? Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2013 - Convener Guideline for Session Organization

Convener Guideline for Session Organization September 3rd, 2012 (Ver.4)

This document describes a guideline for conveners to organize sessions in the JpGU Meeting 2013.  Please note that some parts of this document have been modified from the one for the JpGU Meeting 2012.

0. Revision from 2012 version

Not all presentations are given as oral even in international sessions.  A certain number of poster presentations are inevitable.
One can make total two presentations, one oral and one poster or two posters.
  1. Session Configuration
  2. From Session Proposal to Adoption
  3. Call for Abstracts, Invited Papers
  4. Program Organization
  5. From the Settlement of Program to the Day of Meeting
  6. Frequently Asked Questions

1. Session Configuration

(Scientific Sessions)

JpGU Meeting is organized as an aggregation of many scientific sessions.
Each session has its unique scope presented by each group of conveners and is made up of some scientific presentations.

(Session Language)

Session language should be either Japanese or English.
The International Session or JpGU International Symposium is a subset of JpGU Meeting. Language for International sessions is English.  Several favorable treatments are given on the number of invited lecturers and oral presentations.

(Session Categories)

Each scientific session is categorized into one of the following seven categories depending on the target and the content of science. (A letter representing each category is given as shown in brackets.)
  • Space and Planetary Sciences [P]:
    (Planetary Science, Solar Terrestrial Physics, Space Physics, Space Electromagnetism, Exoplanetology, etc.)
  • Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences [A]:
    (Atmospheric Science, Meteorology, Atmospheric Environment, Ocean Sciences, Hydrology, Limnology, Ground Water Hydrology, Cryospheric Sciences, Geoenvironmental Science, Climate Change Research, etc.)
  • Hunan Geosciences [H]:
    (Geography, Geomorphology, Engineering Geology, Sedimentology, Natural Disaster, Disaster Prevention, Resources, Energy, etc.)
  • Solid Earth Sciences [S]:
    (Geodesy, Seismology, Geomagnetism, Science of the Earth's Interior, Earth and Planetary Tectonics Dynamics, Geology, Quaternary Research, Lithology and Mineralogy, Volcanology, Geochemistry, etc.)
  • Biogeosciences [B]:
    (Biogeosciences, Space Biology, Origin of Life, Geosphere-Biosphere Interactions, Paleontology, Paleoecology, etc.)
  • General (Education & Outreach) [G]
    (Earth Science Education, School Education, Relation to the Society, etc.)
  • Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary [M]:
    (Session that cannot be categorized into one session, Joint Symposium with other scientific societies, etc.)

(Special Sessions)

There are two special sessions.
  • Public Session [O]:
    Sessions open to the public, to promote scientists' outreach activity, and to help society's understanding of the JpGU research fields.  For a Public Session, abstract submission and participation fees are free of charge.
  • Union Session [U]:
    Sessions to present the up-to-date frontier topics of the earth and planetary sciences covered by JpGU, or to treat subjects which are of common interest to the whole geoscience community.
The JpGU Program Organizing Board reviews session proposals to decide potential Public/Union sessions.  Conveners of the selected sessions are asked to hold their sessions as Public/Union Sessions.  Public and Union Sessions have no restriction on the number of invited papers as well as full flexibility of time slot settings of presentations and discussion time as far as the total session time is within the given length.

2. From Session Proposal to Adoption

(Session Proposal)

Session proposal can be submitted through the JpGU Meeting 2013 web system, from September to October.

(Conveners)

Each session needs at least one "main convener". A main convener has to have a JpGU ID.
In addition to the main convener, co-conveners can be registered for your session proposal.
Co-conveners holding the JpGU ID can organize the session program together with the main convener.
We strongly recommend for co-conveners to acquire JpGU IDs for an acute situation.  A main convener and co-conveners of a session are called "conveners" of the session.

(Session Category)

First, conveners propose a session as a scientific session in one of the seven session categories.
When you cannot find out an appropriate category, please ask the secretariat. When you want to organize your session as Public, Union, or International Session, please check the corresponding check box in the session proposal web page.

(Joint Session with AGU, EGU or AOGS)

If you are planning to hold your International Session as a joint session with AGU, EGU or AGOS, or you and your AGU, EGU or AOGS partner(s) have already agreed to do so, please let the Program Organizing Board know it by indicating it in your session proposal.
If you want to hold your International Session as a joint session with AGU, EGU or AOGS, and if you want to ask the JpGU to negotiate with them, please contact Prof. Wallis, the chair of the committee for international affairs of the JpGU ().

