Call for Submissions Rules & Guidelines

The 2012 Call for Submissions is open through January 31, 2012.

This year’s Convention theme is Diverse Perspectives.

Deadline for Submission
Proposal Review, Selection, and Status Notification
Submitter Responsibilities
Program Participant Registration Policy
Presentation Format Descriptions
Symposium
Poster

• Theme Poster
• SSCP Student Poster
• Teaching Institute Poster

APS Student Caucus Research Awards

Deadline for Submission
Proposals must be completed and finalized by midnight Pacific Time on January 31, 2012.

Proposal Review, Selection, and Status Notification
All submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by members of the Program Committee; reviewer assignments will be made based on the subject area selected by the submitter.

Poster submitters will be notified of the acceptance (or rejection) of their poster on a rolling basis, and if accepted, will be notified of the schedule for their poster in mid-March, 2012.

Symposium submitters will be notified via email of the decision regarding the submission in mid-March, 2012. If accepted, submitters will be notified of the schedule for the symposium at this time as well. If the Program Committee recommends that a symposium submission be considered for a poster presentation instead, the submitter will be notified of this recommendation and each author will be offered the opportunity to present individual presentations as posters.

With all proposal formats, including posters, the Program Committee retains the right to request additional information, ask that changes be made to improve a presentation, or decline to schedule a presentation the Committee does not find relevant to the meeting or that does not follow the guidelines for submission. No changes can be made after proposals have been submitted unless the Committee has specifically requested that change.

All submissions must represent completed work (i.e. do not submit a proposal if the data are still pending). Non-empirical research should not be submitted as a poster. Submissions should discuss research that has not been presented or published elsewhere.

Submitter Responsibilities
Only the person who submits the proposal will receive correspondence relating to the submission. The submitter must notify all authors of the status of the proposal. The name of the proposal submitter will not appear in any program unless the submitter elects to be listed as an author. Submitter information is only used for communications about the submission, such as notification of acceptance or rejection of the proposal.

• The first author of a submission, whether or not s/he is attending the convention, must be an APS Member or APS Student Affiliate at the time of the presentation. Submitters do not need to be members to submit proposals or to have proposals reviewed.
• It is the responsibility of the submitter to inform symposium participants or poster co-authors of their proposal status and other relevant information. Only the submitter will receive notification of the proposal’s acceptance and detailed information on scheduling and logistics, etc. The submitter must notify all presenters that they must be registered for the convention in order to present.
• The commitment of all participants must be secured in advance of proposal submission.
• An individual may be a first author on only one proposal. However, that individual may be a co-author/presenter on multiple poster proposals, and may participate in multiple symposia. (Exception: An individual may be the first author on a Teaching Institute poster as well as an APS presentation.)

Program Participant Registration Policy
All program participants must register and pay the appropriate conference registration fee. This rule applies to speakers, session chairpersons, participants, and poster presenters. You may join APS or renew your membership via the convention registration form, but please understand that membership and convention registration are separate items. You can register onsite at the convention, but early registrants receive a special early bird registration rate before March 31, 2012. More information about convention registration is available online.

If you have further questions about the submissions process, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions .

Presentation Format Descriptions
Symposium
A symposium is a focused session in which individual speakers present their views on a common issue. Symposia should have the dual goals of providing diversity of perspective and integrating those perspectives into a meaningful whole.

A symposium includes a chair, up to four presenters, and a discussant (optional). Symposia are scheduled in 80 or 55 minute time slots and should allow for discussion among presenters and the audience. An LCD projector, screen, microphone and speakers will be available in each presentation room for symposia. Presenters must supply all other equipment for their presentation, including laptop computers.

To Submit a Symposium — Enter the following information:

• Presentation Title
• Subject Area
• Abstract describing the symposium (50 words maximum)
• Supporting summary (500 words maximum, plain-text format)
• Presenter Information:
• Chair name, including affiliation and e-mail address
• Presenter names, including affiliation and e-mail address
• Co-authors that are not speaking at the convention, but are listed in the convention program
• Discussant’s name and affiliation (optional)
• Title of each individual’s presentation
• Abstract of each individual’s presentation (optional)

Poster

Sample poster configuration

Posters offer the opportunity to present data and have substantive discussions with interested colleagues. The audience circulates among the posters, stopping to discuss papers of particular interest to them. Authors present their papers using a visual medium with key excerpts from the papers displayed on a 4′ high x 8′ wide free-standing bulletin board. Poster presentations should incorporate illustrative materials such as tables, graphs, photographs, and large-print text, and materials should be clearly readable from a distance of three feet (primary text font should be 20 points or larger, and headings font at least 30 points). Posters are assigned a session number and bulletin board number and are organized by keyword when possible. No audio visual equipment can be used.

