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Guidelines for Participation in IPSA World Congresses

IPSA Rules and Procedures - Annex 5

Title I
General

Article 1
Participation in IPSA world congresses shall be open to IPSA members only.

Article 2
Those participating may do so as convenors, co-convenors, panel chairs, papergivers, discussants, or simply as persons attending the congress.


Title II
Organisation of panels

Article 3
Panels in all parts of the programme shall be of such length as the programme committee may decide. Each panel shall include four to six papergivers, two discussants and one or two chairs.

Article 4
Convenors are responsible for organizing one or more panels, and are appointed as follows:

(i) Convenors of panels related to the main theme: by the Programme Committee;
(ii) Convenors of panels organized by research committees: by the RC Chair(s);
(iii) Convenors of special panels: by IPSA members;
(iv) Convenors of local panels: by the Local Organizing Committee.

A co-convenor may be appointed where deemed necessary.
Deadlines for proposals will be proposed by the IPSA Secretariat and approved by the Program Committee.


Title III
Duties of convenors, co-convenors and chairs

Article 5
The duties of convenors are as follows:
(i) To solicit proposals for their panels and to undertake all necessary organizational initiatives to implement them;
(ii) To take responsibility for all correspondence and other contacts with participants, the Programme chair and IPSA Secretariat;
(iii) To designate a chair for any panel that is not being chaired by the convenor;
(iv) To designate one or two discussants;
(v) To strive to obtain a balanced representation on the programme of each panel in terms of gender, region, and age and career stage, and other criteria arising from the plurality embodied in IPSA and the discipline;
(vi) To ensure that there are adequate opportunities for participation by unsolicited paper givers, by not finalizing panel programmes prematurely;
(vii) To consider additional paper proposals from the Programme chair when these fall within the thematic scope of a particular panel;
(viii) To circulate all participants in their panels with (1) a list with names and email addresses of papergivers and discussants and (2) a copy of guidelines for participation in IPSA congresses;
(ix) To inform the Programme chair promptly of developments and problems in their panels and to defer to a decision of the Programme chair in the case of any problem or dispute that the convenor cannot resolve;
(x) To make recommendations as to the award of travel grants;
(xi) To designate the name of a candidate for the Francesco Kjellberg award for the best paper by a new scholar;
(xii) To take such other steps as are necessary to ensure the success of their panels.

Article 6
The duties of co-convenors are as follows:
(i) To consider and advise on the proposals submitted by convenors;
(ii) To assist convenors in such other ways as are needed.

Article 7
The duties of panel chairs are as follows:
(i) To apply the normal rules of good chairmanship, subject to the time allotted to each panel by the Programme Committee;
(ii) To make every effort to maximize the opportunity for discussion;
(iii) To restrict each papergiver to a maximum of 10 or 15 minutes for oral presentation, depending on the number of papers;
(iv) To restrict to no more than 30 minutes the period devoted to discussants
(v) To allow general discussion from the floor;
(vi) To follow judicious practices in eliciting comments and questions from those attending the panel; and;
(vii) To prevent lengthy and irrelevant interventions.
(viii) To alert the Secretariat of any cancellations on the panel, as soon as possible.


Title IV
Duties of papergivers and discussants

Article 8
The duties of papergivers are as follows:
(i) To prepare a written paper, in English or French, of no more than 25 pages, single-spaced on A4 (or 210 x 297mm) paper or equivalent size;
(ii) To submit a 250-word abstract of the paper in English or French by the published deadline ;
(iii) To circulate copies of the paper by uploading it to the Congress website, to be available in the Congress online paper room.

(iv) To present the paper orally, normally for no more than 10 or 15 minutes, at the congress.

Article 9
The duties of discussants are as follows:
(i) To present a short review of the paper or papers that the discussant has been invited to consider;
(ii) To restrict this review to no more than five minutes per paper.


Title V
General guidelines for participants

Article 11
All registered participants at the world congress are eligible to attend all panels that form part of the congress programme, including panels on the main theme, panels organized by research committees and local panels.

Article 12
All participants whose names are included in the congress programme must conform to the following rules:

(i) All of those whose names are to be listed on the programme must register by the deadline established by the Secretariat;
(ii) All paper givers must in addition have submitted an abstract by the deadline established by the Secretariat if their names are to be included in the congress programme and their abstracts in the CD of abstracts.

Article 13
To permit maximum participation in the world congress, it is necessary to limit the number of appearances of any single individual as follows:

(i) No individual may make more than one appearance on the programme in each of the following categories:
• Chair of a panel
• Papergiver
• Discussant
(ii) A person may, in other words, chair a panel, present a paper and serve as discussant; the person may not chair two panels or act as papergiver or discussant in two panels.
(iii) In calculating such appearances, the entire programme (including the main theme panels, research committee panels and congress panels) will be taken into consideration. The Programme chair may waive this rule for special workshops and for supplementary and regional panels.