Submit your Paper/Presentation

Paper, Innovative Experience and Poster Submission Guidelines

This webpage includes guidelines for the format of the final submission of papers and documents for the CMC2016 Proceedings and Springer Volume, and guidelines for the preparation of posters. Click on these links to go to the relevant section.

Final Document Submission Guidelines

Posters without Paper and Virtual Posters without Paper Document Guidelines
Springer Volume Paper Guidelines
Innovative Experiences Document Guidelines
Oral & Virtual Presentation Papers, Posters with Paper, Virtual Posters with Paper Document Guidelines

Poster Preparation Guidelines

Final Document Submission Guidelines

CMC2016 accepts submissions in four categories: Papers (oral presentation or virtual presentation), Poster Presentation with Paper (both physical presentation or virtual presentation), Poster Presentation without Paper, and Presentation of Innovative Experience. Each of these different types of papers is described in the formal Call for Papers. Please observe this conference is about concept mapping, so papers that are not about concept mapping will be rejected.

All papers should be presented in English, Spanish or Portuguese. The Proceedings of the Conference will be published as a book therefore special attention needs to be paid to the paper formatting, particularly on the camera-ready submission. A Microsoft Word template/sample paper is available as a guideline, which must be followed closely. Papers submitted in technically unsuitable form will not be published in the Proceedings. A selected number of Papers will be published as a special volume of Springer.

  • Oral Presentation and Virtual Presentation Papers: maximum length of 10 pages (increased from the original limit of 8 pages).
  • Poster Presentation with Paper and Virtual Poster Presentation with Paper: maximum length of 4 pages.
  • Poster Presentation without Paper and Virtual Poster Presentation without paper: 500-word abstract.
  • Presentation of Innovative Experience: maximum length of 2 pages (increased from the original limit of 1 page).

Two Stage Submission

The submission process consists of two stages.

  1. Initial Submission for Review: the submission is reviewed by the Program Committee, and the submission is either accepted or rejected (in some cases, the submission maybe be accepted in a different category that the one for which it was submitted). For the Initial Submission there is the option of an Early Submission, which will provide the author with an earlier decision on the acceptance of their submission. Please note that submissions to the “Oral Presentation”, “Virtual Presentation”, and for “Poster Presentations with Paper” categories, a complete paper must be submitted for review. If you submit an Abstract, it will be reviewed for the “Poster Presentation without Paper” category.
  2. Final Submission: camera-ready submission of the paper for inclusion in the Conference Proceedings. And for Virtual Presentations, the presentation file (Power Point or equivalent or video) or poster in PDF format.

We’ve added an Early Submission date (April 1) for those authors who need to know early whether their paper has been accepted or not, usually to request financial support. The regular submission deadline is April 29. You can do your submission at any of the two dates.

Submission Dates:

April 1, 2016: Early Submission Deadline (for authors who need an early notification)

April 18, 2016: Early Submission Acceptance Notification

April 29, 2016 (extended to May 6, 2016): Proposal Submission Deadline (regular submission deadline)

May 27, 2016 (Extended to June 10, 2016): Submission Acceptance Notification

June 20, 2016: Early Registration Deadline

June 24, 2016 (Extended to July 8, 2016): Final Submissions Deadline

All submissions should be written in English, Spanish or Portuguese.

Posters without Paper and Virtual Posters without Paper

  • 500-word maximum abstract. The abstract will be included in the Conference Proceedings. The single page Word document should be uploaded and comply with the formatting guidelines below.

The following are Word documents that can be used as a guideline. If you don’t want to use these Word documents, see the Formatting Details section below.

Poster with No Paper sample in Word (.doc) format

Poster with No Paper sample in Word template (.dot) format

Springer Volume

If your Oral/Virtual Full Paper presentation has been selected for the Springer volume in their Communications in Computer and Information Science (CCIS) Series, you need to follow the formatting guidelines described in this link: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series (LNCS). A PDF with the Author Guidelines can be found here.  The formatting is quite different to cmc2016 Proceedings formatting, but templates are provided. A copy of the template and instructions can be downloaded at the following links.

Springer Word Template

 Springer Instructions

The paper limit is 12-15 pages, as the font size is larger. In the instructions, any references to ‘volume editors’ refers to cmc2016 organization. The paper should be submitted as a Word document using the cmc2016 submission website.

Authors of papers in the Springer volume need to sign the following copyright release form. One of the authors may sign in behalf of all authors. Please fill, sign and email the form to cmc2016@ihmc.us. Use the following for the first two entries:

  • Conference name: CMC2016: 7th Int. Conference on Concept Mapping
  • Volume editors: Alberto J. Cañas, Priit Reiska & Joseph Novak

Innovative Experiences

  • Two-page maximum description of the experience. If relevant, the document can include references in the described format. The formatting details should be the same as for Oral Presentation Papers, Virtual Presentation Papers, Posters with Paper, and Virtual Posters with Papers described below. The main difference is the number of pages and optional references section. If you don’t want to use the Word documents provided as a basis, see the Formatting Details section below.

Oral Presentation Papers, Virtual Presentation Papers, Posters with Paper, Virtual Posters with Papers

Oral Presentation Paper and Virtual Presentation Paper submissions should have a maximum length of 10 pages. Poster with Paper and Virtual Poster with Paper submissions should have a maximum length of 4 pages. Please note that the complete paper must be submitted for review, a submission consisting only of an abstract will not be considered for these categories.

