Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about the SCMS conference. Please read through all the FAQs to familiarize yourself with the SCMS Conference and its procedures. If you have a question, please see if it, and the answer to it, are below before contacting the SCMS Administrative Office at office@cmstudies.org.

How can I participate?
Do I need to be a member of SCMS to submit a proposal?
How many times can I participate?
How long can my presentation be?
How do I submit a proposal for the SCMS conference?
What are the responsibilities of the panel or workshop chair?
Can I serve as chair more than one panel or workshop?
What is a "respondent"?
Does my panel have to have a respondent?
Do I have to indicate that my panel will have a respondent with the panel proposal?
As the chair of my panel can I also serve as respondent?
Are the deadlines firm?
How many papers can I propose?
How many individuals from a single institution be on a panel or workshop?
How many participants can be on a pre-constituted panel?
How many participants can be on a workshop?
What is the Program Committee and who is on it?
What is the difference between a "pre-constituted panel" and the "open call"?
How are proposals judged?
What if someone has to drop off my panel after I submitted it or after it was accepted?
Can I substitute a different paper after my paper has been accepted?
Can I present a paper that has already been, or will be, presented at another conference?
Can I change the name of my paper, panel, or workshop, after it is submitted?
Can I request a day and time for my presentation?
Can I contact the Home Office after the deadline to make sure they've received my paper?
I'm not sure if I'll be able to attend the conference or not. Should I submit a proposal anyway?
Why was my paper, panel, or workshop proposal rejected?
My proposals are never, or almost never, accepted. What am I doing wrong?
Are the proposals of professors or "senior scholars" given preference over graduate students and independent researchers?
Are panels or workshops that are sponsored by caucuses or interest groups given special consideration?
If I cannot attend the conference can someone else present my paper?
What if my proposal was accepted but I have to cancel?
Can I co-present a paper?

A: There are several major ways that one can participate in the SCMS conference.

Deliver a Paper. Papers are formal presentations of original research that are either read or delivered. Papers are expected to be original research. This may be the exploration of a previously unresearched topic, or the reevaluation of existing work in light of new evidence or methodologies. Papers are often -- but not always -- portions of book chapters, dissertations, or scholarly articles. Paper proposals are judged on their potential contribution to the field of cinema and media studies.

Participate in a Workshop. Workshops are designed to stimulate conversation and interaction among the presenters and the audience. Workshop participants sometimes give a brief presentation (seven minutes or less) that is less formal than a paper.  In some instances workshop participants simply answer questions from the audience.  Workshops often revolve around more practical aspects of the field:  teaching, research methods, professional development, etc.  You can also participate in the conference by chairing a panel or a workshop or serving as a respondent to a panel.

    

A: No. Anyone can submit a proposal without being a current member of SCMS. If the proposal is accepted individuals will need to become a member of SCMS, register and pay the conference registration fee before the registration deadline.

    

    


    

Paper presentations on panels last 20 minutes. Because of the limited time (which includes both orally delivered material and any visual clips) most papers attempt to make only two or three major points.

    

To submit a proposal for the SCMS conference, individuals must register for the website before submitting a proposal online. If an individual is part of a panel or workshop, the organizer or chair is responsible for submitting all papers or participants within the panel or workshop. It is the individual’s responsibility to send all the required information to the organizer for input.  Individuals can submit open call paper proposals directly online but are limited to one proposal per individual. For submission requirements, examples and additional details about submitting a proposal online, please visit the “Submission Forms” topic located under the “Conference” topic.

    

Panel Chair: Whether he or she has organized the panel or volunteered to chair, the panel chair has three primary functions. First, the chair introduces the panel and the individual panelists. It is recommended that the chair contact the panelists prior to the conference to get a brief biographical statement that can be presented as an introduction. (This often includes information about affiliations, rank, recent publications, and current research interests.) Introductions of any individual should last no more than one minute. Second, the chair is responsible for insuring that panelists adhere to their time limit. The time limit for paper presentations is assumed to be twenty minutes. Chairs will usually notify the presenter with a pre-arranged signal if he or she is approaching the time limit. It is the chair's responsibility to make sure that no presenter goes over the allotted time, which might impinge on the time of the other presenters. Third, the chair facilitates questions and discussion after all papers have been delivered. Finally, the chair also clears the room promptly to make way for the next session. The chair of a pre-constituted panel is responsible for informing her or his panelists that their panel has been accepted or rejected.

Workshop Chair: The workshop chair's role is similar to that of the panel chair, although the workshop chair is more active in facilitating dialogue between the work participants and among audience members.

    

No. Please give others the opportunity to chair by proposing only a single panel or workshop in which you act as chair.

A respondent is an individual who generally possesses specialized knowledge of the panel's topic. A respondent usually reads all of the papers prior to the conference and attempts to draw out particular lines of thought shared by the presentations to arrive at some broader conclusion.

    

No. Usually the audience serves in this role by asking questions and making comments about the papers.

    

Yes. Your proposal should indicate that you will have a respondent, and that individual's relevant information, when it is submitted.

    

No. It is assumed that the respondent provides objective feedback on the papers presented on the panel. As chair (and in most instances, organizer) of a panel, it is assumed you might not have the necessary distance from the papers to provide objective commentary.

    

Yes.

    

You can propose only one paper for the conference. That paper can either be proposed as part of a pre-constituted panel or as part of the open call. You cannot propose the same paper on both a panel and as part of the open call. You must choose whether you would like your paper to be part of a pre-constituted panel, or if you want to propose it as part of the open call.

    

In proposing panels and workshops, you may only include no more than two individuals from any single institution.