(Session Subcategory)

Each session is categorized to more detailed subcategories.
The Program Organizing Board decides the subcategories, but if you have special request on them, let the Board know by writing your request from the session proposal web page.

(Request for Date and Room of Your Session)

Conveners can submit request on the room size and the date of the session from the session proposal web page, No.18 column.
However, please remember that every request is not necessarily satisfied, because the number of rooms and the time of the Meeting are limited.

(Acceptance of Sessions)

The Program Organizing Board makes the final decision of acceptance of sessions.
In case of mismatched session category and subcategory, sessions may be accepted in the different categories.  The Program Organizing Board may not adopt sessions under the following cases.
  • Out of the JpGU Meeting scope
  • Session scope is almost the same as others. The Program Organizing Board may wrap sessions with similar scopes into one.
  • Session scope is not appropriate from the scientific aspect of views or may become an abuse and is ethically inappropriate.

Adoption will be released on our website at the end of November.

3. Call for Abstracts, Invited Papers

(Call for Abstracts)

Please actively ask related researchers to make abstract submissions.
Abstract submission will be available from January to February in 2013. Date and the number of oral presentations are NOT fixed by the beginning of March.
Please do NOT give any assurance to contributors on the date and presentation mode.

(Notification to Contributors)

Authors and presenters need to have JpGU IDs to submit abstracts.
Acquiring JpGU ID is inevitable.

(Presentation Mode)

Two types of presentation mode are available in JpGU Meeting 2013.
(1) Oral Presentation: 15 minutes' oral presentation (including question-and-answer period)
(2) Poster Presentation: 3 minutes' oral presentation (excluding question-and-answer period) and poster presentation.
The same as JpGU Meeting 2012, poster presentation includes 3 minutes' oral presentation.  Please use poster presentations effectively to enrich JpGU Meeting as a whole.
Contributor of poster presentation can refrain from 3 minutes' oral presentation.  On the other hand, session conveners cannot force contributors to refrain from the 3 minutes' oral presentation.

(Invited Papers)

Conveners can ask for invited papers.  Presentation mode of invited papers is either oral or poster.  The number of invited papers is limited, depending on the session type.

[Normal Session]
Before the deadline of abstract submission:
Unrestricted Category (either "oral" or "poster" presentation): 2 papers
Poster Category (only "poster" presentation ): 1 paper

After the deadline:
Depending on the number of accepted oral presentations, invited papers (unrestricted category) can be added, but the total number of invited papers must be smaller than about a sixth of the total number of accepted oral presentations.

If the session contains only poster presentations, the number of invited papers (poster category) must be smaller than about a sixth of the total number of presentations.

[International Session]
Before the deadline of the abstract submission:
Unrestricted Category ("oral" or "poster" presentation): 5 papers
Poster Category (only "poster" presentation ): 2 papers

After the deadline:
Same as the normal session's rule

[Union & Public Sessions]
No limit on the number of invited papers.
Note that abstracts should be submitted just as the same as regular paper submissions.  There is no discount of abstract submission and participation fees, except for Public sessions.

Please fix invited speakers before the abstract submission starts.  Invited speakers are shown on our website before advance abstract submission period starts.

4. Program Organization

(Making a Timetable of the Meeting)

In March, the Program Organizing Board will make a timetable of the Meeting and show it to all the conveners.  Please check the proposed timetable.
In the timetable making process, the length of each session is assigned based on several factors: a request on sessions that the session wants to avoid having parallel sessions, a request on the preferred sessions scheduled sequentially, a request on the size of a room, and a request on the date of the session.  But please keep in mind that all the requests are not always satisfied, because the number of rooms and available time of the Meeting are limited.  Conveners determine poster core times of each session after the timetable of oral sessions is fixed.  Conveners can choose time slots for the poster core time from several time windows including one that is not held at the same time with oral sessions. The length of each oral session is assigned based on the number of submitted papers that prefer oral presentations.  In the case of 2012 Meeting, using a rule below, time was assigned first, and then adjusted taking into account comments/requests from conveners.

