Every contribution accepted for NES 2026 has three publication routes open to it. You choose one. The three are alternatives rather than steps in a sequence.

Only route 3 carries a deadline before the conference. If you want a paper in the conference proceedings, it must be uploaded in EasyChair by 6 October 2026. Route 1, the special issue in Ergonomics, accepts manuscripts until 1 March 2027, and route 2, IJHFE, accepts submissions at any time. Both journal routes remain available to you after the conference.

Route 1. Journal special issue

The special issue associated with NES 2026 is now confirmed in Ergonomics, published by Taylor & Francis under the title Advancing Ergonomics in Evolving Work Systems for Transformative Futures: Nordic Perspectives and Global Implications.

Special issue editors are:
Arto Reiman (University of Oulu),
Jari Kaivo-oja (University of Turku),
Cecilia Berlin (Chalmers University of Technology), and
Denis Coelho (Jönköping University).

Manuscript deadline: 1 March 2027
Final decision notification: 31 August 2027

Scope

The special issue addresses the ergonomics challenges and opportunities that arise when work systems, technologies, organisations and institutions change structurally rather than incrementally, at both microergonomic and macroergonomic levels. Its tentative themes, several of them written with the NES 2026 sub-themes in mind, are:

• Ergonomics in Industry 4.0 and 5.0 transformations
• Human–AI collaboration in intelligent work systems
• Resilient sociotechnical systems for evolving work environments
• Ergonomics for sustainable and equitable work futures
• Sustainable productivity and new adaptive capacity roles of HFE

The call is open, so manuscripts from outside the conference are also welcome. NES 2026 contributions developed into full manuscripts are squarely within its scope.

How to submit

• Prepare the full manuscript according to the Ergonomics Instructions for Authors.
• Submit it through the Taylor & Francis submission system for Ergonomics, and select Advancing Ergonomics in Evolving Work Systems for Transformative Futures: Nordic Perspectives and Global Implications when asked for the special issue.
• Give the NES 2026 submission number of your contribution in the cover letter.
• Submission deadline: 1 March 2027. Final decision notification: 31 August 2027.

Manuscripts go through the journal’s full peer review and are decided on their merits. The full call is available here: Special issue call for papers, Ergonomics.

Route 2. International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics

IJHFE (Inderscience), indexed in Scopus and in the Web of Science Emerging Sources Citation Index, accepts submissions to its regular issues at any time. There is no window and no deadline attached to NES 2026, so you may submit the full manuscript whenever it is ready.

Manuscripts arising from NES 2026 receive expedited handling once presentation at the conference has been confirmed. They are then assigned to an editor and sent out for review ahead of the general queue, which shortens the time to a first decision. Full peer review applies and the decision is made on the merits of the manuscript, to the same standard as any other submission to the journal.

How to submit

• Prepare the full manuscript according to the Inderscience author guidelines. IJHFE uses double-blind review, so prepare an anonymised manuscript.
• Submit it through the Inderscience online submission system, choosing the International Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics as the journal and a regular issue as the destination.
• Give the NES 2026 submission number of your contribution in the cover letter, so that expedited handling can be applied.
• There is no charge for publishing, unless you choose to publish your article open access.

More about the journal: IJHFE journal page.

Route 3. Conference proceedings paper

Write a paper of between six and eight pages and publish it in the conference proceedings, described at the foot of this page. Every paper meeting the requirements below is included. There is no selection step.

Choosing route 3 closes routes 1 and 2. A proceedings paper is a citable open access publication with a DOI, so the same work cannot afterwards be submitted to the NES 2026 special issue in Ergonomics or to IJHFE in connection with the conference. Agree the choice with your co-authors before you upload.

Review

Abstracts for NES 2026 were peer reviewed by the Scientific Committee, and the acceptance of your contribution rests on that review. The proceedings paper itself is not put through a further round of peer review. The organising committee checks it for scope, length and format only, and it is published exactly as submitted.

A note for doctoral candidates

Please read the preceding paragraph before choosing this route. Swedish and other countries’ faculties differ in whether a paper that has not been refereed at full-paper level may be included in a compilation licentiate or doctoral thesis, and several require every constituent paper to be of a standard publishable in a peer-reviewed journal. Confirm the position with your director of studies first. A proceedings paper is fast and citable, the journal routes take longer and carry different weight, and which of those suits you depends on what the work is for.

What to do

By Tuesday 6 October 2026:

• Prepare the paper with the NES 2026 proceedings paper template, which carries a full checklist on its last page.
• Log in to EasyChair NES 2026 with the account used for your submission, and open your submission from the author view.
• Use the option to update the submitted file, and upload the finished paper as a PDF in place of the abstract PDF.
• Do not replace the abstract text in the EasyChair form with the paper. The abstract listing in the proceedings is compiled from that text, so any final revision of the abstract itself must also be made there by 6 October.

Nothing is sent by email, and the EasyChair record of your upload serves as confirmation. The paper must be:

• Between six and eight pages in total, including the abstract, figures, tables and references
• Prepared with the NES 2026 proceedings template, with no change to the page setup
• Reporting the same work as your accepted abstract
• Written in English and proofread. The organisers do not copy-edit and the paper is published exactly as submitted.

If you do not choose any of the publication options

Your contribution stays in the programme on the basis of its accepted abstract.

Note separately that 6 October is also the date by which an author must be registered for the contribution to be retained in the programme, and the date for any final revision of your abstract in EasyChair. Those requirements apply whichever publication route you choose, and are not affected by anything on this page.

The conference proceedings

There is one publication, titled Proceedings of the 53rd Nordic Ergonomics and Human Factors Society Conference. It is published by Jönköping University in collaboration with NES, open access on Zenodo (the CERN platform for open research), and is locatable with the DOI https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22029557. The volume contains the abstract of every accepted contribution, whichever route its authors choose, together with the full papers submitted under route 3.

Publication of an abstract is not treated as prior publication by the journals concerned and does not affect a later submission of the full manuscript. Publication of a full conference proceedings paper is treated as prior publication, which is why route 3 closes the other two.