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Thank you for agreeing to serve as a Session Chair for CEC/ICMC 2015. The following describes the details and specifics for managing sessions at the 2015 CEC/ICMC. These guidelines encompass policies set forth by both conferences as well as editorial policies enforced for publication of the proceedings.
- All CEC/ICMC 2015 sessions will have two Session Chairs. Click here for a list of confirmed chairs (.xls, sorted by last/first name) as of June 10, 2015.
- On average, sessions will have about 8 presentations.
- There are three types of sessions; plenary sessions, regular oral sessions, and poster sessions.
- Session Chairs must complete the Session Chair Report and return it to the Publication Office (San Luis Room).
- For pre-registered Session Chairs, the Chair Report will be in your registration materials. If you did not pre-register or did not find a Chair report in your registration materials, please go to the Publication Office (San Luis Room) to pick up your Chair Report. The report must be completed after your session and returned to the Publication Office.
- If a scheduled presentation has no-show presenters and the presentation has to be canceled (e.g. was not given), the corresponding manuscript, if submitted, will not be considered for peer review and published with IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (MSE).
- Click here for a list of frequently asked questions.
Session Chairs for ORAL SESSIONS have several responsibilities.
Prior to the session start:
- Please go to the Speaker Preparation Room (San Luis Room) prior to the session to check whether all presentations have been submitted. Talks will be pre-loaded to the computer in your session room.
- Take 5 – 10 minutes prior to the session to familiarize yourself with lighting controls, computer, laser pointer, slide controls, microphones, and the general layout of the room (viewing angles, doors, noise, etc).
- If there are any issues, please advise the conference staff.
- Take a roll-call of all speakers.
- PowerPoint tip: F5 will start the presentation, ESC exits.
- Acrobat tip: Ctrl – L will enter full-screen mode, ESC exits.
Beginning of and during sessions:
- Announce the title of the session.
- Introduce yourselves.
- Explain the ground rules:
- Invited oral = 25 min (warn at 23) + 5 min for questions. Contributed oral = 12 min (warn at 10) + 3 min for questions.
- You should introduce the presenting author and the title of each presentation.
- Be polite but firm when enforcing these guidelines: Stand, ask the speaker to conclude. Keep control of the session time!
- At your discretion, talks may encroach into question time, but then you should defer questions to private discussion.
- Monitor noise, audience, etc.
- The two chairs can alternate this task.
- Every presentation must be exactly as scheduled. If a speaker does not show on time for his/her presentation, the next speaker shall not begin the presentation until the scheduled time. Session Chairs may fill the time before the next presentation starts by allowing more questions or initiating discussion on the subject of the session.
- Complete and return the Session Chair Report. Check off presentations as they are given. Also estimate the audience size. This information must be returned to the Publications Office (San Luis Room).
- PLEASE! Do not let anyone walk away with the laser pointer!
POSTER SESSIONS do not require introduction of the authors or of the presentations.
- Session Chairs are asked to record any posters that were not presented. One of the authors must be present at most, if not all, times with the poster presentation.
- Walk the session multiple times. Note that in some cases, an author may need to attend to more than one poster, and thus might not be present during your first survey, so you may have to return later. Poster presenters have been instructed by Conference Management to leave a note on their posters to say when they will return. Feel free to remind the attendees of this request.
- Complete and return the Session Chair Report. Record posters that have been mounted and are attended by a presenter, posters mounted but have no attendant, and posters that are missing entirely (No-Show column). Please take note of the policies that follow when completing this form. Estimate audience size.
- Poster policy #1: If a poster is placed on the poster board but an author is not available for the entirety of the session, this is not considered as having been presented. Please make a note on the session Chair Report in the No-Show column.
- Poster policy #2: Posters that simply consist of a posted copy of the manuscript (even if enlarged) are not considered to be poster presentations. Please mark the poster as a No-Show in the Session Chair Report.
If you fail to drop off the session chair report by 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 2, please email the completed report or fax to [001] 303-499-2599.
Guidelines for Initiation of the Peer Review Process
Session chairs are also key to the peer review process.
- Each session chair will be assigned as default referee of the papers in the session. Session chairs have the option of accepting this default role, OR they may identify, contact, and confirm another referee for the paper according to the guidelines below.
- It is perfectly acceptable for a session chair to assign the papers to him- or herself, provided there is no conflict of interest (as for co-authors and referees with the same affiliation). There are many session chairs that prefer to review all the papers in their sessions. If you choose to accept your role as default reviewer, please notify the publication office by the deadline below.
- In seeking other referees, each chair should find 1 reviewer for each paper they do not wish to referee themselves. Publication guidelines recommend that chairs not try to divide the referee assignment work in any other way.
- DEADLINE: Indication that you accept your role as default referee, or submission of a list of referees with their email addresses and the papers they are to review, must be turned into the publication room or be emailed by 5:00 p.m. Tucson, Arizona, time on Wednesday, July 1, 2015. Sessions chairs that do not provide a response will become the reviewers for these papers by default.
- If circumstances arise and you cannot fulfill your responsibilities, you have the obligation to notify the conference organizers.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Annett D’Antonio by email.