CALL FOR PAPERS
53rd Annual Parapsychological Association Convention
Enclos Rey, Paris, France
July 22-25, 2010
 
The 53rd Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association (PA) will be held from Thursday evening, July 22, through Sunday noon, July 25,2010, at L’Enclos Rey, Paris.
 
The deadline for the receipt of all submissions is Monday April 12, 2010. Submissions received after this date will be considered only in exceptional circumstances. Abstracts of all accepted submissions other than workshops will be included in the convention booklet, provided that they are received before the deadline.
 
All submissions to the 2010 PA convention, except proposed workshops, must be submitted electronically. They should be emailed, as attachments, to the chair of the Program Committee, Dr. Nicola Holt, at nicola.holt@uwe.ac.uk. Authors who are not online or who for some other reason cannot meet these requirements should contact Dr. Holt prior to submission, either by mail: c/o Department of Psychology, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, BS16 1QY, or by phone: +44 1173281420.
 
 Preparation of Submissions:
 
The PA Board of Directors has determined that, starting in 2009, full papers will no longer be published in the annual Proceedings of the Convention. Instead, the convention booklet will consist only of abstracts. The purpose of this policy change is to encourage publication of our material in professional journals. However, submissions will continue to be fully developed papers adequate for peer review.
 
These changes have implications for the submission requirements. There is no specific length requirement, but the submitted paper should include all the information referees need to judge the adequacy of the methodology and analyses, the justifiability of the hypotheses and interpretation of the results, and so forth. For example, in the introduction section it is only necessary to cite the previous research or theory that leads directly to the hypotheses; do not include an overview of the general research area. The paper must be accompanied by an abstract, which will be refereed along with the full paper. Note that the abstract, which will be published in the booklet, should not include references. For some submission categories, only an abstract is needed. There is a template required for the abstracts; it can be downloaded from the PA website (http://parapsych.org/docs/2010AbstractsTemplate.doc).

 
All submissions should be accompanied by information about any audio-visual aids required for the presentation. If there are multiple authors, the submitting author should indicate which author will give the presentation. In absentia presentations will be allowed only in exceptional circumstances.
 
Submitters must indicate in the cover letter for which of the following categories they desire their submission to be considered. The Program Committee reserves the right to move the paper to a different category if necessary to better fulfill the scheduling requirements for the program.
 
Full Papers/Posters/Symposia/Research Briefs:
 
Anyone may submit a full paper, poster, or research brief for consideration by the Program Committee. These papers may be clinical, experimental, historical, methodological, philosophical or theoretical. They may also report field work or case studies relevant to parapsychology.
 
The abstracts accompanying accepted papers will be published in the Proceedings and on the PA website in an area accessible only to PA members. The first author's email address will be published in both places with the notification that an electronic copy of the full paper can be obtained from the author. Those who present such papers at the Convention are expected to honor such email requests. In recognition of the lengthy time interval between the original submission and the Convention, the article sent in response to such requests may be an updated or expanded version of the original. Abstracts of full papers and posters may also be published in the Journal of Parapsychology.
 
Full papers should be of sufficient depth for a 20-minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of discussion. The Program Committee will not consider for this category proposals for research that has not yet been carried out, nor will the Committee consider papers published in English prior to the Convention. Recent papers that have been previously published in a language other than English are acceptable in this category, provided the paper has been translated into English. The abstracts accompanying full papers must be between 400 and 1200 words. If the paper is not destined for eventual journal publication, it is recommended that the abstract be longer rather than shorter.
 
Posters are papers or other materials presented in summary form on poster board in a room off the convention floor. Poster sessions are appropriate for short papers, material that is particularly amenable to visual displays (e.g., demonstration of equipment or techniques), or highly technical papers that cannot be communicated effectively in a brief lecture format to a general scientific audience. Authors who want their papers presented in a poster session should pay particular attention to a description or illustration of the visual materials. Photocopies of photographs to be used in the poster may be included with the submission. Otherwise, the submission requirements are the same as for full papers.
 
Symposia consist of formal presentations on related topics. Proposals for symposia must include a summary sheet indicating title, chairperson, participants, order of presentation, and proposed time allotment (up to 90 minutes, including discussion periods). Symposia submissions must include full papers plus abstracts from each of the participants, prepared according to the instructions presented above. Only PA Members may propose a symposium, but non-members may be participants in the symposium.
 
Research briefs are short papers reporting recently completed work or research in progress and able to be adequately summarized in a 15-minute presentation, including time for questions. Abstracts for research briefs must be between 400 and 500 words.
 
Panel Discussions/ Workshops:
 
Only PA Members and Associates may propose a symposium, panel discussion, or workshop.
 
Panel discussions are intended to maximize spontaneous interactions among panelists and between panelists and the audience. They should not be used to report original data or analyses. Panel discussions should be from 60 to 90 minutes, and the chairperson should provide for substantial discussion time. Proposals should include a summary sheet that lists the panel title, chairperson, panelists (at least four), order of presentation, and time allotments, as well as an abstract of up to 500 words from each panelist. Submitters are encouraged to set up their panel in a debate format.
 
Workshops are informal discussions of specific topics. Proposals for workshops should include a summary sheet listing the title, chairperson, other presenting participants, type of activity, and a description of the intended content not exceeding 500 words.
 
Robert L. Morris Student Travel Grants
 
Student affiliates participating in the convention are eligible for travel assistance through the Robert L. Morris Student Travel Grant Program. Additional information and application materials are available at http://www.parapsych.org/grants.html.