All proposals must include :

 

•          Title of symposium/session

 

•          Principal organizer (Name, institution, email): Note that the person is the point of contact for the symposium/session and responsible for communicating with speakers.

 

•          A maximum of 2 Co-organizers (Names, institutions, emails).

 

•          Moderator (Name, institution, email) if different from the organizers

 

•          Potential speakers (Names, affiliations, emails, and tentative talk titles). At least six speakers should have been contacted previously and indicated commitment to attending ATBC 2017. Session of up to 12 talks must be argued.

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•          Description (< 400 words): Symposium should focus on the major theme of the conference ; sessions should address topics of broad interest to ATBC members and conference participants. May include background information, goals, objectives, importance, and interest to the membership of ATBC. The description should avoid overly specialized language. Any biologist attending the meeting should be able to understand it. It will appear in the online program and be read by attendees seeking additional information about the session.

 

•          Justification (< 250 words): The justification should focus on how the review criteria are met by the proposal. It should not simply repeat the description.

 

•          One sentence summary (< 50 words): A very short version of the symposium/session description that appear in the print program.

 

 

REVIEW CRITERIA

 

All proposals will be peer reviewed and scored by reviewers selected by the Scientific Committee. The Scientific Committee may accept, decline, or offer an opportunity to present the proposed work in a more appropriate format (organized oral session, workshop, or special session). Organizers will be notified of decisions by X.

 

Proposals will be assessed using the following criteria. The weighting of particular criteria may vary depending on the nature of proposals.

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A strong proposal may observe the following:

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Scientific Strength

•          offer significant contributions to biological understanding

•          present  innovative  or  interdisciplinary  approaches,  including  novel  collaborations  or syntheses across sub-disciplines of biology

•          provide examples of how ecological research benefited from attention to public policy concerns, outreach or educational activities

•          have broad enough appeal to generate large audiences at the meeting

 

Structure and organization

•          be more explicitly integrated among the presenters than regular oral sessions

•          provide strong overall synthesis or overview; they should not be simply a set of related case studies

•          avoid taking a narrow perspective on the symposium topic (organizers should carefully avoid the appearance of biases toward their own perspectives)

•          build a well-integrated whole (each talk should have clear relevance to the overall synthesis provided by the symposium)

 

Speakers

•          list  the speakers  (speakers who have been contacted and committed to the symposium/session)

•          include a specific title for every speaker’s talk. (can be edited later)

•          offer a diverse mix of speakers, each of whom brings new contributions to the session

 

 

IF YOUR PROPOSAL IS ACCEPTED

 

After acceptance decisions have been made and the scheduling for the meeting is underway, cancellations and schedule changes are very disruptive to meeting planning. It is therefore very important that symposium/session organizers obtain firm commitments from their invited speakers before submitting their proposal. Please make the Program Coordinator aware of any cancellations as soon as possible; speakers will need to follow cancellation policy if they cancel after registration.

 

If a proposal is accepted, the organizer will be required to submit an up-to-date version of the symposium/session details and confirmed speaker list.

 

Organizers will be informed of their symposium/session’s time and date.

 

The program committee will attempt to avoid any overt conflicts between sessions and will give organizers an opportunity to notify us of known scheduling conflicts (strictly defined as conflicts between accepted sessions).

 

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COMMUNICATION WITH SPEAKERS

 

If a proposal is  accepted as a Symposium/Session, it is very important that the organizer communicates with speakers about the acceptance status of the Symposium/Session, the confirmation status of speakers, abstract requirements and deadlines, session scheduling information, and expectations for participation in the conference. Here are a few details that all speakers should know up front. Miscommunication about them can disrupt session planning later in the process.

 

We are unable to honor scheduling requests. When asking speakers to commit to the session, organizers should inform them that the session could be scheduled any day Monday through Thursday. We cannot schedule or move a session to accommodate the availability of speakers.

 

Speakers who fail to submit an abstract on time will be removed from the session. It is the responsibility of the symposium organizer to make sure each speaker submits an abstract for his/her talk.

 

All speakers are required to register for the conference. Registration will not be waived or reduced for any speaker. ATBC is not able to provide any financial assistance, stipends, free or reduced registration, travel assistance, or paid lodging to session organizers or to individual symposium participants. Organizers are responsible for making this clear to their speakers.