PREPARATION
OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME FOR THE URSI GA 2008
to be held in
(status
1. Introduction
1.1 General
This is a working document for preparation of the URSI General Assembly
2008 (GA2008). The document is specific to GA2008 and is a companion to the
long-term document entitled “Procedure for Organising an URSI General
Assembly”. This is meant to serve as a working document and guide for the
communication of responsibilities and requirements among the Coordinator and
Associate Coordinator for the Scientific Programme, the Commission Chairs, the
URSI Secretariat and the Local Organising Committee.
General Assemblies are not just conferences, but also gatherings of radio scientists to discuss how best to develop the subject(s). This is reflected in the organisation of the Assemblies and should be borne in mind by the readers of this document.
1.2 Definition of terms and
abbreviations
·
CSP -
Coordinator of the Scientific Programme (Dr. M.K. Goel), overall responsible
for the scientific programme of GA2008 on behalf of URSI
2.
Responsibilities for preparing the Scientific Programme for URSI GA2008
2.1 Coordinator and Associate Coordinator for the
Scientific Programme (CSP and ACSP)
2.1.1 CSP (Dr. M.K. Goel)
The CSP to take prime
responsibility for all aspects of the scientific programme, notably:
(i) During the 2005-2008 triennial period:
- define with the LOC, the URSI Secretariat and the Commission Chairs the different components and main structure of time slots (see Annexes 1 and 2a, 2b).
-
coordinate and oversee the timetable set out in Section 3, liasing with the ACSP, URSI Secretariat, GA Office
and LOC, as appropriate;
- negotiate, through the URSI Secretariat, for GA’2008
facilities to meet the
requirements of
the scientific programme;
-
prepare with ACSP,
URSI Secretariat, LOC and GA
Office (as appropriate): the Draft Scientific Programme (as seen at the
mid-term Coordination Committee meeting), the First Announcement and Call for
Papers (containing the Outline Scientific programme), Instructions for Abstract
submission, the Provisional Scientific Programme and the Final Programme,
Authors instructions, Session Conveners guidelines.
-
(ii) For (and at) the second Coordination Committee meeting (April 2007):
- prepare revisions of the list of sessions, outline of sessions and overall programme, the last two being similar to those on pages 8 and 9 of the Final Programme issued at GA1999: also a reminder of the schedule of actions (see Section 3).
(iii) For the opening Council meeting (Saturday,
-
prepare statistics of numbers of sessions and of
papers in each session, etc.;
- issue questionnaires on sessions to all
Commission Chairs addressed to all
Session Conveners (see Annex 7).
(iv) During the GA:
- cope with any surprises other
than logistics which are the concern of the LOC;
- encourage all Session Conveners to hand in
completed questionnaires.
(v)
For the closing Council meeting and the first
meeting of the new Coordination Committee (Saturday, 16August 2008):
- prepare from completed questionnaires statistics of numbers of papers and posters, participants and “no-shows” in each session.
(vi)
At the end of GA2008:
- hand over questionnaires to next CSP (now ACSP).
2.1.2 ACSP (Prof. P.L.E. Uslenghi )
The ACSP (appointed by the LOC) to have special responsibilities (in
consultation with CSP) and to become
new CSP at end of GA2008. These are:
(i) Act as a consultant/understudy to the CSP on Items (i)-(vi) above.
(ii) Coordinate the poster
sessions, liasing with Commission Poster Session Coordinators, and prepare,
with URSI Secretariat, Poster presentation guidelines (see Annex 6).
(iiii) Coordinate and write
advisory note to authors on presentations in oral sessions using
computer-controlled (Power Point) displays.
Ensure the availability of a trials room and suitable displays in Commission oral session rooms.
(iv) Prepare, in cooperation
with the GA Office and in consultation with the CSP, the
programme of the sessions, keeping track of the preparation of the programmes
submitted by the Commission Chairs (see Section 2.4.1) and the impact of
proposals for modifications (see Annexes 8 and 9).
Note: Item (iv) is a major effort, requiring setting up a proper database for all aspects of the scientific programme and entering numerous modifications. Several thousands of e-mails were processed by the ACSP in 2004-2005.
2.2
GA Office
(i) Publish (in
consultation with the CSP) the First
Announcement and the Call for Papers, Instructions for Abstract Submission,
Second Announcement, Provisional Scientific Programme, Final Programme and
Authors instructions, Poster guidelines, Session Convener guidelines.
Note: For the general assembly 2008, URSI Secretariat will handle the
preparation of centralised software and the papers.