Like all other presentations, poster presentations should represent completed work. Please do NOT submit a proposal if the data are still pending. Posters that discuss new scientific findings are especially encouraged.

When possible, the poster title should indicate the important result (e.g., lesions of frontal cortex disrupt divided attention) rather than the experimental question (e.g., frontal cortex and divided attention). A maximum of 15 presenters or authors may be included with the submission and printed in the program book. Presenters are required to bring copies of their papers to the meeting (50 copies or more recommended).

Posters will be scheduled into one of several poster sessions, during the period Thursday, May 24, 2012, through mid-day Sunday, May 27, 2012.

To Submit a Poster — Enter the following information:

• Select poster type (Either a standard poster, or one of the special categories listed below)
• Poster Title
• Subject Area
• Keyword
• Abstract describing the poster (50 words maximum)
• Supporting summary (500 words maximum, plain-text format)
• Presenter and Co-Author Information:
• First author should be listed first (even if first author is not attending the convention)
• University or business affiliation and e-mail address must be included for all presenters/co-authors
• Maximum of 15 presenters/co-authors may be included.

Theme Poster
This year, in addition to the general posters sessions, there will be poster sessions corresponding to cross-cutting themed programs taking place on Friday, May 25, 2012, and Saturday, May 26, 2012. If you would like to have your poster considered for presentation in one of these focused sessions, select the button corresponding to your subject area after you select to start a new poster submission.

This year’s cross-cutting theme programs are:

• Biological Beings in Social Context
• Disaster, Response, and Recovery
• Music, Mind, and Brain

Posters not accepted into these specialized sessions will be automatically considered for the general poster sessions.

SSCP Student Poster 
The Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP) hosts an annual student poster session at the APS Annual Convention. A $200 cash award is given for the best student poster at this session. Submissions will be reviewed by SSCP members. If you would like to have your poster considered for the SSCP student poster session, select ‘SSCP Poster’ in the first step after you select poster and ’start new submission.

To be eligible to submit an SSCP poster, the first author of the poster must be a graduate student and must be a member of SSCP at the time of submission. Submissions to the SSCP graduate poster session must be completed by January 31, 2012.

The SSCP poster submission can deal with any area within scientific clinical psychology (e.g., the etiology or correlates of psychopathology, assessment/diagnosis, clinical judgment, psychiatric classification, psychotherapy process or outcome, prevention, psychopharmacology). The research and analyses presented in the poster submission must be completed (i.e., submissions containing such language as “Data will be collected….” will not be considered). Please be sure to provide enough relevant detail in the summary so that reviewers can adequately judge the originality of the study, the soundness of the theoretical rationale and design, the quality of the analyses, the appropriateness of the conclusions, and so on.

If you have any questions please contact Howard N. Garb of SSCP at howard.garb@lackland.af.mil.

Teaching Institute Poster
The 19th Annual APS-STP Teaching Institute welcomes submissions to the Teaching Institute Poster Session. The format is the same as a regular poster, but submissions should be related to the teaching of psychology. This includes, but is not limited to, teaching techniques, innovations, evaluation, and philosophy. Posters should focus on methods for teaching psychology, such as particularly effective or innovative courses or course organizations, strategies (including demonstrations) for promoting active learning, ways of integrating course material, helpful use of technology, and the like.

Please note that if accepted to present a teaching poster, you must register for the Teaching Institute.

Sample poster configuration

The Teaching Institute Poster Session will be scheduled for late-morning on Thursday, May 24, 2012.
A free-standing bulletin board (4′ high x 8′ wide) will provide display space for presentations. The audience circulates among the posters, stopping to discuss papers of particular interest to them. Poster presentations should incorporate illustrative materials such as tables, graphs, photographs, and large-print text, and materials should be clearly readable from a distance of three feet (primary text font should be 20 points or larger, and headings font at least 30 points). No audio visual equipment can be used.

A maximum of 15 presenters or authors may be included with the submission and printed in the program book. Presenters should bring at least 50 handouts of the complete presentation to distribute at the poster session.

To Submit a Teaching Institute Poster — Enter the following information:

• Poster Title
• Abstract describing the poster (50 words maximum)
• Supporting summary (500 words maximum, plain-text format)
• Presenter and Co-Author Information
• First author should be listed first (even if first author is not attending the convention)
• University or business affiliation and e-mail address must be included for all presenters/co-authors
• Maximum of 15 presenters/co-authors may be included

APS Student Caucus Research Awards
The APS Student Caucus sponsors two research award competitions for students each year at the convention: the Student Research Award and the RISE Research Award. All APS Student Affiliates are eligible to submit their research to be considered for the awards. Please visit the APSSC Awards page for information on the awards.

If you have further questions about the submissions process, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions.