In contrast to previous years, ISMAR 2021 features three categories of paper submissions: (i) Journal Papers, (ii) Conference Papers, and (iii) Conference Posters. All categories have their own program committees, submission processes, and review processes. Pay attention to the following important notes about the connections between these tracks:

• The Journal Program Committee will not convert Journal Papers directly to Conference Papers. The Journal Paper notification is set such that authors who wish to revise their manuscript and submit as new Conference Paper can do so (more details below).
• The Conference Paper track and the Poster Track review papers in parallel and the Conference Paper track cooperates with the Poster track to accept submitted conference papers as posters based on the level of their contribution (see the paper/poster track transition and dual submission policy below).

Further details about the three submission categories:

• Journal Papers (to be published in the TVCG journal). Submissions to this category should be up to 9 pages in length, not including up to 2 separate pages for references. Journal Paper submissions should contain substantial scientific contributions to the fields of AR / MR / VR, and when appropriate provide complete and substantial support for results and conclusions. All accepted ISMAR Journal Papers submissions will automatically be published in a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). All accepted ISMAR Journal Papers submissions will also include an oral presentation at the 2021 ISMAR Conference.
• Conference Papers (to be published in conference proceedings). Submissions to this category should be 4–8 pages in length, excluding references, and would typically reflect a more narrow (yet still significant) scope of contribution than Journal Papers. ISMAR Conference Papers are not expected to cover all aspects of a typical journal article, such as a broad and complete discussion and description of related work, the design and implementation processes, or an evaluation. Instead they may cover one or two specific areas in depth, or relatively early work. The submission deadline for Conference Papers will be after the notification for Journal Papers submissions. All accepted ISMAR Conference Papers will appear in the archival proceedings of the IEEE ISMAR 2021 Conference, continuing the highly successful legacy of IEEE Xplore Digital Library papers under the IEEE  International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) brand name, and all accepted Conference Papers submissions will also include an oral presentation at the ISMAR 2021 Conference.
• Conference Posters (to be published in the conference adjunct proceedings). Submission to this category should be 2-6 pages in length, including the list of references and can contain smaller contributions, late breaking developments, or in-progress work. The submission deadline for poster submissions is two weeks after the conference submission deadline. Note that ISMAR distinguishes poster papers of 2 pages to be non-archival and poster papers of 3 or more pages to be archival. This means that authors of 2 page poster papers can resubmit longer versions of the same work, with more details, at later ISMAR conferences. All accepted ISMAR Posters will appear in the archival adjunct proceedings of the IEEE ISMAR 2021 Conference, continuing the highly successful legacy of IEEE Xplore Digital Library papers under the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) brand name.

• Journal Paper/Conference Paper Transition. There will be no automatic path from Journal Papers to Conference Papers in the case a Journal Paper is rejected.  In other words, the Journal Papers S&T Committee will NOT transfer an unaccepted Journal Paper submission to the Conference Paper track. The authors have to decide if they choose to resubmit their paper to the Conference Paper track. If the authors decided to submit a reviewed, but unaccepted Journal Paper as a Conference Paper, authors will have the option to elect for review continuity. If such an election is chosen, the reviews (and reviewers) from the Journal Papers process will transfer to the Conference Paper process. Conversely, if authors decline review continuity, the Conference Paper submission will be treated as a completely new submission and be assigned reviewers accordingly.
• Conference Paper/Poster Track Transition and Dual Submission Policy. The Conference Paper review process and the Poster review process run in parallel this year, and the formal poster submission deadline falls before conference paper notifications. As such, authors would not have an option to resubmit unaccepted Conference Papers as Posters. However, to afford this transition, the Conference Paper Track will work closely with the Poster Track and may recommend that unaccepted Conference Papers be accepted for a Poster presentation based on the level of their contribution. ISMAR transfers these papers automatically, without prior author notification. Nonetheless, authors have the option to withdraw the Poster at a later time if accepted.

As such, authors should not submit the same work to both the Conference Paper and Poster Track concurrently. Any such “dual submissions” will result in removing the formal poster submission, leaving the conference paper submission in process for review and recommendation. In cases where authors wish to submit a Poster Paper, which contribution is closely related to a concurrent Conference Paper submission, the Poster submission authors will be required to explain why the poster submission extends the Conference Paper’s contribution. In this case, the authors will be asked to upload the original conference submission and a cover letter explaining the changes made.