Conference Proposal Guidelines
Purpose and Goals
Before submitting your proposal, please carefully review each Conference Presentation Type. When submitting your proposal, you will need to select the presentation format most conducive to showcasing your work. Conference presenter registration allows you to present in-person, online, or both in-person and online.
1. Proposal Presentation Types
Select a suitable presentation type:
2. Abstract
A concise description of the purpose, methods, and implications of your scholarly work. This will be used to evaluate and place your work in the appropriate session. See the “Knowledge Focus” section below for drafting guidelines.
The abstract should be a single paragraph of no less than 50 but no more than 250 words.
Do not include citations in the abstract. Avoid mentioning other works, but if you must, mention them so the abstract can be read without the need to consult a reference list. E.g. “Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘Philosophical Investigations.’”
Avoid acronyms, but if you must use them, spell them out in full. E.g., “CGRN (Common Ground Research Networks)”
This will appear in the Conference Program and will provide the information other delegates use to choose your session to attend.
3. Keyword Set
Keywords are used to organize presentations into appropriate sessions, so please choose words that clearly describe the main idea of your work. Please submit your keywords in the title case and separated by commas.
4. Knowledge Focus
Choose whether your work has an Research focus, Practice focus, or Theory focus.
Empirical Research Focus (Formerly Research)
Empirical Research involves careful and systematic observation of the world. It creates distance and relies on detachment between researchers and their subjects, with strategies to ensure fact-based impartiality and objectivity.
Discipline examples: sociology, psychology, education, arts, design, economics, business, natural sciences etc.
Methods examples: qualitative methods (e.g. case study, open-ended surveys, and interviews, focus group); quantitative methods (e.g. select response surveys, measurement, statistical analyses); mixed methods (qualitative + quantitative methods).
Practice Research Focus (Formerly Practice)
Research Practice or Design involves interventions in which the researcher is an active participant. This may entail any or all of either or all of scoping for feasibility, planning, implementing, and evaluating the effectiveness of the intervention. The credibility of the researcher’s reporting depends on triangulation with other sources and moderation with alternative perspectives, such as research subjects, stakeholders, and independent experts.
Discipline examples: (same range as empirical research) sociology, psychology, education, arts, design, economics, business, natural sciences, etc.
Methods examples: qualitative methods (e.g. case study, open-ended survey, interview, focus group); quantitative methods (e.g. select response surveys, measurement, statistical analyses); mixed methods (qualitative + quantitative methods).
Interpretive Research Focus (Formerly Theory)
Interpretive Research takes existing knowledge artifacts and parses them for their meanings: the things to which they refer, the agencies they reflect, the structures they have, the settings in which they appear, and the interests they reflect. The objects of interpretive research may include philosophical texts, historical documents, literary works, media objects, artworks, designed objects, constructed environments, or available datasets.
Discipline examples: literature, philosophy, history, cultural studies, social theory, semiotics, linguistics, law, etc.
Methods examples: literary criticism, ontology (philosophical and digital), epistemology, critique, scenario planning, policy formulation, agenda development, data mining, quantitative meta-analysis, unsupervised machine learning.