How to prepare and submit a proposal for EARLI 2015 If you intend to contribute to the scientific programme of EARLI 2015, you have to choose between various conference formats, which are introduced in this document. The diversity of formats is designed to create a lively academic atmosphere, to allow for different preferences in presentation styles, and accommodate the presentation of research at different stages. Each of the formats outlined below are equally valuable, but serve different purposes. This guide is meant to assist you in: •
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Choosing the appropriate format for your presentation. Preparing your submission. Submitting your proposal to EARLI 2015. Please note: EARLI is encouraging the presentation of high-­‐quality qualitative research. If you intend to present a qualitative study, please ensure that you provide clear information about the methodology and the processes used for data analysis. 1. Preparing your submission It is very important to choose the appropriate format to present your research. Otherwise, your chances of acceptance may be significantly reduced. We recommend that you look at the review criteria (see page 8 of this document) so that you understand how your proposal will be assessed. You can find information on the various conference formats as well as guidance on how to prepare your proposal in the following sections. Some valuable tips which should help you to prepare and submit your proposal: • Each submission requires a title of up to 100 characters, an abstract of 100-­‐250 words and an extended summary of 600-­‐1000 words (including references!). • Prospective participants need a valid EARLI ID to submit a contribution (which is available without an EARLI membership). 1
• Symposia-­‐submitters: Mind the three-­‐country rule and that all your participants and all co-­‐
authors need an EARLI ID. • A good way to include tables in your submission is to convert them into an image and use the “Upload appendix images” – functionality. • The solution for 99% of word-­‐count problems during the paper submission is copying your text into the program “TextEdit” (installed on every Mac) or “Notepad” (installed on every Windows PC) and copying it from there into the submission system. • To find the appropriate scheduling category for your submission – consider the alphabetical list on the last page of this document. It’s clearer than the drop-­‐down menu in the submission system. 1.1 Symposia Symposia provide an opportunity to present research on one topic, providing a coherent set of papers for discussion. Symposia sessions are directed by a chairperson, who is nominated by the symposium organizers upon submitting the proposal. Symposia involve four presenters and one discussant, who is also nominated by the symposium organizers. Presenters in a symposium should represent, at least, three different countries. We recommend that symposia conveners set an early deadline for possible contributors to submit to them (e.g. at least three weeks ahead of the submission deadline) and that each individual submission is checked for its own quality, its relevance and coherence to the topic of the symposium prior to formal submission to EARLI 2015. It is important that you review the quality of proposals, as the whole symposium could be jeopardised by one weak entry. EARLI 2015 aims to offers a good range of coherent and stimulating symposia. If you are organising a symposium, you can send out a call for contributions via the EARLI Office. Please note: All active participants in a symposium need to have a valid EARLI ID before the symposium is submitted. The person who submits the symposium will use the email addresses of every active participant to access the EARLI database and retrieve their EARLI ID. Timing: A symposium is scheduled for 90 minutes, comprising 15 minutes presentation per speaker, 10 minutes for the discussant, and 20 minutes for open discussion. 2
Room set-­‐up: A computer, digital projector, and internet access will be provided in each room. How to prepare your symposium proposal: 1. Requirements for the symposium as a whole: • An abstract of the symposium of 100-­‐250 words. The abstract should provide information regarding the aims of the symposium and its scientific and educational relevance. • Please pay special attention to the coherence of the presentations of the symposium. This is one of the primary reasons that symposium proposals have not been accepted in the past. • The title of the symposium, the title of each presentation (four presentations per symposium) with the name and affiliation of each author. • The name of the chair and the name of one discussant. 2. Requirements for each contribution in the symposium: • A 100-­‐250 word abstract for each individual presentation. • An extended summary of 600-­‐1,000 words, for each individual presentation, detailing the aims, methodology, findings, and theoretical and educational significance of the research. This means that if a symposium consists of four individual presentations, each symposium participant should prepare a 600-­‐1,000-­‐word extended summary, making a total of four summaries. Please note: Do not forget that you need to include participants from, at least, three countries in a symposium! Your symposium can not be accepted otherwise. 1.2 Paper Sessions Paper sessions are oral presentations of four papers, followed by a discussion with the audience. It is important that empirical papers have data and results, or they will not be accepted. Research which is at an earlier stage is very suitable for Round Table or Poster sessions. Theoretical papers are, of course, welcomed. Timing: Paper sessions are scheduled for 90 minutes, normally with four presenters, each with approximately 15 minutes for their presentation plus time for discussion with the audience. 3
Room set-­‐up: A computer, digital projector, and internet access will be provided in each room. How to prepare your empirical or theoretical paper: You will need the following: •
