Dear colleagues, thank you for agreeing to chair one or more technical sessions at the CEC-ICMC 2025. The sessions chairs have important roles and responsibilities before, during, and after the conference.
- Before the conference – after you accept the session chair email invitation, please take a moment to sign up your account on Morressier. Your timely sign-up helps the editorial team in streamlining the editorial process. A link will be provided via email for this sign-up.
- During the conference – please see your roles and responsibilities depending on whether you are chairing an oral session or a poster session.
- After the conference – session chairs have the default responsibility of reviewing the papers submitted in their assigned session. Please see below for more details and plausible exceptions.
General Guidelines
The guidelines below encompass policies set forth by both conferences as well as editorial policies enforced for publication of the proceedings.
- All sessions will have two Session Chairs. A list of assignments will be posted closer to the conference.
- Session chairs have the default responsibility of reviewing submitted papers in their assigned session, see additional peer review guidelines below.
- There are four types of sessions: plenary sessions, special sessions, regular oral sessions, and poster sessions.
- Session Chairs must complete the Session Chair Report after the session and return it to the Speaker Ready Room (Sorrento 3).
- If a scheduled presentation has no-show presenters and the presentation has to be canceled (e.g., was not given), the corresponding paper, if submitted, will not be considered for peer review and published with IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), Advances in Cryogenic Engineering.
Session Chairs for ORAL SESSIONS have several responsibilities.
Prior to the session start:
- Please read over all abstracts in your session before the day of the session.
- Please go to the Speaker Ready Room (Sorrento 3) prior to the session to check whether all presentations have been submitted. Talks will be pre-loaded to the computer in your session room. It is also a good idea to confirm which talks are loaded on the computer just prior to the start of the session.
- 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.
- Session Chair Report will be placed onto the speaker podium prior to the session.
Beginning of and during sessions:
- Announce the title of the session.
- Introduce yourselves.
- Explain the ground rules:
- Invited orals at 30 minutes = 25 min (warn at 23) + 5 min for questions.
- Invited orals at 25 minutes = 20 min (warn at 18) + 5 min for questions.
- Invited orals at 20 minutes = 16 min (warn at 14) + 4 min for questions.
- Invited and Contributed orals at 15 minutes = 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. If there are any repeated or unprofessional disturbances, please note it and inform the conference staff.
- The two chairs can alternate this task.
- Every presentation must be exactly as scheduled. If a speaker does not show on time for the scheduled 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 after the session but no later than the end of the day to the Speaker Ready Room (Sorrento 3). Check off presentations as they are given. Also estimate the audience size.
- PLEASE! Do not let anyone walk away with the laser pointer!
POSTER SESSIONS do not require introduction of the authors or of the presentations.
- Pick up the Session Chair Report prior to the session from the Speaker Ready Room (Sorrento 3).
- 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 after the session but no later than the end of the day to the Speaker Ready Room (Sorrento 3). 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 majority 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 paper (even if enlarged) are not considered to be poster presentations. Please mark the poster as a No-Show in the Session Chair Report and add an explanation.
Session Chair Guidelines and Responsibilities in the Peer Review Process
- Session chairs have the default responsibility of reviewing submitted papers in their assigned session.
- Each session chair should submit a review (or confirm a reviewer) for each paper submitted (except for conflict).
- Session chairs are encouraged to connect with other chairs, speakers, or attendees during the conference to arrange potential paper reviews, if papers are submitted.
- Potential reviewers should be advised that the review invitation process starts the week of July 8, 2025.
Reviewer Assignment Process and Assignment Deadline
- Session chairs will receive an invitation to join the peer review site as reviewers for CEC/ICMC 2025, allowing them to be added to the reviewer pool. This will take place either before or during the conference.
- A list of submitted papers, along with a reviewer assignment template, will be sent to all session chairs on Monday, June 16, 2025.
- Please advise the Editorial office right away if you are reviewing all papers submitted in your assigned session(s) or if there is a conflict.
- If you are sharing the review responsibilities, please use the reviewer-assignment-template that will be shared with you and email your list to the Editorial Office no later than Monday, June 30, 2025.
- Paper assignment notifications will be sent the week of July 8, 2025. We ask the reviewers to submit their reviews to Morressier within 14 days.
- 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 Centennial Conferences by email.