Hybrid: all* panels and plenaries will be available to both face-to-face delegates and those online in Zoom, whether that be listening or presenting. (*unless there are physical barriers to online access, e.g. a walking workshop)

The programme will run over four full days. Each day of the Congress will include a keynote/plenary event and a series of parallel panel sessions that discuss selected themes. There will be a closing plenary roundtable and the Young Scholars Prize lecture.

Rules

There is a ‘one role just once, up to four roles altogether’ rule at SIEF congresses:

• A delegate may present one paper
• Be a convenor of one panel
• Be a chair in one panel
• Be a discussant in one panel (roundtable participation is considered being a discussant)

Authors may only propose as 'presenting' author once, and as roundtable discussants once. Authors may be listed as 'non-presenting' or 'attending' co-authors more than once, but another author must be marked as 'presenting' author in order for the system to accept this.

Authors and panel convenors do not have to be members of SIEF by the time they register for the congress, but there is a financial incentive to become a member for all delegates, as non-members pay a higher registration fee.

Formats: panels, roundtables, workshops, combined formats

This congress has panels in various formats:

• Traditional panels: with up to 5 paper presentations per one 105-minute session. Panels can have up to 2 sessions (max 10 papers).
• Roundtables: at a roundtable a group of scholars (usually no more than 5) discuss themes/issues of general scholarly interest in front of (and subsequently with) an audience for the duration of a single 105-minute session. While a roundtable can include short (5-10 min) provocations/presentations, the main idea is to create a lively debate, not to focus on any one presenter.

  Unlike panels and workshops that must be open to all possible proposals, roundtables can be ‘closed’ with pre-agreed participants, with their names listed in the long abstract. However, roundtables can also be open, taking in provocation/presentation proposals during the call for papers from which participants get selected after the Call has ended.

• Workshops: workshops are conceptualised as practical events containing collective research activities, guided interactions and free-format exchanges leading to specific public outputs. A workshop can have up to two 105-minute sessions. They may include elements of performance, various collective activities, exhibitions, or interactive media displays.
• Panel+roundtable: a two- or three-session event that combines paper presentations in the first session(s) with a roundtable in the final one. Rather than concentrating on the content of each paper, the roundtable conversation should be a general discussion on the theme of the P+R.
• Panel+workshop: a two or three session event that combines presentations with collective activities, practical tasks, and/or performances.

Proposing a paper

Paper proposals must consist of:

• a paper title
• the name/s and email address/es of author/s
• a short abstract of fewer than 300 characters
• a long abstract of fewer than 250 words

All proposals must be made via the online form, not by email. There is a 'Propose paper' button in the title section of each open panel. Navigate to the panel you are interested in and click on this button to propose directly to that panel.

On submission of the proposal, the authors will receive an automated email confirming receipt. If you do not receive this email, please first check your account via the "Log in" link in the toolbar above, to see if your proposal is there, under the conferences tab. If it is, it simply means your confirmation email got spammed/lost; if it is not, you will need to re-submit, as for some reason the process was not completed. Co-authors cannot be added/removed nor can papers be withdrawn by the proposers themselves; for that, please email congress(at)siefhome.org

Proposals will be marked as pending until the end of the Call for Papers (17 December 2024). Convenors will then be asked to make their decisions over the papers proposed to their panel by 13 January 2025 and to communicate those to the proposers, marking them up within the login environment.

The call for papers is now closed.

Proposing a poster

Poster sessions offer an opportunity for those who do not wish to present orally, or whose work is not yet at the paper presentation stage. Posters must conform to the same basic requirements as outlined for the panel sessions. Sessions will run throughout the Congress, with dedicated slots when poster presenters will be available at their respective display to answer questions/discuss their topic with colleagues. All posters must also be uploaded on the site (not necessarily at proposal stage, but before the conference) and there will also be an online session provided for poster presentations by colleagues attending virtually.

• poster title
• the name/s and email address/es of author/s
• a short abstract of fewer than 300 characters
• a long abstract of fewer than 250 words

The call for posters is now closed.

Proposing to a Workshop

When making a contribution proposal to a Workshop, PLEASE DO NOT SEND A PAPER PROPOSAL. Your contribution should be 3-10 sentences describing your research interests and motivation to participate in the workshop. Do not send a paper abstract as these are NOT panels!

Contributions may include elements of performance, various collective activities, exhibitions, or interactive media displays.

Possible strategic advice

You may notice that alongside the 'Propose paper' button for each panel there is a statement as to how many papers have been proposed to that panel to-date. If you are proposing early, this statement will not be very instructive. However if you are part of the 80% who propose within the last 48hrs of the call, you might factor these statements into your consideration of where best to target your paper. If weighing up between two panels where one is heavily oversubscribed, you may have a higher chance of acceptance within the panel with fewer proposals. Obviously that's not guaranteed, but it's worth considering these strategies.

Good proposals not accepted in their original destination may be entered into a transfer process (see below) which affords a second and third attempt to accommodate your paper.

Transfer process

Papers which are neither accepted nor rejected, but marked for 'transfer', will be given the opportunity to be rehoused into other panels. The conference organisers will contact the authors of the ‘transfer’ proposals asking them to modify their abstracts to fit another panel of their choosing from a list of those with space for additional papers (panels with fewer than the allowed maximum of eight papers).

The authors will then inform us of two panels they wish to apply to (in order of preference). We then forward the title, short and long abstracts to the panel convenors asking them to consider the proposal. If rejected by the first panel, we contact the second choice. Transfers rejected by both panels will then be set to 'rejected'.

If the proposal is accepted by either panel, we will inform the authors and ask them to edit the proposal on the system to match the edited abstract sent to the convenors; this is not done automatically. We aim to resolve all transfers by 07 February 2025.

Useful information for later in this process

Editing your paper

Paper authors can use the login link in the toolbar above to edit their proposals.

Pre-circulation of papers

SIEF has no rule about this, but many convenors are keen to pre-circulate completed papers. To facilitate this and save on email traffic, if requested by convenors, authors can upload PDFs of their papers within the online system, which will then show as downloadable files beneath the abstract on the public panel page on the site. There is currently no option to restrict this to panelists/delegates (although this feature is in the development pipeline).

Timing of presentations

Each panel/workshop session slot will be 105 minutes long, accommodating a maximum of five presenters. Convenors should allot each presenter a maximum of 15+5 mins for panels of five papers and 20+5 mins for panels of four papers.

Communication between authors/convenors

Convenor/author email addresses are not shown on the panel pages for privacy/anti-spam reasons. However there is an in-built secure email messaging system. If you cannot work that, please email congress(at)siefhome.org to obtain relevant email addresses.

Any queries with the above please email congress(at)siefhome.org.