Information for Authors and Presenters

Instructions, important dates, and other information for a successful conference experience

Share your work with colleagues

The 2027 call for papers opens late April. Find information on these pages about being a presenter at SPIE Photonics West.

Find the conference that best aligns with your research. Then, click into the conference to submit an abstract.

SPIE Photonics West author presents their research beside a podium with a sign that says SPIE.

Important dates

The 2027 timelines are still in development. The below author timeline is a rough estimate.

Abstracts due	July 2026
Registration opens	October 2026
Authors notified and program posts online	September 2026
Submission system opens for manuscripts and poster PDFs*	November 2026
Poster PDFs due for spie.org preview and publication	December 2026
Manuscripts due	December 2026
Advance upload deadline for oral presentation slides**	January 2027

*Contact author or speaker must register prior to uploading
**After this date, slides must be uploaded onsite at Speaker Check-in

Prepare to share your work

Submit an abstract

First step of being part of the program: write an abstract for your work.

Prepare to present at SPIE Photonics West

Get ready to present

Guidelines for oral and poster presenters, a to-do list, and due dates.

Author reviewing manuscript submission guidelines for SPIE Photonics West

Finalize your manuscript

Details and templates for preparing your paper for the SPIE Digital Library.

Chairs and committee members organize the conferences and present awards to authors

Chairs and committees

Timelines and overview of your duties before and during the event.

Present and publish your work as part of SPIE Photonics West

Here's why publishing with Photonics West puts a spotlight on your work:

the event will bring you international visibility
your research becomes a part of the world's permanent scientific record
your work will be indexed in all relevant scientific databases*

Make sure that your research gets timely publication in the SPIE Digital Library.

*SPIE partners with relevant scientific databases to ensure visibility for your research, including Astrophysical Data System (ADS), Ei Compendex, CrossRef, Google Scholar, Inspec, Scopus, and Web of Science Conference Proceedings Citation Index.

Student Members may qualify for SPIE conference support

SPIE offers supplemental travel grants (airfare/lodging) and fee waivers to SPIE Student Members who are presenting at an SPIE meeting.

SPIE Student Members network at an event