(ii) Handle the electronic
submission of abstracts and/or papers, monitor their refereeing and publish (in
coordination with the CSP) Conference Proceedings on CD-ROM (see Section 5.8).
(iii) Handle all contacts with authors and participants regarding
the administration of paper submissions, registration, room reservations for
special ad hoc meetings etc.
Note: Also this is a major
effort, which required the processing of thousands of e-mails over 2004-2005.
2.3 Local Organising Committee (LOC)
Responsible for all
logistical and administrative aspects of the GA2008, notably:
(i) Provision of ACSP (see Section
2.1.2).
(ii) Provision of
accommodation for the GA – see companion document “Procedure for organising an
URSI General Assembly”.
(iii) All aspects of paper
submission and registration, including hotel accommodation.
(iv) All aspects of the
social programme.
(v) Production of an
information pack for the participants containing the room layout for meetings,
maps of the city and its surroundings and relevant tourist information.
(vi) Provision of Attendants
to all sessions to assist Session Conveners (see Section 4.8).
(vii) Provision of a website
with all relevant information on the scientific programme, registration
facilities and paper submission facilities
(viii) Provision of the
Programme Booklets for the participants, containing the Final Programme for the
oral sessions and the poster sessions (see Annexes 10 and 11)
(ix) Provision of the
Conference Proceedings CD-ROM for all participants
2.4 Commission Chairs, Session Conveners and
Poster Coordinators
2.4.1 Commission Chairs
Commission Chairs are
responsible for the success of the programme in their Commissions.
They will
(i) Prepare the scientific
programme for their Commissions in accordance with this document, and
especially Section 3 and Annexes 5 and 6.
This includes, in particular, the appointment of Session Conveners for
the individual oral sessions, and at least one Poster Coordinator for
the posters of the Commission.
(ii) Organise the refereeing
process for all sessions of their Commission. For joint sessions, the
Commission Chair of the first Commission (first letter of the session code) has
final responsibility;
(iii) Provide the ACSP (Cc:
CSP) with the final decisions regarding submitted papers and the resulting
programme of the sessions.
(iv) Act as point of contact
for all communication between ASCP and Session Chairs regarding programme
updates
(v) Ensure that Session Chairs receive and return Questionnaires on their sessions. Commission Chairs and Conveners must keep in close contact as the programme develops and at the GA.
2.4.2 Session Conveners
Session Conveners are responsible for the success of their sessions; these include oral sessions, mixed oral/poster sessions and poster-only sessions.
They will
(i) Solicit papers for their session if and
where appropriate;
(ii) Define the subject areas for their
session;
(iii) Conduct the refereeing process for their session, in consultation with the Commission Chair;
(iv) Chair the session, or arrange alternative session chairs if they are unable to perform that function personally, and advise the Commission Chairs (Cc: CSP);
(v) Fill out the Questionnaire, reporting on the characteristics of the session and hand this in to the CSP soon after the session.
Note: In the short refereeing period, the
activities of Commission Chairs and Session Conveners are very intensive. Good preparation ahead of this (see Section 3) helps considerably.
2.4.3 Poster Coordinators
Poster Coordinators are responsible for the organisation and appearance (attractiveness) of the poster presentations of the Commission. There should be one Poster Coordinator per Commission, liasing directly with the ACSP on the organisation of the poster sessions.
2.5 URSI Secretariat
(i) Send out Letter of Invitation to General Lecturers and Tutorial speakers.
(ii) Act as prime contact
with authors of the 3 General Lectures and 10 Commission Tutorials (once names are agreed at the
Coordination meeting in May 2004), in liaison with the Assistant Secretary
General for Publications (Dr. Ross Stone) who is to arrange and coordinate
for authors to produce texts (to be based on those general and tutorial
lectures) to be published in the Radio Science Bulletin (RSB).
(iii) Act
as prime contact with LOC for all matters relating to office
requirements for Council, Board, Secretariat, Commission
Chairs and CSP.
(iv) To
prepare the software for paper submission and to handle the submitted papers.
3. Timetable
for the preparation of the Scientific Programme for the General
Assembly
in 2008
3.1 August End 2006
The CSP invites Commission Chairs and Vice-Chairs to
begin to define their scientific programmes, sessions and joint sessions, and
select their (Session) Conveners
(preferably two per session); also to propose titles and speakers for Tutorials
and General Lectures. Session lengths to
be proposed following the format of GA2005.
