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European Association for Japanese Studies
ヨーロッパ日本研究協会

Notes of Guidance for EAJS Conference Section Convenors

Conference

Table of Contents

Important to know

  • The 2026 EAJS conference will be held in hybrid form.
  • Each section has two, in some cases three convenors of equal standing. We recommend that one of the convenors acts as a liaison with the EAJS conference admin and the local organizers.
  • Convenors are responsible for, and in charge of, the selection of papers for their section in accordance with the conditions set out below.
  • As conference proposals, individual papers and pre-organized panels can be submitted. In recent years, there has been the trend to submit pre-organized panels rather than individual papers. Even though the EAJS is aware that many convenors prefer to have panels in their section, the EAJS strives for an equal ratio between pre-organized panels and individual papers. The reason for this is to provide junior scholars and colleagues from
    smaller Japanese Studies communities, who are often not (yet) as well connected as senior scholars or colleagues from regions with large Japanese Studies communities, the opportunity to present at the conference. Convenors may later group accepted individual papers into thematic panels to make the program more cohesive.
  • The Call for Contributions will encourage the submission of individual paper proposals in order to increase the number of individual papers.
  • Convenors are responsible for, and in charge of, organizing their respective sections at the EAJS International Conference in Poznan. They are free to organize the program of their section as they deem appropriate (subsections, panels, themes, roundtables, etc.), but must limit proceedings to the official 90-minute sessions at the times arranged by the Local Organizer. There can be up to three individual papers, or if it is a panel, up to four papers and optionally a discussant’s comment in the 90-minute session. Generally, a paper presentation should not exceed 20 minutes in order to ensure sufficient time for discussion. Detailed information on the process and rules for selecting papers and panels can be found below
  • Convenors are responsible for chairing sessions or ensuring that a chair is available for each session. They may appoint colleagues to chair sessions.
  • If it becomes necessary for a convenor to withdraw at any stage before the Conference, a successor will be sought by the EAJS officers and nominated to the Council for approval. We of course also appreciate suggestions coming from the withdrawing colleague.
  • The EAJS will cover part of the travel and accommodation costs of the convenors.
  • We kindly ask all convenors to arrange their own travels to and from Poznan.

Preparation for the Conference

The convenors should email the local organizers and the EAJS conference admin regarding practical arrangements/requirements for their section (location, number and size of rooms, and technical equipment needed, etc.) at least two months (end of July) before the Conference takes place.

Rooms will have a computer, digital projector, screen, speakers and a webcam and Zoom account installed in the computer. There will be also a volunteer assisting in the room with technical issues and technicians running between the rooms and offering technical assistance.

The convenors are encouraged to come to the conference site one day earlier to examine the facilities.

Timetable will be put together by the conference admins, if there are some critical, absolutely impossible time slots that the section leaders can not attend the conference, please let know the conference admins as early as possible via email: eajs(at)nomadit.co.uk 

The conference program will be published on the conference website.

Any changes made to a section’s program after its first publication should be communicated to the EAJS Office and the local organizers, who in conjunction with EAJS will be responsible for ensuring that adequate publicity is given to these changes, e.g. by a notice at the conference website, the conference desk, before the opening ceremony and on the doors of the session room during the Conference.

Convenors are asked to remind all the speakers giving a paper in their section that they must be a member of the EAJS at the time of the conference, which is a conference rule.

Selection of Conference contributions

Section convenors are in charge of selecting the papers and panels to be given at the conference. In the process of selection, they should make every effort to ensure that every applicant receives fair treatment.

Conference proposals must be submitted via the designated online submission platform one for panel proposals and one for single paper proposals. The convenors should avoid direct contact with colleagues who seek to submit or have already submitted a proposal in their section before the results of the selection process are announced. If convenors are contacted directly by colleagues who wish to submit a proposal in their section, they should refrain from replying and forward the message to the conference admin (eajs(at)nomadit.co.uk), which will contact the individuals concerned.

Section convenors cannot select their own papers. However, they may give either an introductory presentation on the first day or a summary presentation on the last day of the conference.

