OceanObs’09
Plenary Paper and Talk: Author / Speaker Guide
Overview
OceanObs’09 Community White Papers (CWP) provided community input ahead of
the meeting addressing specific areas of the ocean observing and information
systems. The conference Plenary Papers will be the essential mechanism for
merging this information into a broader community consensus, and to build a
coherent vision. Results will be presented during the meeting as Plenary Talks and
as Plenary Papers will form an essential part of the OceanObs’09 permanent record.
The goal of each Plenary Paper and Talk for Days 2-5 should be to lay out a highlevel view of the opportunities and plans of the relevant contributing communities for
the given topic – how all these efforts can best be brought together for the coming
decade.
Day 1 (Session 1D) Plenary Talk authors should prepare a Plenary Paper, which
should recognize the contributing observing and analysis efforts and describe the
community that has been created over the past decade to reach the present level of
accomplishment. Successes as well as outstanding challenges should be identified,
as a primary objective of the conference is to identify needed future activities.
In summary, the intent is to have the plenary papers identify areas of consensus as
well as need and thereby to present a vision for the coming decade that will provoke
questions to be discussed during the meeting (and subsequently), highlighting data
and product requirements as well as any needs for future community planning
activities. It is anticipated that the Plenary Papers will become the building block for
community plans for the ocean observing system for the coming decade.
Goals of the Plenary Papers and Talk
Identify consensus
 draw on material presented in individual CWPs relevant to the subject of the
Plenary Paper and merge the information into a coherent consensus
 missing material required to support the conclusions and consensus can and
should be added
Present a vision (Days 2-5)
 for the coming decade, for the development of the observing system
(observing networks, the development of information, and/or infrastructure)
 inspired by the content of the Community White Papers, but properly a vision
that you have built with your co-authors
Provoke questions
 for the paper: identify where additional community action is needed
 for the talk: pose questions for debate during the panel discussions and
during the conference
Data and product requirements
 Highlight issues related to data and products required over the next decade
 Identify data sharing challenges and needs
 Developing infrastructure
Outputs required
OceanObs’09 Plenary Paper and Talk: Author and Speaker Guide (23 Apr 09)
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Invited Plenary Talk of 20 minutes, preferably by lead author: because of the
structure and scope of the meeting: no parallel sessions, all talks being invited and
given in Plenary Sessions, large blocks of time also set aside for panel discussions,
roundtables, and poster sessions—the length of the talk is limited.
Plenary Paper of 7500-10000 words by lead and contributing authors: as the
permanent record of the conference and a major contribution to its outcome.
Please include a short abstract or executive summary: this should identify your
community plan or vision in a few key points, listing countries involved, and giving a
rough estimate of new resources required to realize.
10 typeset pages max (20-25 printed pages, 7500-10000 words), 10 figures
Identifying co-authors
Plenary Papers will be put together by lead authors and a number of contributing
authors, who the lead authors are free to solicit. The Organizing Committee and
session chairs will assist in this process and will try to be of help throughout the
preparation of the Plenary Paper.
An appropriate place to start in assembling co-authors is from the lead and
contributing authors to the Community White Papers relevant to your topic. A
preliminary mapping of Community White Paper inputs into the Plenary Talks is
available through the meeting web page1. In particular each Community White Paper
author has been asked to identify the Plenary Talks (topics) in the conference
agenda to which it makes a ‘core’ or ‘relevant’ contribution. This identification will be
made available to you as well, though you are free to draw from all contributions to
the conference. The organizers will assist in this step as best as possible. We also
encourage you to ensure that young scientists and operators are involved, and make
an effort to include representatives from countries not already involved in the
conference, including developing countries where appropriate. This could include
Japan, China, and India for example. The community contributing to your paper
should represent those that will carry things forward in the coming decade.
Different communities are at different stages in plan development and so each
Plenary Paper will reflect the status of its contributing community plans.
Guidelines for content
Ocean observations and their societal applications (including science applications)
are the focus of OceanObs’09, and all authors are asked to retain this focus in
developing their papers.
Session 1D: Early Successes: summarize successes identify the big
remaining questions and challenges; identify needed assets in the observing
system that will allow progress, making reference to the Community White
Papers on observing networks.
Day 2: For scientific results and potential based on global observations these
will: summarize progress in the last decade; identify the big remaining
research questions and challenges; and identify current and needed assets in
the observing system that will allow progress, making reference to the
Community White Papers on observing networks.
1
http://www.oceanobs09.net/cwp/list_plenary_paper.php
OceanObs’09 Plenary Paper and Talk: Author and Speaker Guide (23 Apr 09)
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Day 3: For services, forecasts, and impacts/management these will provide
particular examples of the benefits of ocean information, outlining the
scientific and technological underpinnings of generating services for society,
identifying the current and needed elements of an observing system in order
to make progress. They will make reference the appropriate Community
White Papers.
Day 4: For frontiers of global ocean observations these will be visionary
papers based on upcoming in situ or satellite technology and projects, making
reference the submissions from the Community White Papers.
Day 5: For the benefits of global and regional ocean observations, these will
describe the plan for the coming decade for a sustained, interdisciplinary
observing system and showcasing examples of significant benefits,
confronting in particular the frameworks in place and needed to make
progress. The papers focused on plans for the coming decade will in some
cases be repetitive of other Plenary Papers, and will need to adapt following
the debates of the conference itself.
Given the broad scope of Plenary Paper, the length constraints will to focus on the
few key points. If your communities have further detailed plans that cannot fit into this
format, please make reference to other documents, including the Community White
Papers, while touching on the highlights.
Timeline and Review Process
We will not ask for an abstract for plenary papers and the associated talks. However,
lead authors should register themselves through the meeting web page.
Once received, your first draft Plenary Paper will also be made available for public
comment via the www.oceanobs09.net web site. It will also be reviewed by the
Program Committee of the conference. These comments will be available to the
corresponding author, and a meeting draft of the Plenary Paper will be due 1
September 2009. The final draft for publication will be due after the meeting at the
end of 2009.
1 July 2009
July 2009
1 September 2009
21-25 September 2009
30 November 2009
31 January 2010
First draft due
Comment period (open review on web and
from Program Committee)
Conference draft due, published on the web
Presentation in talk at conference.
Revised version submitted for review.
Final version due for publication.
OceanObs’09 Plenary Paper and Talk: Author and Speaker Guide (23 Apr 09)
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