Colloquium (CQ)

Overview:

  • Concept and main idea
  • Submission procedure
  • Restrictions
  • Reviewing
  • Presentation and Publication

Concept and main idea

The goal of a Colloquium is to provide the opportunity to present a set of three Research Reports that are interrelated in a particular way (e.g. they depart from related or contrasting theoretical stances, use identical instruments or methods, or focus on closely related research questions), and to initiate a discussion with the audience on the interrelated set.

A Colloquium proposal

  • consists of a set of (exactly) three research reports, to be presented by members from at least two different countries,
  • includes in addition a one page summary by an organizer (one person), indicating a specific pre-determined focus that is present in each research report,
  • involves a presentation of the three research reports, and a discussion with the audience which is initiated by the contribution of a discussant (one person, indicated in the author line of the one-page summary) who is appointed at submission.

Submission Procedure

A Colloquium proposal consists of exactly three research reports, to be presented by members from at least two different countries. Additionally, the organizer of the symposium prepares a summary which describes the focus and/or rationale of the Colloquium. The summary has to be written in English without an abstract. The document may be up to one page long and must be in line with the formatting guidelines provided by the conference organizers. More information is available in the conference template file. For the peer review process, authors must submit a second, blinded version of their proposal. Papers that do not conform with the formatting guidelines, exceed the maximum number of pages or which are not accompanied by a properly blinded version may be rejected without further consideration or peer review.

The three Research Reports should be submitted via Conftool according to the guidelines provided in that presentation format before the Colloquium summary is submitted. Here, further information is only provided for the one-page summary which accompanies the three Research Reports.

It provides the Colloquium title, and the name of the organizer (preceded by “Organiser:”) and discussant (preceded by “Discussant:”) in the author fields. Then, the text containing the focus and/or rationale for the Colloquium is provided. Note that no abstract is necessary for the Colloquium summary.

Please consider the following issues before you submit your proposal: SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

The Colloquium organizer must submit the one-page summary via Conftool (www.conftool.com/pme) no later than January, 15th, in the year of the conference (see conference announcement for exact dates). In the comments field in Conftool, the numbers of the three research reports which comprise the Colloquium have to be indicated.

Submissions to ConfTool are only possible if the presenting author is registered in the ConfTool system and has paid the non-refundable conference deposit.

The following files must be submitted for each colloquium proposal:

  • for publication and review, the usual two files for each of the three Research Reports
  • for publication, the word file that strictly follows the formatting guidelines
  • for review, a “blinded version” as a PDF file in which it is not possible for a reviewer to infer the authors’ identities from the text.

Please note that no revisions are possible after submission. Each contribution is accepted or rejected in the form in which it was submitted.

Restrictions

Every pre-registered person may submit at most one Colloquium proposal. The proposal should be submitted by the organizer of the colloquium.

Every conference participant may act as an organizer of one Colloquium.

The research reports are presented by persons from at least two different countries.

Every conference participant may be proposed and act as discussant for not more than one Colloquium.

The organizer may not be involved as an author or co-author in more than one of the research reports in the Colloquium.

Each conference participant may present at most one Oral Communication or one Research Report, including the Research Reports that are part of Colloquia.

Reviewing

The Research Reports included in a Colloquium proposal are reviewed in the same way as usual Research Reports, using the same process and criteria. The IPC may, however, assign the set of three research reports (partly) to the same reviewers, who are then informed that the Research Reports are part of a Colloquium proposal.

If all three Research Reports are considered acceptable during the review process, at least one member of he International Program Committee reviews the whole Colloquium proposal during the 2nd IPC meeting and decides if the Research Reports are grouped to form a Colloquium.

If not all three Research Reports are accepted or if the framing proposal to group them in a Colloquium is rejected by the IPC, those Research Reports, which were accepted in the usual review process, will enter the conference program as usual research reports.

In case of rejection, encouragement for resubmission in a different format is possible for the single Research Reports.

The single Research Reports from a Colloquium are reviewed using the same criteria and process as usual Research Reports. In particular, if a Research Report is part of a Colloquium, this should not influence the decision made by a reviewer.

Review criteria

The framing proposal to group three Research Reports in a Colloquium is evaluated according to the following criteria:

  1. Acceptance of all three individual Research Reports separately is a necessary condition for a Colloquium.
  2. The presenting authors of the RRs come from at least two different countries.
  3. Coherent focus of the Colloquium
    e.g.: Do the three Research Reports have a common theme that allows focussing on joint discussion?
  4. Clear added value of combining the three Research Reports into a Colloquium
    e.g.: Are the three Research Reports sufficiently related, but yet not too similar to stimulate a good discussion?
  5. Selection of a discussant with sufficient expertise in the field of the Colloquium.

Publication and presentation

Provided the full conference registration fee has been paid in time by all presenters, the organizer and the discussant of the colloquium, the three research reports will be included in the conference proceedings together, preceded by the one-page summary which describes the focus and/or rationale of the Colloquium.

A 90 minutes slot will be devoted to each Colloquium. The organizer takes care of the chairing. The organizer first briefly introduces the Colloquium topic. Then each Research Report in it is presented. The presentation time can be agreed with the organizer beforehand, but will be between 15 and 20 minutes (depending on how much the paper have in common, some presentations can be shorter).

Afterwards, the discussant initiates the discussion during approximately 10 minutes, which is followed by discussion with the audience.

The organizer takes care of the chairing.

For more information, please see the Guidelines for Preparing and Presenting Research Report Contributions and the Guidelines for Session Chairs.

The publication and presentation should follow the PME formatting guidelines and must be in accordance with the PME publication ethics.