3.2 Before
Commission Chairs have invited
prospective Conveners (of sessions
and joint sessions) to serve and have provided provisional titles and
approximate lengths of sessions. In the
case of joint sessions, the Commission with its letter appearing first should
take prime responsibility.
3.3 Before
3.3.1 The CSP checks with the Chair of
the YS Panel and the URSI
Secretariat aspects of Section 3
relating to the YS Programme, i.e.3.5.2,
3.8, 3.10.3, 3.11.3 and 3.12.3.
3.3.2 Conveners confirm their acceptance to the
Commission Chairs of the invitation
to serve, and provide texts required for Sections
3.4.1 and 3.4.2. Conveners start to solicit papers or
appoint speakers (according to Commission policy).
3.4 Before
3.4.1 Commission
Chairs have sent to the GA Office and the CSP their Draft Programme elements for the week with titles of
sessions, names and addresses, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of
Session Conveners and Poster Coordinators, as well as the provisional date and
time at which they fit into the GA timetable. Sessions are to be marked as to
whether they include Invited (Solicited) Papers or Contributed (Unsolicited)
Papers, or whether they are for Poster Papers.
(In the case of there being more than one Convener for any session, the
first named is to be responsible for
correspondence.)
3.4.2 Commission Chairs have provided the GA Office and the CSP
with a short description of each session suitable for the “First Announcement
and Call for Papers”.
3.4.3 Commission
Chairs have provided the CSP and
ACSP with proposals for Tutorials
and General Lectures (having obtained the agreement of prospective speakers).
3.4.4 Commission Chairs have advised the ACSP, in his role as Coordinator of
Posters, who is to act as Poster Coordinator for their own Commission.
3.4.5 The CSP uses above information to produce a composite list of sessions
and a draft summary table of programme (as in Annexes 1 and 2).
3.5 April 2007
3.5.1 Meeting of the scientific Coordinating Committee with the CSP, ACSP and representatives of the LOC to discuss and finalise the Draft Scientific Programme (and schedule of activity up to the GA),
and to select titles and speakers for General Lectures and Tutorials. At this stage there will be a shuffle of what
sessions can go where in order to avoid clashes. It is solely
for Commission Chairs to check that
their sessions do not clash with related
sessions in other Commissions. The CSP subsequently issues a revision of
list of sessions and tables as in Annexes 1, 2a and, in particular, 2b.
The site visits by the Coordinating Committee to
3.5.2 The Secretary
General informs the Coordinating Committee Meeting and the URSI Member
Committees, and puts a notice in the Radio Science Bulletin, that
the Young Scientists should apply via the web-based form which will appear when
they check "Young Scientist paper" at the time they submit their
paper.
3.6 Before
3.6.1 Commission Chairs notify Conveners of available time
slots. Again it is for Commission Chairs to have checked that
their sessions do not clash with
related sessions in other Commissions.
3.6.2 The Secretary
General issues formal invitations to speakers for General Lectures and
Tutorials, and the URSI Secretariat and
Ross Stone become their prime contact for production of papers based on the
General Lectures and Tutorials for Radio Science Bulletin.
3.6.3 The CSP, ACSP and GA Office commence First Announcement
and Call for Papers.
3.6.4 The ACSP and GA
Office start preparation, in liaison with the URSI Assistant Secretary
General for Publications (Dr. Ross Stone) of texts for advertisements in
international professional journals containing the First Call for Papers
3.7 Before
The GA
Office, after text consultation with the CSP and the Assistant
Secretary General for Publications, sends the draft for the First
Announcement and Call for Papers to the URSI Secretariat for approval.
3.8 Before
3.8.1
The Assistant Secretary General for Publications coordinates the
submission of the texts for First
Announcement and Call for Papers to professional journals.
3.8.2
The GA Office, after text consultation with the CSP, sends to the URSI Secretariat for approval the draft for a ‘flyer’ summarising the First Announcement
and Call for Papers, i.e. a glossy one-page double-folded or triple-folded A4 sheet
advertising the main points of the General Assembly and stating what is on the
Internet.
3.8.3 The GA Office, after text consultation with the CSP, sends to the URSI Secretariat for
approval the draft for an A3-size poster announcing the GA.
3.9
3.9.1 The GA Office, after
text consultation with the CSP and approval by the URSI Secretariat, publishes on the
Internet
- the First Announcement and
Call for Papers
- instructions for the
preparation and submission of review abstracts
- author's instructions for
the full paper (Annex 3)
- registration forms
- hotel booking forms
Note: This should be kept in mind that the a 4-page paper is to be
submitted (except for commission G & h where even one page paper will also
enough) along with a 100 word summary.
