Early Career Professionals:
How to Ensure a Strong Conference Submission

By Jill Bresler, PhD and Andrew Eig, PhD

1. Follow all rules for submission to the tee. Be especially sure to leave your name(s) out of the submission or to otherwise identify your participants clearly, this is against the rules and irritating for the review committee.

2. Of course, make a clean submission. Check and double check for little errors, these are very distracting from the submission and never work in your favor.

3. Be relevant with respect to the conference topic.

4. Make sure to clearly identify the submission as ECP, esp., as organizers are giving these submissions special consideration.

5. Last year, it was advantageous to submit a paper rather than a panel, because the way the conference was set up, we had a number of smaller rooms available for an hour, which only accommodated one hour presentations. If this feels intimidating, ask someone to be a discussant. This is no guarantee that the same will be true next year. We did not anticipate it and are not sure it's usual. But if you have a paper and no panel, don't be deterred, there is this option.

6. Senior people are often happy to participate in paper sessions and panels of newer presenters. It can't hurt to just send an e-mail request for participation to your dream discussant...they may say yes.

7. If you are thinking about doing it, don't hesitate! Odds are better of acceptance in the non-New York years, since the conference has fewer overall submissions. 

8. ECP's should remember that submissions from everyone, even the most senior people, get rejected at times.   

9. Submitting more than one proposal better insures your chances of getting on the program (lots of people do this).