Reviewing Papers For APEC 2005

Reviewing Digests - You Get To Vote On The Papers Seen At APEC

One of the things that separates APEC from other conference is the peer review process. This means that the papers in the Presentation and Dialogue sessions have been reviewed and scored by folks like you - people from the all aspects of the power electronics industry. Through this process, it is you who chooses the papers presented at APEC. The success of APEC and the strength of the technical depends on you - and people like you - taking a few minutes this summer to read the papers submitted for APEC and taking the time to give them a thoughtful review.

I Signed Up Last Year, Why Do I Have To Sign Up Again?

That is a fair question. APEC is starting this year with a completely fresh reviewer list. In part because the old list was getting stale and had a lot of bad contact information.

But also, APEC has completely updated the Areas Of Technical Interest - the technical topics that you had chosen in the past. They has been replaced by the APEC Presentation Topic Categories - a much broader choice with more topics on systems, applications, and business. Rather than guess which of the new topics you would choose, we are asking you to make a fresh sign up with the conference.

Presentation Topic Categories - What Are Those?

In order to match reviewers to the submitted papers, we need a common classification scheme. There are the Presentation Topic Categories, a listing of possible topic areas for the papers and the reviewers.

When an author submits a paper to APEC, they are required to choose one of the technical areas for their paper. The Program Chair or his team of Topic Chairs, looks at each paper and confirms the Presentation Topic Category. Once that is confirmed, the Program or Topic Chair chooses reviewers who have selected the same Presentation Topic Category. The system is not perfect but it does give a pretty good way of making sure that the reviewers are capable of giving a good review.

For more information and a listing of the Presentation Topic Categories, click here.

OK, I've Done This Before, Where Do I Sign Up?

I'm New At This Or Want A Refresher Course - Tell Me More

OK - keep reading!

The Review Process

The reviewing process starts when a prospective author submits an abstract and digest to APEC. As part of the submission process, the prospective author must choose an Presentation Topic Category for their digest.

When reviewers sign up to review papers for APEC, they choose Presentation Topic Categories in which they are knowledgeable.

As the abstracts and digests are received, the Program or Topic Chair reviews each one. This can be a huge task. APEC 2004 received over 600 digests!. The Program or Topic Chair verifies that the Presentation Topic Category chosen by the prospective author is appropriate. Using this information, the Program or Topic Chair selects five reviewers with the same Presentation Topic Category from the reviewer database. The Program Chair then notifies the reviewers that a digest has been assigned.

The reviewers retrieve their assigned digests from the digest submission web site. They read each digest and evaluate how well it fits into the APEC Program. Considerations include:

• Is the topic of the paper of interest to the APEC audience?
• Is the paper practical and application oriented?
• Are the technical details correct? Is the paper well supported with experimental data?
• Is the digest clearly written? Are figures, charts and photos clear and easy to understand?

After reading and considering each digest, the reviewers submit their reviews to the online review Web site. For an example of a previous year's digest review form in Adobe Acrobat PDF, click here.

At the end of the review period, the Program Chair reviews the collected data. Typically, digests are sorted into three categories:

• Those with scores are in the top 25th percentile are essentially accepted automatically.
• Those having scores are in the lowest 25th percentile are essentially declined automatically, and
• The middle 50% are then considered in additional detail by the Program Committee.

The Program Chair also prepares a proposed number of paper presentation and dialogue sessions and a first-cut estimate of the number of sessions in each major technical area.

All reviewers are invited to the APEC Program Committee meeting to make the final decisions about the APEC program. The APEC 2005 Program Committee Meeting will be held Sunday, October 10, 2004 at the conference site, the Hilton Hotel in downtown Austin, Texas.

The meeting participants break up into groups to consider the submitted digests. The main mission is to look at digests with mid-range scores and decide which are to be accepted and which will be declined.

Once this decision is made, the working groups organize the selected papers into the sessions. The Committee also reviews the proposed Professional Education Seminars and Rap Sessions and makes recommendations to the Conference Committee on which should be accepted and which should be declined.

So How Much Work Is It To Review Papers For APEC?

Those who agree to be reviewers will typically receive five to ten digests to review. Some reviewers may receive more and some reviewers may receive less. Properly reviewing a digest usually takes 15-30 minutes, depending on the complexity and clarity of the submitted digest. This means that by agreeing to be a reviewer you are making a time commitment of about three to five hours in total. The first papers for review will go out in early August. All reviews must be entered on the review Web site no later than 6:00 PM EDT on Monday, 19 September 2003.

Reviewers Are Invited To The APEC 2005 Program Committee Meeting

All reviewers, APEC Conference Committee and APEC Steering Committee members are invited to attend the APEC Program Committee Meeting. This meeting is expected to be held on Sunday, October 10, 2004, at the site of APEC 2005, the Hilton Hotel in downtown Austin, Texas. The meeting will start about 8:00 AM CDT and is expected to finish by about 3:00 PM CDT.

Also, it is traditional that the Program Chair organizes a no-host dinner for the Saturday evening before the Program Committee Meeting. This is an excellent opportunity to meet and socialize with friends and colleagues, old and new.

Session Chairs

The Session Chair plays an important role in having successful APEC Technical Sessions. The work of the Session Chair starts soon after the Program Committee Meeting. It is the responsibility of the Session Chair to keep in contact with the authors in his/her session and make sure that they will have the completed document to the printer on time. At the conference itself, the Session Chair introduces speakers, moderates questions and keeps track of the time to make sure that authors do not exceed their allotted time.

Being a Session Chair does require a modest amount of work. If an author is difficult, it can be challenging to work with him or her to make sure that the manuscript is completed on time. However, as the Session Chair is listed in the conference program, most companies will send to APEC a person who is serving as a Session Chair. Volunteering for this duty is one way that many people assure that they will be able to attend APEC.

When you are signing up to review papers, there is a place to check if you are interested in being a Session Chair. If you volunteer, your interest will be made known to the Program Committee. Please note that volunteering to chair a session does not guarantee that you will be selected.

OK, I'm Convinced, How Do I Sign Up?

Click here for the APEC Digest Submission and Reviewer Sing Up Web site..

I Still Have Some Questions...

If you have questions about the APEC digest review process or need assistance in signing up, please contact the APEC offices.