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An extended summary of 600-­‐1,000 words, detailing the aims, methodology, findings, and theoretical and educational significance of the research. This extended summary is the basis for the reviews. An abstract of 100-­‐250 words. 1.3 Interactive Poster Sessions Poster sessions involve five or six posters, visually presenting research studies. A short oral presentation of about 5 minutes for each poster is given to an audience gathered as a group. After the authors’ brief presentation, an in-­‐depth discussion between the authors and the audience can follow at the posters. The poster sessions offer researchers the chance to present their work in a visual format and offer more opportunities for interaction and discussion. Poster sessions are usually ideal for work which is at an earlier stage of research. Timing: Poster sessions are scheduled for 90 minutes. Room set-­‐up: Poster boards and materials for fixing to the board will be provided. Please bring posters in A0 or A1 format. Requirements for preparing a poster presentation: An abstract of 100-­‐250 words detailing the aims, methodology, findings, and theoretical and educational significance of the research. • An extended summary of 600-­‐1,000 words, detailing the aims, methodology, findings, and theoretical and educational significance of the research. This extended summary is the basis for the reviewers. Additional advice from the organisers: Posters provide a great starting point for discussion about your work with interested and knowledgeable researchers. In order to make the most of this format, please stick to some simple rules when designing you poster: A good poster is focused on a concise, often a single, key message. It uses text sparingly, but instead uses graphs and images to tell the story. A good poster keeps its sequence well-­‐ordered and •
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obvious. To get more tips around how to design a good poster, please see poster submission guidelines at http://www.earli2015.org/programme/conference-­‐formats/. 1.4 Round Table Sessions Round table sessions offer opportunities for a more discursive exploration of research issues. This may well involve discussion of work in progress. About five or six presenters will be allocated to each session. Each researcher explains the research issue, and invites participants to help to discuss emerging data or to solve a research issue or problem. Timing: Round table sessions are scheduled for 90 minutes each. Room set-­‐up: A computer, digital projector, and internet access will be provided in each room. Requirements for preparing a round table presentation: •
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A title of up to 100 characters (including spaces). An abstract of 100-­‐250 words. An extended summary of 600-­‐1,000 words, detailing the aims, methodology, findings, and theoretical and educational significance of the research. This extended summary is the basis for the reviewers. 1.5 ICT Demonstrations ICT Demonstrations allow presenters to display, explain and familiarise users with a potentially useful teaching or research tool, or method. The presentation may include references to completed research, but the point of the session is to demonstrate the tool or method, not present the research for criticism. The audience may offer their viewpoints and share their experiences with tools or methods for the same purpose. Timing: Demonstrations are scheduled for 90 minutes. Room set-­‐up: Computer lab with digital projector and internet access. Additional advice from the organisers: As an ICT applicant, please make sure to indicate in detail the kind of equipment and facilities that you will need! 5
Requirements for preparing an ICT demonstration: •
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A title of up to 100 characters (including spaces). An abstract of 100-­‐250 words. An extended summary of 600-­‐1,000 words, detailing the aims, methodology, findings, and theoretical and educational significance of the research. This extended summary is the basis for the reviewers. 1.6 Workshops Workshops provide an opportunity to familiarise participants with some aspects of research or teaching practice, so that questioning and discussion are suitably informed. Learning-­‐by-­‐
doing occupies most of the session, and any presentations are brief. Providing adequate time for reflective discussions is important. Timing: Workshops are scheduled for 90 minutes. Room set-­‐up: Computer lab with digital projector and internet access. Requirements for preparing a workshop: •
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A title of up to 100 characters (including spaces). An abstract of 100-­‐250 words. An extended summary of 600-­‐1,000 words, detailing the aims, methodology, findings, and theoretical and educational significance of the research. This extended summary is the basis for the reviewers. 2. Submitting your Proposal 2.1 Required information Please note that when using the online conference system to submit a proposal or register for the conference, you will need a valid EARLI username / password. To facilitate this, you will be able to obtain your username and password from the EARLI website at any time. You will also need to ensure that your email address is updated in the EARLI database and that you will not be using multiple email addresses when interacting with the online conference system. Users who do not already have an EARLI account, can register for a new account during their initial proposal submission or conference registration process. 6
If you are submitting a symposium, you will need to ensure that the email address entered for each active participant (i.e. presenting authors, chairpersons, organisers, discussants) matches the email address they have entered in the EARLI database. Consequently, each active conference participant needs to have an EARLI account and to have provided you with the corresponding email address before the submission. Please note: Active conference participants, who are not submitting themselves but who are involved in a proposal, and who have never been a member of EARLI in the past, are asked to contact the EARLI Office at info@earli2015.org BEFORE their colleague submits the proposal. The email address you provide will be used to retrieve the participants’ details from the EARLI database. For co-­‐authors who will not be presenting a paper in the conference, a matching EARLI account email address is not required. In order to retrieve your EARLI username / password, you can use the password reminder: http://earli.org/passwordreminder. If you have any questions or concerns about your EARLI login or the EARLI 2015, please contact the EARLI office at info@earli2015.org. Before attempting to submit, check that the word count of the abstract and extended summary are within the specified limits, as the conference management system will not accept proposals over the specified word limit. Proposals can be submitted only through the conference website. It is important to use the same e-­‐mail address for all of your submissions. Please note that proposals for which the presenting author has not registered on time will be omitted from the programme without a warning. Please mention your EARLI login ID for all subsequent correspondence made through the online system of the conference. In each submission you will need to designate a presenting author. 