Timeline (backwards from the conference date)
CONFERENCE: 17-20 August 2023
SAME YEAR AS THE CONFERENCE:
By the end of July (TBC): Convenors should send details of special requirements for their section (technical equipment, etc.) to NomadIT. All lecture rooms will be equipped with a PC and digital projector, as well as a camera and microphone to enable the streaming and recording of presentations.
May (TBC): Start of Early Bird registration for conference (followed by standard registration)
April (TBC): The Program Committee sends feedback on the conference timetable to NomadIT and local organizers.
March (TBC): NomadIT will complete the timetable of papers and panels in liaison with the convenors.
16 March: convenors complete the program for their section
March (TBC): Call for applications for travel funding
6 March: Sections finalised, proposers informed
13 February: deanonymised selection process completed
5 January: anonymized submissions will be sent to convenors
25 January: anonymized submission process completed
THE YEAR BEFORE THE CONFERENCE:
22 December: Deadline for submitting conference proposals
17 October: Call for papers and panels is published; beginning of call period.
By end of September: EAJS Council determines all convenors and asks them to draft to draft Call for Papers and Panels for their section
Panels may be proposed with three or four pre-agreed papers within them, and preferably a designated discussant. Panel organizers should ensure that there is sufficient time for discussion. Proposals must consist of:
- A panel title
- Name and email addresses of the panel convenors (the person submitting the proposal does not have to add their name twice – their status as the convenor will be assumed!)
- A short abstract of fewer than 300 characters (including spaces)
- A long abstract of 350 words, explaining the overall focus of the panel.
- A paper proposal (title & abstracts) for each paper within the panel (see below!)
- An indication of which transdisciplanry the panel belongs to
- N.B. the panel abstracts should NOT state the names of any presenters
Those proposing panels are asked to be mindful of the inclusiveness of their membership, including rank, gender, and national diversity.
Important information and main tasks of section convenors for the EAJS 2023 conference
- The 2023 EAJS conference will either be a fully hybrid conference or at least contain hybrid elements. We are currently examining this issue, which is an important factor in determining the costs of organizing and running the conference. However, convenors should be prepared for all presentations to be streamed online and recorded (subject to presenters’ consent) and for some presentations to be delivered digitally, most likely via Zoom. We will inform you as soon as we have been able to determine the extent of hybridity of the conference.
- Each section has two convenors of equal standing, who must be paid-up members of the EAJS. We recommend that one of the convenors acts as a liaison with the EAJS Office, our conference organizer NomadIT 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.
- Convenors are responsible for preparing a Call for Papers and Panels for their section. The EAJS Office verifies that the technical and organizational information in the draft Call is correct. Otherwise, the content lies entirely with the convenors.
- 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 Papers and Panels should encourage the submission of individual paper proposals in order to increase the number of individual papers and to achieve or strive for a 50:50 balance between individual papers and panels, for the reasons stated above.
- Sections may, but are not required to, have a theme. This decision is up to the convenors. But if the convenors decide to have a theme, they are asked to ensure that only half of the selected proposals relate to that theme and that the other half is reserved for other topics.
- Convenors are responsible for, and in charge of, organizing their respective section at the 17th EAJS International Conference in Ghent. 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, three papers and 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 President 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 will inform you about the exact amount the EAJS can contribute to these costs as soon as we have completed the current assessment of the overall costs of the conference.
- We kindly ask all convenors to arrange their own travel to and from Ghent.
Preparation for the Conference
- The convenors must email NomadIT regarding practical arrangements/requirements for their section (location, number and size of rooms, and technical equipment needed, etc.) at least two months before the Conference takes place. The convenors are encouraged to come to the conference site one day earlier to examine the facilities.
- Convenors are asked to establish a preliminary program for their section and forward it to NomadIT, so that clashes of papers on similar subjects or in similar fields can be detected and avoided.
- In consultation with the convenors, NomadIT is responsible for finalizing details of the timetable, drafting the conference program and compiling the abstracts. 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 NomadIT, 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.
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 will be invited to give a brief summary of their section’s activities at the General Meeting held at the end of the Conference and to submit a written report for publication on the EAJS homepage and in the EAJS Bulletin.
- 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.
Selection of Conference papers
- 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. 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. This is necessary to protect the anonymity of the review process. 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 EAJS Office, which will contact the individuals concerned.
- 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.
Each proposal needs to comprise two abstracts, one longer (<=350 words) and one shorter (<=300 characters), both in English. The convenors’ decision to accept/reject a proposal should be based on the long abstract. The short abstract of accepted proposals will be used in the printed program. - The review process will be carried out in two stages:
- In the first stage, the proposals will only be visible in anonymized form 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.
- In the second stage of the review process, convenors can review the evaluated proposals in non-anonymized form (i.e. with information on authors). They make their final decisions based on the first anonymous reviews, but should take into account factors such as diversity and inclusiveness and should avoid extremely unbalanced groups of speakers (e.g. in terms of gender, seniority or institutional affiliation). They will communicate their decisions to the EAJS Office.
- Decisions about acceptance and rejection will be communicated by NomadIT to the applicants. Convenors should avoid to communicate directly with applicants in the course of the review process by all means 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 EAJS office. In order to facilitate this process administratively, a simple evaluation sheet will be provided to the convenors on request, which they can complete for each application. If convenors receive requests for reasons or complaints about the rejection of applicants, they should not reply directly, but forward those to the EAJS office, which will respond.
- The EAJS asks convenors to make sure as much as possible that at least half of the presentations in their section are individual papers. Conversely, panel presentations should only account for a maximum of half of the presentations in a section. The EAJS recognizes that it may be difficult to meet this requirement, as it depends largely on the number of papers and panels submitted. However, we strongly ask you to keep this in mind in order to achieve the desired balance between individual papers and panels.
- Themes for sections are welcome, but not to the exclusion of presentations that are unrelated to the theme. Convenors should ensure that only half of the selected proposals relate to the theme and the other half have other topics. Quality, and not the theme, is the decisive element when considering acceptance of proposals.
- Convenors are asked to forward proposals to other sections if they feel they would fit better there. It is strongly encouraged to get in contact with the other section convenors, especially with those heading sections thematically close to their own section.
- EAJS is currently preparing additional multidisciplinary “mini sections” for papers in the fields of Gender Studies, Digital Humanities and Environmental Humanities. Separate CFPs for these mini sections will also be published.
- Each speaker is not allowed to present more than one paper at the EAJS 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 NomadIT and the EAJS Office.
- 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 an English summary and, if possible, presentation slides in English. If there are proposals from delegates to present in other languages, it is up to section convenors to allow this.
- Convenors should encourage speakers to register for the conference as soon as possible after they have been informed that their paper has been accepted.
- 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.