  • All figures (e.g. concept maps) must be in the same language as the paper. If needed, a translated figure should be included besides the original figure.
  • Figures should, to the extent possible, be included within the text, not as appendices at the end.
  • Make sure all figures are included and referenced properly. Even if they are at the end, figures are included in the page count limit.
  • Make sure that figures are legible, particularly concept maps. If they are in color, make sure they read well when printed in black and white.
  • References should be placed at the end of the paper, as in the sample document and template available below.
  • The abstract should be in the same language as the rest of the paper.
  • If your paper is in English, and English is not your native language, please have a fluent English speaker review the grammar and spelling. (It is always a good idea to have a colleague review your papers anyway.)
  • The initial submission is through a Web page interface. Do not send papers through email. If you have technical difficulties with the submission, send an email to the contact address of the conference cmc2016.
  • Please observe that no author names or affiliation should be included within the initial submission document. These should be included in the final submission of the paper.
  • The document itself should be prepared as a Word (.doc) document following the template/sample paper available below. The document should be uploaded as a single, Word document, not as a zip file. PDFs are not accepted either.

Please use the following Word documents as a guideline for your paper.  All papers, posters, symposium and roundtables use the same format, the difference is in the length of the papers submitted. If you are submitting a Poster without Paper, just delete all the text after the Abstract. For an Innovative Experience, write a one-page description following the given format for the title and authors.

Full Paper, Poster with Paper and Innovative Experience sample in Word (.doc) format

Full Paper, Poster with Paper and Innovative Experience sample in Word template (.dot) format

In case you want to set up your own styles, details are included at the end of this page.

Formatting Details

In case you don’t want to use the Word document or template as a base, use the following to set up your styles (template’s style name is in parenthesis):

Page size: Please note that the paper size is European Standard A4 size (approx 8.27 x 11.69 in). For Americans, this is narrower and longer than the Standard Letter size, which is 8.5 x 11 in. In Word, go to the Page Setup menu, and under Paper Size select A4 Size.

Margins: 2.54 cms (1 inch) on each of the four sides of the page. Please make sure figures are within these margins.

Page numbers: do NOT include page numbers, these will be added by the publisher.

Font: The Font throughout the document should be Times New Roman.

Font size: Except where indicated otherwise (e.g. Title), point size should be 10.

Paper Title (Title): Centered, no indentation, 10 pt, bold, all caps, spacing before: 20 pt, after: 20 pt.

Authors (Authors): Centered, no indentation, 9 pt, italic, spacing before: 3 pt, after: 12 pt. (authors are not included in this initial submission).

Abstract (Abstract): Justified, 8 pt, Times New Roman, Left Indent: 0.25 in, Right Indent: 0.25 in, Spacing before: 0 pt, after: 0 pt., Line Spacing: Single.

Level 1 Heading (Heading 1): Left alignment, Hanging indent: 0.25 in, 10 pt, bold, spacing before: 20 pt, after: 12 pt. (format: section number <tab> header)

Level 2 Heading (Heading 2): Left alignment, Hanging indent: 0.35 in, 10 pt, italic, Spacing before: 18 pt, after: 6 pt. (format: subsection number <tab> header)

Level 3 Heading (Heading 3): left alignment, Hanging indent: 0.45 in, 10 pt, Spacing before: 12 pt, after: 6 pt. (format: subsection number <tab> header)

Level 4 Heading: Left alignment, Hanging indent: 0.5in, 10 pt, Spacing before: 12 pt, after: 3 pt. (format: subsection number <tab> header)

First Paragraph after Heading (Paragraph after Heading): Times New Roman, 10 pt, Justified, Left Indent: 0, Right Indent: 0, Line Spacing: Single; Spacing before: 0pt, after: 0pt; Style for following paragraph: para.

Paragraphs (para): Times New Roman, 10 pt, Justified, Left Indent First line: 0.25in, Right Indent: 0, Line Spacing: Single; Spacing before: 0 pt, after: 0 pt; Style for following paragraph: para.

References/Bibliography (Reference): Times New Roman, 10 pt, Justified, Left Indent: 0 in, Right Indent: 0 in, Hanging Indent: 0.3 in; Line Spacing: Singe; Spacing before: 0, after: 4 pt.

Figure & Table Captions (Caption): Times New Roman, 8 pt, Centered, Spacing before: 6 pt, after: 6 pt.

Poster Preparation Guidelines

Guidelines

  • Posters should be at most A0 standard format (1.189m high x 0.841m wide ; 46.8in high x 33.1in wide) and are to be displayed vertically
  • Adhesive tape will be provided, the author must bring everything else
  • Posters must be prepared in advance: supplies for this purpose will not be provided
  • One of the authors should be at the poster for information and discussion during the time allotted for that particular poster session, unless its a Virtual Poster presentation
  • Each poster should have a heading, giving the title and author’s name and affiliation

Virtual Posters

Authors of Virtual Posters (with or without Paper) should submit their poster in PDF version as an attachment to cmc2016@ihmc.us by August 15, 2016. We will print the poster in Tallinn, Estonia.

Suggestions 

Posters provide the opportunity to show your work on a one-on-one basis with interested colleagues. You want to attract and hold the attention of the passer-by, so spend time planning and preparing your poster.

Make sure to include concept maps that are part of your work in the poster — e.g., students’ concept maps, expert concept maps, etc.

Make a mock-up of your display, with typing and printing the size you intend to use. Mount it, back away about two meters and see what impression it makes. Is it easy to read from a distance of one meter?

The contents should be displayed in a logical sequence: e.g. Introduction, results, discussion and conclusions.

Material will have to be read by attendees from a distance of one meter or more. Therefore, large, bold lettering is advised. Be sure that concept maps and other illustrations are legible.

The effectiveness of a poster presentation will be enhanced by adding some color. However, the presentation needs not to be “arty”. Ease of reading and good organization is more important than artistic flair.

Submit your Paper/Presentation