[A rule used in 2012 Meeting] (for reference)
  • A unit of oral session consists of 6 or 7 oral presentations.
  • Union or Public sessions are provided enough amount of time individually.
  • International sessions are provided time which would be just enough for the submitted oral preferring papers, but the number of poster presentations are more than half of that of oral presentations and more than 5.
  • Normal sessions:
    • When the number of submitted oral preferring papers exceeds 8 (or 8 times an integer) by 1 or 2, time corresponding to 8 (or 8 times an integer) is assigned.
    • When the number of submitted oral preferring papers exceeds 8 (or 8 times an integer) by 3, and the number of submitted papers which show their preference as "either oral or poster" is none, time corresponding to 8 (or 8 times an integer) is assigned.

A planned rule for 2012 Meeting is as follows.
  • One slot (a unit) = 15 minutes
  • One session consists of 6 or 7 slots
  • There are 4 sessions in a day (2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon)
  • Union an Public sessions are provided enough amount of time for each session
  • International sessions are provided time which would be just enough for the submitted oral preferring papers
  • Normal sessions:
    So = the number of abstracts preferring "oral" presentations
    Sp = the number of abstracts preferring "poster" presentations
    the standard number of slots = min( (So + Sp)*C, So + Sp*0.2)
    C = 0.5 - 0.6 a constant factor
    Based on this standard number of slots, the number of sessions assigned to each session will be determined.

Please note that this rule may be changed in March 2013 due to the total number of submitted papers and the capacity of the meeting place.

(Session Program Organization)

Program is organized on our web system in March 2013.  All the conveners are responsible for this process.  Although more than one convener can access this web system at the same time, the system cannot distinguish modifications made by different conveners and may yield unexpected results.  Please be sure to have close contact with each other when you organize the program at the same time.

(Acceptance of Submitted Papers)

Please scrutinize submitted abstracts carefully.  Conveners can reject inappropriate abstracts.
To avoid any troubles, please inform the Program Organizing Board first NOT having any contact with the contributors themselves, when you find out inappropriate abstracts.
Criteria for rejecting abstracts are as follows:
  • Out of the scope of each scientific session (Transfer to other sessions may be possible.)
  • Content is scientifically inappropriate and not organized well as a scientific research.
  • Content is an abuse or ethically inappropriate.
  • The number of submissions exceeds the limit or dummy submission.

In a session, the limit of submission as the first author or the presenter is one for oral and one for poster, totally two.  When students with a common supervisor are first authors, the supervisor can submit additional abstracts as a presenter on behalf of his/her students.  However, this is an exceptional rule, and generally it is not favorable for an identical presenter to make several presentations in a session.  Thus, in this case, the supervisor is allowed to submit his/her 3rd and following papers only for poster presentation.  Dummy submission and submission by deputy without agreement with the paper’s presenter are strongly prohibited.  If conveners are involved in such a case, the sessions may be cancelled.

The Program Organizing Board finally decides acceptance/rejection of all the papers.  If a paper should be rejected, the decision would be informed to the contributor from the Program Organizing Board, and the submission fee is refunded.  If the contributor would not agree on the decision, the contributor may express an opposition to the Board.

(Presentation Mode)

Conveners are responsible for the determination of the presentation mode, i.e., oral or poster, for all the submitted papers in the session.  Conveners can accept papers with a presentation mode that is different from the preferred presentation mode; for example, a paper may be accepted as a poster presentation, though the author of the paper preferred oral presentation.
All the presenters who give poster presentations are allowed to give a 3 minutes' oral presentation.  The 3 minutes' oral presentation does not include question-and answer.  Poster presenters can refrain from 3 minutes' oral presentation.  Note that conveners are not allowed to ask poster presenters to refrain from 3 minute' oral presentations.
Oral presentation presenters are given 15 minutes each, excepting for public and union sessions.  Invited oral presentation can be extended more than 15 minutes, if time is available.  Note that 3 minutes' oral presentation of the invited poster presentation is not allowed to extend more than 3 minutes.
Please understand that the number of oral presentations for each session is limited because of the limit of the total available time for the JpGU Meeting. Oral presentation is 15 minutes each.  Only invited papers may be given more than 15 minutes.

(Sessions Which Needs Special Treatments)

Please be sure to ask JpGU Meeting Organizing Committee beforehand and follow the advices when you want to invite speakers who need special security, such as VIPs (very important persons) including high-class government officials, ministers, company presidents and so on.
Conveners are responsible for such special speakers.  Expenses including room charge for a waiting room are also charged to conveners.
This is also applied to other cases, which require special treatments.

