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The IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium (IMS) was held in Montreal, QC, Canada, on June 17?22, 2012, and the conference Chair introduced several exciting ideas to stimulate paper submissions to the conference. First, the conference committee made a determined effort to increase publicity, especially in Asia. Second, and definitely more controversial, they reduced the paper length from the traditional four pages to three pages. The thought behind this was that it would make it easier for authors to write a journal paper based on the conference paper because the conference paper would not contain as much technical information. Thus, the authors would have an easier time meeting the IEEE MTT-S threshold that every paper, whether conference or journal, must present substantially new technical material. There were a record number of submissions to the IEEE MTT-S IMS, and there were a record number of submissions to this TRANSACTIONS' "Special Issue on the 2012 International Microwave Symposium." In fact, there were too many submissions for the reviewers, the Associate Editors, and me to complete all of the papers before the deadline for the December issue. Therefore, I have divided the IEEE MTT-S IMS "Special Issue on the 2012 International Microwave Symposium" into two parts, which will be published in this TRANSACTIONS' December 2012 and January 2013 issues. In the January 2013 Special Issue, the Editor-in-Chief will write a full editorial detailing the number of papers, the acceptance rate, and my opinion on the success or failure of the three-page experiment. In the meantime, please enjoy this Special Issue with 32 papers based on papers presented at the 2012 IEEE MTT-S IMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]