Early Bird Registration
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Registration
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Conference
April 11-13, 2018
For conference-related questions, please contact:
Thad Dickinson
Conference Coordinator
Phone: (770) 933-7669
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
Completed papers should be scholarly, well-organized, and clearly written. Be sure to consult the "Standards for Writing Papers" page to assist you in composing your paper.
In general, paper sections and organization should follow the style of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) 6th Edition (2009). For help with APA style, please see: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
Your paper is expected to be in journal publication-ready condition when submitted, meaning you have proofread and copy-edited your paper before submitting it for review. Please follow and submit the completed Author Checklist with your file. Papers that do not conform to APA guidelines as outlined in the Author Checklist may be returned for corrections.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS
Please review the Author Checklist, which must be submitted with your paper, for submission requirements. Some key requirements:
APA BODY FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS
All papers are expected to follow these formatting requirements:
EXCEPTIONS TO APA BODY FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS
Some exceptions to APA 6th Edition are advised in order to create a clean look for the conference proceedings, which will contain every paper alphabetically by lead author's last name. These include:
GENERAL STANDARDS
Papers should follow a standard structure using an introduction, body, and conclusion:
Each paper should demonstrate an objective and scholarly approach to writing. Papers should always be written in the third person.
The title of the paper should appropriately reflect the main theme, issue, or information discussed in the paper. An ideal title piques the reader’s interest in the topic of the paper.
Each paper should include evidence of a literature search and familiarity with current literature relevant to both the thesis and the broader context in which the issue exists. Two key questions to be asked in this connection are:
Each paper should contain citations to relevant or appropriate literature and include a list of references at the end.
SPECIFIC TYPES OF PAPERS
Conference papers will generally fall into one of the following four categories:
Authors should decide into which category the paper will fit. In other words, is the paper's primary purpose to:
A case study is a paper that describes initiatives, services, or practices at a specific institution or group of institutions (e.g. a consortium or a collaborative endeavor).
Case studies provide an opportunity to apply theory to practice. A case study is often an example of something more general, such as solving a problem in service planning or streamlining the delivery of services. A case study should focus on:
Background information should be kept minimal, providing just enough detail for the reader to obtain a brief overview of the institution, its operation, and the context in which the study exists. Institutional statistics should only be provided in brief summary form to enable the reader get a general sense of the size or quantity being discussed. Extensive tables of statistics should be avoided in case studies.
Examples of forms, web pages, agreements, policies, and other documents should be included in or appended to case studies with discretion. All such examples should be directly relevant to the main themes of the paper and be kept to a manageable quantity. It is generally more appropriate to include a minimal number of reproductions and provide the readers with URLs for related electronic sources.
Research papers either report the results of quantitative or qualitative studies or review published research sources to build an argument or thesis. The former is most often used in conference papers. A paper reporting research results is generally structured as follows:
A research paper should focus on:
For a conference paper, the results of a research study should be presented like an academic journal article but with less detail. Tables of statistics and statistical analysis should be included in limited quantities and summarized wherever possible.
Hybrid Case Studies / Research Papers
Occasionally, an author attempts to combine a case study with a research paper (for example, describing an institution’s practices as well as reporting the results of a study conducted at that institution). Whenever possible, this hybrid approach should be avoided.
If the hybrid approach is necessary to the author’s central thesis or purpose, the paper should be treated primarily as a case study with a section that is structured as a mini-research paper (containing methodology, results, and discussion). In the conclusion, it should be demonstrated how the study and its results contribute to the author’s central thesis or purpose and its wider context.
State-of-the-Art Papers and How-to Papers
State-of-the-art papers include literature reviews, analytical essays, and descriptions of new products or services that may not have been well covered in the literature to date.
How-to papers primarily provide instruction to the reader or suggest techniques for dealing with a particular type of issue or situation.
These two types of papers may draw on examples of practices at various institutions but do not focus on any one specific institution.
The General Standards detailed above are applicable to these types of papers as well. In cases where there is little or no directly relevant library literature available to draw upon (e.g. descriptions of new products and services), every attempt should be made by the author to cite from general works that are related to the topic or to find and cite relevant literature from other disciplines.
As with the other two types, these papers should convey to the reader:
The Author Checklist ensures that authors have met all the paper requirements. Please follow and submit the completed Author Checklist with your file. Papers that do not conform to APA guidelines as outlined in the Author Checklist may be returned for corrections.
This checklist must be completed and submitted with your paper.
The Paper Presentation format provides you with the opportunity to discuss your paper with other conference attendees. Your presentation should highlight the main topic of your paper and its results and conclusions, while only briefly touching on research methods. Your paper will be available to all attendees in the conference proceedings, so please do not read your paper during your presentation.
REQUIREMENTS
All presentation rooms will be equipped with a podium, microphone, laptop, projector, and screen. Each presentation will also have Internet access, if needed. However, an Internet connection robust enough for effective web conferencing cannot be guaranteed, so the use of Skype and other web conferencing tools is discouraged. Specific audio-visual requests must be submitted to the Conference Coordinator no later than two weeks prior to the conference and approval is subject to availability and cost.
PRESENTATION BEST PRACTICES