ABSTRACT SUBMISSION IS CLOSED
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS GUIDELINES
Before submitting your proposal, we recommend that you carefully read the following guidelines.
- General guidelines
- Conference session formats
- Review criteria
- Style guidelines for preparing a proposal
- Technical guidelines for submitting a proposal
1. General guidelines
Proposal submissions for ESERA 2019 must be made online using the proposal submission website.
Your submission needs to adhere to the following guidelines.
The International Scientific Committee invites both empirical and theoretical proposals for symposia, paper presentations, interactive posters and ICT workshops. Proposals must be submitted to one of the 18 strands.
The official language of the conference is English (British).
For each submission you will need to prepare an extended summary up to a maximum of 3 pages including a title, 3 keywords, a short abstract up to 300 words, references, tables and figures. In your extended summary, please do not use your name and please refrain from revealing your identity in any other way. The conference relies on a blind review process
The list of keywords for ESERA 2019 is available here.
Each registered individual can be an active participant in the conference at most 4 times. Each participant can be co-author as many times as they like. However, the following constraints must be kept.
Each participant can be:
- the presenting author of one oral paper
- the presenting author of one symposium paper
- coordinator of no more than one symposium
- discussant of one other symposium
- presenting author of no more than one interactive poster presentation
In total, the maximum number of roles cannot exceed 4. Presenters can only partake in each category once, as shown above.
Please note that the coordinator of a symposium can also be the presenting author for one oral presentation in the same symposium. S/he cannot be discussant of the same symposium.
2. Conference Session Formats
There are four types of proposal submissions possible for this conference.
- Single Oral Presentation
- Symposium
- Interactive Poster Presentation
- ICT Demonstrations and Workshops
Both empirical and theoretical proposals for symposia, papers and poster presentations are welcome. Each presentation and each symposium needs to be classified to one of the 18 Strands
Single Oral Presentation
This presentation format allows for 15 minutes of individual presentation time followed by a discussion moderated by the session chairperson. Papers will be grouped by strand. Each accepted paper will be scheduled in a session of 90 minutes with four individual presenters. For each oral presentation you will need to submit an extended summary up to a maximum of 3 pages including a title, 3 keywords, a short abstract up to 300 words, references, tables and figures.
Symposia
Each symposium will be organized by a Chairperson and will contain four (4) presentations concerning a common topic of interest as well as one symposium discussant. The symposium contributors must be from Institutions of at least three (3) countries. There will be one chairperson identified for each symposium and this will typically be the symposium organizer. The symposium chairperson may be one of the presenting authors or a separate individual. The symposium chairperson / organiser is in charge of submitting the symposium title and abstract (maximum 600 words) for the whole symposium, as well as providing the name and contact details of a discussant. S/he will also submit the abstract and extended summary of the four individual presentations making up the symposium, using the ESERA 2019 template for each submission. The extended summary of each presentation has to follow the same rules as the Single Oral Presentation.
Each symposium session will be given a 120-minute block of time in the programme: 20 minutes for each presentation, 10 minutes for the discussant and a total of 20 minutes allocated for discussions. Symposia provide an opportunity to present research on one topic, often from multiple perspectives, providing a coherent set of papers for discussion. The coherence and quality of the symposium will be evaluated first as a whole. Each single presentation within a symposium will also be evaluated individually. If the coherence of the symposium is not evaluated positively, each accepted symposium oral presentation will be presented as a single oral presentation in different paper sessions. We recommend that symposia chairpersons set an early deadline for possible contributors to submit to them and that each individual submission is checked for its own quality and its relevance and coherence to the topic of the symposium prior to formal submission to the ESERA conference.
Interactive Poster Presentation
Dedicated poster sessions will be scheduled in the conference programme. Each poster presentation will include a graphic presentation of a research study on visual display of size A0 (0.841m x 1.189m) in “portrait” format. A short oral presentation of 1 minute for each poster is given to an audience gathered as a group. After the authors’ brief presentation, an in-depth discussion between them and the audience follows in the area of the poster displays. The poster sessions offer researchers the opportunity to present their work in a visual format and are conducive to richer interaction and discussion. Poster sessions are scheduled for 90 minutes, during which the brief presentations and the poster-centred discussions take place. 6-8 posters are scheduled in one room.
For each interactive poster presentation you will need to submit an extended summary up to a maximum of 3 pages including a title, 3 keywords, a short abstract up to 300 words, references, tables and figures.