2.2 Submission process When you have prepared your proposal and gathered the information outlined above, go to the conference website (http://www.earli2015.org/submission-­‐registration/) and click on the “Submit a paper” and follow the instructions. It would be very helpful to have all the information in electronic form (e.g. in word file) before you start the submission process. If, for any reason, you cannot complete the submission process all at once, you can return to the website and modify any information you save prior to submitting the final forms and before the deadline. 7
Please note: You will have to repeat the submission process for every symposium or individual paper that you would like to submit. It is extremely important to use the same e-­‐
mail address for all of your submissions. Please mention your EARLI ID login in all subsequent correspondence with the conference organisation. Please remember that the online submission system cannot handle characters that do not belong to the English alphabet. Please also note that the information (including your name) will be published exactly as it will be submitted by you. Hence care should be taken to avoid spelling and other mistakes. During the submission of your proposal you will be asked to indicate: • The format of your submission (symposium, paper, interactive poster, round table session, ICT demonstration, workshop); • Whether your paper or poster is empirical or theoretical; • At least 4 keywords, which you will select from a list, which best represent your proposal; • To which SIG your proposal fits best (choose only one); • The most applicable domain of the conference (choose only one); • The scheduling category (choose only one) that will be used for grouping accepted submissions in sessions and for the final conference programme. Please note: Choosing a SIG, domain, and scheduling category is very important so please take the time to do this carefully. The system will automatically assign your contribution to reviewers whose background best matches your selections of SIG and domain. Scheduling categories are used to create the conference programme, i.e. to group the submission in a session with papers of related topics but also, if possible, to avoid scheduling two sessions on the same topic in parallel. In all cases, the International Scientific Programme Committee has the final responsibility to assign the individual proposals to a particular session format, based on the reviews received. 8
3. Review criteria Depending on the format and type of your proposal, it will be reviewed by at least two referees according to the following criteria: EMPIRICAL PAPER q Relevance to EARLI q Significance for theory, policy and practice q Theoretical framework, conceptual rationale or pragmatic grounding q Research method and design for both qualitative and quantitative approaches (research questions, context, participants, data sources, sampling, procedure, ethical issues) q Clarity of results or preliminary results and conclusions q Overall quality and scientific originality THEORETICAL PAPER q Relevance to EARLI domain of Learning and Instruction q Significance for theoretical debate q Theoretical framework, conceptual rationale or pragmatic grounding q Embeddedness in relevant literature q Clarity and robustness of theoretical argument q Overall quality and scientific originality POSTER (EMPIRICAL) q Relevance to EARLI domain of Learning and Instruction q Significance for theory, policy and practice q Theoretical framework, conceptual rationale or pragmatic grounding q Research method and design (research questions, context, participants, data sources, sampling, procedure, ethical issues) q Preliminary data analysis or anticipated results q Overall quality and scientific originality POSTER (THEORETICAL) q Relevance to EARLI domain of Learning and Instruction q Significance for theoretical debate q Theoretical framework, conceptual rationale or pragmatic grounding q Embeddedness in relevant literature q Clarity and robustness of theoretical argument q Overall quality and scientific originality 9
SYMPOSIUM (AS A WHOLE) Relevance to EARLI domain of Learning and Instruction q Significance for theory, practice and policy q Theoretical perspective, conceptual rationale or pragmatic grounding q Organisation and internal logic of the whole symposium q Overall quality and scientific originality Each paper in a symposium will also be reviewed as an individual paper using the criteria outlined above. Hence, there is a possibility that a symposium may be rejected but one or more individual contributions may be accepted. ROUND TABLE q Relevance to EARLI domain of Learning and Instruction q Significance for theory, policy and practice q Theoretical framework, conceptual rationale or pragmatic grounding q Research method and design (research questions, context, participants, data sources, sampling, procedure, ethical issues) q Clarity of issue at stake q Overall quality and scientific originality ICT DEMONSTRATION q Relevance to EARLI domain of Learning and Instruction q Significance for theory, policy and practice q Theoretical framework, conceptual rationale or pragmatic grounding q Validation in domain of application (as research method, data collection, research procedure, etc.) q Quality of workshop format (activity based) or demonstration activities q Overall quality and scientific originality WORKSHOP q Relevance to EARLI domain of Learning and Instruction q Significance for theory, policy and practice q Theoretical framework, conceptual rationale or pragmatic grounding q Validation in domain of application (as research method, data collecting, research procedure, etc.) q Quality of workshop format (activity based) or demonstration activities q Overall quality and scientific originality q
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We look forward to welcoming you in Limassol! Dr. Iolie Nicolaidou EARLI 2015 Conference Manager Dr. Eleni A. Kyza EARLI 2015 President 11