This special issue of the Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (TAO) presents a small collection of the materials presented at the 2011 International Space Plasma Symposium (ISPS), held at National Cheng-Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China (ROC), from August 15 - 19, 2011. The purpose of the Symposium was to bring space physicists together to present their recent research results and discuss some outstanding questions in, but not limited to, the solar corona, interplanetary medium, planetary magnetosphere and ionospheres. A total number of 59 papers were presented at the Symposium by scientists from 11 countries and regions.