Tentative Proposal
Bob Eberlein, July 12, 2004
This proposal is based on my experience working as a Program Chair in 2003 and in supporting the review and selection process essentially behind the scenes in 2004. Many of the guidelines contained here are simply descriptions of current practice. Some are proposals for modest changes from current practice. Adopting these proposals will, in my opinion, both increase the quality of our conferences, and decrease the efforts required at the Central Office.
It seems clear that both our conferences and the guidelines for running them will need to evolve. As this happens this document should be updated so as to be current and helpful. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the conference program committee, acting with the approval of the Policy Council to run a successful conference.
Program Committee
For each conference there will be a program committee made up of a Program Chair and a number of Thread Chairs as detailed below.
Program Chair
The Program Chair will be approved by the Policy Council at the time a conference selection is made. Normally the program chair will be proposed as part of the overall conference proposal, though a different selection process may be used. In either case the approval of the Program Chair will be done by a separate vote of the Policy Council endorsing the qualifications and responsibility of the Chair.
It is the responsibility of the Program Chair to oversee the activities of the Thread Chairs, assign tasks to them and collate their responses. The program chair is to act as the interface between the Central Office and program related issues.
Thread Chairs
Thread Chairs are responsible for a specific topic area of Thread. They are appointed by the Policy Council for a period of three years with staggered terms. The number of Thread Chairs is not fixed, but should be large enough that each Thread Chair has a manageable amount of work to select papers submitted to a particular thread. At the first regular Policy Council meeting following the appointment of the Program Chair the Program Chair will supply the Policy Council with a slate of Thread Chairs to replace those whose terms are ending and add any that are required. Special Thread Chairs, responsible for a Thread that will not be likely to repeat, may be appointed for a single year. The initial slate of Thread Chairs will be given staggered terms.
Session Types and Mandatory Sessions
The program will consist of Plenary Sessions, Parallel Sessions, Poster Sessions and alternative format sessions deemed appropriate by the Program Committee. Presentation length including discussion will not be less than 15 minutes for plenary/parallel presentations and not more than 30 minutes for parallel presentations. The number of concurrent parallel sessions will not exceed 7. Posters will be scheduled so that they may be up for at least ½ of a day and will have a designated time during which the authors will be available for discussion. Mandatory Sessions include as plenary sessions: Jay W. Forrester Award, Business Meeting, Closing Ceremony/Special Awards and the Presidential Address. Mandatory parallel sessions include the Policy Council Meeting (normally before conference opening), Committee Meetings and Chapter/SIG meetings.
Paper Submission
Paper submission will be accepted electronically through a web submission system maintained by the Central Office. It will be the responsibility of the authors to insure that a submission is made with no reference to their names to support a blind review. Papers will be submitted to one of the designated conference threads
There will be a single submission deadline set by the Central Office in consultation with the Program Chair.
Paper Review
The paper review process will be a blind review process supported by the web submission systems. All Society members will be given the opportunity to review papers. Nonmembers suggested by the Program Committee will also be given the opportunity to review papers. Any reviewer who has previously submitted and inappropriate review will, at the discretion of the Program Committee, not be asked to review papers again. The review deadline will be set by the Central Office in consultation with the Program Chair.
Paper Selection
Paper selection is the responsibility of the Thread Chairs. The Thread Chairs will be given access to the submitted papers and reviews of those papers on a double blind basis. Using this information the Thread Chair will indicate whether to accept or reject a paper as well as specify the tentative presentation format. The deadline for paper selection will be set by the Central Office in consultation with the Program Chair.
Acceptance Notification
After a paper has been selected for acceptance or rejection, the communicating author will be notified by email. This notification will be made by the central office or automatically through the web submission system.
Program Layout
Once the paper selection has been made the Program Chair will consult with the Central office to determine a workable program layout given the available conference facilities. While acceptance and rejection of papers are expected to be made based solely on the merits of the submission, the actual presentation formats and time allotments need to be made with room capacities taken into consideration. The Program Chair will communicate to the Thread Chairs the number of parallel and poster sessions they should form from their assigned papers.
Session Assignment
The Program Chair, in consultation with the Thread Chairs, shall define the non-mandatory plenary sessions. The Thread Chairs are responsible for the assignment of the remaining papers based on the numbers provided by the Program Chair. Where possible, for each Parallel Session one paper that might be promoted to that session in case an author were unable to be present will be identified.
Author Notification
Authors will be notified of their session assignment by the Central Office. Those identified as backup papers for parallel sessions will be given the choice of preparing two types of presentations.
Scholarly Program
The scholarly program will be compiled by the program chair. This will include the timing of all Plenary Sessions including mandatory sessions, all parallel sessions formed by the Thread Chairs and all Poster and alternative format sessions. In the case of parallel sessions those that are likely to be less attended will be identified to aid in room assignment. The Scholarly program will be completed as soon as possible after session assignments.
Room Assignment
Room assignment will be preformed by the Central Office based on the Scholarly Program and other meeting requirements.
The Central Office will compile the Abstract Proceedings to be printed for distribution at the conference. Web proceedings will be made available as soon as possible after acceptance notifications go out. Authors will be allowed to update their papers through the conference and for a period of 30 days thereafter. A CD containing the conference proceedings will be produced and mailed to conference participants after this time. This is intended to make the proceedings as current as possible.