3.9.2 The GA Office issues and mails the ‘flyer’ (see Section
3.8.2) with wide distribution throughout the world.
Note: In 2004, in
total about 3,000 copies of the Call for Papers ‘flyer’ were posted to over
2.000 addresses as well as it was sent to a large number (more than 1000) by
e-mail also.
3.9.3 The GA Office
issues and mails the A3-size posters to Commission Chairs, Session Conveners
and URSI Member Committees for further distribution to institutes.
3.9.4 The CSP sends to all Conveners
a copy of the Session Convener Guidelines (Annex 5)
3.10 Deleted
3.11 Deleted
3.12
3.12.1 Deadline for submission of invited and contributed 100-word
abstracts and papers to the GA submission Web site.
Notes:
– Refereeing is required both
for invited and unsolicited
papers, and that a high standard is required for
the one-to-four-page papers.
– Also Young Scientists must submit
their papers and applications to the GA submission Web site.
– Commission
Chairs may at this stage need to reorganise certain sessions that rely on
unsolicited papers. If this requires
exchange of sessions from the scheduling of Section 3.5.1 above (e.g. due to
changes of numbers of papers in sessions), the earliest notice possible must be
given to all Commission Chairs to
avoid introducing clashes with sessions in other commissions. It may also be necessary to exchange papers
between commissions, and this should be done directly by email exchanges
between Commission Chairs, with
copies to CSP and ACSP.
3.12.2 All submitted papers are
available on the Web (ensuring full address, phone, fax, e-mail for each
author) with password access (as appropriate) for the ACSP, CSP, Commission Chairs, Session Conveners and other appointed
referees, for Web
refereeing.
Note: Commission Chairs are responsible for
overseeing and coordinating the refereeing of all papers in their Commission –
all to be done in some 6 weeks, so needs preparation. RESERVE TIME IN YOUR DIARIES !!
3.13 Before
3.13.1 Commission Chairs, having formally decided with Session Conveners on the acceptance or
rejection of papers and the session in which they are to be presented (as well
as whether oral or poster), submit their decisions on all papers
to the Web site.
3.13.2 The CSP, ACSP and GA Office
then begin to prepare the Second Announcement and Provisional Programme (see Section 3.16).
3.13.4 Member Committees send their YS rankings to
the Secretary General who forwards
them to the YS Panel. The YS Panel
will have access to acceptance or rejection of the YS papers via the Web site.
3.14 Before
3.14.1 The GA Office notifies all first authors of final decisions on their
papers, indicating rejection, or oral or poster sessions.
3.14.2 On advice of Chair of YS Panel, the Secretary General notifies all YSs of
final decisions on their applications.
3.14.3 The Secretary General asks YS who do
not receive award but whose papers are accepted whether or not they will
attend.
3.15 Deleted
3.16 Before
3.16.1 The GA Office sends to authors appropriate briefs from the CSP/ACSP on oral/poster presentations (see Annexes 4 and 6), and advising authors of poster papers to be
prepared to fill any slots from “no-shows” in oral sessions.
3.17 Deleted
3.18 Deleted
3.19
The GA Office, after text consultation with the CSP,
completes the draft of the final Programme booklets and sends these to the URSI
Secretariat for approval. The GA Office
begins to prepare the Conference Proceedings CD-ROM and Final Programme
booklets (see Annexes 10 and 11) in consultation with the CSP and ACSP.
3.20
The GA Office completes the
Conference Proceedings CD-ROM (see Section 4.9) and sends the Final
Programme Booklets (see Section 4.8)
to the printers after text consultation with the CSP, for distribution to Registrants at the GA. Any subsequent changes to programme to be
included in a final update of the Session Grid (see Annex 7) to be handed out at GA.
3.21 At GA
3.21.1 The GA Office distributes to Registrants the Conference Proceedings
CD-ROM and Final Programme booklets, with the final version of the Session
Grid.
3.21.2 Conveners chair their sessions, or have appointed and briefed
suitable alternative Session Chairs if necessary, having notified Commission Chairs.
4. Other Actions
4.1 Instructions for the preparation of review abstracts: to be prepared by
URSI Secretariat, CSP, ACSP
and GA Office to take account of electronic submission.
To be issued with First Announcement and Call for Papers on the Web
Note: the electronic
submission of the ( one to four page) paper should be in PDF format to allow
the inclusion of illustrations and formulas.
