T-RO Special Collections

Open Calls for Special Collection Submissions

If you are submitting to a Special Collection, please clearly indicate this in your cover letter.  Otherwise, your paper may be treated as a typical submission and not considered for a special collection.

Proposals for New Special Collections

The IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS encourages the publication of Special Collections. A proposal for a Special Collection should be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief, as a single self-contained pdf file, with a well-articulated unifying theme, on a topic of significant importance, that is likely to attract a significant number of excellent submissions. The proposal should include

• a draft of the call for papers that will be used to advertise the Special Issue, including sample dates for submission, notification, and publication;
• a list of proposed guest associate editors (typically 3-6), including a brief description of the relevant credentials of the proposed guest AEs;
• a credible plan for soliciting submissions, and evidence that a significant number of high-quality papers is likely to be received; and
• a partial list of research groups from which submissions may be solicited.

Topics of Special Collections can either be areas that are just reaching significant maturity or important emerging areas in which research is likely to be stimulated by the publication of a collection of excellent papers. Proposals are selected by the EiC, in consultation with T-RO Senior Editors.

Once a Special Collection has been selected, one of the current Transactions editors is selected to supervise the guest associate editors in the review and selection process. Guest editors serve as members of the editorial board until the publication of the special collection, and are expected to attend at least one editorial board meeting during that period. Review procedures for special collection submissions are similar to those for regular issues, with the guest editors fulfilling the duties of the associate editors. The supervising editor carries out the standard editorial functions (e.g., sending decision letters to authors, etc.). If the number of accepted papers is not sufficient to warrant an entire collection, then the accepted papers will be organized into a special section. This is the usual case. If there are not enough accepted papers to warrant a special collection, the papers are published individually. Further details on submitting a Special Collection proposal can be downloaded from the link below.

Download the T-RO Policy on Special Collections

Call For Papers

Special collection on Tactile Robotics
Senior editor: Mark Yim
Guest editors: Shan Luo, Nathan Lepora, Wenzhen Yuan, Kaspar Althoefer, Gordon Cheng, Ravinder Dahiya
Submission opens: June 1, 2023
Submission deadline: October 31, 2023  January 15, 2024
Projected publication date: 2024

Special collection on Impact Aware Robotics
Senior editor: Paolo Robuffo Giordano
Guest editors: Alessandro Saccon, Michael Posa, Abderrahmane Kheddar, Yan Gu
Submission opens: October 20, 2022
Submission deadline: March 1, 2023  May 1, 2023 
Projected publication date: 2024 

Links to Past Special Collections

Special collection on Small-Scale Robotics inside the Human Body
Senior editor: Arianna Menciassi
Guest editors:  Benoit Rosa, Brahim Tamadazte, Salvador Pane, Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, Jake Abbott

Special collection on Wearable Robotics
Senior editor: Mark Yim
Guest editors:  Juan Moreno, Samer Mohammed, Nicola Vitiello, Helen Huang, Conor J. Walsh
Issue publication June 2022

Special collection on Resilience in Networked Robotic Systems
Senior editor: Paolo Robuffo Giordano
Guest editors:  Amanda Prorok, Vijay Kumar, Brian M. Sadler, and Gaurav Sukhatme
Issue publication February 2022

Special collection on Movement Science for Humans and Humanoids:  Methods and Applications
Guest editors:  Dana Kulic, Katsu Yamane, Gentiane Venture, Emel Demircan, Katja Mombaur
Issue publication August 2016

Special collection on Nanorobotics
Guest editors:  Antoine Ferreira, Sylvain Martel
Issue publication February 2014

Special collection on Robotic Sense of Touch
Guest editors: Ravinder Dahiya, Maurizio Valle, Giorgio Metta, Giorgio Cannata
Issue publication June 2011

Special collection on Rehabilitation Robotics
Guest editors: Michelle Johnson, Eugenio Guglielmelli, Takanori Shibata
Issue publication June 2009

Special collection on Visual SLAM
Guest editors: Jose Neira, Andrew Davison, John Leonard
Issue publication October 2008

Special collection on Biorobotics
Guest editors: Paolo Dario, Blake Hannaford, Atsuo Takanishi
Issue publication February 2008

Special collection on Human-Robot Interaction
Guest editors: Cecilia Laschi, Cynthia Breazeal, Yasushi Nakauchi
Issue publication October 2007