Editor’s Note: Since this blog post has been published, MPSA’s proposal deadline for papers, complete panels, and roundtables has been EXTENDED to Tuesday, October 18, 2016.
Knowing that political science scholars and students are deadline-driven, we anticipate that traffic to the MPSA website will increase as we approach the October 6, 2016 conference proposal deadline. If you intend to submit a proposal for the upcoming conference, this post is for you! The following tips will help you reduce stress as you face the upcoming proposal deadline:
Activate Your MPSA Account. Over the summer, we upgraded our website to integrate with an enhanced conference proposal submission system. The two systems will allow seamless access to your MPSA accounts and an easier conference proposal submission process, though this improvement requires each returning site user to create a new username and password. If you haven’t, we recommend taking a few moments today to activate your MPSA account. (Learn how to activate your existing account.)
Review this year’s Submission Guidelines. The MPSA Submission Guidelines have been revised to account for updates to our proposal management software. Please take a moment to review the new guidelines before submitting your proposal to avoid surprises.
Consider the best format for your research: Session formats for 2017 include (1) Panel, (2) Lightning Talk, (3) Poster, (4) Lecture, (5) Roundtable, (6) Junior Scholar Symposium, and (7) working group. Find more detail on the Session Formats and Role Descriptions page.
Choose (up to) two sections. In most cases, you may submit your proposal in up to two of over 80 sections. First year graduate students are only eligible to present in a poster or Lightning Talk format.
Write it out. We recommend that you write your overview and abstract in your favorite software before you log into the system, then copy and paste it into the text boxes.
Remember to keep it short. Be prepared to encounter these character limits (includes blank spaces and punctuation):
Title = Maximum 250 characters
Brief Overview = Maximum 250 characters
Abstracts = Maximum 1,250 characters
The new proposal system does not have a built-in word counter, so be sure to check in your word processing program or on an online site like Word Counter Tool.
Submit early and stress less. By preparing and submitting your proposal in advance of the deadline, you remove the potential for the self-imposed stress that can surround the hours before a deadline.
Once you receive confirmation of your submission, mark your calendar for important MPSA conference deadlines including the dates when notifications begin, scholarship and registration deadlines. Follow @MPSAnet and #MPSA17 on Twitter for the latest on the 75th annual conference.
If you have questions, just ask! Please contact MPSA membership staff at mpsainfo@mpsanet.org with questions about account activation and MPSA conference staff at conf@mpsanet.org with your questions about the conference.