    

Optimum number of panelists:  Four Presenters (includes chair if presenting) or three presenters (includes chair if presenting) and a respondent.  Panels with fewer than four presenters or more than four presenters are at a disadvantage in the selection process. 

    

Workshop proposals should have five presenters only.

    

The Program Committee is charged with selecting the best proposals to create the annual conference program. There are eight members of the Program Committee, at least four are members of the SCMS Board of Directors. Other members of the Program Committee are selected from the SCMS membership to balance the diversity and expertise represented by the Committee as a whole. The Program Committee Chair alternates between the SCMS president-elect and a member of the board. The Program Committee is made up entirely of volunteers. As such, your cooperation in limiting queries and special requests to the Program Committee is greatly appreciated.

    

Pre-constituted panels can be formed in two ways. In the first case, several individuals who are interested in forming a panel might meet at the conference, on-line, or through some other means. They discuss their panel, designate a chair, and send in their proposal as a pre-constituted panel -- usually consisting of four papers, or three papers and a respondent. In the second case, an individual may attempt to organize a panel by posting a call for papers on the conference "bulletin board" in the months prior to the proposal deadline. People contact the organizer with suggestions for papers, and the organizer selects those people she or he would like to participate on the panel. The organizer also informs those people who have not been selected in a timely fashion. The organizer then submits the panel by the proposal deadline.

The open call is the opportunity for individuals to submit papers that are not part of a pre-constituted panel. If the paper is accepted it is then paired with papers on a similar topic or that use a like methodology to create a panel. The panel is given a name by the Program Committee Chair and a chair for the panel is selected.

At the conference there is no distinction made between panels that were pre-constituted and those that have been created through the open call.

    

After your proposal is submitted online. The Program Committee Chair then assigns the proposal to a team of two readers from the Program Committee. The readers evaluate the proposal individually and then compare their respective scores. Readers look for originality, scope and depth of research, and attempt to assess whether the paper will make a contribution to the field. Secondarily, the readers consider whether the proposal has followed the rules for submission. A joint score is forwarded to the Program Committee Chair.

The Program Committee Chair will only weigh in on a decision in the event of a radically split vote (e.g., one committee member thinks a proposal is great, the other thinks it is terrible). The Chair does not overrule the decisions of the readers. The Program Committee Chair is responsible for creating panels from the open call and assigning the panels and workshops to time slots and rooms. Time and room assignments are based in some measure on equipment needs, and efforts are made not to have too many panels or workshops on similar topics competing in a single time slot or bunched together on a single day. Because of the complexity of putting the program together, requests for special times or days cannot be honored.

    

No. All proposals must go through the review procedure. You cannot substitute someone at a later point. It is useful to have a full complement of four presenters on pre-constituted panels so that if an individual does have to drop out you will still have a full panel of three.

    

No. Your paper (or panel or workshop) was judged and accepted on the merits of the proposal. You cannot substitute something different after your proposal has been accepted.

    

This is considered bad form. It is expected that any paper presented at the SCMS Conference is original and has not been previously presented. Presenting material that has been accepted for publication in a journal or anthology, but which has not gone to print before the conference, is acceptable.

    

A: Yes. Contact the home office at office@cmstudies.org prior to the specified deadline for changes and corrections. (This date may vary from year to year.) Note that your title can change, the content of the paper, panel, or workshop must continue to be consistent with the proposal submitted.

    

Requests for times or days for paper presentations are not allowed due to the large number of participants.

    

This is not a good idea due to the volume of work faced by the SCMS Office when proposals are submitted.

    

Please submit proposals only if you plan to attend the conference. If you are unsure about whether you will have the time, be able to finish a paper, or get funding, perhaps it's best to wait until the next year to submit your proposal. It takes time to process, read, evaluate, and schedule every paper, panel, and workshop. When you put individuals through this work for a proposal that you don't deliver, you have wasted the Program Committee's time (which is done on a volunteer basis), as well as that of the SCMS Administrative Office.

    

There may be many reasons why a proposal was rejected. It is possible that the readers did not feel the proposal made a contribution to the field, or that it was one of several proposals on the same topic. It is possible that the proposal replicated work that was presented at a recent SCMS conference. Finally, it is possible that the proposal did not follow submission guidelines in some way. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of submissions, the Program Committee cannot respond to inquiries about rejections.

    

First, ask yourself whether you are carefully following all the submission procedures. Second, ask yourself if the work is original or if it is simply a rehash of existing work. Third, ask yourself if your proposal is suited for the SCMS conference or if it might not find a more logical fit with another conference (e.g., a conference on journalism, rhetoric, etc.). Finally, ask a peer who has been "successful" at having her or his papers or panels accepted to see copies of those proposals for tips.

    

No. All proposals are examined for their merits. The SCMS conference welcomes proposals from individuals at all levels within the field of cinema and media studies as well as the work of independent scholars and researchers.

    

No. As above, all proposals are judged on their individual merits.

    

No. SCMS Policy Statements state that the person whose paper has been accepted must read the paper. Substitute readers are forbidden.

    

Sometimes things come up that may force you to cancel participation in the conference -- a health issue, a family emergency, etc. In such an event, contact the home office at office@cmstudies.org and the Chair of your panel or workshop immediately and inform them that you will not be able to participate in the conference. If you are the Chair of a panel or workshop you should also inform your panelists to see if one can step into your role as chair and then report this to the home office as well.

Obviously extenuating circumstances do crop up, but not to attend the conference without a legitimate reason when your proposal was accepted is unprofessional. If an individual habitually cancels, that individual may find her or his proposals will receive less favorable attention for future conferences.