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More About APEC:
The Paper Review Process
Each of the papers presented in the Technical Sessions at APEC is selected through a rigorous reviewing and screening process, with reviewers from industry, government and academia. The success of the conference and the strength of the technical program are therefore dependent on the efforts of volunteer contributing their knowledge and time.
THE REVIEW PROCESS
The reviewing process starts when a prospective author submits an abstract and digest to APEC, care of the professional Conference Manager. The Conference Manager logs the digest into the Program Database and forwards a copy to the Program Chair. The Program Chair reviews the paper and assigns it to an area of technical interest. The Program Chair then selects five reviewers for each paper (if possible) and instructs the Conference Manager to distribute copies of the digests to the assigned reviewers. The reviewers read the digest in detail and score it on a scale of 0 to 5 (5 = Excellent and 0 = Not Appropriate). The scores are submitted to the Program Chair who records them in a database. Once all the scores are in, the Program Chair reviews the results. 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 Technical Sessions and a first-cut estimate of the number of sessions in each major technical area.
All reviewers are invited to a meeting in September, called the APEC Program Committee meeting, to make the final decisions about the APEC program. The meeting participants break up into groups to consider the submitted digests. The main mission is to look at the middle ground and other borderline papers 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 Technical 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.
REVIEWER WORKLOAD
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 10-30 minutes, depending on the complexity and clarity of the submitted digest. Agreeing to be a reviewer is making a time commitment of about two to three hours in total. The first papers for review go out in late August. Typically, all reviews must be returned to the Program Chair no later than a week before the Program Committee meeting. This gives the Program Chair time to tabulate the scores and make the first cut.
THE 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 usually held on a Sunday in mid to late September before the conference at the conference site. The meetings usually start at 8:00 AM and usually finish by the middle of the afternoon.
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.
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