(Presentation Order)

Conveners are responsible for the presentation order within their session.
Requests on presentation order from contributors, if any, are sent to conveners.
Please wrap up five 3 minutes' oral presentations and make 15 minutes' unit.
It would be advisable to arrange these units separately.

(Transfer to Other Session)

Conveners can move a paper from an originally proposed session to another, if conveners of both the original and destination sessions agree on the transfer.
Please consult the convener(s) of the destination session (a session to which the paper is transferred) in advance.  Please do not contact the contributor firsthand.

(Assignment of Chairpersons)

Conveners have to assign at least two chairpersons for an oral session. Note that chairpersons must attend the session.

(Settlement and Confirmation of Sessions)

Every session program is checked by the Program Organizing Board and approved by the Board Meeting.

5. From the Settlement of Program to the Day of Meeting

(Modification of Title, Speaker, and Authors of Paper)

After the deadline of the abstract submission, modification of title, speaker, and author is prohibited in priciple.

(Cencellation of Papers)

When a contributor asks you to cancel his/her paper, and if you consider that the cancellation request should be accepted, please inform the Program Organizing Board using a designated form.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • International sessions
    Q: What is international session?
    A: Sessions whose official language is English.
    Please select International Session and English.  There're some preferential treatments on the number of invited speakers and oral presentations.
  • Invited lectures
    Q: Is the abstract submission the same as regular papers?
    A: Yes.

    Q: Is the abstract submission fee the same as regular papers?
    A: Yes.  No favorable treatment is provided, except for Public Sessions.

    Q: Is there any limitation on the number of abstracts one contributor can submit as the first author or the presenter?
    A: Yes.  In a session, one for oral and one for poster, totally two submissions as the first author or the presenter are allowed at most.  There is no limitation on the total number of abstracts by one contributor for all the sessions in the JpGU Meeting.  Invited lectures are counted on the same basis.

    Q: Can we distinguish the invited lectures from regular presentations?
    A: Yes.  A mark "★" in the printed program shows that the marked paper is the invited one (including the invited poster paper).  The poster will be given a sign so that people can see that the poster is the invited one.
  • Presentation Time
    Q: Can we increase the number of oral presentations by shortening each oral presentation time?
    A: No.  The presentation time of each talk should be 15 minutes (for regular oral presentations).  Please understand that it is for keeping the quality of oral presentation high and making the audience move smoothly from one room to the other.

    Q: Can we spare some time for explaining the drift of the session?
    A: No.  It is not favorable to shorten the presentation time.  You can explain it shortly at the beginning of the session, or during conveners' presentation time.

    Q: Can we set discussion time?
    A: In principle, you cannot set the discussion time in your session, except for Union/Public sessions.  If you really need to have such a time, however, please use one of the following two possibilities:
    (1) A convener can submit a paper for the discussion time as a normal oral presentation.
    At most one oral presentation slot (15 min) can be assigned to a session.  Note that this submission is accompanied by a normal abstract submission fee.  This submission is not counted in the number of presentations given by the convener.  The Program Organizing Board makes the final decision if this time is assigned to the session or not.
    (2) After your session (or after all the sessions of a day), you can use a spare room, which may be the same room or a different room depending on the availability.
    The use of a spare room needs another fee.  Please consult the secretariat.
  • Miscellaneous
    Q: When is the timetable of the Meeting fixed?
    A: The timetable of the Meeting will be fixed in mid March 2013.
    The first version of the timetable will be presented to each convener in March 2013.  Conveners can check it and require some adjustments after that.  And finally, the Program Organizing Board will fix the timetable.

    Q: Can we make abstract submission through English web system?
    A: Yes, you can.  Please login from the following URL: https://secure.jtbcom.co.jp/jpgu_e/

    Q: Is abstract submission to Union Sessions the same as normal sessions?
    A: Yes.  No preferential treatment is given.

    Q: What is a lecture room equipped with?
    A: Each lecture room is equipped with an LCD projector.  If you want to use an OHP, please contact the secretariat in advance.  Personal computers are not provided.  Please be sure to prepare a computer by every speaker.  We cannot supply electric power for equipment used at the poster presentation site.