For additional information about the Call for Submissions and the Convention, please see the Frequently Asked Questions.
Proposal Review, Selection, and Status Notifications
Speaker and Submitter Responsibilities
Program Participant Registration Policy
Deadlines for Submission
| Important Dates | ||
| Submission Deadline | Notifications | |
| Symposia | Friday, November 15, 2019 | Late December, 2019 |
| Posters | Monday, February 3, 2020 | Rolling |
Proposal Review, Selection, and Notifications
All submissions must represent completed work. Submissions should clearly state that data collection is complete. Incomplete work will not be considered. Non-empirical research should not be submitted as a poster. Submissions should discuss research that has not been presented or published before October 1, 2019. All submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by members of the Program Committee.
Symposium presenters will be notified via email of the decision regarding acceptance (or rejection) of their submission in December 2019. If accepted, symposium Chairs will be notified of the schedule for the symposium at the end of January 2020. The Chair will need to share the scheduling information with the other presenters.
If the Program Committee recommends that a symposium submission be considered for individual poster presentations rather than a symposium, the presenters will be notified of this recommendation and will be offered the opportunity to submit individual presentations as posters via the Call for Submissions system.
Note: Only the Chair on a symposium can request an edit be made to a finalized submission or change in scheduling. All changes must be requested by March 16, 2020 to ensure they appear in the printed program.
Poster Presenting Authors will be notified via email of the decision regarding acceptance (or rejection) of their submission on a rolling basis. If accepted, they will be notified of the scheduled date and time for their poster in March 2020.
Note: Only the Presenting Author on a poster can request an edit to a finalized submission or change in scheduling.
With all submission formats, including posters, the Program Committee retains the right to request additional information, ask that changes be made to improve a presentation, or decline to schedule a presentation the Committee does not find relevant to the meeting or that does not follow the guidelines for submission. No changes can be made after proposals have been submitted unless the Committee has specifically requested that change.
Speaker and Submitter Responsibilities
- The first author of a submission, whether or not s/he is attending the convention, must be an APS Member or APS Student Affiliate at the time of the presentation. Submitters do not need to be members to submit proposals or to have proposals reviewed.
- The name of the proposal submitter will not appear in any program unless the submitter elects to be listed as an author. Submitter information is only used while submitting. After a submission has been finalized all communication about the submission including review and scheduling notifications will be sent to the First Author and Presenting Author for posters and the Chair for symposia.
- Only the symposium chair or poster presenting author can request edits to a finalized submission or request a schedule change. Symposium schedule requests must be made by March 15, 2020 to ensure they appear in the printed program. Note: Posters are not listed in the printed program but will be available in the online planner and mobile app.
- The commitment of all participants must be secured in advance of proposal submission.
- An individual may be a first author on only one poster proposal. However, that individual may be a co-author/presenter on multiple poster proposals, and may participate in multiple symposia. (Exception: An individual may be the first author on an APS Annual Convention poster submission as well as an APS-STP Teaching Institute poster.)
Program Participant Registration Policy
All program participants must register and pay the appropriate Convention registration fee. This includes all speakers, session chairpersons, participants, and poster presenters. You may join APS or renew your membership via the convention registration form, but please understand that membership and convention registration are separate items. You can register onsite at the convention, but early registrants receive a special discounted early registration rate before the Early Bird deadline of March 31, 2020. Please see the registration page for more information.
Presentation Formats
Symposium
A symposium is a focused session in which individual speakers present their research on a common issue. Symposia should have the dual goals of providing diversity of perspective and integrating those perspectives into a meaningful whole.
A symposium includes a chair, three to four presenters, and a discussant (optional). Symposia are scheduled in 80-minute time slots and should allow for discussion among presenters and the audience. An LCD projector, screen, microphone and speakers will be available in each presentation room for symposia. Presenters must supply their own laptop computer, as well as all other equipment for their presentation.
To submit a symposium, you’ll need to enter the following information:
- Your symposium should have a succinct title that describes the main topic of the symposium. Keep in mind that the symposium title may be listed in convention materials without the abstract and meeting attendees often use the titles to decide which symposia to attend.
- The abstract should briefly describe the research that will be discussed in the symposium (up to 50 words).
- Chair (required): name; university, business or government affiliation; email address
- Presenters 1, 2, 3 (3 presenters are required): presentation title; name; university, business or government affiliation; email address
- Presenter 4 (4th presenter is optional): presentation title; name; university, business or government affiliation; email address
- Discussant (optional): name; university, business or government affiliation; email address
- Abstract of each individual presentation (optional): 50 word maximum
- Co-authors on each presentation (optional): who are not speaking at the convention, but who are listed in the program (up to 5)
- The summary should describe the study in detail including methods and results (up to 500 words). You may include references, which count toward the word limit.