The review process will be carried out in two stages:

  1. In the first stage, the proposals will only be visible in anonymized form (authors/convenor and votes from fellow section convenor will be hidden) and the convenors will review the proposals for acceptance or rejection in this form.
    Convenors can either review all proposals themselves or, at their discretion, ask external evaluators to review them and evaluate proposals. Proposals must be treated confidentially at all times. Please assess the proposals based on merit and not thinking about the capacity at first. First stage should be finished by the 9th February 2026
  2. In the second stage of the review process, convenors can review the evaluated proposals in non-anonymized form (i.e. with information on authors and also to see fellow section convenor votes).
    Once the first review is done, we can analyse the numbers and give you guidelines how much capacity we have available. Conference has a capacity limit and unfortunately not all proposal can be accepted.

‘One role once’ rule – each speaker is not allowed to present more than one paper at the EAJS International Conference. Conference participants may give one presentation and may additionally serve either once as chair of a panel OR once as discussant of a panel. They may not serve as chair or discussant in more than one panel. Compliance with these rules should primarily be ensured by the conference admin.

Rejected papers or panels may be placed on a waiting list at the discretion of the organizers.

The conference language is English and papers should generally be given in English. However, papers may be given in Japanese if necessary. In such cases, speakers should be encouraged to use a clear and accessible style, and the speaker should provide a PP presentation in English.

Convenors should encourage speakers to register for the conference as soon as possible after they have been informed that their paper has been accepted. Conference admin will also send out mass emails inviting delegates to register.

The EAJS will publish the names of the convenors once the selection process has been completed, but not before. This is to guarantee the anonymity of the review process. Once the selection is complete, the EAJS will ensure that the names of the convenors are published prominently to provide the visibility they deserve.

Reviewing Process

Please go to this URL: https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/eajs2026/review 

You will need to log in with your email and password.

Reviewing panels with papers included

Once logged in, the “panels for review” page will be displayed.

You can then click each panel title that will open the short and long abstracts beneath. Beneath the abstracts is where you can mark the panel Accepted or Rejected and leave a comment if necessary. Make sure you click the “Update” button to the right of the comment box. Your comment will then appear below in a box.

There is also the option of marking the panel “Transfer” in case you feel the panel would make better sense in a different section. If you mark a panel for transfer, please indicate in comments the section you have in mind.

If you wish to change or modify your comment/score, then redo the score and/or comment and click update again and what you had put before will be updated/replaced.

Once you are finished scoring and commenting a panel, scroll to the top and click “Back to review list’ and then choose the next title and repeat the process for all panels.

Reviewing individual papers

Individual papers act as panels in the system, you can see all the individual paper proposals in the same list with your panel proposals. You can see the individual paper abstract and select accepted/rejected and leave comments in the same way as the panels.

Below the abstracts is the green reviewing box with the possibility of voting the paper Accepted/Rejected.

Use ‘transfer’ for papers you think should have been submitted to a different section. Please indicate in comments the section you have in mind. Make sure you click the “Update” button to the right of the comment box. Your comment will then appear below in a box.

Decisions about acceptance and rejection

Once all proposals have been reviewed and voted on the results will be communicated by the conference admin to the applicants.

Convenors should avoid communicating directly with applicants in the course of the review process so that the anonymity of the review process is maintained. In addition, the convenors are not expected to provide justifications for decisions to accept or reject papers. Nor should they disclose the identity of any external reviewers or information as to whether they have relied on external reviewers. If the convenors so wish, they may – but are not obliged or expected to – communicate feedback on proposals from themselves or external reviewers to the applicants via the conference admin.

If convenors receive requests for reasons or complaints about the rejection of applicants, they should not reply directly, but forward those to the conference admin, which will respond.

Invitation of keynote speakers

Section convenors may invite a keynote speaker to their section. However, they will be solely responsible for securing funding and making the practical arrangements for the keynote speaker.

The EAJS will not be able to provide any financial or administrative support or otherwise take responsibility for section keynote speakers.

Reports and feedback on the Conference

Convenors are encouraged to report in writing to the Council any feedback on the individual sections or the overall structure and organization of the Conference, as well as suggestions for future conferences and for updating and improving these guidelines.

If you need help or something is unclear

Reach out the conference administration via the conference email eajs(at)nomadit.co.uk

Other EAJS2026 pages

Conference Timeline

  • 3 November 2025 to 5 January 2026 – Call for Panels and Papers open
  • 19 January – submissions sent to Section convenors
  • 15 March – selection process completed and communicated to applicants
  • 2 April – 17 May Call for Funding
  • 27 April – Early Bird registration opens
  • July – Early Bird registration closes, registration continues with standard prices