Conventions & Events > 2026 APS Annual Convention > Call for Submissions > Symposium Rules and Guidelines

Symposium Rules and Guidelines

All Submission Review Notifications Have Been Sent.

The Call for Submissions is CLOSED.

Ethics Policy & Code of Conduct  

All participants in the APS Annual Convention are expected to follow the APS Code of Conduct.  Please review the Ethics Policy and Code of Conduct page.  

Overview of Symposia  

A symposium is a focused session in which individual speakers present their research 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, three to four presenters, and a discussant (optional). Symposia are scheduled in 80-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 their own laptop computer, as well as all other equipment for their presentation. Slides should be prepared in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Symposia are scheduled on all days of the Convention, Thursday-Saturday. Please allow time for audience Q&A at the end of all speaker presentations.   

Symposium submissions should reflect original research conducted by the presenting author and that has not been presented or published prior to Thursday, 30 October 2025. 

Deadlines for Submission  

All symposium submissions must be finalized by the extended deadline on Wednesday, 10 December 2025, at 17:00 (5:00 PM EST) / 22:00 UTC. Notifications of acceptance or rejection will be sent in February 2026, after the Program Committee has reviewed all symposium submissions.  

All scheduling requests must be included with your submission. APS will attempt to accommodate your request; however, there is no guarantee that all requests can be met. Please consult with your co-presenters for their scheduling preferences before entering them on your submission.  

Please note that APS is unable to accommodate rescheduling requests after submission.  (Exceptions may be made for travel disruptions and emergencies that arise during the week of the Convention.)  

Review, Selection, and Notifications  

Submissions will be reviewed by members of the Program Committee. Only a limited number of symposia can be accepted for presentation at the 2026 APS Annual Convention, so please include as many relevant details as possible in your submission for the Program Committee to effectively evaluate your submission.  

With all submissions the Program Committee retains the right to request additional information, ask that changes be made to improve a presentation, or decline a presentation the Committee does not find relevant to the meeting or does not follow the guidelines for submission. Please re-read your submission before you finalize it to ensure the submission is free of spelling or grammar errors and that all authors have been added to the submission. Changes can be made to proposals up to the submission deadline. Please use the link included in your confirmation email to access your submission and make any necessary edits. Be sure to finalize your submission again. The deadline to request any edits to the program listing for an accepted symposium is 30 March 2026, at 17:00 (5:00 pm EDT) / 21:00 UTC.  

Speaker and Submitter Responsibilities  

  • Submitters do not need to be members to submit proposals or to have proposals reviewed. Please note that you must log in to your APS Member Profile or create a free APS account to begin a submission.  
  • There is no membership requirement of any author on a submission. (Note: APS members receive discounted convention registration rates.)   
  • All presenters must register for the Convention. APS members receive discounted convention registration rates. An Early-Bird rate is available until 8 April 2026, at 17:00 (5:00 pm EDT) / 21:00 UTC.   
  • The Chair must accept the speaker center agreement on behalf of the presenters if their submission is accepted for presentation. Information on how to do so will be sent after the emailed acceptance notification.  
  • 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 while submitting. After a submission has been finalized, all communications will be sent to the Chair of the symposium.  
  • The commitment of all participants and listed co-authors must be secured before proposal submission.  
  • An individual may participate in multiple symposia. An individual may be a first author on only one (1) poster proposal and a co-author/presenter on multiple poster proposals. (Exception: An individual may be the first author on a poster proposal, Flash Talk, as well as a Teaching Institute poster proposal.)  
  • The Chair is responsible for sharing submission notifications and information with presenters and co-authors.  
  • All presentations should present the scientific research that was accepted for the Convention. If an author delivers a presentation that is different than what was submitted and accepted, it may be removed or cancelled at APS’s discretion.  
  • Scheduling Requests: All scheduling requests must be included with your submission. APS will attempt to accommodate your request; however, there is no guarantee that all requests can be met. Please consult with your co-presenters for their scheduling preferences before entering them on your submission. Please note that APS is unable to accommodate rescheduling requests after submission. (Exceptions may be made for travel disruptions and emergencies that arise during the week of the Convention.)    
  • First-time submitters are encouraged to seek feedback from professors or other mentors who can provide guidance regarding their presentation.   
  • General submission agreement:  
    • I agree to allow the Association for Psychological Science (APS) to contact me and my co-authors regarding this submission and all matters related to the APS Annual Convention. 
    • I understand that my name and affiliation will be available for search by other submitters and attendees for this event. 
    • I agree to allow APS to publish my name, affiliation/organization, and country of origin in materials promoting the event. 
    • I understand that APS and its vendors will store the data included in my submission for the purposes listed above. 
    • I have permission to provide the names, affiliations/organizations, and email addresses for all co-authors/co-presenters included in this submission. If you have not yet obtained permission from all co-authors/co-presenters, please do so before continuing the submission process. 
    • I consent to APS de-identifying my submission and using automated tools, including LLMs, to analyze it for event operations and aggregate reporting. APS will not attempt re-identification or allow vendors to use my data to train public models. 
    • I have reviewed and accept the terms of the APS Code of Conduct, which can be found here: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/code-of-conduct. 

For more information on APS’s data privacy policies, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or call +1 202-293-9300.   

Program Participant Registration Policy  

All program participants must register and pay the appropriate registration fee by 6 May 2026. APS members receive discounted convention registration rates. Early registrants receive a discounted rate before the Early-Bird deadline of 8 April 2026, at 17:00 (5:00 pm EDT) / 21:00 UTC. Reminder: All symposia must be presented on-site at the Convention. Virtual or remote presentations cannot be facilitated.  

Submission Guidelines  

APS seeks presentations showcasing the latest findings in psychological science. Below are some guidelines that can help prepare your symposium submission.  

To submit a symposium, you will need to enter the following information:  

  • Submitter information: When you begin your symposium submission, you will be prompted to log in to your APS Member Profile or create a free APS account. Although membership is not required to submit your research, you must create an APS Profile. Once you log in or create your account, you will be automatically redirected to complete your submission. The name of the proposal submitter will not appear in any program unless the submitter elects to be listed as a presenter. Submitter information is only used while submitting. 
  • Symposium title: The title should be succinct and descriptive because it may be listed without the abstract in Convention materials. Please use Title Case – e.g., Meaning in Time: We Consider Our Lives Insignificant When Viewed from the Future.  
  • Abstract: A brief, high-level overview of the symposium. (50-word maximum).  
  • Supporting summary: The supporting summary should describe the overall symposium in detail. In this section, you are encouraged to include information about how the symposium meets the dual goals of providing diversity of perspective and integrating those perspectives into a meaningful whole. (500-word maximum, plain-text format).  
    • References are optional (words will count towards the 500-word maximum).  
  • Keywords: New for 2026, submitters will enter their own keywords to categorize submissions, rather than selecting from a list of topic areas. Please enter up to three keywords for your submission. 
  • Presenter Information: The university or business affiliation, individual e-mail address, and highest degree earned must be included for all chairs, presenters/co-authors, and optional discussant. Three to four presenters must be included, in addition to the chair and optional discussant.  
  • No APS membership is required of any symposium presenter, author, Chair, or optional discussant. APS members receive discounted convention registration rates.