Reminder: Submissions should clearly state that data collection is from an empirical study and is complete.
Poster
Posters offer the opportunity to present data and have substantive discussions with interested colleagues. Poster presentations must present completed empirical studies. The audience circulates among the posters, stopping to discuss research of particular interest to them. Authors present their research using a visual medium with key information displayed on a 4′ high x 8′ wide (1.2 m high x 2.4 m wide) free-standing bulletin board.
There are three main poster sizes, which are very common and frequently offered for poster printing. In many cases you will see 22″ x 28″ as standard and 24” x 36” or 36″ x 48″ for large posters. You may print your poster in any size as long as it fits within the free-standing bulletin board dimensions (4′ high x 8′ wide).
Push pins will be provided to affix your poster to the bulletin board. Poster presentations should incorporate illustrative materials such as tables, graphs, photographs, and large-print text. Materials should be clearly readable from a distance of three feet (primary text font should be 20 points or larger, and headings font at least 30 points). Posters are assigned a session number and bulletin board number and are organized by keyword when possible. No audio visual equipment can be used.
Poster titles should be descriptive and, when possible, indicate the important result (e.g., lesions of frontal cortex disrupt divided attention) rather than the experimental question or topic area (e.g., frontal cortex and divided attention). A maximum of 15 authors may be included in any single poster submission.
Poster presentations must represent completed work. Submissions should clearly state that data collection is complete. Incomplete work will not be considered. Posters that discuss new scientific findings are especially encouraged. First-time submitters also are encouraged to seek feedback from professors or other mentors who are able to provide guidance regarding their presentation.
Posters will be scheduled into one of several poster sessions from Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon.
For Poster Printing Services at Convention:
Contact the FedEx Office (Illinois Center #1085)
111 E Wacker Drive
Suite LL09
Chicago, IL 60601
(T) 312-938-0650
(F) 312-938-0678
(E) [email protected]
To submit a poster, you’ll need to enter the following information:
- Your APS poster should have a succinct title that describes the main finding of your research. Keep in mind that the poster title will be listed in convention materials without the abstract and meeting attendees often use the titles to decide which posters to visit. When possible, the title should indicate the important result, rather than the experimental question.
- Select either a standard poster, or one of the special categories (e.g., Teaching Institute Poster, Cross-Cutting Theme Poster). You can find more information about poster types in the Submission Rules and Guidelines.
- The abstract should briefly describe your research findings (up to 50 words).
- Choose the major subject area to which your research belongs. This is used to match your proposal with the best-suited APS reviewer. Subject areas: Biological/Neuroscience; Clinical Science; Cognitive; Developmental; General; Industrial/Organizational; Methodology; Personality/Emotion; Social
- Select one keyword from the drop down list that best represents your poster. Keywords are used to organize presentations by topic in poster sessions.
- The lead author on the research project should be listed first, even if not attending the convention.
- University, business, government, or other organizational affiliations and individual email addresses must be included for all presenters/co-authors.
- A maximum of 15 presenters/co-authors may be included.
- The summary should describe the study in detail, including methods and results (up to 500 words). You may include references, which count toward the word limit.
Reminder: Submissions should clearly state that data collection is from an empirical study and is complete.
Special Poster Categories
In addition to the general posters sessions, the Convention features three cross-cutting theme programs, which cut across topics and areas within psychological science and related disciplines, and seek to inspire an intellectual event. There are poster sessions corresponding to cross-cutting theme programs on Friday and Saturday. To submit a poster and be considered for presentation in one of these focused sessions, select the corresponding theme program as your subject area when entering your poster submission. Posters not accepted into these specialized sessions will be automatically considered for the general poster sessions.
The APS-STP Teaching Institute welcomes submissions to the Teaching Institute Poster Session. Submissions should be related to the teaching of psychology. This includes, but is not limited to, teaching techniques, innovations, evaluation, and philosophy. Posters should focus on methods for teaching psychology, such as particularly effective or innovative courses or course organizations, strategies (including demonstrations) for promoting active learning, ways of integrating course material, helpful use of technology, and the like. Teaching Institute Posters will be scheduled in the morning on Thursday, May 21.
Please note that if accepted to present a teaching poster, you must register for the Teaching Institute.
APS Student Caucus Research Awards
The APS Student Caucus sponsors two research award competitions for students each year at the convention: the Student Research Award and the RISE Research Award. All APS Student Affiliates are eligible to submit their research to be considered for the awards. Please visit the APSSC Awards page for information on the awards.
