The preparation of a proposal for an OC or a PP is a challenging enterprise since the space is limited to one page only. In the following we will present some helpful information which aspects should or must be included in such a proposal. Both OC and PP will be reviewed by the IPC (International Program Committee) during the second IPC meeting which always take place at the end of March). This review process is guided by certain criteria.
- The proposal must satisfy the formatting guidelines given in the first announcement. If possible, use the template the conference organizers provide on the conference website. Proposals which do not satisfy the formatting rules will be rejected, since the conference organizers have no time at all to change the format of proposals.
- The proposal for an OC or a PP has a quite different character than an abstract of a talk or an article. For example, for OC/PP proposals it is not enough only to announce results which will be presented at the conference. Instead the proposal should give a description of the research that has been conducted or that is being conducted and this includes aspects of theoretical background, research goals, concrete results or concrete expected results. It is the basis for the review process which decides whether the OC or PP can be presented at the conference.
- The proposal should consist of a text part describing the research to be presented and a reference section providing the references cited in the text part. Due to space limitation it is not necessary to give a lot of references. To cite one or two papers would be preferable so that people get an idea in which paradigm or perspective the study is located. Since the review is blind, it does not make really sense to refer to own papers because the reviewers cannot notice these. Please beware: each paper that is cited in the text part must have an entry in the reference section (in the prescribed formatting style).
- The text part should contain the following essential aspects (in an order that makes sense):
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- a short description of the theoretical background or framework
research goals, questions or hypotheses - the methods used for the study (in the case of empirical studies this includes information about the sample, the design, the instruments, the method of data analysis)
- the (most important) results obtained by the study (due to space limitation better presented as text and not as table or figures); if the proposal presents a planned study, then expected results must be described (with reasons why these results are expected)
- finally, a short discussion or conclusions should be mentioned, giving an idea how the research question or goals are satisfied; if possible the new knowledge provided by this proposal should be stressed.
- a short description of the theoretical background or framework
It is obvious that for each of these aspects only a small number of sentences can be used, since the space is limited to one page. To prepare the proposal in such a compact way is challenging but every year many PME members are successful. Please be aware that proposals with more than one page will be rejected without further consideration.
Examples
In the following file, you will find four successful proposals. We put some comments into the file to explain how these proposals satisfied the previously mentioned guidelines.
You can download examples of Short Oral and Poster Presentation Papers here: