

Public Submissions

Peer Reviewed

Indexed

Poster Presentation

Manuscript