ICT Demonstrations and Workshops
ICT Demonstrations and Workshops enable presenters to display, explain and familiarize users with an innovative approach, a teaching or research tool, an teaching-learning sequence or some other aspect of research or teaching practice. The Workshop may include a brief presentation of completed research, especially case study or evaluation, but the emphasis is on demonstrating an innovation or a tool, not to present the research for criticism. Learning-by-doing occupies most of the session, and any presentations are brief. Adequate time for reflective discussion is important. The audience will have opportunity at the end to offer their viewpoints and share their experiences with other tools or innovations intended for the same purpose. ICT demonstrations and Workshops are scheduled for 90 minutes. For each ICT Demonstration or Workshop you will need to submit an extended summary up to a maximum of 3 pages including a title, 3 keywords, a short abstract up to 300 words, references, tables and figures.
3. Review Criteria
Each proposal will be reviewed using the following template:
Review Criteria
- Context and relevance to science education (importance of the study for research and/or practice)
- Theoretical framework, conceptual rationale, or pragmatic grounding
- Aim(s) and/or Research question(s) (do they make sense, can they be answered?)
- Research method and design (Empirical proposals) / Use of relevant research literature (Theoretical proposals)
- Findings and coherence of argument (is the aim met / are the RQs answered?)
- Discussion of findings and implications
- Clarity of expression in English
Review Comments (explain the scoring and provide suggestions for the presentation)
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Each proposal will be evaluated on the basis of independent review of two referees. Taking into account that they are evaluating a 3 pages summary, the reviewers will be asked to apply the following score to rank the quality of the paper with respect to each criterion (maximum score 28):
4 – Excellent
3 – Good, meets the criterion
2 – Fair, needs improvement
1 – Poor with significant weaknesses or Absent information
The proposal will be accepted directly if both reviewers evaluate the proposal as high quality (at least good for all the criteria), and it will be rejected automatically if both reviewers evaluate the quality as poor. If there is a large discrepancy between the two reviewers, then the proposal is sent automatically to a third reviewer. Proposals that are evaluated in an intermediate range are read by the Strand Chairs and the Scientific Committee makes a final decision of Acceptance/Rejection/Change to Another Format on the basis of recommendations from Strand Chairs. In some cases, the Strand Chair person could suggest a paper presentation to be changed to a poster presentation. In the case where one or more proposals included in a symposium proposal are rejected, the accepted proposals could be presented as separate papers or posters.
The review process requires about two months and we anticipate that it will be completed by the beginning of April 2019. After that, the decisions will be announced to the authors of the proposals and the conference programme will be created. Accepted proposals whose presenting authors are not registered will not be included in the conference programme.
The accepted proposals can be further developed after the conference and submitted as papers in the conference proceedings. Detailed information about the submission of full papers will be given during and after the conference.
4. Style guidelines for preparing a proposal
The proposals should be written in (British) English, should follow the APA (American Psychological Association) Publication Manual format and need to include an extended summary up to a maximum of 3 pages including a title, 3 keywords, a short abstract up to 300 words, references, tables and figures.
Please remember that in the abstracts and extended summaries you cannot reveal any of the author identities so that the conference can implement a blind review process.
In your preparation, you must use the ESERA 2019 template. The required format for general text is Times New Roman, 12 points with left justified text. You must not alter the template and it must be saved as a .doc or .docx file – other formats will be rejected.
Using the Template, all margins are set as 1.27cm.
Headings are helpful as a guide for readers. Two levels of headings are sufficient. In your proposal, use a first-level heading for the title which appears at the beginning of your introduction and for the section titles Method, Results, Discussion and References. Use a second-level heading for each subsection.
First-level headings should be Times New Roman 14 pts (CAPS BOLD), left on its own line. Second-level headings should be Times New Roman 12 pts (bold) left on its own line. It is recommended that digitised photographs have 256 level greyscale. For text within figures and tables, use Times New Roman 10 or 12 pts. Captions for figures and tables should be in Times New Roman 10 pts.
If the proposal presents empirical research, it is expected that it will normally have four primary sections: Introduction; Method; Results; and Discussion and Conclusions. You can also give other appropriate names to the sections. In particular, it must be clear what the findings of the study are and how these emerge from the analysis. Tables and figures must be easy to read.
If the proposal presents theoretical research, the argumentation must be clear and easy to follow, and conclusions must follow clearly from the arguments that are presented.
If the proposal concerns a symposium, it is expected that the chairperson will prepare a description of the symposium as a whole of a maximum of 600 words. The four individual contributions are expected to be prepared according to the same template as the individual presentations. Symposium can be either theoretical or empirical.
5. Instructional Videos
How to submit a symposium proposal – watch here
How to submit abstracts as part of your symposium – watch here
How to submit an individual abstract – watch here