4.2 Author’s Instructions for the preparation of full papers and 4-page format (one page for Commission H): to be prepared by CSP, ACSP and GA Office. To be issued with First Announcement and Call for Papers on the Web. (see Annex 3).
4.3 Oral presentation guidelines: to be prepared by
CSP, ACSP and GA Office, and
issued with acceptance of paper (see Annex
4 ).
4.4 Guidelines for oral Session Conveners(see Annex 5): to be prepared by CSP,
ACSP and GA Office.
4.6 General Lectures and Tutorials: The
URSI Secretariat will be the prime contact with authors of the 3 General Lectures and 10 Commission Tutorials (once names are agreed at the
Coordination meeting in 2007), in liaison with the Assistant Secretary General
-Publications (Ross Stone) who will arrange and coordinate for authors to
produce texts (to be based on those general and tutorial lectures) to be
published in the Radio Science Bulletin (RSB).
Tutorials are, in principle, to be given in the same auditorium as
General Lectures (but must not parallel other sessions of that particular
Commission). This is intended (i) to
give greater prominence and seating room to tutorials and (ii) to assist the
spread of information between Commissions and give uniformity of location. It is important to allow for time for the
Commission audiences to move from the Commission rooms and back in good time
(see Section 5.2).
4.7
Posters: should be held in one large
room and not strung out along corridors or in multiple, separate rooms. Each
Commission Chair is requested to appoint a Commission Poster Coordinator to liase with ACSP, acting as General Poster Coordinator, both before and during
the GA.
Note: Poster boards
should preferably be stretched in rows but if they are at angles with each
other, poster should be displayed on one side to avoid crowding as was done at
the GA 2005.
A good numbering system is required for posters to be grouped within
sessions and Commissions and to enable participants to find easily the relevant
100-word abstracts.
4.8 Final Progamme booklets: to be produced by the GA Office to be handed out at the GA to registrants. The booklets should contain
the entire programme of oral and poster sessions, respectively, with papers
ordered per day period, letter code of session and sequence within session, and
each containing the Index of Authors for the entire programme, for ease of reference. Paper listing should
include title, authors name, affiliation and address plus a 100-word abstract
as submitted with the full paper (see GA 2005 programme booklets).
General text to be included in the booklets shall be in English and French, to
be prepared in consultation with the CSP and to be approved by the URSI Secretariat
(see Annexes
10 and 11).
Note: For the GA 2005, two
separate booklets were produced containing the oral sessions and the poster
sessions, respectively. This is recommended for GA 2008 also.
4.9 Conference Proceedings CD-ROM: to be produced by the GA Office,
in conjunction with the CSP, each
paper to be of one-to-four “camera-ready” pages (single page only for
Commission G & H only) including a 100-word abstract; to be handed out to those registering at the
GA. Here “camera-ready” means: "as
it will print" (on A4 size paper).
Lists of papers and their content are to be exchanged electronically
with the CSP, ACSP, the Commission Chairs and the Session Conveners.
4.10 Paper refereeing: Commission
Chairmen are pressed to ask their referees to raise the cut-off threshold of refereeing papers to remove
low-standard scientific content and/or readability. This has been supported and should be supported uniformly in the
interests of a good GA. In
particular, this should overcome criticism of too many poor poster papers. Decisions on papers for oral or poster
sessions are taken at Convener level, collated by the Commission Chair and
transmitted per Commission to the GA Office.
Refereeing is by electronic communication; essentially this information
is used to make up the final programme, but maintaining the standards is in the
hands of Commission Chairs.
Note: In fact the number of rejected papers in 2002
was again low – only 39 of the total 1600 papers offered. A major subsidy was
refused as a result of the low rejection rate!
4.11 Attendants
at each session (appointed and directed by the LOC) should show on a board outside the session room which papers
have been presented (or cancelled) and which is currently being presented. They
should also give instructions on how to use the lights, the audio equipment in
the room, temperature control, etc. They
should issue to Session Chairs at the start of the sessions a transparency with
the papers to be presented and the running order (exactly as in the Final Programme),
including a note of any speakers known not to have registered.
4.12 Young
Scientists (YS) Awards:
to be decided on by the Secretary general, on advice by the Young Scientists
Award Panel.
Notes:
- The final acceptance of papers is to be
part of the general reviewing of papers
- Review procedure to ensure that YSs are considered for selection even if not first author of the paper (e.g. if authors are in alphabetical order). The YS application form should show how much the YS contributed.
- YSs to be considered even if in poster sessions rat