GUIDELINES FOR THE PROPOSAL OF IMC-13 SYMPOSIA
GENERAL INFORMATION
Symposia and workshops for the 13th International Mammalogical Congress (IMC-13) will be selected by the IMC-13 Scientific Advisory Committee. Organizers of symposia and workshops are encouraged to prepare a review or proceedings manuscript for consideration by the Journal of Mammalogy or a similar taxonomically focused journal. The guidelines below specifically cover proposals for symposia at the IMC-13 Meeting.
Symposia are featured events that are built around a single conceptual theme that is of general interest to mammalogists. Symposium presentations should push the edges of traditional mammalogy and integrate multiple disciplines in which mammals are the study subjects. In essence, symposium topics should be of broad interest and should inspire discussion throughout the meeting. Symposia will be allotted a total time of 90 or 120 minutes. The symposium should consist of a 15-minute introductory talk to present the symposium topic to the audience; 15-minute closing presentation or panel discussion for synthesis; and a combination of speakers giving 15- or 30-minute presentations to fulfill the proposed session length.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Proposal Deadline: Proposals for symposia must be submitted by 1 August 2022 to be considered for inclusion in the meeting program of the IMC13 Meeting. NOTE: The IMC-13 Meeting also will accept oral and poster presentations through a general abstract submission. The call for abstracts and the associated submission deadline will be announced later in 2022.
Proposal Submission: The organizer(s) should submit symposium proposals electronically using the online application form (https://tinyurl.com/2p8b99cu). By submitting a proposal, the organizers are committing to overseeing the planning and execution of the proposed event if it is accepted by the IMC-13 Scientific Advisory Committee. Specifically, if a proposal is accepted, the organizers are responsible for (1) ensuring that symposium speakers register for the meeting in a timely fashion and (2) that speakers submit abstracts by the posted abstract submission deadline. The IMC-13 Scientific Advisory Committee has the authority to cancel a symposium if speaker registration and abstract submission is not completed by the published deadlines.
Proposal Review: Proposals received by the 1 August 2022 deadline will be reviewed by the IMC-13 Scientific Advisory Committee and final decisions will be made by 1 October 2022 (i.e., ~ 9 months in advance of the IMC-13 Meeting). Review criteria will include the broad appeal of the topic to meeting attendees, the potential to forward the science of mammalogy, and the willingness of symposia organizers to pursue publication of the proceedings in the Journal of Mammalogy or a similar taxonomically focused journal. Symposia applications should promote inclusion, and thus proposals with speakers from diverse backgrounds will be viewed favorably during the review process.
PROPOSAL PREPARATION
Proposal Format: The organizer(s) must complete the “IMC-13 Application for the Proposal of Symposia and Workshops”. This includes the application form as well as a 1-2 page description of the proposed event (see Proposal Description below). The application form requires contact information for the organizer(s) and ALL proposed speakers, meaning that these individuals should already have been identified and contacted about the potential of participating.
Proposal Description: The proposal must contain a detailed description (in English) of the goals of the symposium and an explanation of the relevance of this topic to a broad range of mammalogists. Further, the organizer(s) should include a justification for the inclusion of each speaker, as well as an explanation of each speaker’s general background and contribution to the event (including a proposed title).
The symposium length and structure of presentations must be explicitly described in the submitted proposal (see general format described above). If symposia require more than two hours, alternate formats (e.g., multi-part symposia) will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but they must adhere to the format described above.
A FEW TIPS FOR PREPARING A SUCCESSFUL PROPOSAL
Topics from any subject area may be proposed for a symposium – the key is to present the material in a fashion that is understandable and exciting to an audience with varied interests. Speakers should integrate information from an array of sources, not just give a brief description of their own work. The presentations should represent the state of-the-art and provide an overview of the significant questions surrounding the chosen topic. A useful approach is to prepare a symposium talk as you would a seminar for a general biology department. Media presentations should be of the highest quality. A symposium is a featured event of the meeting and needs to hold the interest of many people.
INQUIRIES
Please direct ALL symposium and workshop questions to imc-13-proposals@umich.edu.