Session formats: panels, roundtables, workshops, combined formats

This congress has sessions of various formats:

• Traditional panels: with up to five paper presentations per one 105-minute session, panels can have up to two sessions (maximum ten papers).

• Roundtables: a group of scholars (usually no more than five) 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 minute) 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: these are conceptualised as practical events containing collective research activities, guided interactions and free-format exchanges leading to specific public outputs. They may include elements of performance, various collective indoor or outdoor activities, exhibitions, or interactive media displays. A workshop can have up to two 105-minute sessions.

• Panel AND roundtable: a two- or three-session event combining 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 AND workshop: a two- or three- session event combining presentations with collective activities, practical tasks, and/or performances.

Rules

• All panels must have at least two conveners. Convenors should be from at least two different institutions and/or countries so as to encourage exchange and cross-fertilization. We recommend that at least one convenor (or a chair) attend face-to-face (f2f).

• SIEF requires all accepted panels to be open to paper proposals through the website: panels should not be organised as 'closed' sessions.

• Session length will be 105 minutes for panels, workshops, roundtables and combined formats. Each traditional panel may accept a maximum of ten papers over two sessions. No panel or workshop may run for more than two sessions of 105 minutes, and roundtables may run for a single 105-minute session. Combined formats can have up to three 105-minute sessions.

• SIEF Working Groups are encouraged to propose group-related panels. In such cases, the Working Group name should follow the panel title in square brackets, e.g., Beds are Burning [Place Wisdom]

• Working Groups should invite members to submit proposals and all Working Groups are guaranteed to have at least one panel (of any format) accepted.

• The Congress will be hybrid, with panels taking place in Aberdeen and online in Zoom. Convenors proposing panels/workshops should consider this in their design. Any panel conveners choosing to attend virtually must ensure that they have stable and fast internet access. If your internet connection tends to be unstable and you have been unable to share screen via Zoom, etc., please ensure that you find a co-convener who can travel for the face-to-face event. If the remote convener is then unable to lead the panel, the co-convener will be able to take over.

• An individual may have each conference role only once during the conference, i.e., convene one panel OR one workshop OR one roundtable OR one combined format; present a paper or a poster once; be a discussant once (either as a roundtable participant or a discussant in a workshop or a traditional panel or a combined format); be a chair once (in any of the formats).

• Conveners of accepted panels are obliged to be members of SIEF for 2025. Paper-givers and other delegates are NOT obliged to become members of SIEF, however all are encouraged to support the Society in this way. There will be a financial incentive to do so, in that non-members will pay a higher registration fee.

• While adherence to the conference theme is not the main criterion for panel selection, SIEF encourages conveners (those proposing/organising a panel) to make an effort to address the questions and ideas outlined in the theme description.

Convenor responsibilities

It is the convenors' responsibility to ensure that all session participants are well briefed and that panels, roundtables and workshops meet SIEF2025 requirements. To that end, convenors should not only communicate their decisions about proposals to their session, but also later in the process email the participants to: inform them of the speaking order (this will also be displayed on the website panel page), inform them as to how much time they have been allocated, remind them to register to attend the conference (the registration status of participants can be seen in the login environment), inform them of any late changes or additional chairs/discussants, and any other information related to the session. If participants withdraw, convenors should mark these withdrawals in the login environment. For some guidance on the day of the panel, we have put together a short checklist to help.

How to mark your papers

Distribution of papers over sessions

No panel session should include more than five papers, but can include fewer - this is a convenor decision. For example, a panel with eight accepted can be split over two sessions as 4+4, 6+2 or 2+6, etc. Convenors can indicate the distribution by “dragging and dropping” papers in the desired order, in the system. Convenors should allot each presenter a maximum of 15+5 minutes for panels of five papers, this can be adjusted for panel sessions with fewer papers, for example 20+5 minutes for panels of four papers is possible.

Number of sessions

Each panel will be allocated either one or two of 105 minute sessions based on how many papers it accepts.
Panel+Workshops and Panel+Roundtables will be allocated two to three sessions.
All roundtables will run for one session.

Adding co-convenors, chairs and discussants

If you did not specify colleagues when proposing the panel/roundtable/workshop, you can add them through the system. You can do this by clicking on the green ‘+ add convenor/chair/discussant’ button at the bottom of each list of participants. Type their name, institution and email into the boxes that appear, then click the green ‘save’ on the right hand side, or the bottom of the page, to confirm and save any changes/additions.

Participants will appear as ‘proposed’ and not be visible on the public programme until they create an account and accept their role via the email sent to them.

If you have difficulties with this, please email the conference administrators with the name, institution and email address of participants as well at the role you wish to add them to, congress(at)siefhome.org and we will send them a request to add their details to your content.

Logging in to look up the fate of your paper

We have asked convenors to email authors about their decisions after the call for papers deadline (13 January 2025), but sometimes emails fail, so you can check your paper acceptance status by logging into the system from the conference website (see the Log in link with the human head icon in the top right of your screen). Once logged in, click on the Logged in drop-down menu, select Conferences, select the conference from the drop down menu called ‘current’, and find the conference paper to check its status. If it says ‘pending’, the decision is yet to be made. Accepted/rejected speak for themselves and you can read more below as to what ‘transfer’ means.

Authors can use this same Log in space to edit their proposals as well as their personal details (add new institution, correct a spelling etc.).

Editing your paper

Paper authors can use the login link in the toolbar described above to edit their proposals. Click the edit icon to the left of the paper title to open the editing page. Make your changes on the editing page and click "save" at the bottom pf the page to save these changes.

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 editing page mentioned above, which will then show as downloadable files beneath the abstract to participants in the panel.

Timing of presentations

Each session slot will be 105 minutes long, accommodating a maximum of five presenters. Convenors should allot each presenter a maximum of 15+5 minutes for panels of five 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 which has been updated to give more reliable delivery. If you cannot work that, please email conference(at)theasa.org to obtain relevant email addresses.

Adding co-authors

If you did not specify colleagues when proposing the paper/contribution, you can add them through the system. You can do this by clicking on the green ‘+ add author’ button at the bottom of the authors section. Type their name, institution and email into the boxes that appear, then click the green ‘save’ on the right hand side, or the bottom of the page, to confirm and save any changes/additions.

Participants will appear as ‘proposed’ and not be visible on the public programme until they create an account and accept their role via the email sent to them.

If you have difficulties with this, please email the conference administrators with the name, institution and email address of participants as well at the role you wish to add them to, and we will email them a request to add their details to your content.

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